Through The Keyhole: Surfing In Sweden
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Loading... - Joanna Bailey
- 21 Mar 2023
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Kicking off a new series on Wavelength, ‘Through the Keyhole,’ casts a light on the magic of surf in a particular country or destination. Told through the intrepid eyes of a local, the series paints a rich picture that transports you into the unique charm of each place. First up, we find out about the beguiling, brackish magic of Sweden through the eyes of former pro surfer-turned-freesurfer and cold water fiend, Tim Latte. With a dogged determination and relentless passion for adventuring proving to be a non-stop burning ember of stoke and exploration for Tim, we discover the magic of surfing in Sweden.
Chasing Unicorns: The Adventure
This is where I grew up surfing, in the Baltic. I’m from Stockholm, and if you know Sweden on a map, it’s pretty much like a big lake. The water is brackish, so it’s not even salt. We don’t really get that many waves compared to a lot of other places. Usually, when I meet someone from, say, Florida, they’re like, yeah, I’m from Florida. The waves are shit. And I’m like, mate, you haven’t been to Sweden yet! The passion for it though, is kind of hard to describe…
I grew up here in Stockholm, went to school here, and then moved abroad to pursue my pro-surfing career. As I got older, I was just like, I miss home, miss my family, miss friends. Then I just realised that we can surf a lot here in the Baltic because of how the weather patterns move. You definitely need a car and you are definitely gonna have to love driving, because here the closest surf spot for me is an hour and a half away. Usually in a day, my friends and I drive six hours one way to surf a couple of hours, and then go six hours back home. That’s a normal day surf for us. That’s like a whole day mission. Last week I had a discussion with my mate, and he asked me why are you still here? And I’m just like, well, when I gave up competition, I was also missing out on the adventure. I have a saying at home here.. “
“Surfing is only 50%, and the adventure and socialising with your friends is the other 50%.”
The adventure is you’re driving around, you’re reading all these maps, all the updates. You saved a lot of these forecasts and you’re checking the logs and you’re like, okay, I think it’s gonna be good. And then you get up there, and you’re hiking through the forest and you get down and you see left or right hand peelers, it’s offshore, and that doesn’t really happen that often in the Baltic. You only have wind swell, and it’s only a short period of time there. And then you’re also, during fall and winter, fighting both the daylight and the pretty harsh climate. It’s in the negative, and there are snow storms. It’s not your regular day at the beach. It’s something that’s very special and very unique and rare, and you know that you’re probably the only people out there scoring these pristine conditions.
“It’s pretty much like chasing fucking unicorns if I’m gonna be honest., you’re chasing something that’s very rare but very addictive!”
