My first encounter with the island of Usedom was when I had just arrived in Berlin and was looking for suitable surf spots on the Baltic coast. At that time, I was completely under the influence of the freestyle movement that was just starting to unfold, which had begun its triumphal march into the wide world of windsurfing a few years earlier with the legendary King of the Lake format on Lake Garda.
While a relatively large freestyle scene had already developed in the south, I was now hoping to find like-minded people in the north-east of the country. As a landlubber, the spots on the coast of Rügen were still too wild for me at the time - the flaka was simply more important than the backloop. But convenience certainly also played a role in favouring Usedom: A glance at the map revealed to me that Usedom is one of the closest holiday destinations on the Baltic Sea, only around 200 kilometres from Berlin, and so it is not without reason that it bears the charming name "Berlin's bathtub".
Shortly after I passed the lift bridge at Zecherin, which provides access to the south of the island of Usedom, I had my first doubts: would I really be able to find freestyle-crazy windsurfers in this seemingly remote area? Without having done much research beforehand, I started my round trip until I finally tried my luck at the narrowest part of the island, in the small seaside resort of Zempin. I made my way along the village street through the former fishing settlement to the reed-covered houses on the Achterwasser.
The first impression was extremely promising: directly behind the terrace of a café was a small, reed-covered bay with shallow water. Further out on the Achterwasser, I spotted small ramps and lots of whitecaps - it was windy! There was only one irritating aspect: despite the best weather, there was no sign of colourful sails. Even though as a windsurfer you are mostly dependent on yourself on the water, freestyle is much more fun with friends. So despite all the positive impressions, I turned my back on Usedom for the time being and focussed my attention on the coast between Rostock and Stralsund.
While Usedom is largely developed in historical terms, pioneering work is definitely required when it comes to windsurfing. Apart from the best-known spot at the wind sports centre in Ückeritz, which has a very good infrastructure including a chilled-out surf bar, we mainly focused on the coastline to find new spots. The Usedom outer coast runs geographically quite straight from north-west to south-east, which naturally makes the spots on the open sea surfable in the wind window from north-west to north and east to south-east. However, the range of optimally functioning wave spots for the respective wind direction is inevitably somewhat limited compared to a rugged coastline. Sufficient waves can always be expected from these directions, however, as the view to the north-east across the central Baltic Sea only reaches land again on the Lithuanian coast.
The areas around the Achterwasser and the Krumminer Wiek with their numerous bays are just waiting to be discovered by windsurfers of all stripes. The right spot often has to be found first. This calls for perseverance and creativity. We make our first attempt in the northern part of the island on the Gnitz peninsula, where the first Slavic settlers settled around 600 years ago. With the Achterwasser always in view, we make our way to the outermost tip of the island, where Andreas' small water sports centre is located on a natural campsite in complete tranquillity. However, we soon realise that we are almost the only visitors to this remote place and, what is even more serious, the east wind cannot develop due to the wildly romantic but high cliffs.
You can read the entire Usedom spot guide with the following spots as a PDF download:
