Alaska Life

Our Alaska: Glacier Island wakeboarding

As a kiteboarder and wakeboarder, Andy Hurdman's about done it all. He's a professional and now a coach, having won competitions from South Carolina to Michigan. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have time for a little fun. And it looks like that's exactly what he did when he decided to do a little wakeboarding during a trip to Alaska, waiting for the wind to pick up.

This video, uploaded to Vimeo by Ben Sampson UpDown Productions, is just a trailer for a longer video recorded during Hurdman's trip to Glacier Island in Prince William Sound. Check out the way Hurdman uses chunks of ice as ramps, and cruises under low-hanging shelves of ice, where one miscalculation could mean serious injury, or worse.

The video's already gone viral, racking up 325,000 views in just a couple of weeks, and it's easy to see why. The environment definitely throws a new twist into the same old wakeboarding tricks, and Hurdman doesn't even catch major air or pull any particularly challenging moves.

Want more? Check out the full length video at the "Catchin' Air" webseries, and maybe take a glance at the other Alaska video, recorded in Windy Bay on the Alaska Peninsula.

Our Alaska takes a look at the people, places, activities and wildlife that make Alaska great. There's the Alaska that many people know from reality television, and then there's Our Alaska. If you have a video that puts the spotlight on the positive, educational or unique aspects of Alaska and its people, send links or submissions to ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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