Surfing on the South Coast of Iceland

Got up early with the hope of going surfing on the south coast of Iceland near the mouth of the Ölfusá. Bit of vehicle fiddling before we set off, we exchanged the oil in our rear axle. It all looks pretty nasty, so fingers crossed, a quick flush of new oil will help.

I drove from Reykjavík down to the coast. Our Landrover feels really bad now we only have front wheel drive. It judders really badly on bends and clonks along like an old steam engine. We arrived at the beach near the Ölfusá and took a look at the surf. It was not huge, and there was a stiff off-shore wind. We all piled on and started to get some rides. The sun was out, and it was a joy to be paddling again after the recent Landrover repair epics.

The waves were pretty intermittent, so we paddled a little way down the coast to the mouth of the Ölfusá and found a sweet spot for surf. Spent over 2 hours here mucking about. Invented a new move we called Billy Backie, where we pointed out to sea, and back surfed a wave ending in a reverse loop. Andy’s boat repair was strong enough and he managed the day without a major stern failure.

Paddled back to the Landrover, and got out, somewhat exhausted. Noticed that the Landrover had loose wheel bolts on one front wheel and a loose wheel bearing on the other. Tightened the bolts and set off slowly back to Reykjavík.