There are places in the world that most people are familiar with, places that are associated with the raw beauty of nature. Iceland is one of them. The mere mention of this name is enough to arouse people's curiosity, stimulate our imagination and conjure up these images from our fantasy. The fjords, waterfalls, glaciers and volcanoes; even the cold and stormy weather...
The reality of the place is actually pretty close to all that! What most people forget, however, is that storms usually bring wind and waves with them, and the Reykjavik peninsula is a perfect playground for us windsurfers. It's almost like a cold version of the north coast of Fuerteventura, with a relatively flat relief that allows the wind to blow from all directions; volcanic reef edges facing east, south, west and even north provide the opportunity to ride beautiful waves no matter where the wind is coming from. One advantage over the Canary Islands is that you are almost guaranteed to find empty line-ups here, which brings a very cool "pioneer" atmosphere to every session!
As a professional windsurfer, I usually travel with a photographer and/or cameraman, because it's part of my job to come back from a trip with beautiful pictures that I can share with the rest of the world. The first time I travelled to Iceland was in 2012 with Jules Denel and my wife Sophia. In 2017 Jules and I returned with our friend Sylvain - both times we had some epic sessions, but we felt the island had so much more potential. We kept two spots in particular in our sights for a future visit.
As the Covid pandemic has greatly changed the way we can travel these days, Iceland was one of the places we kept in mind as it's quite easy to fly there. In a way, it's been a blessing that we've spent more time at home over the last 18 months, as it's given us the opportunity to slow everything down and live more in the moment. On the other hand, windsurfing trips are an important part of our lives and most of us are longing to go travelling again. When the forecast for Iceland announced big waves and strong winds, Jules and I were very excited! It looked like the wind and wave direction would create some fantastic conditions for a few days. Another positive aspect was that the temperatures were still warm for Iceland, which made our decision easy: We had to go! Me, Jules, Sylvain - our friend who was there in 2017 - and Louis, another friend who normally surfs with Jules in northern France and South Africa.
As it was a last-minute activity, it was very difficult to find someone to film or take photos... we decided to take our own photo and video cameras with us once again, thinking it wouldn't be too complicated to take turns behind the camera. Reality proved us wrong! When you arrive at a spot and see the perfect waves, feel the wind, it's really painful to think that one of us has to stay on the beach...
Situations like this make us realise that we really need pictures. As much as we love travelling, surfing new places and riding big waves, it's really important to have someone with us to capture our experiences so we can share them later. Imagine flying to Iceland with a few friends, braving the cold, finding amazing waves, spending two days riding them, having a beer or two in the evening, eating a good dinner and resting. And then you fly home again. Happy, full of great memories. But nothing to show off, nothing to look at! That would be pretty weird in a way, but if you're windsurfing professionally, you have to document your travels. You have to tell a story. The reward is that you're forced to make the most of every moment, and by reflecting on your experiences, you continue the journey, whether it's through writing a text or editing a travel video.
Let's get back to what happened in Iceland! We weren't sure which of the two spots would work best, and it's almost a two-hour drive from one to the other... So on the first day we opted for the spot we already knew. A Righthander Point Break, close to a harbour, easy to get to, easy to film. When we arrived, it was windy, but the waves didn't look quite as good as we had expected... Louis is a good windsurfer but doesn't have much experience with big waves, so he decided to stay ashore with the camera. We had a fun session for about an hour and a half, the waves got better and better, but then the wind direction changed and it became harder to catch good rides. We were also cold, coming from the end of the French summer and jumping straight into winter conditions.
We found the second spot by chance in 2017 when we were driving back after windsurfing at a nearby beach break. From the road, we could see the swell bending around a rocky outcrop and forming into a nice long wave, but the wind was completely offshore. The wind forecast for the next day looked like it might work, so we gave it a go. Unfortunately, the waves were a bit too small, the tide a bit too high and the wind didn't last long before a heavy downpour forced us to give up. But we knew we had found something special and we continued to dream of having a great day there. One of the peculiarities of this place is that there is no real access road, you have to park on the main road and from there the wave is far, very far away. Two kilometres according to what we measured on Google Earth!
This time the wind was strong, the swell looked big enough to make the wave break all the way to the inside section. From the road we couldn't tell how big it was, and it was difficult to know exactly what size sail to use, so we made a plan to each prepare a boardbag with a board, two wetsuits, two sails, two masts and a boom and make the very long walk to the spot! One man in the front, one in the back, a boardbag on each hand, two groups of two, it was just too heavy and too long to walk the whole way like that. We set up a "first camp" halfway and walked the rest, carrying only what we would need that first day. As soon as Jules, Louis and Sylvain got close to the waves, I realised that they were big and perfect: four to five metre high waves, forever peeling out of the Atlantic, 30 knots of wind sideshore, blue sky. For an hour I ran around the point trying to find the best angles, filming some waves with one camera and then taking pictures with the other. I enjoyed the show, but part of me couldn't wait to jump in the water and join the party!
It was one of those very special days, we were sharing these amazing waves, we were alone in the middle of nowhere, we just couldn't believe it and stayed in the water until the sun went down. We left our gear on the beach and walked back to the car at dusk, completely exhilarated and exhausted. This session far exceeded our expectations and we were desperate for more the next day! The forecast looked even better, but when we arrived in the morning, the spot didn't look so good. The waves were still over mast high, but a bit disorganised, maybe because of the different tides, maybe because the wind was coming from the side, so we waited. A few hours later the conditions improved and we played another round of rock-paper-scissors: Louis and Sylvain went into the water first, I took photos while Jules filmed them. It looked harder, but the waves were still solid, and when it was our turn, we had some really good waves. Both 'groups' had two sessions that day and we were totally knackered after packing all the boardbags and walking all the way back to the car with the rest of the food, wet wetsuits, photo and video cameras. Our mission was accomplished!
