THE WAITING GAME
We had a quick chat with them, a very friendly and welcoming bunch of guys. I’ve met most of them before and they all made us feel welcome straight away. As the wind and waves didn’t show much potential in the morning, we decided to prepare an early lunch and then cruise for a bit of sightseeing before the action started. We drove through open fields and forests, small villages and remote houses with incredible views in the typical Scandinavian wooden style. While most of Norway’s coastline is broken up by thousands of fjords, making it unsuitable for wavesailing, the area around List and the coast between Kristiansand and Stavanger offer some exceptions with perfect reefs and some sandy beaches.
As the country has a little less than 5 million residents, most of who live in Oslo, the area we explored seemed to be one of the most peaceful and sleepy places on earth. Three hours later we got back to the spot and saw the first two sails in the water. The waves that we estimated to be waist-high turned out to be over head to logo-high once a windsurfer was on them for reference. It took me about 10 minutes to rig my 4.5 and head out. What followed was 4-5 hours of the best frontside wavesailing that I’ve ever scored in the North Sea.