POST
Surfing Season
Tuesday September 28th, 2010
Over the weekend I dug my winter coat out of a box, preparing for the cold of the coming months. However, a small group of extraordinarily committed residents of Cleveland may have been unpacking their surfboards.
Our Cleveland-based photographer Billy Delfs first braved the cold to photograph the Cleveland winter surfers in 2000. After spending some time in New York, he returned to Cleveland and found them again. “I live near the lake, and I’ve been going there to watch these guys for years,” Billy told me. “Every winter or just before, I see them on the lake when I drive by, so I stopped last year a few times to ask if I could photograph them.”
Blogger Matthew Newton, inspired by Billy’s photos, did a little research and found out that people in Cleveland have been surfing since the 1950s, centered in a nearby town called Edgewater. Matthew explains how it works:
What’s interesting about surfing Lake Erie in Cleveland is that waves aren’t created by currents but by weather conditions, like snow, sleet, wind, and rain. So the colder and rougher the weather, the better the waves. If the weather is calm, the waves disappear. Timing is everything.
A surfing blogger adds, “Cleveland surfers are a different breed, for sure, and some of the coolest people you’ll meet. It takes serious dedication to surf there and these guys are dead serious about it.”
If you’re interested in learning more, check out the documentary about winter surfing called Out of Place.
-Asad
This is super cool.
I too live on one of the great lakes… Lake Superior. A lot of people might be surprised to know that there are surfing communities in places like this. A couple of years ago a friend of mine got a surf board and that’s when I started photographing our little scene. Eventually I got to try it for myself and all I have to say is that most of the time it’s not as cold as it looks. However, there are definitely day when it’s as cold as it looks.
If anyone’s interested here are links to a couple of our sessions…
http://www.juskuz.com/2010/01/03/surfing-lake-superior-in-marquette/
http://www.juskuz.com/2009/12/10/keweenaw-winter-surfing-adventure/
http://www.juskuz.com/2008/12/07/winter-surfing/
Really nice fotos!