Different Water

Paddle up to a remote mountain, climb to the summit and ride your split-board down powder slopes into the valley. Then surf a perfect, lonely wave. All in one day. Stretching it a bit? Far up north, Paulina Herpel and Valentin Illichmann embark on a cold triathlon.

- Paulina Herpel

A Munich native, Valentin drove up to Hamburg in late spring to pick up me and our home on wheels, equipped with split boards, inflatable SUPs and wave SUPs. All packed into a white Ahoy Bulli that would be our best friend for the next 6,000km. Equipped with heater and everything else your heart desires we started our trip up north. We were excited and could not wait to finally smell the sea again at the end of winter. We went from Hamburg first to Denmark over the Öresund Bridge over the Baltic Sea to Sweden. Stockholm welcomed us with spring sunshine and delicious cinnamon bun ice cream. But then it started to get really cold and windy, as expected. We passed a lot of lakes and rivers and they were all frozen. I was not used to that as a Hamburg girl. The Swedes simply used the frozen waters as roads for their snow mobiles. Even the Gulf of Bothnia was frozen. They were walking across the sea. Everywhere ice-fishermen stood next to the holes they’d cut, hoping for the big catch. That’s exactly how I always thought Sweden would be in winter: white, cold and strange. We drove on because we still had about 1000km to go to our final destination.

What’s that big sign there? Did it really say Arctic Circle? Yes - we had just have driven into the Arctic Circle. As far north as we had ever been. However, I’d expected it to be a bit more dramatic to be honest. As if the landscape would suddenly change. But it didn’t, the strange winter seeped in slowly.

The best way to describe Sweden’s roads is as follows: curves, no signs and a passing car every few hundred km. “Stop, stop, a reindeer!” I was so happy when I saw two reindeer in the snow on the side of the road. One was a calf, brown, white and fluffy. Beautiful animals that unfortunately are not afraid of cars.