Former pro surfer and Red Bull athlete Mick Fanning of course had ‘surf under the Northern Lights‘ on his bucket list, as most surfers do.
And he’s just gone and put a big ol’ tick next to that item – he’s bloody surfed under the Northern Lights, and he’s got some pretty impressive footage to prove it.
Fanning organised a huge camping trip with two Norwegian photographers, Emil Sollie and Mats Grimsaeth, staying on a beach in the Norwegian archipelago of Lofoten.
The trip was gonna be 10 days because they had to wait for so many different conditions to all align in order for the ~special event~ to happen. But weirdly enough, nature was on their side and Fanning managed to fulfil a life goal within just three nights of being there:
“We’d set out a 10-day waiting period because there were so many elements that had to come together”, he told the ABC.“Even then it was a bit of a roll of the dice. You need the right waves, clear skies and on top of all that, you actually need the lights to come on.”
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, Fanning told News Editor David Adams that it had always been a dream of his to do it:
“It was always a bucket list thing for me to go and see the Northern Lights, so when Red Bull rang up and said ‘alright, do you want to go up to Norway and surf under the Northern Lights?.I was already saying yes before they even started out.”
Fanning tells ABC that he made sure to really immerse himself in the situation and appreciate the experience:
“From my end it was pretty easy, I just had to ride the waves.But there was four to six minutes between sets [of waves] and in that time I was just staring up at the sky just screaming with excitement.”
He told P.TV, “In total darkness, just staring up, watching these lights go over you… And the silhouettes of the mountains were just incredible.”
Just look at this bloody photo, would ya? It’s BEYOND incredible.
Watch:
Fanning is currently in the middle of an indefinite period of leave from professional surfing, after the terrifying shark attack that occurred in South Africa in July.
Source: Supplied / Red Bull.
Photo: Emil Sollie & Mats Grimsæth / Red Bull.
