When surf and travel photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh headed down to his local beach on a cold day recently, he knew he
was going to capture something special… and also extremely rare. Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
“It’s been super cold here,” he later told Stay Wild magazine.
“The harbor to the main land is frozen solid. No boats running. [But] I
was totally tripping when I pulled up to the beach and saw this.”
The waves he saw hitting the beach in Nantucket, a small island off the coast of the US state of Massachusetts, were frozen. Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
Except that they weren’t completely frozen. Instead, they were full
of ice, but still had enough liquid in them to behave almost like normal
waves. Almost, but not quite.
The ice prevented the waves from breaking, so instead of a lot of white water, they formed these perfect curls. Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
The consistency reminded Nimerfroh of slush puppies. So he nicknamed the stunning photo series he captured “slurpee waves”. Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
The following day apparently the sea was completely frozen up to 200
metres off shore meaning the slurpee waves were a short-lived
phenomenon. Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
Photo: Jonathan Nimerfroh
