Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.04.2013, Side 31

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When I started surfing in Iceland 11 years
ago, people would ask me the same
question over and over again: “Surfing in
Iceland! Are there any waves here?”
At first I would enthusiastically explain
that, yes, being an island smack dab in the
middle of the powerful Atlantic Ocean, we
indeed had some waves and in fact the
countless shipwrecks littering our coastline
were a pretty strong testament to that. But I
always suspected that the people I talked to
at the gas station or outside the supermar-
ket did not quite believe what I was saying;
they just nodded their heads with a kind of
a smile on their face that said it all: ‘Yeah
right, you fool....’
YES, THERE ARE
WAVES IN THE OCEAN
Of course they had to know there were
waves here. You can’t ignore the facts. Ice-
land has for ages built its livelihood around
the ocean. But I guess when most people
think of surfing they think of palm trees,
girls in bikinis and white sand beaches and
surfing in Iceland is as far away from the
stereotypical surfer dude image as you can
get. It's cold, it can be scary and it is in no
way cool. Standing naked from the waist
down in January, clutching your wetsuit
while you’re being hammered by sleet and
wind, your nose is running and your teeth
are chattering—this is definitely not cool.
It's not all bad though. With a coastline
of 4,970 kilometres open to swells from
all directions, Iceland really can get some
world-class waves. During the warmer sum-
mer months the surf isn't very consistent,
but autumn sees the arrival of proper 5ft+
(1.5 metre) waves and is perhaps the nicest
time to surf in Iceland. The sea is relatively
warm (a whole 14°C) and the days are still
quite long. As fall progresses into winter,
sea and air temperatures drop and daylight
hours grow scarce. However, if you can
brave the cold, and it does get really f-ing
cold, this is the time of year when Iceland
is pounded by swells almost day in and day
out.
INTRODUCED BY
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
Americans from the now defunct naval
base in Keflavík were the first to see Ice-
land's surfing potential in the early ‘90s,
and a small group of local snowboarders
caught on shortly thereafter. Back then,
wetsuits and surfboards were hard to come
by and people made do with whatever
they could find. My friend Ingo started in a
two-piece diving suit and on one of those
boogie boards they used to give away for
free on the back of Nesquick chocolate milk
packages.
Little by little, the group of surfers has
grown since those first days when you
could fit the whole surf population into a
small van. Some of the originals have given
up because of the harsh conditions or real
life commitments, others have stuck with it
and a few newbies have joined the ranks. It
is estimated that there are now around 30
active surfers and, as you can imagine, with
so much coastline, overcrowding out in the
surf is not a big issue.
BECOMING THE
NEW MOROCCO
While almost every break in California or
Hawaii has been explored, every wave rid-
den, Iceland still has potential for explora-
tion. This is what makes surfing here so
special. It's still in its infancy so you don't
have to fight with 50 other surfers for a
decent wave. Combine this with today’s
high tech wetsuits and surfing during the
coldest winter months is starting to feel
pretty tolerable.
And the word is out. Every year, like mi-
grating birds, more and more professional
surfers are arriving with their board bags
and camera equipment, discovering new
surf spots on almost every trip. The surf
media has its eye on Iceland; it's even been
referred to as the new Morocco, the place
everybody’s going to because nobody is
going there.
So nowadays if someone asks me about
the surf here in Iceland I have a pre-pro-
grammed answer: “No, there are no waves
in Iceland. It’s cold, miserable and never
under any circumstances should you try
surfing here.”
31 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 4 — 2013
Elli was introduced to surfing on a plastic
Bic (yes, the pen and lighter manufac-
turer) surfboard with pink flowers that a
friend brought over from France. At the
time he thought it was the coolest thing
in the world. His first time out in the water
ended with a mouth-full of sand, a cold
scary swim back to shore and a vow never
to go surfing again. His most memorable
surfing experience is seeing a minke
whale breach the surface right out in the
line up. He occasionally surfs, snow-
boards and takes pictures of his friends on
their various adventures.
Answer to trivia question on page 2:
A Winston Churchill