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.

Jake Beaudoin walking into a timeless surfing scene, Yakutat, Alaska.

As you probably figured out, this is the third post reporting on a 7 day surfing trip to Yakutat, Alaska. Part 2 was the story for Sept 28th. Something happened between that day and October 1st. Or, what I mean is nothing happened, with the camera that is. I know there was plenty of surfing, and along with it plenty of rain– so the photographer left his camera in the tent and caught up on some surf.  This was good, because on the first morning in October we were excited to see our first and only sunrise for the week. The six days of waiting for a glimpse of the mountains and a chance at some classic Yakutat surf photos finally paid off. No complaints though, waiting out the rain clouds is not bad when it means surfing for 6hrs a day, and when the pay off looks like this.

So, we started this day off with a hike to our regular spot – Pt Carrew. The waves were decent and glassy with a stunning backdrop of the Saint Elias Range. Later in the day we bumped into some visiting California shredders in Yakuat with the good folks from Alaska Brewing and the Coastal Code program. Growing up and learning to surf in Alaska exclusively I honestly was pretty impressed. I didn’t realize shoulder high beach break had so much potential.  To finish the day off there was a very sweet surf session at Snappers. I showed up a bit late with the camera, but judging by the grins on the boys’ faces it was pretty good.

Keith Bell and Dan Stafford starting their day off right with a sunrise surf at Pt Carrew, Yakutat, Alaska.

Glassy morning surf at Pt Carrew with the Saint Elias Range backdrop, Yakutat, Alaska.

Jake Beaudoin surfing Pt Carrew, Yakutat, Alaska.

Clear skies, sunshine, snow covered mountains, and the call of some lonely surf, Yakutat, Alaska.

A lull in the surf, but the scenery was going off- 12,000ft glacier encrusted faces.

California surfer Chris Del Moro doing his thing beneath Mt St Elias, Yakutat, Alaska.

Chris Del Moro surfing Yakutat, Alaska.

Matt Kinney displaying his 'This is surf stoke' billboard after a dreamy session at Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

Rainbow at Snappers surf beach. Yakutat, Alaska

Day 2: Looking back through the photo files from 9/28/08 there’s nothing for the morning session, must have been rainy and the camera was left behind.  I think we surfed Pt Carrew at first light. Back to camp for a tanner crab lunch, cheers Iceman! It’s not so bad camping in the rainforest when you’ve got all you can eat crab legs after a long morning surf session.

The schedule for our Yakutat surfing trip was pretty strict, rarely in the seven days did we waiver from the following routine:  Wake up at 7am, crawl out of the tents into a drizzle and light the fire. Eat breakfast while stoking up the fire. Moan about crawling into a cold wet wetsuit so early, get over it because the surf is firing, grab your board and hike/run the beach to Pt Carrew for the morning session. Three to four hours later back at camp for lunch and maybe a short nap. Around 3 or 4pm back to the water for the evening session until dark. Once it was too dark to surf, it was time to eat again. Get that fire stoked high and try and forget about the rain till an early bed time around 9pm.  Replay, replay, replay.

Below are some photos from our first full day which gave us a rare and precious glimpse of the sun during the evening session at Snappers. The pot of gold was all you can surf glassy sucking up head high washing machines. Everyone got their share.

Matt Kinney putting away the crab legs in a craze between surf sessions.

Keith Bell navigates the driftwood approach at Snappers. Surfing Yakutat, Alaska.

Iceman applies the wax before surfing at Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

Mike McCune dropping into a glassy backlit beach break barrel while surfing Yakutat, Alaska.

Iceman on the nose surfing Yakutat, Alaska.

Mike McCune riding between the lines, Yakutat, Alaska.

Iceman scoring another glassy face at Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

Rainbow just before sunrise at Snappers surf beach, Yakutat, Alaska.

Matt Kinney heading back out for another surf session at Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

Iceman walking out of the sunset after surfing Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska

Iceman and his reflection go for a walk with their surfboard on the beach. Yakutat, Alaska.

Jake Beaudoin shares a little moment of surf stoke after a great session at Snappers, Yakutat, Alaska.

Back at the campfire Jake begins the long wait for dawn patrol. Yakutat, Alaska.