26-02-2025
Hope to Save Iceland's Best Wave All But Lost
It's now or never for Iceland's surf community as the right point of Þorlákshöfn, or Thorli as it is known, faces irreversible destruction at the hands of human development. The wave is one of the only consistent waves on the island's swell battered coastline.
Located less than an hour from the capital of Reykjavik, the wave at Thorli is a section of land that juts out from the southwest facing coastline, positioned perfectly for the swells that pulse up from the Atlantic to wrap around its rocky headland and reel toward shore. On the inside is a harbor, the only one on Iceland's southern coast and despite a four year campaign by the surf community an expansion that will reclaim the land on the inside section of the wave looks set to go ahead. A study has shown that the planned development will ruin the majority of the surfable area of the wave. What the area that will impact the wave is set to actually be used for remains unclear as conflicting reports are made by those involved in the development.
In early February the project was given the green light, prompting surfers to gather on the rocks in the mid winter weather to physically block the destruction. A court appeal was filed, requesting an environmental impact assessment to be undertaken which led to a two week halt in the project. In a somewhat nebulous approach, the development that impacts the wave is part of a larger port expansion, but separate development applications have been made for each individual part of the development, meaning the environmental impact assessment requirements that would apply in a single development of that scale have been skirted. Thus, the surf community's appeal has been thrown out and any hope of stopping the development is disappearing fast.
Australian surf photographer Steve Wall, who is based in Iceland, has been part of the surf community resistance to the development. 'In Iceland it's very, very tough to stop any development,' he said, 'the rules here are super relaxed compared to the rest of the world and it's more a case of rather than the environmental impact regulations being hard to fulfill because they're strong, they're hard to fulfill because they require a lot of cost and a lot of influence. So someone that has resources and money can basically do whatever they want within the parameters of the law quite easily and it's very frustrating.'Over the last 10 years Iceland has made its way into the global surfing consciousness, with intrepid, cold-tolerant surfers making the journey to its volcanic shores in pursuit of the perfection photographers like Chris Burkard have made famous. Thorli has been at the heart of the burgeoning surf scene, offering a mechanical right hander that is relatively accessible compared to the rugged roads in and out of other spots along the coast. Backdropped by volcanoes and enjoyed by locals under the midnight sun, the point is a truly unique surf spot. But, just as surfing has started to take hold locally, this diamond in the rough could be set to be taken from them.
At an institutional level, surfing is not yet fully understood in Iceland. A fear of the wild Atlantic still prevails in communities as families report members across multiple generations taken by the swells that thrash the shores and cliffs. For the average person in Iceland, the idea of going out into the ocean to ride its swells is a dance with danger far beyond the imagination. 'I think that is almost the biggest thing behind the scenes, that 90% of Iceland lives by the ocean, towns are coastal, but nobody looks to the ocean as a playground.' Steve described, 'It's a place to be feared. And, I guess we respect the ocean, but it's still a playground to us. They respect it and fear it, and they keep it at arms length.'
With Thorli being the only wave that people living locally can get out for a paddle at afterwork or on the weekend, its loss will mean the everyday surfer won't really have a place they can go regularly. Other surf spots in Iceland require resources and time to travel to, with lesser consistency and more vulnerability to wild weather. 'For [the community at Thorli] it's just a simple question of 'okay are we going to build this valid industrial project that will create x y and z jobs and bring more business to the town or are we going to give this random thing that 30 people do a chance?'' Steve explained. 'It means this town is going to get zero business from any surfer anywhere in the world, local or foreign, and surfing is going to become the domain of tourists in Iceland.' Steve said.
Brimbrettafélag Íslands, the Icelandic Surfing Association, board member Ólafur Pálsson echoed this sentiment to Visir: "This wave in Þorlákshöfn is actually a fundamental prerequisite for surfing to thrive in Iceland. It works both in high tide and low tide, maintains a large size and is also good for beginners, so this is the place for the grassroots of the sport to start surfing."
With legal avenues exhausted, the only hope left is if someone with influence who understands the importance of the wave can wield it to stop the private developer from carrying on with their plans. Meanwhile, the surf community will be forced back to the rocks to do what they can to stop the destruction.
