Windsurfing in the Antarctica: Thomas Miklautsch sails near collapsing icebergs

December 1, 2017 | Windsurfing
Thomas Miklautsch: windsurfing between icebergs in Antarctica

In 2000, Thomas Miklautsch defied death when he became the first windsurfer to ride between icebergs in the most remote areas of Antarctica.

Miklautsch says he witnessed "the most bizarre landscape I've seen in my life" and enjoyed the ultimate cold water windsurfing experience.

As the founder of the film production company New World Spirits, he released "Ayahuasca: A Journey Into Another Reality," a windsurfing movie that gets Miklautsch sailing into the heart of the Amazon rainforest and then to Antarctica via South America's Tierra del Fuego.

"Mountains and islands of ice drifting along an untouched coastline covered by more unending miles of ice. I feel puny and insignificant sailing beneath it. Its massiveness humbles my being," Miklautsch states in the movie.

In one of the most dramatic moments in the film, Thomas Miklautsch watches parts of the Perito Moreno Glacier collapsing in front of him and generating a set of head-high waves.

Today, Thomas Miklautsch is no longer a professional windsurfer, but the Austrian continues his adventures to the most extreme place on earth.

If you're a fan of extreme windsurfing movies, watch "Cape Horn," one of his latest creations.

  • Dutch environmental activist and windsurfer Merijn Tinga, also known as the "Plastic Soup Surfer," has made an audacious journey from Oslo to London, braving the North Sea's currents and winds, to call attention to the pervasive problem of plastic pollution.