Glacier surfing

September 13, 2007 1:23 PM

Glacier surfing. Filming in Alaska in 1995, photographer and surfer Ryan Casey looked at the huge waves kicked up by calving glaciers – up to 30 feet high, breaking on an ice shelf 18 inches deep, surrounded by tumbling chunks of ice as big as buildings – and thought, I bet you could surf that. A month ago, Hawaiian big-wave surfers Garrett McNamara and Keali’i Mamala did it. (YT)
posted by gottabefunky (32 comments total)

not bad. You can dodge truck-sized ice sheets surfing the St. Lawrence in Montreal too... (skip to 3:00 in)
posted by anthill at 1:29 PM on September 13, 2007

Cowabunga, dude! Global Warming is extreeeeme!
posted by kuujjuarapik at 2:10 PM on September 13, 2007

"I don't know Butchie it's cold."
posted by nonliteral at 2:19 PM on September 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Holy crap that's nuts
posted by mathowie at 2:35 PM on September 13, 2007

If I say its safe to surf this beach Captain, then its safe to surf this beach!
posted by The World Famous at 2:36 PM on September 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Dude, that's rad.

Two giant-wave riding movies worth watching -- Riding Giants (full documentary online here) and Step into Liquid.
posted by ericb at 2:44 PM on September 13, 2007

Laird Hamilton^* was the first to conquer 'big wave surfing' by using a jet ski for 'tow-in surfing.'

"...it was Hamilton's death-defying drop into Tahiti's Teahupo'o break on the morning of August 17, 2000 which became the benchmark in his career and his life, and cemented his reputation as the greatest big wave surfer of all time." Video.
posted by ericb at 2:52 PM on September 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

"I don't know Butchie it's cold."

What a disappointment 'John from Cincinnati' turned out to be.
posted by ericb at 2:58 PM on September 13, 2007

*giant big-wave riding movies*
posted by ericb at 3:00 PM on September 13, 2007

Biggest Wednesday: Condition Black is pretty awesome too ericb.
posted by vronsky at 3:04 PM on September 13, 2007

(IMAX)
posted by vronsky at 3:04 PM on September 13, 2007

Laird Hamilton* was the first to conquer 'big wave surfing' by using a jet ski for 'tow-in surfing.'

"...it was Hamilton's death-defying drop into Tahiti's Teahupo'o break on the morning of August 17, 2000 which became the benchmark in his career and his life, and cemented his reputation as the greatest big wave surfer of all time." Video.

I think this is him also.

Also see dynamite surfing.
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:07 PM on September 13, 2007

Biggest Wednesday: Condition Black is pretty awesome...

It is ... and also features Laird Hamilton among other great surfers.
posted by ericb at 3:08 PM on September 13, 2007

Those are stupidly spectacular, ericb. Thanks.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 3:11 PM on September 13, 2007

Also see dynamite surfing.

That's a great ad produced by Saatchi & Saatchi for Quiksilver Europe.
posted by ericb at 3:14 PM on September 13, 2007

So do these guys sit there in ice water for a few days waiting for the waves, or do they give the calves a little howitzer help?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:17 PM on September 13, 2007

That's a great ad produced by Saatchi & Saatchi for Quiksilver Europe.

What is the Silverlight stuff the Quiksilver site tries to install?
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:19 PM on September 13, 2007

So do these guys sit there in ice water for a few days waiting for the waves

They calve all the time when it's warm.
posted by fshgrl at 3:22 PM on September 13, 2007

"Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET–based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web."

The "Americas, China, Australia and Japan" Quiksilver websites don't require Microsoft Silverlight. Only the Europe site (to which I linked above) does. Weird.
posted by ericb at 3:25 PM on September 13, 2007

omg, Wow. Awesome. It looks terrifying. Would the water be full of ice shards as well? Couldn't be easy on the body. How the hell he rode that roiling, icy slurry is hard to imagine.
posted by nickyskye at 3:26 PM on September 13, 2007

That is fucking amazing. As in amazing.
posted by jontyjago at 3:42 PM on September 13, 2007

There is a scene in Condition Black where Greg "Da Bull" Noll talks about how he and some buddies screwed up their courage and took their longboards out to surf Pipeline, which had never been surfed. As he is looking out to the waves he says, "our buttholes were puckered"

I'm sure these guys felt the same way.
posted by vronsky at 4:21 PM on September 13, 2007

When I was a little kid, my mom and I would go out to the North Shore to watch the surfing comepetitions. I used to bodysurf there! Little kids are crazy.

This glacier surfing thing is sick (and I mean that in a good way). There's one part in...I think Step into Liquid where these surfers go to Northern Ireland and surf there, and the locals think they're crazy (they are!), but they set up a surfing school for all these Protestant and Catholic kids, and all the kids are so thrilled and chilled that it looks like they forget to hate each other.

One of the guys in Riding Giants - Greg Noll, I think - talks about the early days of surfing the North Shore breaks, and how they all lived in little houses, and surfed all day, and nobody had anything as prosaic as a job - they scrounged food, or stole an occasional chicken. The last time I watched the film, it dawned on me that they lived an awful lot like the Hawaiians did, back before the first whalers and missionaries arrived.

Rad post.
posted by rtha at 4:29 PM on September 13, 2007

puckered butthole
posted by vronsky at 4:29 PM on September 13, 2007

the real big wednesday(outside pipeline)very rare clip
posted by vronsky at 4:32 PM on September 13, 2007

"Big wave riding is for macho assholes with a death wish."
posted by hypocritical ross at 4:47 PM on September 13, 2007

ah, refreshing
posted by caddis at 5:48 PM on September 13, 2007

damn - that's great. I'm a sucker for any good surf footage.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:02 PM on September 13, 2007

Terrifically crazy.

That bonus video of Hamilton is absolutely jaw-dropping, got my heart racing. Thanks ericb.
posted by toma at 7:33 PM on September 13, 2007

great post.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:32 PM on September 13, 2007

Crazy bastards. Completely insane.
posted by Wolof at 1:50 AM on September 14, 2007

And by puckered, I mean puckered with fear, not you know, the usual puckering that comes from swimming in the ocean.
posted by vronsky at 5:50 PM on September 18, 2007