A Surf Trip to a Remote Island in Alaska's Deadly Bering Sea

I think of how our forefathers traveled. They had to have had an intuitiveness that the fur seals have. The fur seals, how did they find this place? They don't have GPS. They don't have compasses. How did they do that? Navigation was not only watching stars, it's also being aware of weather patterns and the currents as well because we don't always get to see the stars. I have a good feeling about everything. So it's scheduled but not likely. My honest thoughts is we're not going to make it today but I feel really good that we are going to make it for some odd reason the next day or two. That's not a metaphor for the trip. I don't know what is. Super eggy. Nice. Sticky eggs. We are about to board our second flight. Halfway there we had too much of a headwind and there was a fuel issue and we just had to turn around and come back to Anchorage. It's not unusual to have to try multiple times to get out to St. Paul. Like this past summer we had people trying to get home and on off the island for almost a month. I'd say I'd give it 50-50. Seems about the right odds. So jealous I want to go surf. Get some barrels for me please. Yeah. So next trip it's surf and golf. Right. I checked the weather too much. That's my problem. No. We'll see you in a couple hours. We'll be back. Yeah you can fly out here but good luck getting a flight that actually goes. I'm just learning that nothing's really reliable up here from the weather to the airlines. I mean it's just you're sort of at the mercy of nature. Hold the wheels now baby. Several years ago a scientist who was studying the fur seal population reached out to us about potential surf on a remote Alaskan island. As it turns out there are incredible ways to be discovered out there and that became the film Island X. Ever since then we've all been wanting to get back there and so we put this trip together to go back, spend some time with the local people, document their way of life and also head to an outer island in search of new waves. Yeah so we're sort of in the far reaches of Alaska right now in the Bering Sea which is a in the middle of nowhere basically. I think of wave potential in the Bering Sea I just think of deadliest catch and you know the wild unruly untamed a chaotic body of water relatively unexplored for surfing. The first time we ever got here we just expected to find a bunch of windblown slop and anything more than that we would have been absolutely surprised. Violent seas and extreme weather I really never thought it was going to be what it turned out to be. A place like this it's just so interesting in terms of surfing like what's out there in the world and it's just such a unique area and just this body of water with all these windy systems. This island is it's remarkable in its access that pretty much every wave is accessible and easy to get to and then just the fact that there are so many quality waves it's kind of and have found incredible waves and not only that there's somebody from this island that's actually been surfing here for 10 years. We're actually in serious need of a coffee grinder I brought this massive bag of coffee and it's just beans. Thank you Ricardo. We are so stoked. You guys are drinking coffee now. Cool to have Ricardo back here while we're here as well just seeing him you know involved in in what we're doing and stoked to to hang out and to spend time with the local community and the local kids. I remember catching my first wave out there and I was just sitting out there by myself yeah and then I mean it's those kind of experiences that I think at least I hope that can continue up here with the next generation so. Yeah so we met Ricardo during the filming of Island X and over the years we've become really good friends. I'd say Ricardo's definitely helped us connect with the community up here it's pretty special. Yeah so the guys Pete, Josh and Noah gave the kids a little classroom surf lesson you know with the boards on the ground. We were skeptical that the kids would want to get in the water because it's freezing cold and it can definitely be scary there's currents there's rips. We grew up being afraid of the water and told not to go next to the water because it can be so dangerous with how big the surf can be and the swell can be. Does it feel like it has a little more room now? See how mine's over my chin? Let's put yours over your chin yes so lean in a little yeah there you go but maybe too far. Are you excited to get in the water? A little bit. Are you nervous? Yes. But then once we got out to the beach and all the kids put their wetsuits on and kind of started splashing around in the water it was like a full 180. It was it was really cool to see their stoke and you know the water's cold up here the wind's freezing and they just didn't care they were in the water for hours just loving life. Is it cold? Riding waves on their on their bellies just having an absolute blast. I'm really impressed like learning how to surf in 40 degree water with my boards that are just super slippery oh my gosh. This is pretty cool kids are really into it. The possibility of maybe having a few surfers up here in the future is really cool. Do you think you'll do it again? Yeah. Like doing the surf lessons you get to show the that you can be pretty safe and smart out there and still have fun. Yeah our goal for this third trip out here is to first and foremost connect with the community and thank the community. On top of that the added bonus is continuing to search for waves and even going a little further out to some of the outer islands to see what they hold. Our hope is that we're gonna find something new that we're gonna find waves that we haven't seen before or surfed before and we heard that there's actually an outer island that supposedly has better waves than this island. That just got my gears turning. Life preservers are underneath your seats. Survival equipment, life raft are in the back here behind the net. Oxygen masks above you. Hopefully it's this over there that are not raining. Yeah. Yeah I guess we never know. Yeah this is Alaska. On St. George it feels just alive. Everything's wild there. It's more animal than it is human. The water was like crystal clear so you could just see everything to the bottom. It feels like it gets really deep off the island which gives it this kind of like Loch Ness scary x-factor. When we arrived at St. George we heard there was a really good left point and the wind and the swell and everything seemed right for it. So as we were driving we could see these laps peeling down and we were screaming and excited and all this stuff. We were coming down the road and this little white fox was like peering over the brush and he turned around and he just like guided us and I thought no maybe he's guiding us to some epic waves. If we get to the end of this road and the waves are firing and this guy took us there it's going to be the coolest thing ever. There's offshore winds and overhead swell and so we went straight out to this little headland that looked like it had a left point. Oh there's a left peeling. Looks fun. We have to surf. So we paddled out and there's just seals everywhere these little fur seals. There was seals everywhere and we were like we can still get out there no worries. And they were so curious jumping out of the water and then one of them was jumping out at us with his teeth open. Jumped out in the water and within like I don't know 20 minutes or something the boys who were filming just started yelling. And I was filming from the beach. Mark was next to me shooting photos and I don't even think I realized what was happening at first. Bobby and I are you know sitting right next to each other and I hear Bobby just yell orcas! And it was just like crazy it's like do you flag them in or do you just keep filming? I was turned around and as I was just turned around I saw this huge fin and then I told Waggie as I was paddling into that wave I think I saw something really big. Josh had had mentioned seeing something big earlier to me and I kind of took off on a wave and looked back and just saw the biggest damn dorsal fin I've ever seen in my life. I saw Waggie on the next wave and then Waggie's like oh yeah he saw the orcas. Orcas in the lineup! Dude they're right there! I didn't actually see it but I just heard heard everyone yelling orca orca. Me and Josh were just watching him going man get your ass in here. Way too exciting Those things are big! Holy smokes it's weird the seals don't look like they're freaking out at all they're right beside them. Wow it's so weird out there the water is so clear you can just see everything there's just seals everywhere all over you. Wow those are big those are really big Overpowering to like see just the apex predator of the ocean and just come by and show you who's who's boss who's the local. That's good are we back out there? I think it's okay yeah let's go they're just patrolling. I think we should just paddle after them. It looks really nice out there Pretty remarkable to see those animals that close to our buddies surfing. Yeah I don't know I think it was both scary but also like probably like a bucket list thing for them. You said you've never seen people surfing out here. No. About like what are your thoughts about seeing all this? Oh this is pretty neat I mean for you folks to come out here and check out our ocean here. One year we had 50 foot swells right in front of town here. There's Just only a few of us left here. Looks brand new. It's the new 520. This is the point where the canteen is and my house on the other road that's all there is. All these rows of houses only have one one person living in each home. Oh really? Yeah. All right thanks for the tour. Yeah. We learned that these islands were settled by Russian traders in the late 1700s to establish a fur sealing plant. They forced native Aleut people onto the island to harvest seals where they faced extremely difficult circumstances. The seal population began a serious decline and harvesting was ended in 1973. Though the future here is uncertain for these communities the people show an incredible resilience. And we're out there St. George Island in the middle of the Bering Sea. It's pretty much as far removed from modern civilization as you can imagine. Yeah I gotta do my fuel tanks, do the wiring, put a new motor on for twin engines. Twin engine? Yeah. You want that sucker to haul? Yeah. Most I ever put in here was 102 fish that's three feet on up. It's a six foot helmet. Wow. Four thousand something pounds all in here. Helmet. It's hard to catch now. Hard to catch crab. Hard to catch cod. So now we have to fish three to eight miles, nine miles offshore. I think it's pretty hairy out there with some of these swirls around here. Lots of current too huh? Oh yeah. That's a good portrait right there. Can I get a shot of you Ronnie? What do you think the future holds for St. George? Very slim. Very slim. Hope people would stay but kind of sad to me that that community it's not thriving. There's not a lot of industry there. There's not a lot of jobs there. And you go out there and like I said you meet the people and you kind of just get a taste of what that community is like and you realize how special it is. And I know what it's like to love a place like with all my heart. And those people love their home with all of their heart. And so to think that that could go extinct it's just super sad. The waves I don't think we're getting the right swell. I don't think the wind matters as much but I just don't think it's big enough. I think like all the other islands like if the swells here you can kind of find waves no matter what the wind's doing. This island is kind of interesting because it's chock full of these sea cliffs. I mean they're we're probably like 500 feet kind of very barren no trees just this grass and some dead plants. It's wild. I've never seen anything like it. So we're trying to make a plan to get back to St. Paul a little quicker and fingers crossed get some fun waves. Hello? Hey Rodney how's it going? Yeah we're just on the other line with them right now so we're just finding it out. Yeah so hopefully we'll try again tomorrow. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Bye. Canceled. Yeah fog's settling in so I don't really know what's going to happen. We could be here for a while. Yeah we're just a group of surfers on St. George that Nick brought over here on Tuesday and we're trying to get back to St. Paul today. So I got confirmation that St. Paul is canceled. Okay and then will they try again tomorrow or Saturday? What's the date? 26. 26. Okay um and do you have a time on do you have a time when they're taking off? I guess the flight's on but like they just don't have an ETA. Hello? Okay so landing on St. George at 1 25. Landing on we are on St. George. This place is crazy. It's a little bit worrying. It looks pretty foggy and all the residents here tell us that fog's the worst for flying in because they can't land a plane. What's the date again? 12 40 on St. George. Okay we will be at the airport. Thank you very much. Boom one hour. Let's go boys. It's like so foggy over there. I don't know if we're getting out here boys. If he has to land this way on the runway I don't know how he could see it coming in. Strange thing to be stuck on an island where there isn't waves and then there's an island 40 miles away that has waves. I'm feeling more hopeful than yesterday even though the conditions are the same. If he took off he must think he can land. It's nice seeing him fly by. He kind of gave Mark one of these. He knows what he's doing. Came for a pass by. Gonna hook out to the left throw a little brody set her down. Okay yeah I copy that. I'm not sure we might try again or might have to head over to St. Paul. Yeah flight's off for the day sadly. Would they try again tomorrow? Yeah. Okay he just took off five minutes ago. Perfect. All right we'll see you out there. Thank you. Bye. Let's go. I don't know. We didn't get that good of surf but that really didn't hinder my experience at all. When you're not surfing and you dive deeper into a community and you dive deeper into capturing those locations so you can go explore you can go take walks you can go meet people and talk to people and kind of fostering a love for photographing it. Yeah it's you know I feel like when you travel to remote places that can be very difficult the crew is the most important thing just being with all these guys and everyone keeping it positive while also jabbing each other and having a really good time doing it. So it's knee high because you guys are hackling me and having a good time doing it so I should start kneeboarding. It's nothing better than getting on the road with with a crew like this. I've said it before it's just unlike anywhere else I've been I think the people here what they've built and what they sustain here is so visually different than anything that I'm used to or have ever seen before that it's you just want to capture it all from foggy mornings to perfect surf to the kids getting surf lessons to flying in and out it's just it's a just a remarkable place in its diversity. As a filmmaker this place has drawn me for years because it's so remote and hard to get to it just hasn't been documented much at all and so I really love the idea of telling the story of this place and revealing it to people and uncovering what's here who the people are what life is like on this island what it's like to get here and travel here and look for waves it's a hidden gem out here just that unknown is what keeps me coming back and wondering what are we going to find next I think that's enough wax. Go Waggie go! Go Waggie go! Well surf turkeys come on! I think the idea that waves exist out here on this tiny little remote island will always blow our minds and as surfers we'll always cherish the memories and stories that this place has given us Right now what the sea gives me is song, the melody or the rhythm. In Unangam Tanu our language truth and speaking are based in the same word. When you think of that you have to remember that you are responsible for telling your stories that help you to see the beauty of a place but for a person to tell a story it is about keeping a whole people alive if i could but i don't know how to drive oh you're everybody's girl