February Surfing

Saturday, February 11th was a great day to be a surfer in West Michigan. Instead of the usual chaos that characterizes lake surfing, strong winds and shifting waves breaking all over the place, this day was a beauty. The wind blew all night and then turned just enough to smooth out the nearshore waves. As seen in the picture above taken by Justin Bruursema of Burly Surfboards, whose Fist Pump I am riding, the surf was picturesque. The waves came in smooth, lined-up, not too big but big enough, and occasionally took me all the way to shore. [more pics]

dec 6 @ macatawa

Andrew and I surfed on Monday, Dec 6. The water was somewhere around 40 with 20 mph winds from the north, and air in the 20s. The conditions looked bad. But Andrew and I were committed to the adventure and were glad to spend a couple cold hours surfing. As it turned out, the waves were better than they looked, maybe 3-5 foot rights and a couple lefts holding up pretty well just inside the elbow. Andrew introduced his newly made fish to Lake Michigan. And I got to ride a mini-simmons made by Burly Surfboards. 

winter is here

Photo of the Red Stripe in action by Justin Bruursema. Justin, Ken, and I made it for a post-Thanksgiving surf session between the pier heads at Muskegon. Before we left, the air temp was 26 with a windchill of 9 degrees. It may not need to be said, but it was cold. The wind was howling and made the paddle out bitter. The waves were soft for the most part, having a little size. But the chill was what I will remember most--ice fell off my suit when I poured warm water over me before changing. Oh, the adventure of surfing Lake Michigan. I can officially say fall is over and winter is here.