The Ghostrider

Even though Danish surf history still is very young, there exists already a legend about surfing here in the early days. Sad thing is, that most of the new generation doesn’t know about this ancient tale any more. To prevent this important part of Danish surf history from getting lost we want to retell the tale of the Ghostrider:

In the early days the first windsurfers discovered at windless days in Denmark, that the local North Sea waves can also be ridden without sails. They fixed ropes at the footstraps of their windsurf boards, paddled out and tried surfing. Then, at a windless foggy day with solid groundswell they experienced a vision. The fog was lifting for a moment and a tall figure dropped into a clean, headhigh wave and surfed it with a style never before seen in this area. With gaping mouths the wannabe Surfers watched the unknown surfer ride one wave after another with great finesse. Than the vision again disappeared in the fog.

In the following years some more travellers in Denmark had a similar appearance. Every time the waves were good, the Ghostrider – as he was now called – appeared, often at places that nobody had surfed before. His performance was constantly way better than everything the at this time few surfers in the area could show.

For the watchers this appearance was a revelation as the stranger was showing them that one could really SURF at Denmark’s coast. This kicked up the sales in the (wind-)surfshops that had longboards on offer.

But the Ghostrider stayed a mystery. Many had heard about him, some even had seen him, but who he was, where he came from and why he surfed that good stayed a mystery. in recent times there were no more confirmed sightings of him and it seems that the Ghostrider has left Danish shores. But maybe in the end he was really a ghost that now moved further on to ride virgin waves somewhere else and infect the locals with the surf bug.

So if You happen to see him again at some remote beach, give us a call, as we still try to bring light into that mystery!

visions by Bevis