Surfing Waves

Hello!
i Live in chicago IL, were the only way to find good surf is to fallow the rainbows and the low pressure systems during the winter, (Full booties and suit needed!)

ive been wanting to go to surf camp for quite sometime now.
but cant seem to find a High-end professional one, similar to Camp WoodWard in PA

if you know of any,
Please post!

-Nik

I don't know about any surf camps, but I surf in Michigan and chase low pressure too.

You ever go to New Buffalo?

And I don't know about Chicago, but it goes off here in the fall, almost daily. Anywhere from 6-12 feet (the buoy reads 14+, but I have never seen them break like that, I've only seen them actually break over 10' in the early winter)

Thanks cj,

ive never been to New Buffalo.

did you make it out to the dairyland classic this year?
i try'd getting out there myself but couldent make it.

cheer's
Nik

No, I went on a scuba diving trip with some friends instead.

Hopefully I will make it out there next year.

New Buffalo has a sick wave, you should check it out sometime.

where do you guys surf. do u surf lakes and stuff. or do you guys surf rivers during the perfect tide. that looks kinda fun

Surf in the great lakes.

They are huge lakes, basically freshwater seas.

During the fall, the waves consitantly reach well over 8', Sometimes the buoy reports in excess of 15', and on occasion even larger, they say that the Edmund Fince Gerald may have sank between two forty foot waves (it is hard to believe, but these lakes do have the capability of producing waves of that height (well at least Lake Superior does, I don't think Lake Michigan could ever really kick up past 20 feet)

But, the a-typical wave height is going to be 6-8 foot.

The waves do break with faces that are 8' and sometimes bigger.

During the winter a lot of surfers go out in below freezing temperatures wearing 7 mm wetsuits and surf the icy water too, which is a great time to catch larger waves, simply because the air is so cold compared to the water.

A typical early fall day here is going to be 2-4', sometimes 4-6', but then around this time of the year it starts building up, and gets bigger and bigger and more frequent.

The fall is the main surf season around here, because of the nice water temps, and the better surfing.

I know I know, you are probably thinking, yea but they are all mushy and blown out... Not true at all.

You have to catch the waves breaking when the wind is at just the right angle (so usually a good session last a few hours, before the wind changes and blows them out, but sometimes it can go all day)

And we surf in natural breaks, and by piers where the sand has made the waves very well formed, ocean quality, and sometimes nice, barreling, and peeling.

Localism doesn't exist here at all, it is a more the marrier attitude, I have had complete strangers come up to me, introduce themselves and offer for me to crash on thier couch so I can catch the morning session.

I have never heard of anyone being a prick in a line up here.

During the Summer you can forget about surfing, I caught a 2' wave in July, that was my summer of surfing here, it is really a fall and winter sport here.

The waves are closer together in the Lakes than in the ocean, sometimes a wave interval on a fully matured swell is only about 6 seconds, so if you want to surf here in the larger waves you have to be one hell of a paddler.

The lakes are fresh water, so they are less buoyant than the ocean too.

You have to be touch to surf the better waves here, that is for sure, short wave intervals, less buoyancy, usually harsher weather conditions (cold), and not a lot of people who live here know that people actually surf the great lakes, so you get a lot of funny looks when you are filling up your tank at the gas station with surfboards strapped to the top of your roof, especially when it is snowing out.

There was a short clip in the movie Step Into Liquid with great lakes surfing on it, but they came out on a day when it was like 2' mush, and basically made everyone here look like a bunch of rednecks.

There is another movie that was made recently by a local guy, and he made a documentary type movie all about great lakes surfing, and they had pro surfers in it, it depicted the lakes a lot better than the short half ass clip that was in Step Into Liquid, his movie is called UNSALTED. It is a pretty good movie, it shows lake surfing for exactly what it is.

The lakes even have a Tidal Wave, yup a real Tidal Wave can happen on the great lakes.

What happens is a large mass of low pressure slams down into the lakes and causes a kind of 'splash effect' like if you hit your hand against the water in the bathtub, anyway, a couple years ago this guy caught it all on video when one happened, and you can watch the time lapse where the lakes dry up and expose the sea bed for a ways out, and then the water all came rushing back in. They call it a Seeche.

If you look up Chicago Tidal Wave on the internet, you will find a news article about one a long time ago that killed 11 people.

Most people who live around here don't know about those either, most people stay away from the great lakes when they are doing funny things, Lots and lots of shipwrecks out there.

And yea, believe it or not, there are surf shops here, there are more and more places selling surfboards.

wow. that would be actually pretty cool to see-- lake/freshwater surfing...in michigan, no less...

is it more fun than surfing in the ocean?

their are camps in france called UCPA. The best thign to do is just rent an appartment or go camping next to the beach.
great lakes sound fun!

surfishlife wrote:wow. that would be actually pretty cool to see-- lake/freshwater surfing...in michigan, no less...

is it more fun than surfing in the ocean?

Sometimes, but the Ocean is the Ocean, ya know.

It's really not that different, except for the Great Lakes takes a lot of experience to be at the right place at the right time, and the surf culture is so small that it has a kind of underground feeling to it.

If you walk into a store in a beach town, where surfing is the most popular here and ask someone if you can surf on the great lakes, 8 out of 10 people will tell you no. It is really an unknown thing around here, it is part of what I like about it, I am the only surfer I know for about 50 miles, and there are only a few others within a 75 mile range, it is definately not the east or west coast, it is the Other Coast.

Hats off to you boys and girls who brave the super harsh winters for a wave, I read somewhere that its not uncommon to have to avoid large chunks of floating ice some days.

I just got the 'Unsalted' DVD as part of a magazine subscription. AThat was a real eye-opener... I couldn't believe some of it was actually on a lake, the waves were incredible. Those guys are real-hardcore, I have nothing but respect for them.