I live on the shore of the Baltic Sea...where the conditions are actually pretty similar...or one could say we have smaller/crappier waves in general (even despite being on the shore of a sea instead of a lake!)
Anyway, all these pics and videos make me want to go searching (Lately I've been trying to find protected mini waves for my 145l Surf SUP...everyone here seems to surf on hellish onshores when there's some winds/swell...so I think there might be some undiscovered potential for small waves/bigger board, in a bit protected bays etc. . Still haven't found anything super good but I guess the search in itself is worth it anyway...
09-08-2016, 05:10 AM
Flea
I like your attitude^^^^^^^:)
09-08-2016, 10:18 AM
ill-advised strategy
Yeah, if the water is moving there's likely some formation that's handling it properly. Don't settle for the howling onshore if you don't have to....Although, living in that situation I can say sometimes you just want size and the only place with the size is the howling onshore.
The laws of physics are the only thing that matters: it's 8 feet from 180, maybe it'll be 3 or 4 feet on a shore facing 90 with a side wind, maybe that shore has a big headland and there's effectively no wind at that break, maybe it's 12 feet from 180 and it's 3 or 4 feet at a shore facing 120 with offshores.
Or maybe there aren't those wraparounds, and you're looking at 12 foot howling onshore but you wait until the wind quits, or even better: the wind switches. Then you have a few precious hours of the swell cleaning and dwindling...and that can be great too. Apply your mind and search.
09-12-2016, 01:03 AM
Jiehkevarri
^^^Exactly.
There aren't that many good wraparounds though...or there are actually lots of'em but...too much...the coastline is super rugged/"fractal", there's too much every kind of formations to break up the swell. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archipelago_Sea). The rare easy access open spots are quite known, and there the latter case (waiting for the just right moment for the swell to clean up) is the best option. On the west coast of Finland (about 450-500kilometers drive for me = too much for me usually) there are more open sea beaches, and definitely our best spots.
Actually, there are probably quite a lot of unknown spots still, but they are all on the outer archipelago, so you'd need a boat, a very good boat (think about a howling November storm) to reach the outer rocks. Well, maybe Redbull does that some day too :D
^^ That's a pretty nice looking left. Surfing with snow on the ground...The stoke is high among the northern Michigan folks.
You need to visit New England. My first surf adventure after Columbus Day was a Black Friday at 2nd Beach, Narragansett in Rhode Island. Some younger kids were making a snowman as my buddy and I grabbed waves. I was wearing jeans and a wool sweater under a rented diving dry suit. The kind you can inflate and had some sort of metal device that bruised my chest and severely dung my Aiken (plastic mold surfboard). Good times. Muck prefer the so cackled cold water of California.
06-11-2017, 08:09 PM
ill-advised strategy
1 Attachment(s)
One more of me this morning...shot by Garrett Burton:
No, and in fact it would be difficult to relate a sense of "typical", given sporadic and localized nature of waves on the lakes. The setup in the photo happens maybe, if I had to guess, about 20 times from spring to fall. It's very difficult to get into any size here without going full-on onshore gale. The wraparound it takes for swell to clean up takes a big chunk out of the power, and these are already gutless 6 to 8 (at most) second period waves...hence the tandem board.
As far as southern lake superior and northern lake michigan (and in all likelihood northern lake huron as well) the springtime can be a near-total skunk, as was the case a few years ago when there was still significant ice flow until mid June. In that case the usual storms had the usual effects, except everywhere waves were pushing, so was miles of ice. If the water is open, there are consistent (meaning weekly-ish) N and NW storms from late winter through maybe early May or thereabouts.
It doesn't really get going again until early september.....that time being the very best few weeks of the year, with warm water, long days, limited insects, and regular wind storms.
From the UP a couple of weeks ago, near Big Bay. It is about waist high, I would have surfed if I had a board. I have always wanted to surf up there.Attachment 211079
09-13-2017, 02:36 PM
ill-advised strategy
wtf are/were you doing in Big Bay?
Big Bay Powell Township Big Bay, or Big Bay de Noc?
If you mean Powell Township Big Bay, it's weird to see any reference to it here because, you know, it's pretty isolated (I guess not as much now as when I was a kid, but still).
09-21-2017, 09:54 AM
Long duc dong
Quote:
Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy
wtf are/were you doing in Big Bay?
Big Bay Powell Township Big Bay, or Big Bay de Noc?
If you mean Powell Township Big Bay, it's weird to see any reference to it here because, you know, it's pretty isolated (I guess not as much now as when I was a kid, but still).
It is indeed near Powell Township Big Bay. I probably should not say this, as since you are from the area you might not like me when I tell you, but I have been going up there with my family my whole life, and my mom has been going up for her whole life. She grew up outside of Detroit. We are part of a club up there, you can probably guess the one. It is located at the end of county road KK, the road dead ends at the club gate. I absolutely love it up there, I consider myself very lucky to be a part of it. Some locals don't like us because of how great the land we have is, and I might well feel the same way if I were them. It is the greatest place in the world to me, like I said I've been going up there since I was born. Since I moved to California I have always dreamed of surfing there, and I could have done it this year, albeit in mediocre surf.
I can see why you are amazed to see a Powell Township Big Bay reference, it is indeed very remote. A great place to be away from civilization for a couple of weeks. Like I said, I am very lucky to be a part of it. Travis Rice is also a member, interestingly enough. Some of my friends know him although I don't. He always comes up at different times than I do.
09-21-2017, 10:01 AM
Tye 1on
I spent a summer caretaking for a family out of Chicago who had a camp halfway between Big Bay and L'anse.
10-24-2017, 11:11 AM
F#*k you cat
1 Attachment(s)
Looks like some serious wind - waves are in the forcast
That one ended up killing two people. I got out for 3 waves close to home and had to leave the board tied to a tree because I couldn't carry it upwind. It was pretty intense.
My friend, who was a city councilman here and the director of the local chamber of commerce, was surfing another sheltered spot, and posted something on his facebook about being glad to be on shore after some tough surfing, and everyone blew up because the whole town conflated the tourons who got swept into the lake taking The World's Stupidest Selfie with the few of us who surfed that day....he had people excoriating him about going out and surfing "putting first responders at risk" etc. No surprise, he found himself a better job elsewhere this summer. He may not have said anything about that bullshit, but I can read between those lines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Long duc dong
Some locals don't like us because of how great the land we have is,
No, not "some locals", every local. Your servants are spitting in your food up there. It's not about jealousy over your land, it's about how almost every one of us has had some negative experience with the club.
Anyway, there's nothing less stokey than the Huron Mountain Bilderberg Club and its armed goon squad being assholes to everyone.
So here's something not awful for our stoke thread:
09-23-2018, 03:49 PM
PB
Damn. That renews my faith in the species.
09-24-2018, 12:35 AM
Jong Lafitte
Quote:
Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy
That one ended up killing two people. I got out for 3 waves close to home and had to leave the board tied to a tree because I couldn't carry it upwind. It was pretty intense.
My friend, who was a city councilman here and the director of the local chamber of commerce, was surfing another sheltered spot, and posted something on his facebook about being glad to be on shore after some tough surfing, and everyone blew up because the whole town conflated the tourons who got swept into the lake taking The World's Stupidest Selfie with the few of us who surfed that day....he had people excoriating him about going out and surfing "putting first responders at risk" etc. No surprise, he found himself a better job elsewhere this summer. He may not have said anything about that bullshit, but I can read between those lines.
No, not "some locals", every local. Your servants are spitting in your food up there. It's not about jealousy over your land, it's about how almost every one of us has had some negative experience with the club.
Anyway, there's nothing less stokey than the Huron Mountain Bilderberg Club and its armed goon squad being assholes to everyone.
So here's something not awful for our stoke thread:
Rad video. “Ever since I got back into surfing, I stopped having nightmares about not surfing”
Rad video. “Ever since I got back into surfing, I stopped having nightmares about not surfing”
Rad thanks for sharing I love this guy.
He’s an enigma. If there’s nothing else to talk about, two surfers around here can go for half an hour puzzling and speculating and recounting about Dan. If it were all sunshine snd rainbows there’d be less to talk about. That vid shows no downside, but he can be volatile and unstable and confrontational and hard to predict.
I gained perspective on Dan when I read an exhaustive biography on Miki Dora. He’s so similar...I find myself having the same kinds of experiences and sharing the same kinds of sentiments people related about Dora.
As such, it’s an arms length kind of thing.
09-25-2018, 10:17 AM
jackstraw
Quote:
Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy
No, not "some locals", every local. Your servants are spitting in your food up there. It's not about jealousy over your land, it's about how almost every one of us has had some negative experience with the club.
Anyway, there's nothing less stokey than the Huron Mountain Bilderberg Club and its armed goon squad being assholes to everyone.
Whoa...crazy place and history. I can only imagine the hate going on. But shit, Long duc dong seems like a great dude. Not his fault his family comes from some sort of lineage with means. Seems like they need more like him.
09-25-2018, 10:27 AM
SumJongGuy
Winter great lake surfing videos never cease to amaze me. So CORE. My idea of too cold to surf without a suit is high 60s low 70s in October out here and I haven't been motivated to do that in about 20 years..
But hey, at least there aren't any sharks up there..
09-25-2018, 12:30 PM
ill-advised strategy
It would have to be really really good to get me to surf during ski season. Knowing the guys, I think a lot of it (dead of winter, ice, etc) isn’t fun... it’s just about getting a cool photo. In that way I find it kind of reminiscent of the hucking photography scene in skiing.
I may be a puss, but I’m a lot less reckless about ice season. It can get really difficult to get out of the water, so the prospect of maybe getting hurt out there and needing to climb out...I’ve been in shorebreak with big, thousand pound chunks moving around and it also seems possible to get a leg crushed or get pinned. Meh, not my scene.
It’s visually stunning though...just like a big huck on film.
01-22-2019, 11:32 AM
Ottime
Just watched this this morning with my son. Fucking rad. Pitted on the lakes. Sure, it probably is usually just better to ski, but this is kind of cool too. I don't know if you are being a puss ill-advised, but anyone surfing in these conditions are definitely pretty core.
I used to surf the dead of winter in NYC. Didn't ski a the time. Couldn't afford that. Only had subway fare. There is something to be said about surfing with snow on the beach.