Two German SUP'ers Die in Flooded River

Written by Corran Addison

Nils Hornischer (left) and Marcus Steininger (right) whose lives were claimed at Mangfall River in Bavaria, Germany.

BAVARIA, Germany - Thursday evening, September 2, 2010, saw the tragic death of experienced standup paddlers on the Mangfall River near Munich, in Bavaria Germany. The two paddlers, Marcus Steininger and Nils Hornischer, decided to go for a quick evening paddle after work on a section of river that they knew well. The river was unusually high, and they were washed downstream quickly and over a low head dam. Trapped in the hydraulic at the dam’s base, the two men drowned. Both were equipped with life jackets, helmets and leashes (which ties the paddler to his board for quick recovery after a fall).

They parked their shuttle car at Louisenthal Thalmühle, downriver from Mangfall, and headed out. At 11:15pm his family called the police to report he was missing and an earnest search began for the two paddlers with 200 firefighters and rescue workers scouring 18km of river. At 2:25 am, the bodies were found at Louisenthal.

Marcus Steininger is one of the pioneers of standup paddling in Europe. He worked for Mistral Pacifico and, after a trip to the USA three years ago where he discovered the sport, “imported” it to Europe and has been one of its most prolific spokesmen. Nils worked with Northkites for the last 5 years and was instrumental in brining the brand to the forefront.

It would be a mistake to point at ignorance or inexperience as the cause of this tragic accident. Both men were very experienced watermen, knew the section of river very well, and had the necessary safety equipment. The truth is that it was a combination of rotten luck and apathy that can occur when experienced athletes practice their sport in a “mundane” environment. When you’re used to pushing yourself and your limits in a hard core environment, you tend to let your guard down when you are in a relatively safe zone such as this section of river during most normal to high flows.

However, river conditions are constantly changing, especially when in flood stage, and the low head dams that are normally innocuous had become deadly with the swollen flows. European rivers are unfortunately rife with low head dams, many of them built hundreds of years ago long before people used rivers for recreation, to deviate water for irrigation and drinking for towns. Today, hydro engineers know how deadly these low head dams can be and steps are being taken to break up the perfect symmetry that causes the hydraulic to form at its base.

The problem with these dams is that the water pours evenly over the dam wall, creating a high-pressure area above the wall, and a low-pressure depression behind it. This causes the water on the top layers to accelerate, “jump over” the lower layers, and then fall into the depression, impacting the “still” water of the river below the dam wall.

This in turn causes the water pouring over to return back on itself in a perpetual tumbling motion. This is called a “Jump Hydraulic” and occurs naturally in nature behind every rock in the river, but in this natural form on each side of the rock the current continues its normal flow and so eventually anything caught in the recycling hydraulic feeds out the corners. With low head dams, this jump goes from bank to bank, in perfect symmetry and so there is no exit. Once in, there is simply no way out unless the flow is weak enough to be able to swim against it. On a flooded river, this would not be the case.

It is impossible to know what really happened that night, but in the 30+ years I have been whitewater kayaking I have certainly seen such scenarios many times before and we can certainly extrapolate some lessons from this to avoid such events in the future. One should never paddle on flooded rivers. Swollen riverbanks push up into the tree line, which act like tea strainers and can entangle a boat or swimmer.

Flooded rivers also move much faster than we are accustomed and you can get swept down much faster than expected (especially at night when our reference points on shore would be obscured from view), and features in the river which would normally be irrelevant at usual flows might have developed into more dangerous obstacles.

While they were wearing life jackets and helmets, the jury is still out for the use of ankle leashes on rivers. The leash, designed for ocean surfing, is intended to keep the board close to the surfer for quick recovery of the board after a wipeout. It’s rare that there are rocks in the ocean that can entangle a leash (though it has certainly happened) trapping the surfer. However, as any big wave surfer can tell you, the leash can often be a liability after wipeouts. In above-average surf, the buoyant, floating board gets caught up in the foam of the wave, which then drags the surfer by the ankle until the wave looses its power. Despite these problems, they are considered a worthwhile convenience.

On rivers however, the leash can snag on the rocks and logs, which are everywhere and are a part of the river environment. In this case, it’s very possible that the leash also contributed to the death of the two paddlers. Had they not been leashed to their boards, they might eventually have been pushed deep enough by the incoming flow behind the dam to escape “under” the hydraulic, which concentrates around the surface. (This is the normal way to escape when a kayaker is stuck. He gets out of his kayak and tries to swim under, sometimes even removing the life jacket in extreme situations). Now with a leash, even if they had succeeded in swimming under, the buoyant board would have remained in the surface hydraulic and simply pulled them back each time. It is impossible to reach down to your ankle to release the leash in such circumstances due to the water pressure (you are being literally rag dolled in such a situation).

But this is pure conjecture. We will never really know what happened to those two larger than life men who lived to the fullest, and positively affected all those they worked and played with from day to day. They will be missed.

Note about the writer: Corran Addison a whitewater river runner and president and founder of the Imagine Surf Sup Co., based in San Clemente, CA

My Local Lineup consulted with top US sup river expert, Dan Gavere, on a river safety pointer story; Read "How to Be Safe in the Rapids on SUP."