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It must have been in 2012 that I first saw pictures of an impressive left breaking somewhere in the Baltic. According to my judgement based on what I knew about the extension of this body of water – calling it an ocean would be an exaggeration – and the resulting marginal fetches for swell creation, this left should not exist here. First I blamed an exceptional and very rare freak weather situation for making this photo possible. I expected to see something similar again in about 10 years. But over the years similar images popped up in the social networks. Never expected images, and this not only from that left but also from other regions of the Baltic. I slowly realized that I must have overlooked something special in my own sort of backyard.
A new surfing area to explore, so close and yet – after checking the prices for the ferry rides necessary to reach it – so far, money-wise. But images kept popping up and contacts to locals convinced me more and more that there is decent surf on a pretty regular basis over here. That meant that the money to surf ratio went up on the scale. So someday I was convinced that I had to check this out. I still looked for a decent storm as I thought this was a must for scoring decent waves in this area. I think it was late autumn 2013 when a forecast for an exceptional strong storm coincided with a free spot in my timetable. I prepared everything and was ready to go. But a last check of the wind forecasts before starting the van made me hesitate. The prognoses for wind speeds were extremely high and I compared this with my experiences with that extreme storm a few weeks earlier. I decided last minute that this was a pretty dangerous mission and could not even be sure that the bridges and ferries that I had to pass and take on my way up would be open. Plus staying in the region of the left would include a substantial risk of getting hit by uprooted trees. So I backed off.
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