How far would you go for one wave, one attempt? This is the question posed in a recent video by Blue Banana. Photo: Ibai Mielgo // Blue Banana
How far would you go to catch a wave that no one has surfed before? For Portuguese surfer Eurico Romaguera and Spanish photographer Jorge Abian, Greenland was the answer. As documented in a recent video, the pair embarked on a trip to the frozen island to ride and photograph a wave created by the calving of an iceberg during the summer melt.
The project was sponsored by Spanish adventure and clothing brand Blue Banana as part of their “One Shot” series. The idea for the 2024 edition of the project, called “Parallel Dreams Edition”, is to bring together strangers who had the same concept, even if they didn’t know it before. The first episode, titled “Greenland Dream”, was documented by Spanish filmmakers Nico Pina and Ibai Mielgo.
Although Romaguera and Abian shared the same dream, few had imagined it. While a calving glacier wave has been surfed in Alaska before (here’s Ben Gravy, who did it last year), the feat has never been accomplished in Greenland. The sport is so foreign to the region that the locals they encountered had never seen a surfboard before. “It was a completely new challenge for all of us,” Romaguera explained. “We didn’t know if we could do it in the limited time and had no idea where we would find the wave.”
The crew prepared themselves for an uncomfortable flight in a plane that was far too small. Photo: Ibai Mielgo // Blue Banana
With that goal in mind, they set off to Ilulissat to make their goal a reality. “We spoke to local fishermen and even they found it extraordinary,” said Abian. “They led us to possible places where calving could create the waves we were looking for, to places where ice or land formations could form the waves caused by glacier collapse.” They began their search from the air, although neither photographer nor surfer were particularly keen on small planes or heights. From there, they spotted a possible glacier with a sandy beach in front of it – an ideal candidate for a try.
After finding a skipper who would take them back to the remote beach, the pair positioned themselves on the beach and waited. Despite their careful search, it was a gamble – they needed a piece of ice that sloped off at the right angle to reach the opposite shore and break. When they finally saw the glacier calving, they realized the resulting wave was impossible to ride.
It was not the first glacier wave to be ridden, but it was the first time this happened in Greenland. Photo: Ibai Mielgo // Blue Banana
Despite the initial setback, they headed back and made another attempt. This time, the floating ice that had hindered them the day before had disappeared. Once again, chunks of the glacier began to fall off and they were finally blessed with the first surfable wave of the trip.
Still, they wanted more. On a third visit, a huge chunk of the glacier broke off, creating a wave that was more than surfable. It was actually good. “We got the shot we risked everything for,” says Abian. Although it may have seemed like an impossible dream just a few weeks ago, they did everything they could to get that one, perfect shot. According to Abian, “in the end, the wait, the risk, the effort was worth it.”
