Surfers will go to extreme lengths to score uncrowded waves.
Like surfing the reform wave from a remote calving glacier in Alaska. Of course, there’s the novelty factor playing into this strike mission from Blair Conklin and Ben Gravy; however, there’s nobody else around but chunks of ice and curious seals.
And that’s pretty rare in the surf world of today. Check it out below.
So, how hard is it to score such a wave?
Turns out, very hard.
First of all, there’s the trip there. Blair doesn’t say how long it took to get to this isolated Alaskan inlet, but he does give us a tour of where he and the crew had to sleep during the journey. Right next to the noisy engine room. Packed in like sardines in thin bunkbeds.
Then, there’s waiting for the wave and actually being in position when it breaks. It seems like it’s totally random, and if you miss your opportunity, then who knows when or where the ice is going to crack again and create a wave.
But, like a lot of things, the extra effort makes it all worth it.
“It’s just snowing out a little bit,” says Blair as he plunges into the icy water for another go at the glacier wave. “No biggie. On night one, I was sleeping on the boat. We anchored at the glacier overnight. What’s pretty cool is that when you’re on the boat at night, you can feel it rocking from a big glacier falling. There was some serious rocking happening [last night]. And big old icebergs in the water this morning, too.
“The thing is active today. We just have to hope we’re out here when one falls.”
This one won’t go down as one of the biggest surf trip scores in history, in terms of wave quality or quantity. But then again, you’re probably not going to find a lot of surfers at your local pub who can say they’ve ridden a glacier wave in Alaska. And that’s a pretty cool thing to have on your surfing résumé.
You just gotta ask yourself: Is the juice worth the squeeze?
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