10 minute read
How does hitting the slopes and the surf in one day sound?
If you’re first thought is “Tell me where!” You’re in the right place.
Earlier this year, big wave surfer and Dryrobe® ambassador Andrew Cotton (AKA Cotty) returned to the Arctic Circle to experience more of Norway’s remote surf and explore its snow-capped scenery.
Reunited with fellow big wave legend Freddie Meadows and filmmaker Magnus Normodo, when the waves were nowhere to be seen, the crew hit the mountains, safely guided by Cotty’s partner, professional skier Justine Blanc.
We wanted to know more about this epic trip where the snow meets the sea and learn why Norway is the perfect playground for adventure seekers.
So, what was the initial plan?
Well, this is the second trip to the Arctic Circle region. On the first one, we scored a slab that Freddie Meadows had been scoping for quite some time.
So last year we went on a swell and we scored big time. This year was a bit of a cross. The plan was to do a bit of splitboarding and combine the splitboarding and snowboarding stuff with the surfing.
We were looking at some new zones to surf, so we didn't go on a chart. We just went to sort of just see what happens.
What exactly is splitboarding?
Basically, you’re hiking up a mountain. So it's like a snowboard that splits into two, and you put the skins on the bottom so you can literally walk up a mountain. And then you get to the top of a mountain, and then you put the board back together, you take the skins off, and then you can slide down.
It’s a beautiful part of the world, and there’s amazing snowboarding and skiing, where the mountains meet the ocean.
You can hike up these mountains, get the best view of the fjords, see these little points and little surf spots, and then snowboard down, so you can literally snowboard and surf on the same day.
I've been getting into snowboarding in the last four or five years. But it's the first time I've sort of been doing that, like off-piste splitboarding sort of stuff.
So for me, it was a bit of a learning curve.
Norway sounds like a place where it just keeps giving. You're like, “Oh, that's really cool. Oh. That looks amazing!”
Yeah, it was. It was funny because we had a couple of days of beautiful sunshine. Then we had a couple of stormy days, and even on the down days, we airbnb’d a shack in the middle of nowhere, and just sitting and watching the world go by, even just looking out the window, you were never bored. So yeah, it was fun.
And it’s like proper Dryrobe® territory; it’s so cold, and the water's cold, but getting in and out of the wetsuit can be brutal.
So the Dryrobe® and Dryrobe® products were a lifesaver. And I was wearing the gilet. For the split boarding, you actually get really hot walking up. Even though it's freezing, you’re overheating because it takes so much energy to get up. So the gilet was the best piece of kit because it keeps the body really warm. You can wear a T-shirt underneath it, and you’re cool enough. Then, when you get to the top, you get cold really quickly, so you layer up.
And when you snowboard down, you wear all your snowboard kit, but hiking up, it was perfect.
What was it like hiking up with all that kit?
It's really cool. It was really good cross-training.
Because snowboarding is fun when you go to these resorts, you get the lifts and focus on going down, but it sort of puts another bit of fun to it, if you like that sort of thing. It takes about five hours to come hike up and about 10 minutes to come down.
Were you doing things like sunrise and sunset hikes?
Well, it doesn't get dark. I've never experienced that before because the last time we went, we went a few weeks earlier, and it was getting dark. It was getting dark around midnight, and then it wasn't getting light until about three or four. But this time we're a bit later, and you know, like that golden hour, before it gets dark. It's like that for around four hours.
That sounds like a photographer's dream.
Yeah. For shooting, it’s brilliant. So we did a few shoots. We did one of the split boarding sessions; we left at four in the morning or something. And then you can go surfing at midnight, and when it's good, you can just get in, but it does affect your body clock a bit.
I was going to say, does it affect your sleep?
Yeah, because as soon as it gets dark, you’re like “Aw, I should go to bed!” but it never gets dark. So a couple of times, you're like “Oh shit, it's like 1 o'clock in the morning!” and you’re just chatting by the table!
What's your biggest takeaway from it all?
I don't know whether I'm getting more antisocial, but it excites me going places where there's no one about. You’re surfing by yourself, you're ski touring by yourself and you're snowboarding by yourself.
There's so much space and so few people, and I think that the potential for surf is also really insane. There are so many little corners and the reefs and slabs, and again, I just think it’s another zone, and you’re like, “Shit, you could spend a lifetime just cruising around.”
And Freddie has based his whole surfing career in that zone, and he's just sort of getting the fruits of that now. I think the pinnacle for him was definitely last year at that spot called RAN that he found.
But who knows how many other big wave spots are up there, how big they get, and how often they break?
So I think it's definitely opened up another little sort of zone and chapter of what I want to do. The sort of adventure, looking for new waves…I kind of like going surfing, and there’s just no one there.
Does it feel more grounded?
I don't know if grounded is the right word… but I've always been drawn to that, even growing up in North Devon.
This is a silly example, but I'd always rather surf crappy onshore Croyde than go to Putsborough. Because Putsborough could be really clean and probably better, but there'll be like hundreds of people there. But I’d always rather have space, and I wasn't always going for the quality of surf. I’d go out at Croyde because there was no one out.
I think that's always drawn me towards Ireland because when I first started going there, it was really quiet and empty. The same was true for Nazare. There was no one there for the first three years; it was just us.
And that all changed. So you’re always looking around the corner and seeing what's possible. And sometimes you get skunked and you miss the waves, but other times it only takes one day or one wave or one hour of good surf or one hour of good snowboarding and it makes it all worth it.
It’s so interesting because, I guess in a way, we associate other people with safety, and when it was just you guys in Nazare in the early days, it really was up to you guys to look out for each other.
Yeah, and we were also figuring it all out. You are right, more people mean more safety, but it also brings more potential dangers, like collisions. Because we're naturally competitive, you've got three or four people competing for a wave rather than just choosing the best wave of the set where no one else is there, so you’re sort of getting forced into other things.
But if something happened on one of those trips, like you get injured, it is really remote. So, touchwood, nothing ever happens.
Is there a moment or an image that stays with you from the trip?
Yeah, there were two. I’ve been up a few mountains before, but in resorts. So the first time I was almost at the summit, when I was spliboarding, I was almost petrified.
Because I was at the top, no one was around, and you felt very vulnerable. I felt like I could slip and slide all the way down.
I was really out of my comfort zone, and it's probably the most scared I’ve been for a long time.
And then, seeing Justine was just so comfortable because it was like her element. So she was so comfortable and at ease with it, and I was so petrified. Clinging onto the floor like, “Fuck!”. So that was the first thing, and I was like,” Shit, I'm really out of my comfort zone.”
So I felt like I really pushed myself, which was exciting. When I got down to sea level. I was excited and stoked, but at the time, I was shitting my pants.
So that was like the first time in a while I’ve felt really uncomfortable and scared.
Then, the second time, two days later, we did another summit, which was slightly less windy and had more blue sky, and I could sort of enjoy it a little bit more. And just looking down and seeing white snow mountains and then seeing the ocean and seeing these little bays and some little waves, and it's like, “That's really, really cool.”
You don't often get to see snow mountains and the ocean like that, so it was amazing. I think that was a really cool moment.
It’s so funny when you’re scared and someone else isn’t. And you’re like, “huh?”
Yeah, you’re like “Why am I so scared?” It’s funny because I take Justine surfing a lot and she's often shitting her pants in the sea. And, I'm like, “What are you worrying about?” So this was like payback!
Do you have plans to return to Norway?
I think next season, we're going to do another trip and just do a bit more of a bigger project. Freddy's been working on a project. He's got a boat, so he's going to sail it up to that zone, and we're going to sail around.
There are so many little islands—it's insane. The trouble is that you might see an island in the distance, but to get there, sometimes it’s almost impossible or takes a whole day.
With the boat and the proper setup, I think we could explore more waves and snow.
Follow Cotty
Instagram: @andrew_cotty
Facebook: Andrew Cotton
X: @andrew_cotton
YouTube: Andrew Cotton Surfer
TikTok: andrew_cotty
Photos courtesy of Magnus Nordmo
Cotty wears the Dark Grey Orange Dryrobe® Advance and the Black Thermal Unisex Fleece Gilet
#dryrobeterritory
Published on September 11, 2025