You may remember the controversial van crash ad that Reef brought out a few weeks back (see below). As you no doubt realised, it was fake. Anyhow, it was all part of their Reef FREE Tour campaign, which is now well under way. Check out the latest from the tour…

Reef EMEA are stoked to announce the official kick off of the Reef FREE Tour 2009, presented by Volkswagen Utilitaire B.A.B. After taking in the sights on the trip from S.W France to Switzerland last week, including the discovery of a rivermouth surfspot in Italy along the way, Reef Team and Events Manager Manu Portet and Reef team wakeboarder Lolo Peyrichou, arrived in the Bavarian city of Munich last Saturday to have a go at river surfing on the Eisbach river.

Despite getting lost in the city for over an hour, Portet and Peyrichou received a warm welcome when they finally arrived, washing away their stress with cold beer and a bbq. Peyrichou, the 24 y.o Frenchman, was World Cable Wakeboarding Champion in 2006, Vice Champ Cable Wakeboarding in 2007, French Cable Wakeboarding Champion, was amped to test his skills against the stationary wave.

The locals rip this place making it look much easier to surf than it is, blasting air reverses and 360 spins with ease. The Reef FREE tour team managed to ride a few waves but confirmed it is extremely different to surfing the ocean. Despite their average performances, both Portet and Peyrichou said it was a great day, the locals were extremely hospitable, the beer extremely cold and never in short supply!

After a good nights sleep in the van beside the Eisbach River, Sunday morning the boys skipped church and opted to enjoy a few more waves on the river before heading to the Ascheim cable wakeboarding park in the middle of the picturesque Bavarian countryside near a little village by the name of Swandorf. With sun shining and the park full of riders out to enjoy their afternoon, more than 200 people were on hand to enjoy all the action.

With plenty of good rails to hit and loads of kids tearing the place up, Lolo was quick to get amongst the action in the park for his first wake session on the Reef FREE Tour 2009. After two hours of riding, Lolo finally left the water exhausted but content and took time out for a siesta on the banks of the lake. Meanwhile a frenzy of activity began as t-shirts, sandals, board shorts, stickers etc were given away to the maddening crowd.

True to the spirit of the tour, “FREE to do what we want when we want…”, the boys decided to finish the day with a spot of fishing in a local lake. The view was superb and a perfect way to end what had already been an amazing day. After a few hours, the boys finished with a couple of decent sized fish they cooked up for dinner before finally calling it a night.

Later this week the Reef FREE Tour will head to Holland where you’ll find us in Amsterdam Thursday 18th June, Scheveningen Friday 19th, Zandvoort Saturday 20th and Wijk Ann Zee on Sunday 21st of June as part of the Internation Surfing Day organized by Surfrider Foundation.

For more information on the Reef FREE Tour itinerary or how you could win the Reef FREE Tour van at the end of this summer, be sure to check out our website: http://freetour.europe.reef.com Be free, see you on the road!