Would you brave 37-degree (Fahrenheit) water to split this peak with a friend? Photo: Skid Kids//screenshot
An Alaska boat trip is not the same as the Mentawai vacation that you’ve been dreaming of. But there might be an impending shift to Alaska surf tourism after Blair Conklin showed his nearly four-million YouTube subscribers how fun the empty point breaks can be in the 49th state.
There are good reasons why the lineups that Conklin and his friends rolled up on were empty. The water was nearly freezing. Bears and bald eagles patrolled the beaches, and sea lions guarded the lineups. But nature was all part of the allure.
“One of the most exciting things about being on the boat, you see more wildlife than you do humans,” Conklin said. “It makes you feel really small, and it makes you feel like the natural world is still in power.”
Blair squeezed a lot into his Alaska trip. He surfed a tidal bore, snowboarded, and scored remote point breaks. And they say there are still more videos to be released from the adventure.
The crew motored to surf left and right point breaks, all to themselves — no one out but the sea lions. Conklin was particularly surprised by the quality of the waves during his last session.
It “exceeded my expectations of what Alaska could do,” he said.
