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.
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.
Alex Wilson heading out for a lonely surf in Icy Bay, Alaska.
Situated on the Eastern edge of the Gulf of Alaska with a long sand spit protruding into the bay and miles of beach on either side Icy Bay will catch any Alaska map surfers imagination.
Even better than dreaming – Fellow Alaskan surfer, Alex Wilson, shared a report of his session there last summer including a few photos.
Moon Tubes
No doubt we aren’t the only ones to have entertained a dream or two of surfing by moonlight.
During the heart of a long Alaskan winter it’s only natural to consider this…with only eight hours of daylight and a 10-20ft tide fluctuation you’d think the chances of the surf peaking at night are relatively high.
Well, after about 10 years of watching the surf in Homer I have to say, it’s a special night that the swell, wind, tide, and cloud cover will cooperate with the moon cycle.
Once upon a time in a little cosmic hamlet by the sea all the magic ingredients came together. A swell was rolling into Kachemak Bay, the winds were calm, the tide was right, the sky was clear, and it was a full moon.
It's a race against the fog and the rising tide. We barely snuck in, now the plane has to sneak out.
Yet another successful fly-in fly-out surfari to the Petrof Glacier break.
Something to put in the back of your mind for the next time you are scheming on flying over a coastal mountain range for a day at a remote surf break . . . What you see on your side is likely not what you’ll find on the other side. This was the certainly the case on January 30th when we loaded up the Homer Air Cessna 206 with surf boards and a little survival gear and headed up over the Kenai Mountain Range.
Scenic glacier and mountain views on our fly-out surf trip to a remote surf break in Alaska.
This time we did suspect that we might see some fog, but just couldn’t resist taking the gamble. The coastal fog was pretty thick as far as we could see as we came over the mountains. It was all smiles and surf stoke when we saw a swell crashing on the beach through a little sliver of a window in the fog right over the very beach we needed to land on.
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