SAINT PETERSBURG: The temperature is below zero, the wind is howling and the beach is covered with snow – perfect conditions for Russian surfing fanatics to wax their boards, don wetsuits and catch waves.
“Whether it’s winter or summer… it doesn’t matter, we go surfing,” says Nikita Kononovich, a 29-year-old entrepreneur standing barefoot in the snow on a beach on the Gulf of Finland outside the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg.
He points out that “it’s warm today” as thermometers show minus two degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit).
That’s nothing for a surfer like Kononovich, who recently took his board out on northwestern Lake Ladoga in temperatures of minus 10 degrees C.
The problem for surfers isn’t paddling into the icy water without freezing – but getting out of the water, says another surfer, Danila Novozhilov, who has won a title at Saint Petersburg’s surfing championship.- AFP
