“I want to be a Surfer, eifach so chli ramparts riite”, sings Stefan Buck, front man and Songwriter of the dialect band pike in the eponymous song, “Surfer”. It is the expression of a dream, of a life feeling that creeps over you as a listener.
Swen (25) and Michael Zaugg (23) not only dream to be a Surfer, you are the best in the Switzerland. Swen is the current Swiss champion, his brother the Vice-master. Her big dream is to participate in the Olympic Games.
Switzerland is your second home, Costa Rica home
It was a Sunny, but chilly Morning in October in a shopping center in the vicinity of Lucerne. Here is the first artificial standing surf wave Switzerland is, in 2018, it has been opened. In a 20 x 28 meters in size and up to two-Meter-deep pool, can dive here, children and adults, beginners and professionals in the floods.
An artificial wave makes it possible: Browsing in a country without sea. (Image: Samuel Schalch)
the two brothers, who seem, with their tanned skin, and their hardened bodies, a typical Surfer-movie sprung to this day. “Clearly, it is eco-friendly is not perhaps the most type of surfing, but to Train, in a country with no sea, absolutely perfect,” explains Swen, the Older.
A country without a sea, that the two do not know otherwise. You are just visiting Switzerland, where you feel every Time again. In the mid-90s, the parents moved to the three-month-old Swen, of this Bach in Bern to Costa Rica, from the Seeland in the jungle. The father worked as the head of a construction company, the mother as a hairdresser at the beach.
As brothers and sisters, you inspire grew up with each other
Directly on the sea, everything around the water, early on, to the Passion for Swen and Michael, who already stands as a three year old for the first Time on a surf Board. But really, it has Packed the first two at the age of eleven years. “I’ve watched my brother when you are Surfing and always wanted to be equally good and equally fast,” says the Younger.
It is also what the two drives today and motivated to get out – always the Best. No envy, as Swen triumphed in front of Michael in the Spanish Loredo, held Swiss Championships? “No,” comes the answer immediately. “We are only so good because we push each other. This Time I won, the next Time he wins,” says Swen.
As the brothers, you know the feeling to be together in the water. (Image: Samuel Schalch)
The Swiss Championships dominate for years, as the best and only Swiss Surfer, you can take part in competitions in the professional League the World Surf League. Particularly on the level of the so-called Qualifying Series that serves as a precursor to the Championship Tour, the 34 best surfers in the world. It will, however, create only ten to Tokyo, where Surfing in 2020, for the first time to the Olympic disciplines. However, the last competitions of the brothers Zaugg back in the Qualifying Series, in the meantime, two to three years.
A Start-up in Tokyo in 2020 is not realistic
“for Us, big sponsors are missing. Every Event is ultimately a question of price,” they explain. 40’000 dollars a season per capita costs. Earn do you in Costa Rica 10’000. And for that you need to work hard, seven days a week. Together, they offer fishing and snorkeling tours, as well as, of course, to surf lessons. So, everyone gets a monthly wage of $ 600. Jetting around the world and are always chasing the next wave, this merit is difficult. Only you have to drive Events to gain points in the Championship Tour up the ladder, sponsors more attractive – a vicious circle.
“Surfing is cooler than driving, for example, always the same half-pipe. I surf on 50 waves, all are different.”Swen Zaugg
Thus, it is a participation in the Olympic Games in Japan next year, anything other than realistic. Her great aim of France in 2024 remains. Until then, you consider the chances of Qualifying higher, but the procedure for Tokyo is highly complex, and the field of participants, with a total of only 20 surfers is very small.
Michael (l.) and Swen look ahead. Your goal, the Olympic games are not quite yet in sight. (Image: Samuel Schalch)
your goal you will organize everything. “Surfing, I have to now. The University also stands still when I’m 30,” says Swen Zaugg and laughs. Surfing is for him and his brother a sense of life, a Sport in which man is at one with nature. “It’s just cooler than driving, for example, always the same half-pipe. I surf on 50 waves, all are different and break down different each Time. Wind, rain, all affect each other.”
On the artificial wave is different, it always breaks the same. So it takes a while to put in their evidence, rather than swallowing the water.
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Created: 10.11.2019, 15:13 PM
