Surfers Are By And Large Unadventurous Sheep

It is genuinely ridiculous how many world-class waves must reside across the world’s frigid rim. 

Hundreds if not thousands of unsurfed, perhaps even unseen, bathymetric gifts almost certainly dot the shores of Greenland, Alaska, and the absolute behemoth that is Mother Russia. But because surfers are by in large unadventurous sheep, who would rather spend their vacation surfing the same tropical reefs as the thousand other schmucks who read about it on Surfline, these tundric waves will remain unsurfed, perhaps even unseen, for the foreseeable future. 

And yes, we’re guilty of this too.

Indo, Fiji, Hawaii, Central America etc. are the obvious choices for a weeklong escape. Flights are cheap, the waves are typically fun, and the water – oh, you know it’s nice! Trading in that comfort and convenience for the chance of possibly scoring at a wave that is definitely freezing is tough hump to hurdle.

So we complain about the crowds and the skeeters but at the end of the day we know we’ll return to these equatorial zones in the following year. 

Then we watch clips of Pete Devries and Chippa Wilson scoring in near-arctic conditions and wish we had even slightest bit of fire in our bellies, both for warmth and a sense of courage. 

Maybe next year.