Artic Swell Rising: Surfing the Ends of the Earth
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Chrisk Burkard of Senior Staff Photographer of Surfer Magazine and SONY Global Imaging Ambassador.
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While experts of the University of Washington keep
busy registering extreme waves in the Artic and link them to global climate
change professional athletes take to surfing the new swells of the Arctic
Ocean.
International Press reported first days of August on extreme
waves recorded in the Arctic Ocean. Five-meter-high waves were detected in the
middle of the Arctic Ocean by Dr. Jim Thomson of the University of Washington
and Dr. Erick Rogers of the Stennis Space Center’s Naval Research Laboratory.
“As the Arctic is melting, it’s a pretty simple
prediction that the additional open water should make waves,” Dr. Thomson
leading author of the paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
told the press. Dr. Thomson using 600 kHz Nortek Acoustic Wave and Current
sensor anchored to the seafloor 50 meters below the surface measured wave
height in the ice-free Artic Ocean revealing to the world that new 5 meter
waves are peaking the basin.
Nobody knows waves like surf athletes. Surf media reported
on August 4th on professional surfers Pat Millin, Brett Barley, and
Chadd Konig and Photographer Chris Burkard who just returned from an Arctic
Ocean surf expedition.
The images of the documentary “Surfing at the Ends of
the Earth” shot somewhere along parallel 68 ° was the result of the expedition of
the cold water surf fanatics. Chrisk Burkard of Senior Staff Photographer of Surfer
Magazine and SONY Global Imaging Ambassador took seriously to the task of documenting
the Artic environment and surfers in action below zero.
Photographer Chris Burkard captured moments of raw
beauty in conditions that rank among the harshest in the natural world. The
bitterly cold seas and wind exact a large price on their minds and bodies, but
the reward - adventure, amazement, and self-knowledge - drew them closer
together and pushed them to tackle the next frontier in surfing, the group
assures.
Working in a completely different field but riding the
same Artic swells Washington expert Dr. Thomson signals to more waves to come
for the Artic. “Warming temperatures and bigger waves could act together on
summer ice floes. At this point, we don’t really know relative importance of
these processes in future scenarios,” Dr. Thomson.
The investigations revealed that global climate change
driven melting has been going on for decades, affecting wave heights, could
affect coast lines, carries new stored oceanic raw energy, affects the
permafrost and impacts distance of wave length in open ocean waters.
Dr. Thomson research is part of a bigger project which
uses sensor anchored to the seafloor about 350 miles off Alaska's north-slope which
has been measuring Artic wave heights since mid-August until late October 2012.
Burkard feels driven to document the Artic and
document the work of surfers who use nothing but 5 to 7 millimeter suits,
regulating body temperatures in waters ranging from 35, 45, 46 degrees F, "Doesn’t
get much better!" the group of surfers who take on humbly the roughest sea
of the world to reach perfection stated. They describe the North Atlantic Sea as
home to a sub-real, epic, beautiful and mystical experience.
"When people think of surfing the last things people
consider is surfing in the Artic...” Burkard concludes.
