Bear Island

After we made the documentary and web series “North of the Sun” in 2011, I was more than ready for a new adventure. This time it was me and my brothers, Markus and Håkon. We wanted to explore new waves and nature and it was the Bear Island, south of Svalbard, that tempted and challenged us. This expedition was more extreme, but for us it was important to focus on the good life one can have in harmony with nature. Our goal was to follow a dream. Explore the island and ourselves as three brothers. We knew that there had to be waves out there, and this was truly a place few or no one had ever surfed before. The surfing was our main motivation for going there, but we also wanted to have the opportunity to wake up each morning and do exactly what we felt like. And on a place like that it is the weather that decides what to do. To give something back to the island we collected all the trash we found on all the beaches we camped on. Probably many tons of plastic and other things that floats ashore every year. This shows how much garbage we have in our oceans, and how it is a threat to the animals and all the beautiful places on earth. At home to prepare for the trip, we started collecting out of date food, and we dried it at home. We also got clothes that the shop were going to throw away because they had minor damages like broken zippers or similar. We wanted to show that equipment and food that is not good enough for selling in a shop, can be good enough for a two month expedition in the arctic.We were on the island from April to June. We tried to capture every moment that was important for us and the story. There is a lot of sports and adrenaline, but more importantly we captured our thoughts and meetings with ourselves and nature. A little before we left mainland for the Bear Island we found out that I was going to be a father. That influenced me in many ways on the trip, and being away from my wife, friends and family was even harder than expected.- Inge Wegge