Surfsverige - Head'n South

Head'n South

Publicerad fredag 08 augusti 2008 av Calvin AndersonInnehåll / Artiklar

It was the 4th of August, 2008 and the forecast was looking good. All of Sweden's surfable coast's looked like getting some sort of waves. Good waves. Eagerly awaited waves after the typical summer flat spell. Winds of up to 25 m/s were forecast and from my Pad in Hammarby, Stockholm I had the option of head'n North or Head'n South.

Yes that spray off the peak is going the right way.

Could I make Väddö before work? Done it before but now have an 8:30 start at a new job I've been at for a whole three days! When is the sun up? How light is it an hour before sunrise? The forecast was looking alot more promising for Väddö as it was to be pretty much Northerly during the night with a bit of East on it. Torö on the other hand was going to be Straight East in the morning but had the promise of some sort of ground swell getting pushed up from afar. My trusty Danish forecast showed some 5m "Significant Wave Heights" to be registered out the other side of Gotland. Would they make it to Torö & when? Would the strong morning easterly flatten it out? A thousand questions the micro climate surfer has to deal with. Ha… what the bloody hell did they do before Internet? Just GO!

Yep, thats what I decided to do… Just go, And head South! The car was packed. Alarm set to 4:00am, Sandwich & "Cocosbollar" packed. All I had to do was brew the coffee and go. The speakers are shot in the "Green Arrow" so it was a bit of Eddie Vedder in the phones as I cruised on through Södertörn. I didn't make it to Stenstrand until 5:45 after dropping in on a semi unknown spot on the way which is supposed to work on an easterly. I have surfed it on an easterly but yes… I got that sinking stomach feeling as I walked over the hill. It was as flat as a tack! Shit was there going to be anything at all at Torö? All the shredded trees and branches strewn across the ground soon fueled the blind optimism only a surfer in Sweden can have. I still had hope!

As I drove onto Torö Island the experience was amazing. It was like some one had lifted the lid off the Storm and I could literally, as I started to see patches of blue sky, see that I was driving into the centre of the Low Pressure system and there was suddenly a totally new calm about the weather. Off in the distance I could see the ring of grey heavy clouds that where off in all directions. I pulled up to Torö to first be disappointed in the car park. I couldn't hear the rumble you usually do when it's blown 15 m/s plus. On making it down to the beach I was surprised to find not much swell at all. Then after hanging for a while, seeing some sets and watching the only two guys out I decided. Shit this is good!

2 foot (yes I know we could have a group of surfers have a one week pub crawl just to discuss & decide what a two foot wave is… are you talking Hawaiian or an Aussie foot..or may-be the more unorthodox Hungarian system. I wish someone would write a thesis on this and come up with an international system, then again maybe not. Does size really matter? And we wouldn't want to take away the hedge factor for surfers who want to add a few feet to the waves in their surf stories from afar). Back to the story. A light sideshore was blowing when I arrived. This turned to a full off-shore then a glass off before the inside edge of the low hit again. As it hit the easterly howled and it bucketed down making the greenish water look like carpet. The sets where not coming through all too often but the 19 degree water made the wait pleasant. I think it's the first time I've done three hours in the water in only a tuby wetty in Sweden.

Anyhow I ramble on. The photo's give a pretty good idea of the quality of waves. What made them even better was the fact that it was August, 19 degrees in the water and only two other surfers too share this with. What a gift! I know, come late September / October the scenario will be 3-4ft, 12m/s straight onshore, 10 degrees in the water and 40 guys on it. This makes the 5th of August even sweeter.

Photos on a Nikon D300 with only a 50mm lens (I spent all my cash on the best camera house I could afford so better lenses & photo's to come).
The longboarder is Jonas Ahlen and the shortboarder is Krille Hedman.