Hungary isn’t the first place that springs to mind when you think of great European windsurfing destinations, but it is home to Lake Balaton, a freshwater lake in the west of the country and the largest lake in Central Europe. Chris Pressler explores its windsurfing and reports back on a spot full of freeride potential, set amongst protected wetlands and scenic volcanic hills.
As an Austrian, lakes are our ‘local’ spots and Lake Neusiedl our prime one and home to the famous PWA competitions in years past. Variety is the spice of life but and keen to discover some ‘fresh’ freshwater, we only had to travel a few hours across the border into Hungary to discover another lake, Balaton, which due to its large size offers multiple spots covering all wind directions and it even has some tiny waves to play on in the right conditions!
The grand scale of Balaton is key to its utility for windsurfing. It has a total length of 77 km, a width between 14 km and 1.5 km and a total shore length of over 160 km. The average depth of Balaton is 3.2 m with a maximum of 12.2 m, which you may think is relatively shallow but is not extraordinary for the area as the average depth of neighbouring Lake Neusiedl is roughly only 1 m.
This story is from the Issue 379 - September 2018 edition of Windsurf.
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This story is from the Issue 379 - September 2018 edition of Windsurf.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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