McFish slipping into the Petrof green room in the morning light.

I still haven’t even began editing the photos from our two recent trips to Petrof Glacier, but I can’t help but share a few of the images that keep catching my eye as when I take a moment to flip through the collection.

Alex Wilson heading out for a surf with the Kenai Mountain Range setting the scene.

Jake Beaudoin surfing a break near Petrof Glacier, Alaska.

Alex, Ty, and Bob walking back to camp after a surf session at Petrof Glacier, Alaska.

Surfing a break near Petrof Glacier in the Gulf of Alaska.

Years of talking, drooling, hypothesizing, dreaming, thinking, imagining . . Petrof Glacier, so close yet so far away.  From Homer this spot is only a 20 minute bushplane flight away. Just on the other side of those pesky mountains that so easily block the ocean swell from hitting our beaches. With the help of friends at Homer Air we made it over those mountains twice in the last week. One evening session and then a 2-3 day camping trip over the first weekend in May. A couple thousand photos remain to be edited, but I wanted to start sharing the stoke asap.

Recently the founding ideas of SurfAlaska.net — Open sharing of information and building friendships with new surfing buddies in Alaska, has met some resistance. I’d like to make it very clear that I believe if we all get together and share knowledge, resources, and our stoke for surfing the result will be us all catching more waves in epic locations like this. In that spirit, if you are interested in joining us on a trip to Petrof leave a comment below, we rallied 9 surfers for this awesome weekend trip and we hope that next time you can join us.

Mike McCune surfing in Seward, Alaska.

A break that you can drive to in Seward? I don’t recall when or where I first heard of this, it sounded a bit mystical at the time. After making the 7hr round trip drive twice for nothing, that reputation was well established. When Mike asked if I wanted to make the trip again, I knew better, but agreed anyhow.  What if they scored without me!? 4:30am we were on the road. 8am were were sitting in the car at the end of the road in Seward watching some ankle slappers peel along the beach. I call them ankle slappers, but they weren’t just any old surf for vermin.  These were perfect 8inch grinders, and if you watched through the binoculars you could easily imagine yourself sitting right there in the happy spot smiling at your good fortune. At breakfast in Seward I think we were all thinking about that movie, what was it called? Honey I shrunk the kids?

9:30am we are full of breakfast and back at the break just to make absolutely sure it wasn’t worth the drive. Turns out that over breakfast none of use got any smaller, but the swell  had climbed to something that resembled waist to chest high. Mike and Iceman made it halfway between the car and the break before turning around and running back for their suits and boards. And that my friend, is when the fun began.

There is no doubt that the combined 21hrs of driving committed to this session was repaid in full by this perfect morning in Resurrection Bay. Add it all up and it wasn’t even an hour per wave!

Wish you could have been there. Enjoy the photos.

Mike McCune surfing Seward, Alaska.

Iceman surfing Seward, Alaska.

Iceman surfing Seward, Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing Seward, Alaska.

Iceman surfing Seward, Alaska.

How fun was that?

Surf break in Seward, Alaska.

Redoubt Volcano steaming about 11 hours after it erupted sending ash to 63,000ft

I might whine a bit about the driving time for us Homerites to get over to Seward, but the scenery isn’t too bad, and this was a particularly good day to be away from our Homer hometown. Turns out that while we were in Seward our most active nearby volcano erupted and sent a cloud of ash that lightly coated Homer and surrounding areas. We have since then had a much more substantial ash fall, but that’s another story.

My car which got to stay in the driveway collecting volcanic ash in Homer.

IceMan surfing Alaska.

IceMan surfing Alaska.

Mike McCune suring Alaska.

Just another day surfing in Alaska. . . Not many photos from this morning, I must have been heading into the water myself. Looks like there were some nice waves!

The next post on here is going to be reporting on a recent trip to Seward where we scored some sweet waves.

Mike McCune surfing Alaska on a winter sunrise.

Sitting out in the lineup we look at each other and smile. Yes, it’s March 20th, we are surfing for what must be the 5th time this week!? Surely, this one is our last session before the summer doldrums, yes, the honorary nod, must be, yep, better enjoy it while we can eh?

IceMan checking the surf in his dawn patrol outfit - Sealskin hat and 'bunny' boots.

Mike McCune surfing Alaska. So close but yet, so far away.

This is a short one. I didn’t shoot a lot of photos this morning before heading into the water, but a couple of these wave shots I know will be appreciated by the surfers out there. Will we ever tire of looking at empty waves, imagining . . . bottom turn, cut back, to the lip, down again, look back, look forward, point it, more speed need more speed, whooosh everything goes dark. aahhh, a new load of refreshing saltwater in the suit to spend the next 15 minutes warming some 60ºF to body temperature.

surf alaska, nobody else is!

In full disclosure.  These weaves look awesome, and they actually are. But experience shows that it is mostly very difficult to find yourself in the right spot at the right time, and often the waves here are going a bit faster than I can keep up with. No reason to not keep trying though.  Sometimes it all comes together.

Till then,
Scott

Surf Alaska!

Just a little something from the archive for a flat Sunday afternoon.

Iceman surfing in Alaska at sunrise.

Finally back at it here on SurfAlaska.net. Thanks for your patience, and welcome to all the new followers.

We just had a couple nice days of surf in Homer, Alaska over the weekend. I managed to catch some photos and some waves. After a pretty long dry spell for me, I was mostly catching waves, but I was sure to create some new content to bring SurfAlaska back out of the flat spell too. Here are a few shots from a session yesterday morning at sunrise. Mike tells us the best waves were before sunrise and before the moon set. I wasn’t there, so we’ll just have to take his word for it. Judging by this morning’s session, I’ll believe him!

Enjoy!

Iceman heading out for a sunrise surf session in Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing Alaska.

Matt James surfing Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing Alaska.

Sunrise surf waves. You can just see Iceman ridingthe second-out wave.

Mike McCune walking out of a winter surf paradise.

Mike McCune Surfing a Cook Inlet winter storm as it breaks on an icy Ninilchik, Alaska beach.

Mike had been watching the weather, maybe a little too closely. The waves in Homer were suffering from a 30mph onshore wind but the buoys and weather stations had him thinking that something might be going on up the road 40 miles at the mouth of the Ninilchik River or Deep Creek. It was such a gnarly winter blizzarding day that I could not say no to this invite. With the conditions what they were it was a pretty easy decision to leave the wetsuit behind and bring the fur hat and camera bag instead.  Gart Curtis and I met Mike at his house and up the road through the blowing snow we went.

This trip, unlike some other recent wave hunts, did not disappoint. I could ramble on about the day for a while, but time is very short. My bags are packed and I’m heading to Prince William Sound for 5 days on a photo project. Of course I’ll keep an eye out for waves.

The photos are a bit ‘flat’. It was snowing hard, and blowing in circles limiting visibility pretty badly, the light was poor, but the subject was great.

Gart Curtis and Mike McCune walking a path through the ice to the waves on Cook Inlet, Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing a Cook Inlet winter wave in Ninilchik, Alaska.

Alaskan surfer Mike McCune trying to find his way amongst the chunks of ice on the beach in a snow storm.

Mike McCune sits on a chunk of ice as he waits for Gart to scramble his way up the icy beach.

Alaskan surfer, Gart Curtis, covers his face from the wind as he jumps between chunks of ice. Mike McCune can be seen in the field of snow ahead.

The surf was overhead, the snow was about knee high. Gart Curtis trudges back to the truck during a winter surf session in Alaska.

The surf session started at Deep Creek. Mike and Gart drifted north in the current about a quarter mile to the mouth of the creek. By the time we got back up to the ‘put-in’ the tide had risen several feet and the waves were crashing into the ice chunks. We decided to head for the Ninilchik River in hopes that the waves would be breaking at least a few feet off the beach.

Alaskan surfer, Mike McCune, scopes the break as Gart slips down the icy sloap into the surf.

Gart Curtis surfing an icy gray Cook Inlet, Alaska wave.

Mike McCune drops in on a set wave breaking just a few feet off the ice.

Alaska surf kayaker, Randy Kellar contemplating his chances of getting outside the break without getting crushed in the ice.

I was wondering what would happen when Mike and Gart decided to come back to land. The rising tide and increasing swell size had the waves crashing over the steep icy incline into the field of ice chunks. Here's Mike riding the ocean powered water slide up into an awaiting ice linebacker.

Despite losing a fin and finding a large hole in his board from the exit battle, Mike is all smiles and ice at the end of the session.

2008 ended in style for a few Alaskan surfers who spent the last moments of daylight riding glassy waist to chest high waves in slushy salt water. It was a true classic Alaskan surf session with a gorgeous winter sunset over the snow covered mountains, ice covering the beaches and floating by in the lineup, and just a few friends out enjoying the waves together. The spray from the lips of the waves was a strange chunky slushy mixture and after sunset the relatively warm water started to steam as the air temperature plummeted. Enjoy the photos.

Alaskan surfers Jake Beaudoin and Kyle Kornelis sit amongst ice waiting for a set to roll in.

Jake Beaudoin surfing the face of a steaming cold wave in Alaska.

Paul Bacher trying to bring some life back into his cold hands. The 3mm gloves just didn't cut it.

Jake Beaudoin reaching for the nose at twilight surfing in Alaska.

Alaskan surfer, Jake Beaudoin's ice covered back.

Alaskan surer Kyle Kornelis looking the part.

Surfer Jake Beaudoin walking out of the slushy water onto a frozen beach in Homer, Alaska.

The air temperature reading 4ºF on my way home.