The Jaguar #02

“I USED TO COME HERE AT FIVE IN
THE MORNING IN WINTER TO HAVE
THE PLACE TO MYSELF”
PHOTOGRAPHY: RASMUS KAESSMANN, MATTHEW MICAH WRIGHT / GETTY IMAGES
line jumps in. The spectacle is truly impressive, and as the
hours pass by and the afternoon turns into early evening, the
pair continues to take turns in a seemingly endless line of
short battles with the perpetual wave. The sky above is no
longer blue, and the serenity of the Zugspitze has been
replaced with the deafening noise of the wild city river and
cars passing by above it. It is as if we have travelled
between parallel realities, only connected by the two riders’
dedication to showing us the best of both their worlds.
“This is what it is all about,” Basti says, as the two
boarders finally call it a day, the cold water running from
their wetsuits and their skin still marked by the morning
mountain sun. “Living here means that you have the luxury
of choice; mountain or river, winter or summer, it’s all there,”
he continues. “You’d be a fool not to take advantage.”
As the day comes to an end, the traffic at the wave wears
off, and only a handful of dedicated surfers still jump into the
water, trying to land that final big trick before calling it quits.
And as for Daniel and Basti? They are done for the day – and
what a day it has been. But to them this is every day, and by
no means the end. They’ll be back on their boards again
tomorrow. And the day after that.
SNOW TO SURF WORLDWIDE
Sierra Nevada in Andalucía,
Spain, lies just two hours by
car from the Mediterranean
Sea and the waves of
Costa del Sol. A popular
CALIFORNIA Big Bear destination for surfers is
Mountain and the nearby the sleepy seaside village
Big Bear Lake in California of El Palo, just outside
(above) offer excellent charming Málaga.
conditions for a full day on
your board. Less than two THE CHILEAN ANDES
hours apart, one can easily Snowboarding in the
make the morning snow Andes is on many a bucket
and still hit the waves in list, but why stop there?
the afternoon sun.
Start the day in Santiago
de Chile, and you’ll have
SIERRA NEVADA One of plenty of time to make it to
Southern Europe’s most Valparaíso on the Pacific
popular skiing destinations, coast, all in a single day.
THE JAGUAR 65