Gallery: Bye-bye, winter - the best pictures of winter 2025/2026

Baltic Sea / DE

Frithjof Blaasch: "Last autumn remained surprisingly tame: no large areas of low pressure, no legendary days. But at the beginning of January, a stable easterly wind set in and stayed. Every day the temperatures dropped, every day the ice layer grew. What sounds like a bad forecast gave us the most intense winter for a long time and brought forgotten spots back to life. This winter has shown once again: Windsurfing in sub-zero temperatures is possible and the limit of what is possible has once again been pushed. It's great to see how a new generation is growing up in northern Germany, with a real hunger, a strong level and obviously a high tolerance for the cold. Our experience has resulted in a request to the windsurfing industry for next winter: We need heatable booms and an ice-repellent mono film."

Windsurfing in sub-zero temperatures is possible and the limits of what is possible have been pushed once again."

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Lake of Uri / CH

Balz Müller: "Even as a small child, I was impressed by the energy of nature, its colours and, well, just our existence in general. I was never a quiet soul; school was always a challenge. I needed movement. I dreamed of flying like a Pegasus and always explored everything with my unicorn sunglasses. I wanted to be different - and I still am. I find calm in the wildest storm, like on 3 February 2026, when six to 60 knots turned Lake Uri into a windsurfer's nightmare - or a challenging playground. Nowhere do I feel better than when I want to tame the raw power of nature and realise that there is no chance of fighting the elements and I can only go with the flow."

Nowhere do I feel better than when I want to tame the raw power of nature."

Isle of Wight / UK

John Carter: "A rare day in Kimmeridge (K-Bay) with a south-easterly wind and big swell. I took this photo from the cliffs overlooking the break. The surfer doing a bottom turn and heading for the lip is Timo Mullen. One of the locals, who has been surfing there for 30 years, said it was the best conditions he had ever seen with this wind direction. The sun even came out for a while! We've been on a few more core home missions this winter, for example on the Isle of Wight and in Bigbury in Devon."

One of the locals said it was the best conditions he'd ever seen in this wind direction."

Mediterranean / FR

Jean Souville: "There were a few storms in the south of France this winter. Storm Nils was particularly violent, coming in from the Atlantic with winds of up to 160 kilometres per hour. The Mediterranean coast was also hit hard and I was out and about again around Marseille to photograph the events. Rare guests even turned up at the Carro spot: four or five large dolphins were guests, making leaps in the air and stealing the show from the windsurfers for almost 20 minutes. It was a great experience and the first time in 35 years that I had seen large dolphins here again.

In Carro, four or five large dolphins were guests, made leaps in the air and stole the show from the windsurfers for almost 20 minutes."

Brittany / FR

Jean Souville: "One of the last strong Atlantic storms this winter was brought by a powerful depression called Pedro, which swept across the country from north to south. Julien Flechet, a young local, loves these rough, difficult conditions at home. When the waves are big and a north-west to west wind is blowing, things get particularly interesting at his home spot of Kersiny near Audierne. The wave is fast and powerful and can even take down the best."

The wave is fast and powerful, and even the best of them can be beaten."

Cape Town / SA

Graham Ezzy: "In Cape Town, the music is mainly played at the spots in Table Bay, north of the city centre. Sunset Beach, Big Bay and Melkbos attract countless water sports enthusiasts every year around Christmas time. Personally, I love the beaches on the Cape Peninsula further south. The conditions here are not as reliable as in the north, but for me beauty comes before consistency. The blue of the water and the sky here is so intense that you might think it's fake. And if things aren't going well on the water, if I'm unhappy with my performance, a quick glance at my surroundings is enough to save my session."

The blue of the water and the sky here is so intense that you could be forgiven for thinking it was fake."

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