Watch: Navigating Chest-High Wedges Off A Glacier In Greenland

We’ve seen this before, more than once.

Garrett McNamara did it almost 20 years ago, and Mick Fanning and Mason Ho almost made it look fun about 10 years ago, but had anyone ever attempted to ride waves formed by a calving glacier outside Alaska?

Not until Spanish photographer Jorge Abian enticed Portuguese surfer Eurico Romaguera to join him on an unlikely European summer trip to Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark that is technically located on the North American continent.

After surveying the area around Ilulissat by plane, the team managed to get a captain to take them to a glacier where a wave could be created by the calving of an iceberg into the sea, a phenomenon that occurs during the summer melt.

“We didn’t know if we would be able to achieve it within a limited time and with no idea where to find the wave,” says Romaguera. “We connected with local fishermen, and even they found it extraordinary. They guided us to potential spots where calving events could create the waves we were seeking, places where ice or land formations could shape the waves caused by the glacier’s collapse,” Abian added.

Not only did they have to find a calving iceberg at the right time, but they also needed the resulting wave to be big enough and shaped just right.

Painfully waiting for some ice cubes to throw a tantrum and yeet themselves into the water, the waiting game began. After six hours without a blade of grass to watch grow, some calving happened, offering a chance for an elusive wave to take shape. However, the chunky icebergs on the shore didn’t allow for any surfing that day.

Heading back to their hut, the team oozed existential dread, and wondered if taking the trip back to the glacier the following day was even worth it.

Good thing they decided to do so, as massive ice blocks finally began sliding down the glacier, and (barely) surfable waves lapped onto the craggy shore. Then, a city-block-sized chunk of glacier came roaring down, and a single swell line became a wave that Eurico rode, and Jorge documented.

“One Shot” turned out to be a fitting name for this project, considering that when chasing iceberg surf, you don’t get too many do-overs. Film by Nico Pina and Ibai Mielgo.