Surfing in Alaska to many is like an idea from another dimension. Alaska is the land of the crazy reality tv shows where people live in igloos, right?
After surfing in Alaska for the last fifteen years, I can tell you that it’s still not an idea I’m totally at ease with. What I have grown accustomed to though is this game of chess we play with mother nature. We are always on the search for that brief and elusive euphoric moment that can only be distilled from near perfect conditions. Sometimes it feels like asking a bull moose in rutting season to a tea party. “Now, be gentle, don’t break any dishes.” We just need a nice clean swell from the southwest, light offshore winds, a certain stage of the tide for this particular river mouth. Oh, and it better not have rained too hard in the last week and if it’s winter, we’ll need this all to line up in the six hours of daylight we have to work with. It would also be nice if there wasn’t too much ice flushing out of the river.
Alaska is not a gentle place. It has a well earned and steadfastly defended reputation of being inhospitable. But I can tell you that there is a sweet side out there, hidden in it’s 34,000 + miles of coastline. Between the mountain ranges encrusted in glaciers, I’ve woken up the morning after a hurricane force blow to watch the sun peek over the ridge and shine on a freshly made swell with not a breath of wind. These rewarding moments are intermittent and incredibly compelling. I can clearly remember the last one.
Most people assume the cold is what would prevent a surfer from being a surfer if they lived in Alaska. Well, it turns out that the cold is often the simplest obstacle to overcome. The main struggle is accessing the surf in this land of endless wilderness without roads. And finding your way to that spot in the brief moment when all the elements align is asking a lot.
Surf Alaska, the video series, is my latest effort to share this incredible experience of prospecting for waves in the far north. We’ll take you on our surf missions that are 95% adventure and if we get lucky, 5% surf. That’s the reality of surfing here, or trying to at least. But you won’t hear complaining, at least not all the time. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than being out there immersed in nature, searching for that moment.
Without a great crew of friends, none of this would be possible. As you’ll see, the resources it takes to score waves in the wilds of Alaska and document the journey are a lot more than one person can manage.
Check out Surf Alaska’s facebook
