World Tango Stars Take the Stage at Argentine Competition 

Fatima Caracoch and Lucas Brenno Marquez from Buenos Aires hold up their trophies after winning the salon category finals of the World Tango Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
Fatima Caracoch and Lucas Brenno Marquez from Buenos Aires hold up their trophies after winning the salon category finals of the World Tango Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
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World Tango Stars Take the Stage at Argentine Competition 

Fatima Caracoch and Lucas Brenno Marquez from Buenos Aires hold up their trophies after winning the salon category finals of the World Tango Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
Fatima Caracoch and Lucas Brenno Marquez from Buenos Aires hold up their trophies after winning the salon category finals of the World Tango Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)

Every night in Buenos Aires, cozy clubs and cavernous halls fill with dancers from around the world who cling to one another in the embrace of Argentine tango, gliding in sync to plaintive tunes of nostalgia, loss and love.

Tango's spotlight moved to the stage this week, as several hundred competitors vied for the world's top titles at the annual Buenos Aires Tango Festival and Competition, which was attended by 10,000 spectators on Tuesday's closing night.

With a record 750 couples from 53 countries, the competition showcased the universal appeal of a dance style that originated among sailors and immigrants in the ports of Argentina and Uruguay around the early 1900s, with roots also in African rhythms.

"Tango unifies everything," said one of the event presenters. "In times of global division, what is better than embracing one another?"

Argentina is revered as the world's hub for tango music and dancing, both in social clubs and in glitzy stage shows.

The participants hailed from places as far flung as Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Ukraine.

But the top honors went to Argentineans.

Ayelen Morando broke into tears and her partner Sebastian Martinez fell to his knees as their names were called as winners of the show tango category.

"This is years of effort, of work, of dreaming, and not giving up," Morando later told reporters, still in the black velvet dress and bejeweled collar she had performed in.

Fatima Caracoch and Brenno Marques fiercely hugged as they won for salon tango.

"It's a mix of feelings, of happiness, of ecstasy, and of achieving an incredible dream," Marques said.



Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again
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Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Surfing enthusiasts have cheered the reopening of a beloved whitewater site in downtown Munich, the German city better known for partying at Oktoberfest than splashing in the waves.

The Eisbach ("ice brook") standing wave in the city's Englischer Garten park was closed after tragedy struck in April when a 33-year-old woman drowned during a nighttime winter surf.

After a safety review and a petition to keep it open, the site -- just a stone's throw from an art museum and shopping streets -- was reopened by authorities in recent weeks.

Putting on a wetsuit and taking a board out of its bag after a day's work, Moritz, 43, said he's a regular at the surf spot on an arm of the Isar river.

"It's amazing. A wave right in the city center is something very special," he said. "I missed it during the closure."

Nearby, surfers performed tricks with virtuosity on the powerful wave, formed by the presence of rocks on the riverbed near a bridge.

"It's completely different from the ocean," said Moritz.

"Even if you know how to surf very well in the sea, you don't necessarily know how to do it here where the water comes from the front and not from behind."

Another surfer, Irina, 34, said she tries to come three times a week, "before work, because it gives you energy".

She finds "the power of the wave is good" and said she feels safe at this unique spot, even if "there are rocks at the bottom and you have to be a little careful when you fall".

A German surfer lost her life during a night session in April after being trapped underwater for nearly 30 minutes, her leash caught on an unidentified object.

Friends and emergency services rushed to help her, but she died a week after her accident.

An investigation found no safety breaches on the part of the city or state, which had always warned surfers to attempt the challenge "at their own risk".

New guidelines have, however, been issued: night surfing is banned between 10:00 pm and 5:30 am, and the minimum age for braving the wave is 14.

Surfers must also use a system that allows their leash to be detached in case of emergency.

These rules are "largely reasonable", said Franz Fasel, head of the local surfers' association IGSM, who said between 3,000 and 5,000 local surfers use the Eisbach site.

"Surfing is simply part of the lifestyle in Munich," he said. "Not just for the surfers themselves, but also for the city's image."

It was not always this way. In the past, the Eisbach wave was entirely natural and surfable only occasionally, for example, when gravel accumulated in the riverbed.

Surfers took matters into their own hands in the 1980s, installing a river crossing and adding objects to improve the wave, not all well received by the authorities.

The site is now promoted by the tourist office as one of Munich's top attractions.

Bavaria's state premier Markus Soeder proudly declared during a recent visit that "Munich is a surfer's paradise" and Bavaria "a bit like the California of Germany".