BLACK shapes bobbed on big waves out from shore. Through the pine trees off Stoney Point Drive, past parked cars idling with their heaters cranked on, the surfers of Lake Superior waited to catch a wave.
It was a Sunday morning north of Duluth, Minn., and a blizzard had overtaken the region. The surfers — apparitions in black neoprene, floating in mist far offshore — paddled and stood when a wave began to break....
All around the Great Lakes, from breaks on Lake Michigan to western New York and Lake Erie’s shore, a freshwater surfing scene has emerged in recent years. On Lake Superior, where winds swoop hundreds of miles across open water, surfers swim and paddle year-round to ride waves as tall as 20 feet, rushing tsunamis tumbling on an inland sea.
Read the rest.
There's a love of winter and then there's batshit crazy.
Seriously, I feel respect for the people who do this. Their sport requires both smarts and guts in large measures. And they certainly can't let concerns about their equipment slide. If I have a leak starting in my waders, I might let it go for a day. For Superior surfers, that could be a fatal error.
Actually, I think I would enjoy a day of this--in the capacity of a spectator. I'd be glad to keep the coffee hot.
(a later thought: imagine "Wipeout" rendered on accordion and fiddle...)
1 comment:
I've heard about this in my neck of the woods (Traverse City in Northern Michigan) but never seen it. I could imagine it in the Summer, but not in the Winter. It's just too cold!
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