The Ice Sea: Surfing in the Frozen Tundra With Dylan Graves

Lo and behold, the Barents Sea and Norway provided legitimate, groomed and powerful waves. But there was a catch? “We only had three hours of light each day,” Dylan Graves explains in the video. “The sun never rose above the horizon.”

Along with his guides, surfers Tim Latte and Carlos Hernandez and photographer Max Emanuelson, Dylan and co navigated boardbag fiascos, reindeer, snowstorms and even buried unexploded ordnance left over from past war. 

Dylan’s first session in Norway was an adventure, to put it mildly. First, they walked more than a mile through deep snow in balmy 14 degrees to a peeling right-hand point. But the wave in question was everything Dylan hoped for and more. The long walls washed away the travel headache (but replaced it with a more numbing one). Then a cold front came through and dropped the temp by at least 10 degrees, Dylan reckons. Major props to filmer Paul Daniel for standing in the snow and working in -4°. 

On top of learning new terminology like "artic hurricanes and polar lows," Dylan learns what it's like to chase waves with a severe daylight restriction. As Carlos summarizes, "If you go surfing, that's amazing. Because you feel like the day was longer than it really was." In a nutshell, any session here feels like an accomplishment. Nothing cured reindeer heart, a sauna and a beer can’t fix.