Indoor watersports

How to extend the season into winter

Copyright © Messe Düsseldorf | C. Tillmann

Summer is over, it's getting cold outside and the days are getting shorter - no reason to give up watersports completely! With a little flexibility, certain exercises and sports can even be practised at home or in alternative locations during the winter months.

Indoor Surfing

The main advantage of indoor surfing facilities is the weather independence and the year-round summer feeling that can be enjoyed there. Even though riding an artificial wave is like a mixture of surfing, surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding from a purely technical point of view, it offers maximum fun for beginners and advanced surfers alike.

Top tip:

To improve your coordination and balance, you can also train on a balance board at home. It’s the perfect tool to prepare for the next indoor waves or your next surf trip in the coming season.

In general, there are two different types of flow riding: On the one hand, there’s the beginner-friendly FlowRider wave, where a thin film of water shoots over a padded wave-shaped mat and reaches a speed of about 50 km/h. For experienced thrill-seekers, there’s the more demanding version: the FlowBarrel. Here, the wave shape is much more pronounced and the water doesn’t flow backwards, but rather breaks like waves in the ocean. Depending on the strength of the water pressure, a tunnel can even form.

Indoor Playboating

Paddle fans who don't want to hone their skills outdoors during the cold months can do so in swimming or adventure pools. Besides the typical shallow water tricks that can be practised in any swimming pool, adventure pools offer many other possibilities. For example, counter-current systems, waterfalls, diving towers and tunnel slides offer exciting and unusual options for improving one's paddling skills.

The prerequisites for using these options are, of course, prior permission from the pool and suitable equipment, for example short rodeo boats with rounded tips and no sharp edges, as well as paddles without aluminium edges.

Indoor Diving

Experienced divers don't have to miss out on their deep-water adventures during the cold months. If diving is too cold for you - despite the right equipment - you can still go diving in a wetsuit at a number of indoor dive centres. Indoor diving is also a good alternative for beginners who want to see what weightlessness feels like underwater. Introductory diving courses are offered in almost every dive centre under the supervision of a certified diving instructor.
In addition, special indoor diving licences can be obtained at almost all dive centres and can even be extended by adding diving sessions in open waters. Many facilities in Germany are set up in themed worlds and have a lot to offer below the water's surface. From underwater worlds to simulated currents, there's plenty here to warm every diver's heart.

eSailing

Those who have an affinity for the digital or like to take a bet don’t have to put their sailing fun on hold for the winter. In the meantime, more than two million people are fans of digital sailing, which can be practised with a suitable app on a tablet, PC or smartphone. Without registering, on the Virtual Regatta app users can gain an initial insight into the world of eSailing and give it a try. In the Sailing School for beginners, the user is prepared step-by-step for his or her first regatta and familiarised with all the features. Registered users can try even more new game options, such as designing their boat and taking part in more inshore and offshore regattas. Fun that’s worthwhile for every sailing enthusiast!