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SWIMMING

Munich inventor makes splash with sea rucksack

A Munich inventor has put the finishing touches to brand new kind of rucksack perfect for ocean exploration. A watertight, floating bag is proving a hit with fans of sea-trekking – a combination of free-diving, swimming and walking.

Munich inventor makes splash with sea rucksack
Photo: YouTube

Bernard Wache has been working on the bag for the past six years and, Der Spiegel reported on Thursday, it will finally go on sale this September – news that has thrilled rock climbers, surfers and sailors alike.

But the 41-year-old designed the bag for a path less travelled – sea-trekking. His company Áetem, which will sell the rucksack, offers tailored tours along coastlines not normally accessible by foot. Sardinia, Croatia and Thailand are just a few of the locations.

All sea-trekkers must carry all they need with them in a 65-litre bag, and after more than a decade of free-diving, Wache decided to make a bag which wouldn’t soak through after a couple of hours in the water.

He experimented with countless different materials, glues and buoyancy techniques in his Bavarian workshop until he perfected the “James C.” which won a “Brand New” award at this year’s Munich’s Ispo sport equipment expo.

Wache is still negotiating to find the perfect manufacturer, but he hopes to release a smaller version of the bag in October, which he says will cost less than the €450 price tag on the larger predecessor.

The company Áetem, similar to Atem, the German word for breath, hopes to offer people the chance to see the world a little differently – and by only being able to carry a maximum of 15 kilos of luggage, get back to basics.

Although Wache has been free-diving since the age of 24, his tours are also suitable for beginners. “Being able to swim and being relatively fit” were, he said, the only requirements. Sea-trekking was, he added, all about discovery.

Áetem explains sea-trekking

The Local/jcw

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MUNICH

Four injured as WWII bomb explodes near Munich train station

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when a World War II bomb exploded at a building site near Munich's main train station on Wednesday, emergency services said.

Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich.
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Privat

Construction workers had been drilling into the ground when the bomb exploded, a spokesman for the fire department said in a statement.

The blast was heard several kilometres away and scattered debris hundreds of metres, according to local media reports.

Images showed a plume of smoke rising directly next to the train tracks.

Bavaria interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild that the whole area was being searched.

Deutsche Bahn suspended its services on the affected lines in the afternoon.

Although trains started up again from 3pm, the rail operator said there would still be delays and cancellations to long-distance and local travel in the Munich area until evening. 

According to the fire service, the explosion happened near a bridge that must be passed by all trains travelling to or from the station.

The exact cause of the explosion is unclear, police said. So far, there are no indications of a criminal act.

WWII bombs are common in Germany

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

However, most bombs are defused by experts before they explode.

Last year, seven World War II bombs were found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs were also defused in Cologne and Dortmund last year.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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