Brave the cold waters of the Arctic Circle and be willing to explore and you’ll be rewarded with some of the wildest and remotest breaks in Europe, all courtesy of surfing in Norway. This guide runs through everything you need to know, from seasons to the top spots.
An introduction to surfing in Norway
Just imagine it: 8-mil of rubber deep and with frost on your nose hairs, you’re bobbing out in a lonely bay on the fringes of the Arctic Circle. Totally alone apart from onlooking seals and sets of perfectly peeling right shoulders that cruise into the inky bay, you ride wave after wave towards a wall of lurching coast mountains that look like petrified giants plucked out of a Viking myth. We wax lyrical but boy is it deserved. Surfing in Norway is a primeval experience that’s unlike any other Europe can offer.
Surfing in Norway is all about ditching the warm water and the mapped out breaks. It’s for the intrepid adventurers who don’t mind searching waves for themselves, or pulling on 8mm of rubber when the swell demands.
Fueled by North Atlantic swells that curl and bend into the multitude of shapes and angles forged by the Norwegian fjord land coast, the breaks are varied. There are lefts, rights, A-frames, points, and loads of beach breaks. In terms of level, we’d put them around the lower-intermediate range for the most part, largely thanks to the tempering effect of Iceland, which forces storms to squeeze through a narrow chunk of ocean water before getting Norway bound. That’s not to say things are easy – the real challenge here is the cold. The bitter, bitter cold.
Where Norway excels is when it comes to boundary-breaking surf adventures to places where you’ll hardly see another human soul, let alone another human surfer soul. Plan accordingly and you’ll be rewarded. There are breaks that require two-hour hikes to reach, others that sit 100 miles beyond the Arctic Circle. It’s a surf frontier if there ever was one.
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This is just a part of our complete guide to surfing in Europe
Surfing in Norway at a glance
The good:
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What will I find in this guide to surfing in Norway?
The top surf spots in Norway
The WHOLE west coast of Norway has surf. Check the map – that’s daunting stuff. There are miles and miles of it, running from sandy beaches in the south to rugged fjords in the Arctic Circle. Really, this corner of Europe is for the adventurer who wants to seek out new waves. However, there are some locations that are coming to the fore and are now famed as the best places to go surfing in Norway. They are…
Jæren
Jæren is one of the few flat parts of Norway, and one of the biggest cut outs of the southern part of the country, known as Fjord Norway. Where it meets the North Sea, you can find long, uninterrupted runs of dune-backed coastline with honey-colored sands that slope straight into the water. The region lacks a little consistency and relies more on windswell in the winter, since it’s not too well placed to pick up refracted groundswell from out in the central Atlantic. On the flip side, it’s the country’s main beginner hub, with plenty of whitewash for learners to hit with the 9-foot foamy both summer and winter. Get in touch with the Jæren Surf Camp if you want to plan a trip here. They’re one of the best in the region right now and run super-fun packages that include evening bonfires on the beach and whatnot.
Hoddevik
Hoddevik is the best surf bay on the Stad Peninsula. This is still Fjord Norway, the relatively accessible and southern part of the country. But it’s wild, wild stuff and the first place where surfing in Norway becomes all about that communion with nature – think soaring cliffs over 100m high looming over a beach that’s backed by lush green Nordic meadows. The main wave to know about is a peeling right that closes out on anything over 5 foot. It’s fantastic for beginners and can even work in the summer months.
Check out our full guide to surfing in Hoddevik right now
Lofoten
For those really looking to stray off the beaten path, there’s nowhere for it but Lofoten. This is one seriously amazing place; a whole archipelago of isles and rocks that fragments into the depths of the Norwegian Sea just south of Tromso. We’ve got a complete guide dedicated to surfing here, but suffice to say that the wide bay of Unstad is the star. It hoovers up any of the long-period groundswells that make it through from the Atlantic and has arguably the best performance wave in the country. There remain oodles of totally secret spots to boot and the whole area is a joy to explore in a car with a surfboard strapped to the roof.
We have a full guide to surfing in Lofoten
When to surf in Norway?
The best time to surf in Norway is anytime between September and March, with the midwinter months offering the biggest waves and the spring and fall being better for learners and longboarders. Let’s take a closer look…
Waves here are powered by the great North Atlantic engine room; the very same that feeds the reefs of Nazare up to the coasts of South Wales. They’re not as consistent in Scandinavia, though, because there’s a relatively narrow gap between Iceland and the British Isles that forces low-pressure systems to squeeze up and realign northwards.
What you’re looking for are the biggest storm swells of the fall, winter, and spring, which will refract through into the North Sea with enough strength to light up the points and bays of the fjordland and beyond. That means that the months between September and March are prime for surfing, with December and January being the most consistent of all.
Of course, timing your Norwegian surf trip for the winter months will have some serious implications on the gear you bring along. 3/2 wetties simply won’t do here. Sea temperatures barely manage to stay above the 45 F (8 C) mark here and are made a whole load worse by regular snowstorms and strong winds. You need 5/4 minimum plus a hood, booties, and gloves. Non-negotiable.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!