When it comes to remote, untraditional surf tourism, Iceland is the final frontier.
Think about it: When one pictures the ideal surf vacation in their mind’s eye, they probably conjure images of palm trees, white sand beaches, tropical fauna and wildlife, piña coladas, and perfect tubes breaking in electric blue bathwater temperatures.
Iceland in comparison – with its frigid, iceberg infested, wild and wooly coastline – isn’t exactly the postcard perfect illustration of a surf trip. But that just adds to the adventure.
Recently, Sanuk team pro surfers Hunter Jones, Dane Anderson, and Jesse Mendes embarked on an arctic surfing adventure, dodging chunks of ice in the lineup, avoiding frostbite, and scoring frosty perfection from pointbreaks to beachbreaks and beyond.
“Going on a surf trip to Iceland was unlike anything I could’ve ever imagined,” says Jones in the edit above. “Our plan was to spend 12 days in a van chasing storms and tracking swell all across the island with really no idea what we were going to find.”
Well, they found a lot. All sorts of waves of all different variety – pointbreaks, beachbreaks, and a throaty rivermouth wave that they were skeptical about.
Regarding the latter, Andersen recounts:
“Walking across that river for 20 minutes, not being able to see it, and then being like, ‘oh my god…we did it.’”
And how ‘bout them icebergs?
“Surfing with icebergs,” says Mendes, “that was one of the coolest experiences I could ever imagine. It was actually kind of scary. They move pretty fast with the water, and they’re huge. It feels like you’re going to get stuck and run over by one.”
Makes you rethink your “perfect” surf trip, huh?
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