"Flow like water", a JZ Media Productions Film, introduces the unique story of Janina Zeitler as a professional surfer and is currently one of the highlights of the Bayerisches Outdoor Film Festival, premiering in over 50 cinemas across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Austria.

Janina Zeitler is a professional surfer from Germany, considered to be the best Rapid Surfer in the entire world, European & 2x German Champion, and is currently the leading figure of German surfing.

Her story as an athlete is completely different than the one of any other you might have heard, of someone who was born and raised near the ocean, standing on a surfboard before they could even walk, being given all the opportunities in the world to chase surfing as a career ever since they can remember.

Janina´s upbringing and reality is much different than that and definitely the complete opposite of any of her current competitors. Born and raised in the beautiful city of Munich, where she has lived her entire life, Janina was always very far away from the ocean, in a country where surfing was never seen as a career worth following or a dream worth dreaming, unless you completely moved out of the country, something that through her incredible story has nowadays deeply changed for the nation.

Having only stepped on a surfboard for the very first time when she was 12 years old, an age where her current competitors were already participating in international competitions, Janina started surfing in the cold rivers of Munich. Her experience was much different to everything she had heard and seen before about surfing, of girls surfing in bikinis in beautiful beaches & tropical destinations, yet here she was, covered in a thick neoprene suit trying to stand on a tiny little wave created by the strength of the rivers in the middle of Germany.

Nevertheless, Janina immediately fell in love with the sport and becoming a professional surfer quickly became her biggest dream. This dream was however perceived as something impossible as there was no road to follow, not a single guideline, no relatable role models, no-one that was living thousands of kilometres away from the ocean was a professional surfer...

"I lost count of how many times I was told to give up, that this dream of mine was completely irrealistic, simply crazy, not worth fitting for... "What do you mean you want to be a professional surfer? You live in Munich, in Germany, we have no ocean, this sport is not for people like you. You should  just get a normal job, leave surfing for those who are at the sea" were things I heard my entire life...
However, deep inside me I always felt like I could flow like water, being frozen in the middle of the mountains, slowly defrosting, running down and creating a river, finally reaching the ocean with all the strength and power in the world.
So, I decided to try to make this feeling become my life story and worked as hard as I could to, against all odds, prove that anyone in Germany, or any other landlocked nation, can dream about becoming a professional surfer and that you are never given a dream without also being given the power to turn it into reality." - Janina Zeitler

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