Ian Walsh surfing Alaska

Been too busy living stories to share them lately. But don’t worry, there are some good ones coming. We are, right now, motoring out of Resurrection Bay on another 7 day wave hunt in the Gulf of Alaska. Forecast is looking good, great crew of surfers aboard, looking like another dream coming true.

Realized a long time dream yesterday. Thanks to Jeff Hoke and the Chugach Powder Guides for making this possible. More photos and story coming along when I get a chance.

The Last Frontier – Alaska’s well earned title certainly rings true when it comes to surfing the far north.

Not surprisingly, Surf Alaska receives countless emails from surfers with frozen gills wondering if there is any hope for them here in AK.  It became very clear there was need for a publication that covered the basics.  Alaska – the guide to pioneering surf in ‘The Last Frontier’ is the answer to these questions. 

This book is all about getting you well prepared for your own surf explorations in Alaska. It’s a compilation of what we’ve learned from 15 years of living the search.

We purposefully did not include details on specific known locations, but instead offer the tools you’ll need to truly experience what surfing in the Last Frontier is really all about – pioneering and a sense of discovery. We didn’t want to put together a map of all the known surf spots in AK because honestly we know very little of the actual potential out there, instead you’ll learn how to connect with other surfers in Alaska and the basics you need to know in order to discover waves yourself. In the last year alone we have discovered far more breaks than we’d surfed in all the years combined. Alaska is ripe for exploring and this book is all about helping you get out there and really live the Alaskan surf dream of discovery in an untamed wilderness.

Of course the book is heavily illustrated with photographs of living the Alaskan wet dream. Along with the photos you’ll find a healthy serving of information as well. Subjects covered in the book include: Access, Community, Tides, Weather and Temperatures, Forecasting, Daylight, Staying Warm, Wetsuits, Surfboards, Bear Safety, and Other wildlife.

A lot of effort went into this book and I hope that it’s a valuable resource for anyone interested in surfing in Alaska. I know it would have been an incredible help for myself 15 years ago when I was learning all of these things the slow hard way. If after reading the book you still have any questions of course I’ll be happy to answer them. Needless to say, the earnings from the book sales will be spent on more surf exploration.

As a little celebration of the book launch here’s a discount code to give you $10 off for the month of December: launch11
You can enter the discount code in your shopping cart under ‘Apply Discount Code’.

As reported in my previous post, we had a pretty tough surf search around Kodiak Island early this winter with the m/v Milo. The storms were on par with the scenery, relentless and rugged. In our first few days around the island we did get to score a couple sessions when the wind momentarily settled from the near constant gales. The photos here are from a session at a spot that a couple locals suggested we check out. Gotta say, the locals were a lot friendlier than the waves we found! check out some of these angry looking faces.

Mike trying to escape a drooling monster before it munches him in the rocks.

Kodiak surfer Ryan Murdock seemed pretty comfortable surfing in these conditions.

This little mutant section stopped more than a few rides short.

After the mutant section came the rock slalom course

Mike thrill seeking with his standup board.

Slinky outrunning the froth on the inside.

Despite the mutant sections and the filter feeding action going on inside with the rocks the boys managed to pull of some pretty sweet rides. Someday we hope to see this wave without all the wind and chop, maybe a bigger swell and it could be an epic point wave. Another day.

Ryan Murdock

Jake Beaudoin

Slinky

Mike McCune

Another beach break wave nearby had more size but was breaking into a little cove with no escape, sure looked tempting from the backs. A few first hand reports confirmed our suspiction –  fun drops and then hang on for your life.

The Milo enjoys a short break between wind storms.

It’s no secret that Kodiak Island can be a windy place, but three weeks straight with winds gusting over 50mph? That just doesn’t seem possible! Well, fortunately we all lived to tell the story of enduring a non-stop series of epic winter storms while on a surf trip around Kodiak Island by boat.

The m/v Milo left Homer right on schedule- November 2nd. We knew it was a short weather window to try and make the 20hr run to Kodiak so it was not a big surprise when halfway there we encountered our first storm. We took what  little shelter offered by the Barren islands and for 32hrs watched and listened as the wind ripped past us in screaming gusts that we estimated around 70mph.  Little did we know this was going to be the norm for the next few weeks!

Mike surfing an angry wave

In the first few days around Kodiak Island we did manage to get a few sessions in between the wind storms and before the swell diminished. (more surf photos in the next post – Surfing Kodiak between storms) We thought these were our warm up sessions for the trip and soon the wind would settle down and we’d be surfing the swell generated by these huge storms. As it turned out the angle that the storms were hitting Kodiak was not conducive for surfing even with seas forecasted at up to 40ft nearby! We scoured the coastline everyday hoping to find a break catching some swell but sheltered from these gusty winds that not even a kitesurfer could love. We found potential around every corner with nice looking reefs, points, river mouths and beaches that promised great surf but failed to deliver with prevailing conditions.

One thing that Kodiak Island did not fail to deliver on was incredible scenery, which despite the storms, we were able to enjoy from the safety and comfort of the m/v Milo. Our trusty surf boat proved herself yet again to be an incredibly seaworthy vessel fully capable of supporting the search even through some nasty Alaskan winter storms. We were all thankful for a sturdy boat with good anchor gear and our experienced captain, Mike McCune.

It’s a curious thing that photos just can’t seem to tell the story of being on a boat in bad weather. Maybe it’s something to be thankful for, or we might never venture out of the harbor again. Looking through the few photos I took on this trip there are only a few stormy shots and they are a mockery of the actual experience. I suppose those moments of ‘discomfort’ will easily slip out of our memories and we’ll soon be back out there chasing waves in the last frontier.

Sunset in the Barren Islands

sunrise in the Barren Islands

I spent a lot of time looking at those straps, wondering if the next gust would make off with our boards.

Twilight mountain view on Kodiak Island

Still frame from the video clip below.

As avid followers of Surf Alaska may recall, last winter we made a four week surf exploration across the gulf of Alaska aboard the m/v Milo. The video clip below is just a little taste of the waves we scored on that adventure.

Surfing in Alaska is not always easy. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s ever easy. But waves like these keep the stoke for the search alive, even when it’s freezing cold and blowing snow in your face like it has been around here lately.  I was checking out the wind observations around the gulf today and saw that a place we surfed a couple months ago, Aialik Bay, is gusting to 100mph as I type and early this morning it was blowing a steady 93mph and gusting to 129mph! Air temps in the teens fahrenheit with the windchill factor around -15F. The good news is it was offshore…

The video clip is pulled from hours of footage shot by my brother and his filming partner during our 4 week epic. They are finishing up editing the video which will be at film festivals and available on dvd sometime in 2012. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m writing this from aboard the m/v Milo, It’s dark outside now, all i can hear is the willywahs beating the sides of the boat as she leans over from the force. Earlier in the day we could watch the waterspouts twirling past us, occasionally slamming right into us. When one hits us straight on we can feel the low pressure in our ears as it passes around the boat. It’s a clear reminder that we are in the birthplace of the storms.

We have paused our travel plans to take some pretty weak shelter from a pretty intense gulf of Alaska storm. It looks to be gusting around 70mph out right now. We have anchored up in the Barren Islands about one third of the way to the South end of the Kodiak Archipelago where we’ll spend the next three weeks exploring the surf potential there. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon the wind will let us sneak down to Shuyak, Afognak, then Kodiak Island.

Being holed up waiting on the weather I’m thinking about the last time I went to Kodiak to surf.

Land Rover launched a new compact suv in 2011, the Evoque. This vehicle is aimed at urban dwellers with a healthy budget who would like the idea of a road trip, maybe surfing, how about to Alaska!?

To illustrate this fine idea the Land Rover magazine ‘One Life’ decided to make the dream reality and with a bit of help from myself and generous friends of Surf Alaska this is exactly what they did. Their incredibly long road trip began in Canada and brought them all the way to the literal end of the road in Homer, Alaska. But this wasn’t quite far enough, so we got on the ferry and went to Kodiak to find some waves to surf.

I’ll let the One Life crew tell you the story – check out the video below.

It was a real pleasure working with the crew from Land Rover. Like any Alaskan surf trip, theirs offered plenty of challenges to overcome and they persevered with great attitudes making the most of all their opportunities. A big thank you goes to the friendly local surf crew in Kodiak, especially Ryan Murdoch and Caroline Goodman for their help and hospitality.

I took some snapshots on the mission.

The Evoque in the belly of the Ferry.

Aussie surf movie star Chrystal Jameson Fitzgerald on the ferry departing Homer for Kodiak

loading the boards on the Evoque.

The scenic drive south of the town of Kodiak to 'surfer's beach'

Nice little setup with some great potential.

Chrystal tells me they don't have to wear this much gear where she's from.

Kodiak local Caroline Goodman surfing a beach break.

One Life film crew. Rain or shine.

Chrystal walking to the nose on a nice little peeler.

A surf trip to Kodiak wouldn't be complete without the buffalo.

The One LIfe production crew riding the Alaska Marine Highway back to Homer. Mission accomplished.

Just back form another surf adventure on the m/v Milo. The highlight was a great 6 hour session at a point/beach break that offered 30+ second rides with some sweet steep sections well overhead. The photo above was a set peeling when I first pulled up in the humbug (our 14ft RIB wave scout). I’ll try and put together a few more photos soon.

Many more killer rides slipped by undocumented. As you could imagine, it’s not the easiest thing to sit there taking photos of your friends getting rides like this. It does get a little easier to trade in the surfboard for the camera after a good four hour session of your own though.  Small tides and a strong swell gave us the rare opportunity to surf throughout the entire third day. Usually the tide change is too much for any break and we have to either take a nap, or go look elsewhere.

I’m just back home catching up on work, looking forward to sharing photos from our latest surf exploration on the m/v Milo. We sat out a hurricane in the Gulf of Alaska for one day and surfed ourselves silly the next two days.

more coming soon