When exactly did exploring the coldest corners of the globe become the in thing to do in surf adventures? It’s awesome. It’s as if the sport and the culture have come so far that we got bored with uncovering all the tropical gems and flipped the script on that whole Endless Summer narrative – except we kind of didn’t. You see, even in the Endless Summer the captivating piece of the puzzle wasn’t so much about the warm water locations where you got a bitchin’ tan and cooled off with a cold one at the end of an eight hour session. The most magnetic tidbit in the whole story was the spirit of adventure. And there’s still nothing more adventurous than hunting for waves that haven’t been mapped, don’t have a surf report or a camera pointed at their peak, and probably don’t even have road access – even if it means wearing 5mm of neoprene to get in the water.
Iceland fits that description. It may be one of the most developed countries in the world but it’s also the most sparsely populated country in all of Europe. More than 60% of its landmass is a literal frozen tundra and if you’re lucky, on a blistering summer day in July, temps might climb to the high 50’s (Fahrenheit). The island is ripe for the picking of new discoveries, including surfing with icebergs bobbing in the lineup. Now that’s something we didn’t see in The Endless Summer.
