If you fancy windsurfing in the Swiss Alps, 1800 metres above sea level, then Lake Silvaplana is the spot. Located in the Engadin valley region in the eastern Swiss Alps, southeastern Switzerland, it is home to one of the ‘highest’ windsurfing clubs and longest running windsurfing competitions in the world. We caught up with Christian Mueller, co-founder of the EFPT and head of the Engadinwind event team and Italian freestyle young gun, Riccardo Marca, to find out more about the pristine alpine spot and its competition scene.
CHRISTIAN MUELLER – EVENT ORGANISER
The history of competitions on lake Silvaplana started back in the seventies. In 1978 Nicolo Holinger founded the Engadin Surf Marathon and the first ever winner was Robby Naish. In the following years there were several competitions organized on the lake, like the Mistral World Championship in 1986 or the Jet Set PWA World Cup in 1994. Twenty years ago the event got a new name – Engadinwind. The event ethos is hosting the best windsurfers in the best possible windsurfing disciplines on the lake and having the legendary Engadin Surf Marathon always a part of Engadinwind. The ‘new’ event started with a PWA world cup and for the last 20 years we’ve hosted many top league windsurfing events in Silvaplana. As well as PWA world cups, we’ve organized world championships in freestyle, Euro cup racing and slalom, EFPT (European Freestyle Pro Tour) events and many Swiss championships and, very importantly, every single year we’ve organized one of the world’s oldest and still running windsurfing contests - the Engadin Surf Marathon.
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