Surf travel is a funny thing. In my early to mid-20s, I did a lot of surf trips. While they’ve tapered off a bit now, I still try and go somewhere twice a year for waves. I generally try not to go somewhere twice, but looking back on the trips I did when I was younger, I have a lot of regrets. The only thing I did on those trips was surf. I didn’t look around at the places I found myself–instead, I stared straight at the ocean or at the bottom of a bottle. Many of the places we travel to for waves are steeped in a rich cultural tapestry, and if you’re anything like me, it’s very easy to be distracted by waves and ignore the inherent beauty of simply being far from home.
When one thinks of a surf trip, it’s generally somewhere tropical. Somewhere with swaying palms, white sand, and crystal clear water. Somewhere with balmy nights and long, muggy days. And while those places are indeed incredible, there are a million other places that are just as incredible… only with much colder water. Jack O’Neill’s invention of the wetsuit back in 1952 opened up an entirely new domain of surf travel, and it’s only just beginning to be explored.
Take Iceland, for example. It has one of the most stunning landscapes on the face of the earth and the waves are incredible, but it is far from a common surf destination. Dominga Valdes, along with four other surfers, made their way to the middle of the North Atlantic to find much more than waves–and perhaps on your next trip, you should take a few days off and go exploring. There is much more to a surf trip than just surfing, after all.
