February in Alaska. Ever heard of Cabin Fever?
That’s what someone is said to have when they do curious things in the dark and cold of winter. Normal things would include carrying wood from the woodpile to the fireplace, talking to your friends about how stupid ‘The Deadliest Catch’ is, but how you watch it anyways, or spending all the money you made commercial fishing on espresso beans to keep you from hibernating. If you happen to be up late at night on one of those long winter nights keeping the fire going and see your neighbor stumble from his house at 5am in a skin tight black suit carrying what looks like a silver body bag you can safely assume he’s off to do some self medication for his cabin fever. Off to Bear Glacier, which is at least a three hour drive and a 45minute boat ride from anywhere, unless you live in Seward, Alaska.
Last winter a few of the local surf crowd headed to the glacier for a real alaskan winter surf experience. We left home at 5am so we could be waiting at the boat when Capt. Scott showed up at first light. After pouring a couple gallons of antifreeze coolant in the right main we where on our way, all wondering if the engine was actually going to need any ‘coolant’ with the air temps far below freezing.
As we approached Bear Glacier we were engulfed in a golden fog, and greeted with a decent 3-5ft swell rolling in from the Gulf of Alaska. Everyone suited up and jumped in the water as if they had mistaken Bear Glacier for a coral reef in indonesia. I was thinking about that science experiment when I learned that salt water can be below 32F and still not freeze. I guess I should have just been thankful we were surrounded by saltwater allowing us to use our surfboards instead of ice skates. After five months of refrigeration, the water in Resurrection Bay was cold.
Looking at the back side of the waves peeling along in nice rights I had to remind myself that this was a business trip, the surfing could come after the photos. If I would have known then that camera focus issues were going to make 99% of the shots useless, I would have happily left the camera behind and went for a good sloshing in the super cold cycle. However, I needed to learn this lesson, the one about taping the focus ring to keep it from shifting. The lesson was certainly burned into my memory when I returned home and looked at all those smiling faces with incredible snow capped mountains in the background. I think they were smiling anyway; mostly they were just black blobs in a sea of green with a background of white and blue. I clearly remember thinking how incredible these shots were going to be as I happily snapped away, consoling my aching desire to surf by promises of becoming rich and famous from these photos. As chance would have it, a few of the photos taken in the surfhousing did turn out, but I’m still waiting for the rich and famous stuff.
When I was finally sure I had captured the award winning photos in both horizontal and vertical the camera was put away and I started surfing. On the first wave I stumbled off the board and was promptly pinned to the bottom of a swirling ice cream headache. After several short eternities the light appeared again and I found myself thinking about how nice it was taking pictures instead of swimming for my life with a throbbing headache.
Bear Glacier was kind enough to teach me two important lessons: Tape the lens focus in place if you are going to use manual focus in a surfhousing without a focus ring. And if you can hold your breath for 60 seconds underwater in the pool, you might hope for six to seven seconds at Bear Glacier in February.
Comments
13 responses to “Surfing trip to Bear Glacier, Alaska.”
Awesome!!
Great photos.
Hey Scott,
I haven’t been by your site in awhile – wow what an awesome trip! Great shots and a great story.
Bummer on the focus issue, I bet you had to throw away some great shots – that hurts!
Ron
@ Pushing Tide and Wade – thanks!
@Ron – Did you know that you live in a surf town? Editing that shoot was a bit painful, but I had a 5 hr return trip that gave me time to get over it. I figured out that I had problems when I looked at the shots on the LCD when the camera was out of the surf housing on the boat.
G’day Scott, What a great trip! Your winter surfing stories make my Southern ocean island home, Tasmania at 42 degrees south, seem like a tropical paradise! Frontier surfing is what we are all about down here also. Check http://www.southernoceanadventures.com... we don’t have quite the same amazing landscapes, but they are some pretty nice places…
As luck would have it I am probably spending our winter (June – August) on your side of the Globe and I am hopeful that I might get to ride a few Alaskan Barrels! Maybe I’ll see you amongst the wind and the waves! I think I’ll be based in Homer… p.s is a 5/4/3 wetty enough rubber?
Hi Jimmy. What do you mean ‘seem like a tropical paradise’? isn’t it one? I looked at a few of the photos on your site but quickly closed the window. My little Alaskan mind doesn’t need to see that kind of stuff.
You are lucky to be visiting Homer in June and August but don’t expect to ride any waves here then. My surfing photos are mostly in the winter for a good reason, we rarely have any waves in the summer months. But there are places around Alaska that do, so with a little traveling you should be able to get some surfing in.
Be sure to get in touch when you are here. Be fun to meet up. And that 5/4/3 should be just fine.
Hi Scott,
Amazing shots & adventure!
Can I pester you with a couple of questions?
What would you consider to be the best place to live in AK for a good balance of surf/snowboarding?
Is there any kind of consistent surf around resurrection bay if you live in Anchorage? Looks like it’s a haul getting to the open coast from Juneau.
Glad to find your site!
– 32 degree brother from Lake Superior.
Thanks Jake.
Good question. One of the reasons I love surfing in Alaska so much is the mystery of it all. The answer to your question is not easy. If I wanted to surf year round in Alaska and live in a town it would be Yakutat or Kodiak. For snowboarding it depends on whether you are happy with a snow covered mountain, or if you want a chair lift?
What are your resources? Can you afford plane flights, boats, heli rides? Would you rather have the best snowboarding out your door, and travel to surf, or the other way around. If you don’t want the best, there are lots of towns that could work but each is so different.
Resurrection bay can be great, but most of the time you have to take a boat ride to get to the waves and it’s a fair drive from Anchorage. I just drove there two days ago and got blown out. . .6hr drive, 0hr surf.
I know you could do both in Kodiak fairly consistently. I’m not knowledgeable on the snowboarding there other than I’ve heard it can be pretty good for backcountry.
Maybe with some more info I could help, but it’s all just so dependent on your desires and resources. I recently spent a week camped out in Yakutat surfing every day, it was great, but I wouldn’t go there for snowboarding!
I’ve just started reviving an old website idea to share info and photos about surfing in Alaska, check it out – http://SurfAlaska.net
Hey Scott,
Thanks for all the great info!
I’d be more focused on surfing. I only bring up snowboarding because just as with surfing on lake superior, I assume you get iced in for a couple of months surfing in homer. Then again maybe not but I see the slush waves in some of the photos like we have here. If it’s not solid, sometimes the constant flow keeps you from surfing.
What’s the crew like there? Do most of the guys live in homer?
It’s amazing how similar your photos are to ours. Have you seen http://www.superiorsurfclub.com/gallery.html? It’s starting to get crowded where I live in Duluth, MN. Plenty of Universities around here to bring BS to the breaks. So I’m thinking of either moving up toward Canada where it’s more remote or possibly just making a bid for AK.
Anyway, not likely i’ll be intruding on the scene, but there’s a chance :).
Really appreciate your info & your work. Seems like there are some great people in the surf community up there as well. Cold weather brings good folks, eh?
Regards
Jake – We can surf year round no problem. Of course it gets cold, but I’ve never seen it so bad that you couldn’t brave the slush and ice chunks to catch some waves. Kodiak and Yakutat are warmer than Homer and I doubt they have much of an ice problem at all. I’m not sure about Resurrection Bay, but I’ll be it’s similar to Homer.
The surfers in Alaska are great, in fact the fun we have together is a major part of why it’s so enjoyable surfing here. There are surfers spread throughout Alaska.
I checked out the superior surf club gallery, it does indeed look familiar. Just add some 4,000ft mountains in the background and it looks like Homer on a good day.
keep it chilled!
Hey, I was wondering if you had any POCs for a surf trip. I am in the Coast Guard coming from being stationed in Hawaii, and I am missing the surf, real bad. I am heading back to HI 30DEC-11JAN but was trying to get something in before or after. I live in Petersburg, AK now trying to adapt to my new surroundings. However, my desire to be in the water is always there. I acquired some old school windsurfing gear as well which I am trying to get up and running as well. Just wanted to drop a line, your work is definitely one of a kind
Hey Rick – Check out http://www.OceanSwellVentures.com. We are offering trips with the m/v Milo and we’d love to have you join us sometime. Thanks!