Kain and Alex had decided to go on a surf trip to Iceland, in the middle of winter. I said I couldn't go, as I had been away too much and my girlfriend was on the verge of ending things. As it turned out though, I wasn’t wrong. She ended things and I jumped straight on the Iceland trip as soon as I got the news.
I love surfing, I always have. It’s consumed most of my teenage and adult life. But I grew up in Byron Bay, Australia, and to me cold weather was 17C (63F). I had dreamed of surfing in the snow for a while, but always chalked it up as a pipe dream. Until it became very real.
When we flew in everything was white as far as you could see. We were all a little over-excited and really had no idea what was in store. We exited the airport to freezing temps and picked up our tiny camper van designed more for two people, or a couple, than three full grown men. This quickly became a theme.
Our first surf the next day was incredibly eye opening. We surfed near a glacier with chunks of ice floating in the water as we paddled over waves. our 6/5mm wetsuits, gloves, booties and hoodies seemed to make little to no difference—anything more than a few seconds underwater would lead to the most intense brain freezes that felt like your skull was shrinking and literally crushing your brain. But that’s what we had come for.