Antarctic Berg Breaks

Like reef breaks, beach breaks, or point breaks, berg breaks belong to a collection of surf spot categories named after their bathymetric features. Iceberg literally means ‘mountain of ice’, and they originate as mammoth chunks of freshwater ice riven from glaciers. While still connected to a glacier, these masses of ice undergo an unbelievable quantity of pressure, and when they break off and enter the sea they often have an extremely high density, sometimes higher than the surrounding saltwater. Enough density to create flawless, icy tubes.

Photographs of surf in Antarctica are difficult to come by. Scientist and travelers might potentially take photos of waves, but they typically hold to coastlines with little wave activity for safety reasons. Additionally, vast tracks of sea ice block swell and reduce the amount of fetch. Only a handful of surf expeditions to Antarctica have been realized, with little recorded visual evidence. Arctic Surf Blog’s research department received a link to these photographs with no other information, and further details about this expedition were unable to be found. The images are taken by Geoffrey Ravenhill.