Adam Waldie spent 13 years as a Navigator in the Australian Navy. Most of his time was lived in submarines, as well as patrol boats and destroyers. He ventured as far south as Heard Island and as far north as Yakutat Alaska, including all the places in between those two places. He is the founder of Surfing Atlas, a one stop online resource that compiles crucial information for traveling to well known and lesser known surf spots across the globe. Adam saw the opportunity to gather this data and put it in a place easily accessible for travelers. Adam was very kind to share some of his insights about cold places with Arctic Surf Blog.com.

What drives your interest in distant cold-water waves?

Cold water (below 35 degrees north / south) makes up 55% of the planet. That’s an enormous amount of potential. When you consider that the majority of surf holidays occur within around 20 degrees of the equator it makes for some very un-crowded potential as well. It’s more than that though, the solitude of some of these destinations is incredible. These are the last corners of the Earth.

What areas have you specifically been to or been interested in?

Alaska and the west coast of Canada are a lot easier to travel around than the sub Antartic islands. The sub-Antarctic islands and the Chilean coast have astounding potential but access is difficult and expensive. Still, I think a true cold water surf resort will be a reality as the tropics become more and more crowded. This is what really interests me, cold water surf tourism. New Zealand would be a good test site and their lower west coast receives ample year round southern swell to make that a reality. Add surf camp with roaring log fires and your in business.

What informed your decision to visit some of these specific areas?

A lot of my sub-Antarctic island trips were done with the Australian Navy. Permission is needed to surf many of these areas but its not impossible to obtain. We were in 5000 tonne warships and still some of the swells down there make you feel under-gunned. Again, this is a big impediment to getting around down south. The sheer amount of swell is incredible, you spend most of your time waiting for it to die down as opposed to pick up.

Did you see any waves or potential for waves?

There are some great points on the north of Heard Island and incredible set ups on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands (Auckland and Campbell) as well. Your challenge is squeezing in a surf window. You can wait weeks for storms to die down, its the reverse of waiting weeks for swell in a lot of areas. If you are there on a ship then it becomes an expensive process. I saw excellent surf at the above destinations for about 3 days in a 2 week window, The rest of the time they were out of control. Surf would have been possible though at some point on the island — it would have been offshore somewhere.

Did visiting these remote and cold areas have any sort of profound impact on you personally?

To be honest, surfing down in these waters makes you long for the company of other surfers. You see surf that is right at the edge of your ability as far as size goes and if you had someone to share it with and to watch your back ala buddy system approach then you would probably go for it. If you’re by yourself though you have to be sensible and only go out when its smaller and perfect.

Any thing else you would like to share?

Places like South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are incredibly exciting. Literally this is a sub-Antarctic version of the Hawaiian Island chain mid way between Antarctica and South America. The two continents were once linked here and so parts of it are very shallow, with excellent cold water reefs — stand by for a lot of discoveries to come out of here in the future.

Thank you so much for your time.

All the best with your project!