Iceman surfing a remote surf break in Alaska near Petrof Glacier.

As promised, this post is the meat and potatoes of our last fly-out surf trip to Petrof Glacier, Alaska. Check out the first half of this adventure, which is just getting to this remote beach, in my last post - Surfing Petrof Glacier 1.8.10 – Getting There. With the short daylight of the Alaskan winter we only had four hours to enjoy this swell so let’s get on with it! Below is a nice selection of photos from the day. I photographed for a few minutes, surfed for a few hours, then photographed for a few more minutes. Hope you enjoy the show.

Mike McCune heading out to surf at Petrof Glacier, Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing at Petrof Glacier, Alaska.

Iceman surfing a remote break in Alaska.

Mike McCune surfing the Petrof Glacier break, Alaska.

Iceman surfing Alaska

Iceman still surfing Alaska

A few nice ones snuck by the crew.

Mike McCune surfing Petrof Glacier, Alaska.

Mike still surfing Alaska.

Can you believe this setting!? Mike McCune surfing a coldwater paradise in Alaska.

Loaded up in the plane after a four hour session, Stephanie Haynes is all smiles.

ps: Stephanie is worried that there are no photos of her shredding at Petrof and everyone will notice that she was on the trip but not out there ripping. I tried to assure her that all the other surfers reading this would remember when they were just learning and cut her some slack. For a beginning surfer, we know that success is defined by not giving up after your first three poundings accompanied with a 40ºF flush. If you can endure that and still surf till you are shaking with hypothermia then nothing will stop you!

Mike and Stephanie watch as the plane departs Petrof Glacier Beach, Alaska.

In 2009 our dreams of surfing this particular remote break in Alaska were realized, several times actually. All told I think there was about seven attempts at getting there and maybe four successes. The spot is called Petrof Glacier because the beach we surf is nearby the glacier and it’s the easiest way to locate it on a map. Access is by a short bush plane ride through the Kenai Mountains that is really long on scenery. In the brief 15 minutes of flying we cross Kachemak Bay, pass several glaciers, countless mountain peaks, an ice field, more glaciers, glacier lakes, rivers, and then back to the ocean in the Gulf of Alaska and the much anticipated moment of . . will it be fogged in? . . . will there be a swell?

Flying through the Kenai Mountains in the morning.

Flying over the beach to make sure it's suitable for landing. The break is dead center.

Petrof Glacier surf break aerial view.

Three days ago we scrambled at first light after noting a building swell forecast for a couple days and hoping that the mountains would not be shrouded in clouds as they are 98% of the time in this season. We awoke to a hopeful sky. 45 minutes after the phones started ringing four of us were at the Homer Air office loading a Cessna 206 with our surfboards and survival gear. With some smart packing by the pilot we can easily fit four surfers, one surfboard each (less than 8ft) and some camping gear and food for the day. The camping gear is for the almost expected change in weather that would prevent the airplane returning for a pickup. So far we have never actually been ’stranded’ though on a few particularly sweet occasions we found ourselves wishing it would happen.

Back seat window of the airplane full of surfboards.

Once over the mountains the suspense builds as we start getting glimpses of the ocean on the other side. Things were looking good this morning – the rocky reefs had white rings around them from an ocean surge. One pass over the surf break and we knew it was our lucky day. After one aborted landing near the break where we discovered some exciting bumps on the beach, we had a silky smooth touchdown about a mile back up the beach. With the winter darkness only allowing us four hours on the ground (or in the water) this time of year, it was a frantic show getting the plane unloaded, into our wetsuits and off running down the beach to the surf break.

Mike McCune and Iceman unloading their surfboards from the plane on Petrof Glacier beach.

The plane preparing to depart leaving Mike McCune and Stephanie Haynes in their own Alaska surf paradise.

Iceman leaving the only set of tracks on the beach as he walks towards the break.

Mike walking to the Petrof Glacier surf break.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the winter storms had changed the layout of the break significantly for the better. The tidal slough drain / river shown in the above photo has moved it’s outlet down the beach a couple hundred yards which keeps us from having to fight the current during the ebbing tide. And in its wake it left a picture perfect sand bar that looks like it was hand carved for producing peeling rights.

When I edited the photos there was too many to fit in one nice post, and really, getting to this surf break at Petrof Glacier is half the adventure so I’ve split it up into two posts. The rest coming soon, your patience will be rewarded.

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.

A Yakutat local surfer surveys Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

This is the fourth post reporting on a surfing trip to Yakutat from the fall of 2008.
It’s the last couple days, by now we were actually getting pretty used to squirming into that cold wet and smoky wetsuit each morning. The 15 minute walk in the surf booties down to our regular break (Pt Carrew) was pretty familiar, and so was the pain in the toes. I don’t think they had hiking in mind when they designed surfing booties. The last couple days of our stay were pretty average, each day seemed to offer a few good waves one way or another. The real highlight however was the last surf session of the trip. We packed up and went the airport in the morning only to find out that we were too late to get on our flight. Remember this if you visit Yakutat – the airport may be small and, yes they could easily scan your bags and put them on the jet in about 3 minutes, but you must check in your bags at least 50 minutues prior to departure.  Well, it seemed like a bummer, but when we got back out to Snappers surf break with four hours to spare it was clear we were not going to be bored waiting for the next flight.

Glassy surf dream emerging out of the flat light in Yakutat, Alaska after our last session.

Jake Beaudoin and I, the only two remaining surfers, had one of our best sessions of the trip. It was glassy glassy, about head high, hollow and fast.  One after another, after another, drop in, turn turn turn, to the lip, to the bottom, watch it jack up, point it and hold on.  Oohh wave sliding at its prime. Certainly if I had the skills there would have been a fair share of tubes.  Maybe next year I’ll do them justice.

Jake performs the morning ritual of gasps and moans as he crawls into his cold damp wetsuit.

peaks

Jake Beaudoin ripping Yakutat, Alaska on the 'taxi cab'.

Alex Wilson trying to ruin a photo with a cheesy hang loose. This might cure him.

Surf and the St Elias Range, Yakutat, Alaska.

Alex Wilson on the walk back to camp at sunset, Yakutat, Alaska.

The end of another great Alaskan surf adventure - cold ones on the beach and getting flipped off by friend as he picks his nose.