Surfing the Great Lakes

What are you, a detective? Enough already with your inane thread starters. Post something of substance, dill pickle.

 

I live in chicago but never made the time to surf. I guess you need a 7mil and crazy winter storms(?) and need to go to a very specific spot.

 

You too, pickle. Let us know how Lake Michigan works out for you this wknd.

 

surfed Selkirk Shore and Fair Haven, Lake Ontario NY last November (as I was home in Roch, NY for a family function). Very disorganized. Doing more research it looks as though Oswego, NY has a good spot to hit, but mostly for winter storms (north wind) and what November was was mostly west wind. I've read that the mouth of the St Lawrence has a spot that works in the right conditions. My biggest fear was what was under the water. I was not familiar with the spots, and had no idea what kind of man-made contraptions might be underneath the 6-8 footers.

here's a link for Ontario

here's a surf shop link from Chicago

west side of michigan looks to be the place to go, otherwise i think most lakes are very finicky and you're always gonna be living with on-shores....

 

i surfed lake erie during hurricane sandy it had a crazy sideshore current. the waves were about 6 foot, then the other time i went i get very sicks from surfing the lake.

 

I surfed there about two years ago. Went out for a wedding and was totally blessed to stay in a lake front summer shack- if it wasn't for the fresh water, you would think you where ocean front. I didn't know what to expect... Had some free time and found a board on the beach under a sailboat... So naturally....


Well- it's no Belmar... But yea, I would go again...

 

Oh yea... Bring some wax... Didn't have any out there


This was in grand haven mi. They actually have full on surf shops out there too!

 

BRO - you like food? especially fried haddock??? if you have time, hit up Jeans Beans in Watertown...I've in Portland, ME for 6 years and had a lot of fried fish, but Jeans Beans = THE BEST (and cheap)...the beans are fantastic too! gramma lived in Lowville and never went, but was in ADK for the weekend last week (it sucked, but managed to get up Pitchoff once the weather stopped dripping) and stopped there on the way back - truck stop atmosphere and them truckers know what to eat!

 

nice pics of one of the greats too...i think along with conditions and lake, it's all about finding the spot that can handle it all...

here is an article with a pic of Oswego off rt 89...if you look on a map it's pretty easy to find the spot where the pic is probably taken, given that any good conditions probably have winds blowing from NW

http://www.oswegonian.com/2012/02/23/surfs-up-on-lake-ontario/

If you drive through town when the wind is going too, you can see along the pier gets big (but probably disorganized)

Enjoy! and I do believe this is a totally relevant thread - but nothing beats the taste and feel of salt water!!!

 

Not much use listening to anyone that has posted 1000+ times here. That's like a full time job posting on an Internet forum......guaranteed those guys can't surf. Go for it and get some fresh water shacks. I heard sheboygan cab get good

 

Nice article. Also has a cool video. Enjoy:

http://www.surfermag.com/the-other-north-shore/

 

If it's all I had, okay. But since I live on the coast, I have no desire to head to one of the lakes. I would like to try river surfing sometime.

 

Copy that.. Not ready to charge waves when its -51F, but appreciate the stoke of these guys.

 

Been researching surf on the the GLs since 1999. Last summer, my gf, our dog, drove around all 5 lakes. My friend is from the UP of Michigan and we stayed with them. I surfed Lake Superior one day. The GL's are full of surf spots and are just amazingly beautiful in many places.