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.

Let the story telling begin.

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.