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A standing wave in a Munich stream that has been a surfing magnet for more than four decades has vanished, leaving urban surfers high and dry.Water levels in the Eisbach ("ice brook") dropped last week for annual cleanup work along the streambed.But when the gates reopened and water began to flow again on Friday, the Eisbach wave did not form as usual."We're at a loss," surfer Klaus Rudolf told Stern magazine. "I was standing at the edge with my board on Friday evening and couldn't believe it."The Eisbach wave in the Englisher Garten park has become a landmark in the Bavarian city since rogue surfers in the 1980s turned it from an occasional natural phenomenon to a permanent surfable presence."The city administration is working with the Water Management Office and surfers to find a quick solution so that the famous surf wave will soon be available again as usual," Mayor Dieter Reiter said in a statement Tuesday.Exactly why the wave vanished remained unclear on Tuesday, according to city officials.The recent work cleared debris from the streambed and inspected the waterway."No structural changes were made to the Eisbach wave or its banks during the cleanup," the city said, and an inspection of the site Monday did not reveal any damage.Officials plan to divert more water from the Isar River into the Eisbach in hopes the wave reappears.The Eisbach wave is generally considered the largest and most consistent river wave in the heart of a major city, and has become a tourist attraction in Bavaria's state capital, which is otherwise known for beer and sausage at the annual Oktoberfest.Franz Fasel, head of the local surfers' association IGSM, told AFP in July that 3,000 to 5,000 local surfers use the Eisbach wave."Surfing is simply part of the lifestyle in Munich," he said. "Not just for the surfers themselves, but also for the city's image."At the time, the Eisbach wave had just reopened after a months-long closure following the April death of a 33-year-old Munich woman who became trapped under the surface while surfing at night.Since it reopened to surfers, new safety rules banned nighttime surfing and set a minimum age of 14 to brave the water.

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany did not waste time thinking about his new contract, saying his main request to club bosses was that Tuesday's announcement did not disrupt preparations for Wednesday's Champions League match against visiting Club Brugge.The German champions announced a contract extension with the Belgian coach by two years following Bayern's winning start to the season with 11 wins from 11 matches across all competitions. "I did not spend any time thinking about it," Kompany told a press conference. "The question came and my only request was that this was not going to become a big issue. It will be done with quickly and we can focus on the next game. It was no big issue and no talks. Quickly and clearly and then we can focus on the next game. There are not too many better places (to work at) than Bayern."Kompany won the Bundesliga with Bayern in his first season in charge and the German champions are now on seven league wins from seven matches to top the league table. In the Champions League they are seeking their third straight victory when they host the Belgian club on Wednesday in a match for which Kompany, a product of Belgian rivals Anderlecht, feels like a bit of a rivalry."I just thought about it. We play a Belgian team but my youth was spent at Anderlecht. There is a bit of a competition feeling," he said. "I have a lot of respect individually for people at Club Brugge but if it is only about me, there is a bit of that rivalry feeling."One experience he is not keen on revisiting was the racist abuse he and his then Anderlecht team had to endure at a game in Brugge in 2021 when he was coaching the Brussels club. "It's a really difficult answer. I was the captain of the national team, I played for the national team for 17 years and you go to a place and your staff gets called 'a brown monkey'," Kompany said. "It is not easy. I don't want to focus on anything else right now. After the game I was speechless, four years later I am still speechless."