Mike McCune first time stand up paddlesurfing Alaska!

The surf report between May and September in Homer, Alaska is typically pretty bleak. It’s actually sort of a wonder that we get waves here at all considering that Kachemak Bay is completely sheltered from any open ocean swell. In the Summer this is excruciatingly apparent.

The tide has changed here though, with the launch of the Surf Alaska stand up paddlesurfing division bringing a sudden influx of stand up paddleboards we’re not planning on leaving our wetsuits to dry for 3-4 months this summer. We have a new motto we repeat with great satisfaction as we look out at the shin high wind chop breaking on the Homer Spit – ‘we could surf that’.

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The suspense was excruciating.

The swell forecast looked strong for three to four days over the weekend but the flying forecast was marginal. For the first three days the clouds were hanging thick around the Kenai Mountains preventing us from flying through them to our favorite fly-out surfing paradise in the wilds of Alaska. The morning of the last promising day of the swell also brought some hope for a flight.

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closeout

Working on the computer I can hear the water running down the gutters and see the slush falling from the sky. There is a 12-15ft swell brewing up just on the other side of the mountains that I used to be able to see out my windows. Today the mountains are long lost in the clouds and there is little hope of chartering a bush plane for a ride to Petrof Glacier. Always hope for tomorrow.

In the meantime, you can join me in a daydream inspired by more aerial surf photos. Once again, these photos were captured while I was flying a paramotor over the surf break. This was a bit of a storm surf session on Bishops Beach in Homer, Alaska. The rough water made for even more interesting patterns from overhead. Mike McCune is ripping it up on the red and white board in most of these shots.

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Aerial photo of Mike McCune surfing in Alaska.

I’m excited to be reporting on my first successful aerial photo shoot of surfing in Alaska. I’ve been dreaming about this for a while. Like surfing at night by the light of the moon, there were a lot of things that came together for this – not the least of which was learning to fly and photograph from a paramotor. Instead of a monologue on the process that brought these images to you, let’s just look at the pictures for now.

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Stephanie Haynes heading out for a morning session on the Homer Spit.

It’s been a pretty slow winter for surf in Homer, Alaska and March has been no exception. This left us plenty of time to shovel ourselves out of the snow from a five day blizzard and be ready when a swell did finally make its way into Kachemak Bay. We’ve been averaging about one day of surf a week. A couple of these days were great, including one 6.5hr session – Not sure if that’s because the waves were so good, or if I was just that desperate.

This post is a roundup of the photos I have on file for surf sessions this month. Please enjoy.

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