Silver Spoon's Pilgrimage North
Story: Anna Ehrgott | Photography: @ellithor
While so much of cold water surfing is filled with novelty surfs and hours warming up at coffee shops, this trip was different in that we scored nearly every single day for 10 days straight. That's pretty unheard of on Iceland's windy, rough and rugged coastline.
I planned the trip around a hurricane that had been making its way up the US East Coast. I knew that if a 30ft swell was hitting Iceland, there would be some Fjords and bays that could turn that swell into groomed point breaks.
We ended up not surfing the hurricane swell at all, as it was coming with the kinds of winds that you can't open a car door in, so we flocked to the north instead. Staying in cabins, barely sleeping - just in case the northern lights made an appearance (we saw the slightest green glow of them one night), and surfing till we had spaghetti arms dangling limp in our thick, hooded wetsuits.
We caught the first north swell of the season. End of summer and early fall call for the first dusting of snow and the stirring of storms in the Greenland Sea. You truly feel at the top of the world while on the coast in the north of Iceland.
Nothing in sight, but the steel gray of frigid water. Towns are small up there. Mainly just warehouses and harbors, leftover from the days of whaling, and a few rugged sheep farmers... and these days, a handful of the most diehard surfers you have ever met.
After the absolute trip of my dreams, I left my beloved Bing Silver Spoon with friends there. I love knowing that it will stay at my favorite surf destination in the world. Scoring all my favorite waves with all my favorite cold water surfing companions.
Also in Bing Surfboards Blog
!!!TAKA!!!
The first Bing I bought was from Bing Surf Shop and it was the Continental model. I think it’s the best noserider in the world and works great for any long, lined up wave. I’ve been riding it for about two years. I also just bought a new Izzy Rider Type II it is amazing! It’s so fast and turns on a dime. This will be the board I ride in surf contests.
EL CAMPEON
At the beginning, it was just an idea, but at the same time, a challenge I had set for myself some time ago. Honestly, I saw it as complicated since it was my first time traveling alone to Europe, and I was curious and nervous because I was literally going to another country. The only thing that reassured me was being able to speak Spanish over there. But, of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of the entire BAPU beachware team who encouraged me and gave me the motivation not to doubt myself and make this a fulfilled goal, we organized various activities while presenting the short film "El Gordo" to raise funds for this trip.
CIELO
This winter was hard. Was it for you? Did you get good waves? Did you have big, life-shifting moments? Even if you were in Southern California it was really wintery. The weight of the cold months weighed on me like the snow itself. The deep, heavy puddles didn’t empty until just recently.