Surf House Helsinki brings the joys of surfing to Finland conveniently with indoor surfing! Indoor surfing is a good activity for e.g. birthday parties, bachelor parties as well as corporate events! The internationally praised sport is now available in Helsinki. Come and spend an unforgettable day with your family or friends!

Ride standing up or on your stomach

Even though indoor surfing has taken a lot of inspiration from its older sibling, it resembles skateboarding more than surfing. Unlike regular surfing, indoor surfing doesn’t require swimming skills, since there’s so little water in the FlowRider. The surfboard is a lot smaller than in regular surfing.

You can ride the FlowRider either standing up on a flowboard or lying on your stomach on a bodyboard. The bodyboard also allows a kneeling position if you desire change. 

Bodyboarding

The bodyboard is wide, so even adults can lie on their stomach or kneel on it. It’s the easier option for beginners to learn how to control the board and do their first tricks! Bodyboarding is also well suited for the youngest ones in the family.

Flowboarding

Flowboarding is more like traditional surfing since you stand on the board. Flowboarding is more challenging than bodyboarding since staying on the board requires considerably more practice.

Bodyboarding Helsinki

What is indoor surfing?

Many do it, even more dream of it and for some, it’s just a dream. After its initial breakthrough in the start of the 20th century, surfing has become the undisputed king of water sports. Surfing has not only made it into the Olympic games for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it has also spawned several other sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding and of course, indoor surfing.

Indoor surfing is a water sport practiced indoors fit for kids and grown-ups alike! The terms flowboarding and flowriding are also used for the sport.

Who is flowboarding suitable for?

Anyone can become an indoor surfer, but for safety reasons, you have to be at least 122 cm (48") tall for flowboarding and 107 cm (42") for bodyboarding. Beginners are recommended to start with the bodyboard, on which you lie on your stomach. There is no age limit for indoor surfing.

You can not participate for indoor surfing if you are ill, pregnant, under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In addition, any recent surgery, neck, back or bone ailments, heart condition and high blood pressure prevents you from participating to the activity.

Surfing Helsinki

Surf House Helsinki – FlowRider Double for beginners and experienced surfers

The FlowRider Double is two-person FlowRider. The FlowRider Double and Single are approved for international competitions. Surf House Helsinki has the FlowRider Double, which takes in 10-20 surfers per hour.

More experienced indoor surfers can surf the whole width of the FlowRider to ensure there’s room for tricks. For these sessions, we only take 10 surfers.

The weather is always right for flowboarding

Whereas citizens of sunnier and warmer countries get to surf the waves as often as they wish, we in Finland have to resort to technology. Only in the last few years has modern technology made sports such as indoor surfing possible with the help of the FlowRider wave machine.

The FlowRider is an indoor surfing machine which sprays water on an undulating vinyl surface with underwater pumps at around 35 – 55 km/h. Indoor surfing looks funny because the surfers appear to be dancing on top of the waves with their boards.

This sport since is not the easiest one – it is, however, one of the funniest. While the enthusiasts may make it look easy, mastering the tricks requires a lot of practice.

Indoor surfing is a safe sport for even the youngest in the family and it requires only a passion to try!

Flowboarding Helsinki

Why should you try indoor surfing?

Indoor surfing is a fun and fast-paced sport that comes with a shallow learning curve, especially with the bodyboard. It is a fun activity for birthdays, corporate parties or bachelor parties. Many who have tried the sport have become addicted to it nearly instantly! Unlike regular surfing, an indisputable advantage of indoor surfing is that it requires no swimming skills or experience with any other sport!

Surf House Helsinki has guided sessions for enthusiastic beginners as well as for experienced amateurs. In addition to surfing, Surf House has a sauna, a bar and a restaurant as well as a beach club to keep everyone entertained, even if they don’t want to try surfing!

Indoor surfing world-wide

Flowboard League of the World, also known as FLOW, organizes flowboarding competitions in North America, Asia, and Europe. The competitions include a world championship competition. Usually, competitors get three performances 30-45 seconds in length, which are judged.

The sport has only recently begun to grow in Europe, but for example in Asia and the United States, the sport has reached immense popularity. The sport is still new in Finland and Surf House Helsinki is one of its pioneers here!

Flowrider Helsinki

Inspiration from Thailand

Thailand was one of the first countries in the world struck by indoor surfing fever. Thailand is also where the story of the Surf House starts.

Thailand was known internationally for the high skill level of its surfers. A holiday in Phuket allows you to enjoy two FlowRider machines in the beach cities of Kata and Patong, which are popular among Finnish travelers. The FlowRiders can be found at Surf House Kata and Surf House Patong.

The Surf Houses also offer the necessary equipment, laid-back atmosphere and gourmet experiences to the rhythm of international hit songs. This inspired us to bring the Surf House concept to Helsinki.

The weather is always right

Why ride the FlowRider when there’s a beach close by? There are always two sides to a coin. 

Learning to surf is not easy for an adult, much less for the youngest in the family. Adults must keep a close eye on their children in natural waters, which can be challenging especially at the beach. The security of children is always the top priority. A wave which takes you with it is also a terror of all aspiring surfers. Surfing in natural water requires good swimming skills. Indoor surfing requires no swimming skills and there’s always an eagle-eyed instructor to look after young surfers. 

You’re always on the mercy of mother nature in natural waters. More than once have enthusiastic surfers been greeted by teeny tiny waves on a fine beach day. Not to speak of the economic burden a trip to the waves can be for many Finns. 

A trip to Surf House solves all afore-mentioned problems. Our helpful and friendly staff ensures the whole family will receive an unbelievable experience with surfing. Before riding the waves the new surfer has to memorize the safety rules. 

Indoor surfing is a fun and safe sport even for young surfers! At Surf House eternal summer and perfect waves are always guaranteed!

History of Flowriding

Indoor surfing was born near the end of the last century and the first FlowRider was invented by the American Tom Lochtefeld. Lochtefeld founded the Wave Loch Inc. company which is still the largest producer of FlowRiders and FlowBarrels to date. 

Indoor surfing combines several other sports. Unlike you would think, indoor surfing has little in common with regular surfing and more with skateboarding. Since the 1980s many aficionados of other sports have left their touch in the sport, which gave the sport more attention.

The first FlowRider in Europe was in a Norwegian resort village in 1993. The first pros started appearing since 1997 when Kelly Slater won the Typhoon Lagoon Surf Challenge in Florida. The competitions started properly in the year 2000 when FLOW was first held in the United States. Nowadays you can ride the FlowRider on every Royal Caribbean cruise. 

Helsinki Got its first FlowRider in 2019!

SUMMER IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Fast forward to summer easily by public transportation or car.

Visiting address:
SURF HOUSE HELSINKI
Mall of Tripla, floor P4 (Down Under)
Firdonkatu 2B, 00520 Helsinki, Finland

Postal address:
SURF HOUSE FINLAND OY LTD
Mall of Tripla, M-P6-12
Firdonkatu 2B, 00520 Helsinki, Finland