Level of difficulty 3 |  Gastronomy 1 |  Length 20,6 km |  Time 5 - 7 hours

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The Laßnitz is certainly not the first choice SUP destination for river paddlers, but despite the low water level it turns out to be an entertaining ride between forests, fields and floodplains.

General information

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Navigation rules

Despite its regulated course, the Laßnitz River and its surrounding area are a real natural jewel. Along the river course there are several nature conservation and landscape protection areas. This is why stand-up paddlers should always consider themselves tolerated visitors. Please don't make noise or take any rubbish with you! The state of Styria offers an online overview of all nature conservation and landscape protection areas.

From time to time you can also meet fishermen, it's best to get off your SUP board early and avoid their lines. The water is usually no more than knee to waist deep anyway.

Dangers and risks

Occasional fishermen standing in the river or on the bank could pose a danger if you can't immediately see their lines with at the same time little room to get out of the way. It's best to dismount and wade past on foot if conditions allow.

The river is full of shallow sections that most likely exist at any time of the year. If you are careless, you can quickly get your fins caught on stones or small boulders in many places and be thrown off your SUP. Paddlers have to react quickly and shift their position towards the bow in order to raise the rear fins as high as possible. Due to these conditions, you should only paddle on iSUPs.

You should also consider paddling only with small fins, but this entails significant compromises in terms of tracking. In return, you glide more evenly and with fewer interruptions over the dozens of shallows. If the water level at the measuring station Frauental (Laßnitz) is 152 cm and the flow rate is 0.64 m³/s, you can definitely still paddle well and even quickly in some sections.

There is an abundance of dead wood in the form of dead trees, especially along the first half of the route. The tree corpses are mostly still standing, but they rise wiry from the bank over the water. Blockages force paddlers to paddle with foresight and quickly find the optimal alternative route. With a bit of luck, you'll never have to dismount, as there are always gaps leading through or around the piles of wood.

The entire route is full of groundsills and groynes. Thanks to the low water depth and flow speed, these do not pose a major danger, but they do require complete concentration and attention. Advanced paddling technique is a prerequisite for getting by such obstcles in a fluent way. Most of the groundsills can be overcome at least kneeling or sitting, but there are three particularly critical spots that are most likely not passable at any time of the year:

At the bridge near Schönberg carry your SUP around on the left bank.

At the fish ladder near Tillmitsch carry your SUP around on the left bank.

At the mouth of the river Sulm carry your SUP around on the left bank.

It makes sense to inspect the bottom sills as best you can before conquering them by SUP. Even if you decide to wade across the thresholds on foot, you should not underestimate the great power of the low water flow. Because of the smooth and slippery stones and boulders, be sure to wear decent bathing shoes or neoprene shoes with good tread!

Directions

Anyone driving from Graz takes the exit 204 Hengsberg on the A9 motorway and follows the road southwest to Preding. At the roundabout in Preding, take the third exit and drive straight on for about a kilometer to the zoo or the river.

If you come from Maribor by car, take the motorway exit 208 Lebring on the A9 motorway and follow northwest to Preding. At the roundabout in Preding, take the third exit and drive straight on for about a kilometer to the zoo or the river.

Traveling by public transport is more time consuming as it takes between 45 – 90 minutes from Graz. But from Maribor It even takes several hours because cross-border transport is first routed to Graz, which is an enormous detour. However, after arriving in Preding, in both cases you have to walk the last kilometer to the river.

When traveling to the region you can compare fares and connections with Flixbus, Omio and RailEurope online.

If you rely on public transport after completing the tour in Leibnitz, you can walk to the train station in 20 minutes and from there you will find well-timed bus and train connections in all directions.

Parking

At the start of the tour you could park your car at the parking lot of the Preding Animal and Wildlife Park. Since it is primarily reserved for visitors to the zoo, it is therefore unclear what happens if you are not a zoo visitor, or whether the parked car will even be noticed when the parking lot is full.

Alternatively, you can park on the other side of the Laßnitz, over the bridge on the right. There are sometimes cars parked there and it seems to be okay.

The tour ends right at the parking lot next to the Central Park of Leibnitz. There you will find plenty of free parking spaces under the trees.

Swimming

The Laßnitz River can be surprisingly warm in spring and people also like to swim in some spots. There are popular bathing spots directly below the zoo, but also at the mouth of the river Sulm. The water is quite clean, although leaves and blooms float on the water in many places.

Just under 400 m from the mouth of the Sulm there is the ever-popular Sulmbad river bath, a natural swimming spot along the left bank of the Sulm River. It was built in 1929 and is the oldest river bath in Styria.

The artificially created Lake Sulmsee is both a fishing and swimming pond. It is also a popular bathing destination in the region. From the parking lot at the end of this SUP tour it's only a 5 min drive there.

Tour

From the animal and wildlife park in Preding to the central park in Leibnitz.

Length

20,6 km

Time

5 - 7 hours

Start and landing

Start at the bridge near the animal and wildlife park in Preding.

Land in Leibnitz at the bridge near the central park.

SUP rental

none

Gentle water with pitfalls

About a year ago I was struck by the idea of paddling the Laßnitz River through western Southern Styria when I had to cross it again and again by car for customer appointments. However, it was never entirely clear to me whether this small river was navigable throughout and whether there wouldn't be too many bushes and branches protruding over the water. Unfortunately, there is no measuring station that can be accessed online along this route and you can only draw conclusions from the water level at Deutschlandsberg as to whether the river could be navigable down to the town of Leibnitz.

However, a look at the measurement history shows that at times water levels and flow rates are quite high, in complete contrast to the current situation. Nevertheless, we dare to take the adventure and ask ourselves whether anyone has ever paddled this tour for the reasons mentioned above. The start at the zoo in the village Preding turns out to be a real stroke of luck, because here you have the rare opportunity to park your car along the Laßnitz and go out on the water in a wonderful ambience.

When we get in, we scare a few mallards as they take their afternoon bath in the river, but we immediately navigate between gravel banks, raised earth walls and splashing children. There is direct access to the water from the zoo, so we are already guaranteed to see the first onlookers. From the start, this SUP tour seems to be varied and entertaining.

Above all, fortunately the water flows faster than expected, and over the entire distance you can expect an average flow speed of around one to two km/h. We immediately immerse ourselves in a lonely water landscape that repeatedly commands us back and forth between small obstacles, which at a moderate pace still leads to a high level of entertainment.

The first few kilometers partly remind me of the river Raab in the Austro-Hungarian border area, although there seems to be more dead wood protruding from the bank into the river. Smaller blockages are also to be expected from time to time. However, these are all easy to avoid today because we always find gaps between the nested wood.

Today, with its slow water and measly depth (maximum waist-high, mostly knee-deep), the Laßnitz is like a tame stallion in self-discovery mode. Again and again our fins rattle over the smoothly polished stones at the bottom of suddenly appearing riffles (shallow rapids), then we speed up again in the halfway knee-deep water. Shortly afterwards the river throws some bottom sills at us again, which sometimes look impassable, but can mostly be easily conquered while kneeling on the bow.

There is a constant change of little pitfalls and challenges. This is why we recommend this tour to paddlers with flowing water experience not only because of its length, but also because of the technical finesse. Many sections of the river are absolutely suitable for families, but these are then abruptly interrupted by obstacles, constantly forcing you to look down and forward at the same time.

In between we paddle through almost still water and I sometimes have a lot of trouble keeping my SUP on track. With wise foresight, I attached two small fins on the sides instead of my large central fin. Advantage: I glide over most riffles and thresholds with almost no friction. Disadvantage: the board is constantly drifting from side to side, so I am forced to constantly change the paddling side. That wouldn't be much better if I had just attached a single small fin in the middle.

My comrade doesn't have this problem, but he has to constantly lift his US box fin out of the shallow water. I sometimes see him standing more at the nose than in the middle of his SUP. Sometimes the fins crash quite loudly and we are amazed at what they can withstand without breaking when scraping along the rocks like that. Personally, I always have a spare fin with me on tours like this – better safe than sorry.

We reach the first critical swell after about 5.5 km, more precisely at the fourth bridge over the Laßnitz. Today's water level doesn't allow us to glide over the stones, which is why we have to portage for the first time. Despite the countless sills and rock formations along the way, this fate only befalls us later on with advanced mileage in the area of the village Tillmitsch and the mouth of the river Sulm. Therefore: At the fish ladder near Tillmitsch and at the mouth of the river Sulm carry your SUP over the groundsill on the left bank.

The river has a bed gradient of 22 ‰ along its 64 km long course, but this is not noticeable on our journey through the Laßnitztal Valley, and so we have to apply noticable paddling force between the faster sections in order to make progress. Even though small tributaries repeatedly transport their water into the Laßnitz, this hardly changes the slow flow rate. To compensate, we are pampered by the spring-fresh scent of bird cherries, cherry and apple blossoms while the sun shines through between the treetops and slowly begins to turn orange.

Space and time have lost their relevance a long time ago; we don't know where we are or how long we have been traveling. Somewhere in no man's land between fields and dirt roads - isn't that freedom in its purest form? Only the water determines where we go next, and we surrender to its wise guidance. At some point we meet walkers who tell us that the town of Leibnitz is about 5 km ahead of us. Thanks to the endless windings, obstacles and shallows, it still feels like an eternity to get to the town's central park.

On the way, a little boy is lucky because he loses his soccer ball on the bank just as we paddle past. We quickly fish the ball out of the water and give it back to the relieved child. When the population density finally increases, the mouth of the Sulm, which flows in from the left, is behind us and more and more walkers stroll along the banks, the end of the tour is in sight. The last 700 m you paddle on the Sulm anyway, and you could continue paddling until it flows into the Mur River. about six kilometers further.

The evening has now fallen and we climb out of the water on a footpath on the left at the bridge near the central park of Leibnitz. There are two metal staircases on the right that could also be accessed. However, we still want to see the Thomas Muster Monument in the park, and to do this we have to turn left and stroll briefly across the parking lot. It was nice - nice and long, and the adventure of this afternoon will certainly be remembered for a long time.

Alternatives: This tour can be shortened by around 11 km if you start at the small bridge in the municipality of Lang. Free parking is available either at the municipal office or at the cemetery..

If the water level is sufficient, the Laßnitz can be navigated from the village of Frauental. By SUP it's about 15 kilometers along the river to the zoo in Preding.

The Laßnitz flows into the Sulm, which you can paddle about 5.5 kilometers further to the Mur River. The Mur can further be navigated for hundreds of kilometers through Slovenia and Croatia until it flows into the Drava River near Legrad.