About

Skallevold is a novelty wave. If it isn´t breaking, it is a lovely beach to hang out at. There is also a nearby headland with many forest trails. The coastline gets more sunshine hours than anywhere else in Norway and likely explains why so many vikings lived in the area back in the day (because they could more easily grow food crops). The unearthed viking ships in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo all came from this area. The nearby city of Tønsberg is a medieval capital city of Norway, busy sea port and interesting place to walk around in. Åsgardstrand to the north is a charming seaside town and traditional artist colony (the light is unique) where the Norwegian painter Edvard Grieg lived in summertime and painted some of his most famous works. His house is a museum. A little farther north is the city of Horten, which has an amazing national park dotted with huge viking burial mounds. The city also has numerous summer music, food and beer festivals and is a ferry port to cross Oslo Fjord over to Moss and onto Sweden.

Atmosphere:
Skallevold is an infrequent surfing wave that breaks where a surfing wave should not, on Oslo Fjord, but does when large south swells from the open North Sea and Skagerak make it up this far north along a 300 meter deep trench/channel offshore.

The wave is easy to catch and fun to ride. Not a lot of power, but what do you expect at a spot where the largest waves usually come from passing ferry boats on their way to Oslo, Kiel and Copenhagen. During mid-summer the water is warm, up to 72 degrees F, but extremely cold in the dead of winter, down to freezing.

Additional Info:
Park your car in lot next to the kiosk and walk across to beach.

Location

Access

Easy to find. Drive either north from Tønsberg on Highway 311 (about 8 kilometres) to the Skallevold sign and take a right, or south from Åsgardstrand on Highway 311 (about 7 kilometres) to the Skallevold sign and take a left.

Wave Characteristics

Ideal Conditions

Crowd

Dangers

Rocks

Videos

None