Norway of all places has a flowrider in a place called Bø, it is not a full tubing wave but it is still so much fun. However, as time went on the novelty kind of wore off and I was really missing home. Long cold winters and long flat spells were taking their toll. The first five years I surfed only in summer as all I had was a 4/3mm wetsuit. The water here takes a long time to warm up and it cools down very quickly. Fortunately I was doing a lot of snowboarding which kept me sane through the long and stupidly cold winters.

I remember one time paddling out for a surf in my 4/3mm in early May. It was a sunny day and maybe 15 degrees. I got in and the water temp must have been about 8C. I duckdived a few waves and instantly thought “what the hell have I done?” as I experienced the most extreme ice-cream headache of my life. Out the back of the surf I was shaking and shivering like you wouldn’t believe so I caught one wave and decided to call it quits. I think it was the same year, maybe 2014, it was a really mild autumn/early winter and I managed to surf all the way up to December in my 4/3mm. That’s when it dawned on me that the surf can actually get good in winter, really good. So I bit the bullet and invested in some quality rubber in the form of a 6/5mm wetsuit, 5mm gloves and booties. That’s when it all came together and I started chasing the scene hard.

The main break around where I live is called Saltstein. It’s a peak wave in the middle of a bay and breaks on boulder reef. Because its in the Oslo Fjord it generally has a very small swell period, 4-7 seconds, so the swell never hangs around for more than a day. It can get very crowded with intermediate surfers. Even on it’s the best day the wave is gutless and it is not really suited to a bodyboard although I have had some really fun dropknee sessions out there. It can be pretty fun when it’s around 4-5ft (overhead) but those days can be rarer than hens teeth. To be honest in summer you would be lucky to get two good surf sessions in a month. [Continued below].