If surfing automatically makes you think of tanned skin and the Beach Boys, Orion Miller is here to challenge that stereotype with his icicle beard and his habit of surfing in icy water. Miller is an ice surfer, and he lives in Montreal, Canada.
Ice surfing is like regular surfing, except you do it in freezing temperatures. That means you must paddle through floating ice and then dodge the ice as you ride waves. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Miller loves it, though. In one of his Instagram videos, he says: “Swimming through the ice, surfing the wave and dodging the icebergs, battling through these savage environments gives me a perspective of the world that very few people see.”
In one recent video, Miller describes falling off a wave and being swept into a “swirling whirlpool” of crushed ice. He had to paddle through it (except without his board) by pulling his body on top of the ice and doing an icy army crawl to the end.
He says when this happens, it can take him 45 minutes to get back to shore.
Ice surfers take on a sort of mystical quality in local communities thanks to their extreme dedication to the sport, even in places where winters are harsh.
Would you surf through ice to catch a winter wave?