I have just finished a surf trip up in Finnmark, the northern most surf destination in Norway
I did the road trip mission all the way from Stavanger to Finnmark. It was a very long journey, but one for the books! After a couple of days coaching in Stadlandet I continued my solo mission to Finnmark
It took me 4 days to get there, and on the second day I had car issues and ended up paying 8000 Not to replace my caliber, breaks and disk on my front left wheel.
I got to Finnmark Thursday early and met up with my good friend Charly Rodriguez who runs a surf business called Finnmark Surf. He is from the Canary Islands but lived in Lofoten for about 5 years and then ended up moving up to Finnmark with his family. He is a true surf pioneer and has explored and surfed the coast of Varanger the last 1,5 years. Alone!
If you have not been to the east side of Finnmark, it is very barren and wild at the same time. The coastal road stretches for over 100 kilometres which allows you to see the coast and all the surf spots for a long time. We drove past hundreds of surf spots that was possible to surf! I've never seen anything like it in Norway. There were all sorts of waves. Beach breaks, point breaks, reefs and slabs. The waves accommodated beginners, intermediates and advanced surfers.
We ended up driving around too much because we were always curious what the next spot would be like and were afraid of missing out on better waves. We ended up just surfing a couple of spots here and there and we had an amazing time. A friend I know from Lofoten joined us as his family is from Vadsø so ends up going there every now and then to surf. The thing I liked the most is that the whole of Norway had no waves while we had 2- 3 meter waves every day!
Most of the waves we chose to surf were waves that offered barrels, but we did surf some other waves that had a long wall for us to do multiple turns.
The day that stood out the most for me was the one we found a very fun slab, paddled out and surfed for about 3 hours. We had a lot of fun waves, barrels and good wipe outs together. We then went to a big beach break where we gave a surf lesson and did surf coaching with some locals Charly has been working with.
After the coaching session just before it got dark Charly suggested that we quickly stop at a point break to see if it was working. We parked on the side of the road and did a walk while it was getting dark. As we got closer I could see the long perfect lines. A perfect left hand point break that ran for a few hundred meters. No one out! We went there the next morning, but the swell had dropped too much so it wasn't working. We just paddled out anyway just to catch a few!
We caught a couple of waves and got bored so decided to get out and walk further up the point and around the corner to discover yet another good wave! We jumped in and surfed until dark and shared some epic waves and barrels together.
Finnmark is, in my opinion, the best surf destination in Norway. I will go back again and hopefully for a longer time to surf and explore even more!
I am now driving back to Stavanger to continue doing surf lessons and coaching in Jæren. I was suppose to do some surf lessons and surf coaching in Andøya and Lofoten, but the swell forecast looked way too small so we had to postpone until it picks up again.
I end up doing way too much cancelling and postponing because the waves are not consistent enough during the summer.
Now that fall is here and winter is approaching there will be less postponing and a lot more surf lessons and surf coaching with video analysis.
I am also trying to grow my online coaching platform so that soon I can offer online alternatives to you all when there are no waves. I have some good ideas and projects I'm working on so keep an eye on the things to come.
Another good thing which I haven't mentioned to many people is that I have a biography in the process of getting published. It should be published and ready within the next 2 weeks. I will make a public post on my social media platforms once it is released. It will be available in book stores as well as online through platforms such as Amazon and bookbaby etc. And yes, it will be available as an E- Book too!
Anyway, I hope to see you in Jæren, Stavanger soon. Be sure to watch the videos on my YouTube channel where I provide free surf tutorials as well as some fun surfing/ exploring.
And if you do have any surf videos which you want me analysed then feel free to contact me as I also do online surf coaching now :)
Have a good day
- Shannon Ainslie
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