Rocketship to Reykjavik

A Roark Revival Adventure in Iceland

Story and Photos by Nate Zoller

Surfers often avoid winter.

We like our trunks. We like drinking coconut milk out of coconuts, shirtless, using the sun as our clothing. It’s been that way since the beginning, since beach-blanket bingo and the Endless Summer.

But in the last few years, wetsuit technology has gotten to a point where it can feel like summer in almost any water temp. You can surf anywhere in the world, in relative comfort. Relative is used because at some point that wetsuit has to come off and at that point the winds can change. Cold can set in with the deepest of intentions. 

Hypothermia is real, but we take the risk.

We head to Iceland in December, where the Nordic winter is just starting to gain traction. We pack our six mil hooded fullsuits and our seven mil booties and gloves and get on the plane. We do this because the North Atlantic is black and angry with swells spinning in every direction.

We act not scared.

Most of the Icelandic winter is spent in darkness, the light peaking over the horizon for maybe five hours a day. It’s not easy to live this way, but a good story never started on Easy Street. So we leave the airport in our Land Rover Defender 110 through the sleet of ice and snow toward slabs that detonate over volcanic rock. Who cares, we have enough rubber to bounce off any reef. No worries.

We arrive and the beach is white with snow.

With heaters blasted, we stick our limbs into the vents. The key to avoiding hypothermia is starting warm, never put on a wetsuit in Iceland with icy veins.
The task of getting on all that rubber usually gets the blood moving, and that means go time. A quick jaunt through a barbed-wire fence, past a few puffins and across a bed of slippery rocks, and there’s the wave, blasting. The only people around are Raph Bruhwiler, Chris Burkard and myself. Immersed in cold, facing the elements straight on. Because if you want to feel something new, you have to put yourself in front of situations like this.

Photo of Nate Zoller by Chris Burkard

Six to eight foot slabbing rights, no one around, cold ever-present.

Many surfers have been traveling to Indo in the summer and Hawaii in the winter, and that’s awesome. But sometimes you have to take the other road. The one that has no street lights, with only the slightest glimpse of success. It’s down that road that you will find the moments that make a life lived outside of the ordinary. So go ahead, book a ticket somewhere out of your comfort zone.

Become the nomad you were meant to be. Face life on the road head on and then give it a firm handshake.

You will be greeted warmly, even in Iceland.

One Moto Show & Hot Tub Party

Motorcycles and Hot Tubs were born from the same active volcano of the human imagination.

The One Motorcycle Show is a yearly event in Portland Oregon. It's organized by the genius minds behind See See Moto Coffee Co. Featuring one of a kind motorcycles built for specific uses. One bike might be built for going 1,000 miles an hour were another bike is built for camping at hard to reach hot springs. Different strokes for different folks, right?

The One Motocycle Show is basically an art show. You don't have the be a Hells Angel to go and have a good time there, but Hells Angels are always welcomed! Aside from appreciating the art and work that goes into the bike builds it's really good to go for the taste of old and new motorcycle culture.

You should go! It's free as the wind!

831 SE Salmon St. Portland, OR 97214

Friday, February 13th:  6 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Saturday, February 14th (Lovers Only): 11 a.m. – Midnight
Sunday, February 15th: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

AFTER PARTY ALERT!!!!!

After The One Motorcycle Show on Sunday we're hosting a HOT TUB PARTY!!!!! It's also free as the wind.

We'll have hot tubs by the Original Nomad set up on Sauvie Island Beach (Psst...it's a very chilled out and respectable hippy-styled nude beach, and it's very normal to go "as bare as you dare" and just wear your bathing suit.)

FAQs:

What if I get thirsty? We've got you covered thanks to the fine folks at New Belgium & Brew Dr. Kombucha (while supplies last).

Will it be rainy and cold? Of course. It's Winter! That's the fun part. That's why the tubs will be hot sillyhead.

Will there be a fat old naked man jerking off in the bushes? Probably, but he'd be there with our without you. So don't take it personally. We'll be there to play Life Guard and make sure nobody gets hurt.

Will there be hot chicks and buff dudes with masters degrees in Social Responsibility and Environmental Ethics? Probably, this is Portland. It attracts young, smart, and attractive people from all over the world.

The Magdalena Wosinska Experience

Remember that time you felt so fucking free you ripped your clothes off and went running into the wilderness, uncontrollably laughing and howling with a small group of your best friends?

Well, that time may have been your peak. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have a photo of it?

Magdalena Wosinska would have been the right photographer to have on hand for that moment, because she’d be running right along with you—laughing, shrieking and closing the shutter when you were at your finest.

Magdalena is a professional photographer, an adventure seeker, and a wild animal. And we love everything about her experience.

Magdalena is your name, but what the hell is the “Experience” in your nickname, “The Magdalena Experience”?

Well, the Magdalena Experience came about because of the Jimmy Hendrix Experience obviously, but I wanted to show it through a lifestyle in photos instead of music. I try to inspire people to travel and live life to the fullest.

You used to shoot skateboarding early on in your career. Do you see many other female photographers covering that stuff, or is it more of a bros-on-bros scene?

Back then it was only a bros scene, and even now—as it’s even more mainstream then when I started 15 years ago—it’s more of a boys’ club, but more and more women are for sure involved and accepted by the male-dominated skate community. I think the internet has helped a lot with that equality, because people can see all the great work that women have done in this scene!

There’s a sense of fearlessness and contented joy in all your photos. How do you get that sense to come out of the people you photograph?

Well, we are always having fun together so it’s not too hard!

There is power in being naked, and we think it goes way beyond the idea that “sex sells.” What kind of power does nakedness bring to your work?

It has nothing to do with sex. My friends and I are just hippies and feel restricted by clothes if it’s hot outside. Like snakes, we sit on hot stones and soak up the summer sun.

Do feminists ever come at you for objectifying women? Does anyone ever complain about you shooting half-naked dudes?

Ha, never. Thank God.

What’s your most “liked” photo?

Instagram. It’s one of me leaning over a cliff from a telephone pole, called “Balance,” and the real-deal photo is one of two bare butts on a beach with an American flag over our shoulders.

You sure have a lot of photos of beautiful ladies flashing the wilderness. Is there a message you want people to get from those shots?

Be free without tan lines and soak it all in.

magdalenawosinska.com
@themagdalenaexperience

Refugia: Part Two

We're still jealous, of Evan, Kahana, and John for not inviting us on their bro-mantic getaway to Oahu. Enjoy part two of this three part series designed to blue ball us.