Surfing Alaska in icy ’09
It’s ten minutes before midnight, maybe I’m having a case of midnight stoke, but I can’t help but share this photo. I jumped on the computer to check email before bed and accidentally glanced over the thumbnails for a recent surf session / photo shoot. January 5th, 2009. This shot caught my fancy, I hope it does the same for you.
It’s been an unusually cold week for our little seaside town with temps dipping below 0º F at night. Fortunately though, with the cold weather came a few great days of surf after Christmas and into the new year giving us surfers something to really celebrate.
Strange things start happening on the beaches when the thermometer drops like this. Take the above photo for an example. Alaskan surfer, Jake Beaudoin, is standing on what are normally black boulders. Today they look more like marshmellows, however as another surfing buddy pointed out, they are much more slippery than a marshmellow! What seems to be going on here is the receding tide slowly draws the waves away from the very cold rocks and we have what the local fishermen and wethermen call ‘Freezing Spray’ as the splashing water freezes onto the rocks. And in case you were wondering, yes, this freezing spray does occur on the body of a surfer as well.
There are a lot more photos to share from this last week, and I’m trying to get through editing them. Though today the cold had me distracted searching for a new wood stove… In the meantime I have some links for the curious:
- See a short gallery of Alaska surfing photos
- or browse a couple hundred Alaska surfing photos from the last couple years at my online archive
- and if you really want more of the scoop on surfing in Alaska visit another site I’m building – SurfAlaska.net.
Stay warm out there.
Again..... beautiful picture(s). I realy do like them in color aswell. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Edmond. The strange ice covered boulder shapes seemed to have a stronger presence in black and white. Interestingly, the photo was basically blue and white before I converted it.
oh. wow. Amazing conditions to be taking photographs in around here this winter.... Nice work, Scott!
Thanks Lynne
Wow. All of your surfing pictures are incredible to look at – not just because the people surfing in these conditions clearly are a little nutty, but light, hue and composition is ...well... incredible as well. Good job.
Hi Sini - Thanks for the kind words. If anyone is looking for a graphic designer in Anchorage, Alaska I would suggest contacting to Sini as she's available for freelance work now. Check out her site.
Those ice boulders remind me of the rocks in Goblin Valley here in Utah - only a lot colder. Love the black and white!
This scene certainly does inspire the imagination! Thanks Jeremy.
Looks awesome Scott! Living in Alaska must be awesome. It seems like our Great Lakes surf, kite, snow lifestyle on steroids! How often do you guys get waves up there?
Hey, Thanks Ben. Alaska is awesome, I won't argue with that. As you know Alaska is big - more coastline than the entire continental US combined - I'll bet we have waves all the time. In my little hometown (Homer) though we only get waves in the winter, and it's not very consistent. For about 4-5 months of the year I'd say we might manage some kind of surfable wave twice a week. But, it's not uncommon to go for a couple weeks with nothing. Other known surf spots in AK such as Yakutat or Kodiak are much more consistent, probably can surf there on most days.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, check out SurfAlaska.net for a bunch more Alaska surf photos.