Surfers Ride Icy Glacier Waves

Aug. 29, 2007 — Calving Alaskan glaciers have attracted more than the regular tourists and concerned climate scientists this summer — they’ve also brought some pioneering surfers. The surfers’ goal is to ride the swift, icy dwarf tsunamis that are launched by the calving ice.

The waves created by the falling walls of ice near what’s known as the Million Dollar Bridge, near Cordova, Alaska, have been seen as tall 30 feet along the river banks.

They have been clocked heading downstream as fast as 40 miles per hour and almost standing still relative to shore as they move upstream against the current, said Ryan Casey of Deepwater Films. Casey is developing a documentary about the strange glacial surf.

"It’s pretty trippy when you see it," Casey said of the waves moving upriver. "It almost looks like you’re standing still."

In relation to the water, however, the waves are at high-speed, requiring surfers to be towed up to the waves by a partner on a personal watercraft. It’s a technique developed by giant wave surfers to contend with the biggest swells which haven’t lost much of their open ocean velocity.

But that’s where the similarity to mega-wave ocean surfing ends. To catch glacier waves, the surfers must also guess where a massive wall of ice will collapse, then try to be close enough to catch the wave, while not so close they are annihilated by the ice.   

"It looked to me like the most difficult thing was being in the right place," observed veteran surfing photographer Robert Brown, who recently shot surfers Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala doing their best to catch waves at Million Dollar Bridge.

On the other hand, sometimes they can be too close for comfort, said Casey. When surfers are near a calving event — perhaps 100 yards away — they run the risk of being directly struck ice if the calving ice tilts outward and falls, rather than collapsing straight down. The former can fire cannonballs of ice across the water's surface.

"That’s the kill zone," said Casey. To mitigate that danger, the surfers don some pretty tough gear — helmets, hoods, gloves and special wetsuits with extra padding.

"It’s full-on gladiator wear," said Brown.

The reward for all this is a pretty nice ride in size, quality and length.

"As far as waves go, I’ve seen perfect waves breaking for minutes at a time," said Casey.

In a sport where few rides last more than 30 seconds, that’s pretty good. So far, however, no 30-foot tsunamis have been ridden. Maybe next summer.

USGS: Alaska Glaciers

Cordova, Alaska travel guide