Surfing the Chilly Great Lakes By Tony Schumacher  I ran across a couple of articles recently dealing with
surfing on the Great Lakes. I don't know about you, but this surprised me. It never dawned on me that people would actually want to surf in the chilly waters of the Great Lakes, or that the waves would be suitable for the activity. I mean Hawaii, California, Florida, and maybe Australia come to mind when you think of surfing.
One of the articles was written by Steve Hannah, a newspaper
columnist, and discussed some legendary surfers in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin area. One of them was Larry "Longboard" Williams. He surfs throughout the winter with a thick wet suit and hood until his board ices up and gets too slippery. The other article was in Newsweek . Heck, if it makes a national magazine, it's got to be catching on. The third movie in the "Endless Summer" series, released in 2002, was filmed in Sheboygan.
The local surfing enthusiasts even have their own organization, the Great Lakes Surfing Association. There are more than 2,000 lake surfers according to the president of the organization, Geof Taylor. They have a neat Web site, www.lakesurf.com. You can find weather and wave
conditions there, along with surfing pictures, upcoming events, etc. They mark the opening of the Great Lakes surfing season each year on Labor Day weekend at the Dairyland Surfing Contest in Sheboygan. It usually draws about 100 freshwater surfers.
Apparently thousands of years ago, Polynesians brought the skills of wave riding to Hawaii. Washburn, Wisconsin, is a long way from Hawaii, but a fellow named Thomas E. Blake from Washburn made a
big impact on the sport. He is credited with revolutionizing the design of the surfboards used for saltwater surfing worldwide. In the old days surfboards were carved from a single plank of heavy wood. They tipped the scales at around 100 pounds and as you can imagine were awkward and hard to maneuver. He developed a much lighter, "hollow" version made of plywood. The faster board was tested by the legendary Duke Kahanamoku.
Besides building the first hollow surfboard, Tom Blake was the first to surf Malibu Beach, designed and added a keel to surfboards, wrote the first book on surfing, invented the aluminum rescue torpedo, and designed the first waterproof camera. Wow! It's widely believed Tom was the first to put a surfboard in the waters of Lake Superior.
The prime surfing season on the Great Lakes does not gel with the warmest time of the year, unfortunately. With water temperatures usually
not above 45 degrees during the peak surfing season, you can bet full-body wet suits are a must. In fact some wear the bulkier dry suits, especially later in the season. Hypothermia and frost bite are real concerns when you consider wind-chill temperatures could be hovering at 10 degrees or less on some of the days that might be tempting for surfers.
The best waves are typically produced in the ferocious storms from October to January. For example in Sheboygan, waves can sometimes
grow to 20 feet in the gales that blow as intense low pressure systems move through the Midwest. Winds from the north, northeast, south or southeast are best for wave action in Sheboygan. Strong northeast winds are also needed around the Duluth-Superior area for good surfing. There are typically about 40 good surfing days at any one spot on the Great Lakes in a year.
Besides the temperature there are several other factors that can make
Great Lakes surfing rather challenging. One is the fact that freshwater is not as buoyant as saltwater. Thus it's harder to stay on top of the water in the Great Lakes. Second, waves break on average every nine seconds in the Great Lakes as opposed to 23 seconds in the ocean. The wind generated surface waves on the Great Lakes just are not spaced as far apart as the deep ocean swell waves. So you have to get used to that timing.
In the Duluth area surfers say some nice spots to try the waves are off the canal wall toward Park Point and down the road at Beach Park. On the rocky shoreline north of Duluth the mouths of the French and Lester rivers generate decent waves over river-washed cobblestone deltas. Beaver Bay, north of Two Harbors, Minnesota, is known for producing some monster waves. A 130-foot cliff shelters this river mouth from the northeasterly winds, allowing big waves to roll around the point into the
calm waters of the bay. Experts suggest this type of wave should be surfed only with caution by experienced surfers and with a partner.
If you're serious about wanting to try surfing or figuring out what kind of waves will occur at a given time and spot, good luck. The complicated shoreline features, shape and depth of the lakes, and weather data void areas, make it quite difficult. In general it's important to have strong
sustained winds. Just light winds with occasional gusts will not cut it. Just as in lake-effect snow forecasting, usually wind over a long fetch will produce better results. For instance a 30 mph sustained north wind blowing all the way down Lake Michigan will stir up bigger waves on the Indiana shore than a sustained 30 mph west-northwest wind. It's normally better as well if the wind direction remains steady.
There are a lot of marine observations and wave forecasts available
online from the National Weather Service. You can go directly to their Web sites. The Web site listed earlier in the article (www.lakesurf.com) has many important links as well.
Best of luck if you're going to be riding a wave anytime soon. I hope the winds line up just right!
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