Sean Moffatt is one of a few surfers in the Falkland Islands and has found several new and un-surfed waves down there. He was kind enough to talk about surf exploration in this far region, and share some photos from his discoveries.

What is the general landscape and weather of the places you are exploring?

The landscape here is pretty bleak and baron.  There are no trees, just mountains, rivers and open countryside.  The coastline is mostly rocky, with large amounts of kelp around the Islands. However, there are a good number of sand beaches scattered about.

Do you have any unique methods of doing things in the cold?

The water temperature goes down to 3 or 4 degrees in the winter, so 5mm hooded suits, 7mm booties, and 5mm gloves are a must.  We don’t have any method as such to keep warm, any suggestions would be greatly received.  We just keep surfs down to a maximum of 3 hours in the middle of winter.

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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?

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