Perfect Day: Erlendur Thor Magnusson

Erlendur Thor Magnusson is an Icelandic photographer with a 20-year-long obsession with surfing in any weather conditions. He humbly mentions that he has also “dabbled” in filmmaking. He is featured in one of Redbull’s ‘Chasing The Shot’ episodes, and numerous other short documentaries. Elli is currently very excited about a personal photography project of his, which involves plastic from the Icelandic fishing industry that often washes up onto the shores. Here’s how he would spend his perfect day.

Morning surf, obviously

My perfect morning in Reykjavík would be to wake up and make a cup of coffee — I like the Aeropress espresso — and to check the weather and wave forecast to see that everything looks good for a morning surf. I would then go surfing with my wife for a couple of hours. If I could pick the surfing conditions myself, I would have head-high waves, light winds, sunny skies, and for us to be the only ones there. We would then drive back to Reykjavík for a nice lunch and a coffee at The Coocoo’s Nest. We usually don’t eat breakfast, but ironically enough, their breakfast burritos are our favourites.

Work? No thanks, another swim please

On a normal day I would go to my office and do some work, but since I’m imagining my dream day, we would just head over to Lágafellslaug in Mosfellsbær to enjoy a combination of hot tub, sauna and cold tub.

Foodie’s dinner crawl

For dinner we would then walk around downtown Reykjavík and grab small things here and there. For example, tacos at La Poblana—we recommend the campechano or carnitas — then maybe some beef baozi dumplings at Dragon Dim Sum, and wings at Brewdog.

Beer with friends

At this point, I would go and meet some friends for beers at Kaffi Laugarlækur and hang out, so I could have a short walk home afterwards.