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.
Just one shot before I collapse into bed.
Thirteen hours ago I was scrambling my way to the Homer Airport for another fly-out surf adventure to Petrof Glacier. Six hours ago I took this photo of Mike ripping by me on a head high peeler below snow covered mountains. And for the next eight hours I’ll be dreaming about this incredible day in the wilds of Alaska surfing overhead waves with just a couple friends.
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.
It’s just a little clip from Stephanie’s iPhone. It doesn’t even show a set wave. I’ll bet it still makes you squirm in your seat. The video is from our last fly-out surf trip to Petrof Glacier, Alaska when we surfed all day in a thick fog and thought we’d be making an unplanned overnight stay. The plane, to our surprise, did squeak in to pick us up just before dark and we haven’t had a chance to return since.
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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