OK, these guys are hardcore surfers! There’s a group of guys up in Montreal, Canada who actually surf on the St Lawrence river in the dead of winter – BRRRRR!
Led by local surfboard shaper, Corran Addison, these guys suit up and hit the 4 degree, (yes, that’s FOUR DEGREE), water where the biggest danger they face is the large pieces of floating ice and can go form damaging your board to causing serious bodily injury if a surfer happens to get pinned between two large icebergs.
“It’s just like an obstacle course,” says fellow ice surfer Christine Pinsonneault, 25. “You’re basically doing a slalom around the blocks of ice as they come down the river. You can’t miss them all so you have to be willing to have a board you don’t mind destroying.”
“It’s not just about being an expert surfer, it’s also understanding the dynamics of this unique situation,” Addison says. “There are some things you would never think are dangerous until they happen to you. There could be 100 metres separating two big icebergs and you wouldn’t think twice about it until you have a friend who has been squashed between the two because he wasn’t paying attention.”