“Keep Surfing” tells the story of an unlikely passion in a place that a large part of the world only knows as Oktoberfest City. Munich, the town of beer drinkers and pretzel lovers, has become the home of a surfing crowd of urban individualists who pursue their dream of happiness by riding a river wave far from the ocean.
“Keep Surfing” portrays six surfers of the Eisbach hardcore, who master the river waves while pursuing their own individual goals in life. Among the older guys is Dieter “The Eater,” who was among the first to discover river surfing in the late 60s and still rides the waves every day with his two grown daughters; and Walter, the “janitor of the Eisbach,” a working-class philosopher who discovered a way to keep the wave surging for 24 hours a day and who now lives as a kind of lone wolf and didgeridoo maker near a small beach in Sardinia, where he rides his own wave every day. Belonging to the younger generation is golden boy Quirin Rohleder, who started riding the Munich river wave on a boogie board and has become a surf pro living and global nomad – even though his heart still beats for Munich, especially when he returns to the wave where everything started.
Among the foreigners who joined the local community is surf punk Eli Mack, for whom river surfing is a way back to the roots of surfing and to a better self. But also surf legends like Kelly Slater, Ross Clark Jones and Taylor Knox have tried their luck on the Munich river wave. “Keep Surfing” is an ode to individual freedom and to the people who’ve achieved happiness on a river wave, where they can go against the flow and find their place in life.
**Björn Richie Lob – PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR
Björn Richie Lob has been a freelance director, photographer and camera operator since 2000. In addition to shooting several short films (Sonnensurfer, Schwarzfahrt and documentaries (Allein), he has also filmed a number of surf videos and Making Ofs, and produced a considerable amount of surf footage. “Keep Surfing” is particularly close to Björn’s heart, since he’s devoted a great part of the past ten years to collecting the most gripping and powerful material for this surf epic at locations all over the world.**
