There’s a moment Lisa Bäumler has learned not to interrupt. Prospective clients arrive at O₂ SURFTOWN MUC for a site visit. Lisa, the park’s event manager, walks them upstairs toward the terrace overlooking the lagoon. As the pool comes into view, conversations stop mid-sentence. The visitors stand mesmerized, staring at the waves and lost in the sound and rhythm of perfectly formed surf in the middle of landlocked Bavaria. Instant stoke.
“I just leave them there for a bit,” Lisa laughs. “That’s really where the magic happens, right in front of my eyes.”
That wordless moment of awe might be the most honest marketing pitch in the business. Before the coaching, the events calendar, or the business strategy, there’s the feeling. And increasingly, that feeling, that vibe, is becoming the foundation for something bigger than a surf park.
Stoke as Infrastructure
If the wave is the hook, the culture and community is what keeps people coming back. That philosophy runs through nearly every conversation with the SURFTOWN team, especially Theresa Steuer, Head of People & Culture, who helped scale the company from the first ten employees to more than 120 during peak season.
With a background in psychology before moving into people operations, Theresa speaks less about hospitality metrics and more about emotional energy.
“Surfing has an incredible positive effect on mental health,” she says. “That was part of why I wanted to work here. People come because they want to live positive emotions. When your customers arrive wanting to feel good and your staff genuinely loves what they’re doing — it’s contagious in both directions.”
SURFTOWN hires heavily for personality and mindset, then trains internally through its own surf-coach certification pipeline — a necessity in Germany, where the demand for qualified coaches quickly outpaced supply. Technical skills can be taught. Creating a welcoming atmosphere is hard to fake.
Guests notice the difference immediately.
During WavePoolMag’s visit, German surfer Lara Keromosemito described standing poolside watching a session when a lifeguard wandered over and struck up a friendly conversation out of nowhere. “That’s extraordinary for Germany,” she noted.
Romy Nonnenmacher, formerly of the German Ski Association and now part of the partnerships team, didn’t miss a beat: “It might not be a German thing — but it’s definitely a SURFTOWN thing!”
Building the Total Community
That culture extends well beyond the lineup.
Alongside surf contests and events like the Rip Curl Nations Trophy, SURFTOWN has invested heavily in inclusion initiatives through its “Share the Stoke” program, which provides sessions for surfers with disabilities, including visually impaired and deaf surfers. Local outreach programs bring school groups and teenagers into the water for free or subsidized sessions, many experiencing surfing for the first time.
The original vision behind SURFTOWN remains simple: everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy and freedom of surfing in a welcoming community.
The Women’s Initiative: Closing the Gap, One Session at a Time
Still, like much of surfing, SURFTOWN has its imbalances.
Walk into an advanced or expert session at almost any surf park in the world and one thing becomes immediately obvious: the lineup is overwhelmingly male. Linda Zinßer, one of the original team members and part of the customer experience team at SURFTOWN, noticed it early.
“In the advanced sessions, I was often the only woman in the water,” Linda says. “On both sides of the pool. Just me. And I thought — that’s crazy.”
The numbers backed it up. In 2024, roughly 67% of SURFTOWN guests were men. Membership skewed even more heavily male, at 85%. Beginner sessions approached parity. Advanced levels did not.
This spring, SURFTOWN launched a monthly women’s surf session aimed at building community and encouraging more women to progress into higher-level surf. Each event combines progressive wave settings with social gatherings before surf, while a growing WhatsApp group keeps women connected between sessions.
“We realized that women need different things than men do,” Linda explains. “A community that feels safe. Not competitive. Somewhere you can try a harder wave for the first time and not feel out of place.”
The first women’s session, run on an Intermediate A-Frame setting, drew strong participation. But when the second event shifted to Advanced A-Frame, registrations came in slowly. Some women hesitated, convinced they weren’t good enough. Ironically, many were.
“Women consistently underestimate their level,” Linda says. “The coaches see it all the time. Women book below their ability.”
Romy experienced the same thing herself. She spent months surfing progressive sessions before friends convinced her to try intermediate.
“Sometimes you need someone else to tell you, ‘You can do this,’” she says. “Without that push, people stay where they feel safe.”
That peer encouragement is beginning to take root organically. Women who meet during the sessions are now booking higher-level surf together. Shared progression is replacing isolated self-doubt. And the appetite for it is growing quickly. The upcoming June session (returning to the Intermediate A-Frame) sold out almost immediately.
SURFTOWN is looking to expand the concept beyond the water. Linda hopes to introduce workshops focused on breath training, fear management, and surf equipment education — from fins to board design — with the ambition they are all led by women.
The goal isn’t simply increasing participation numbers. It’s changing how progression feels.
More Than a Wave Pool
On a cold, stormy evening in May, the second women’s session paddled out beneath gray Bavarian skies. An onshore wind textured the A-Frame rights and conditions were far from ideal, but that couldn’t dampen the stoke. Women cheered each other into waves. First advanced rides were celebrated from the channel. Nervous energy slowly gave way to something looser, freer, more collaborative.
And maybe that’s the clearest sign of what SURFTOWN is actually building.
Not just a surf destination. Not just a technology platform delivering perfect waves. But a modern surf culture that feels intentionally different — less territorial, less performative, more community-oriented. In the end, the most valuable thing SURFTOWN produces is the feeling people leave with after sharing waves together.
