photo credit: Todd Binger

Winter surfing is not for everyone, in fact, it’s probably to be avoided by 99% of humans on the planet…

Here are a few options for the remaining 1% who enjoy dry suits, hypothermic waters, damp air and miserable wind, wind burn, and maybe some decent swell.

Lake Michigan:

“‘Obviously, most people think we’re crazy to be out here,’ said Ryan Gerard, who owns the popular Third Coast Surf Shop in New Buffalo, Mich. ‘Your average Great Lakes surfer is a little tougher than your average coastal surfer,’” writes Joel Hood of the Chicago Tribune.

Lake Superior:

“Surfing in a snowstorm may sound like a direct route toward hypothermia or certain death. But on Lake Superior, where surfers ride all months of the year, thick wet suits, gloves, hoods, booties and petroleum jelly smudged on exposed skin all form a protective shell against the crushing cold encountered by wave catchers in what is one of the world’s most unlikely surfing scenes,” writes Stephen Regenold of The New York Times.

Bundoran, Ireland:

“‘You’re not going to get some Irish kid walking around talking about ‘dude’ and ‘man,’’ said Richie Fitzgerald, 33, one of Ireland’s best-known surfers and the owner of a local surf shop. ‘We don’t have that surf-bum, hang-around culture. If you come here in February, you’re going to get pelted by hailstorms, and the only chick you’re going to see is a seagull,’” writes Sarah Lyall of The New York Times.

The Baltic Sea:

The beachbreak at Torö, Sweden (12 miles south of Stockholm on the Baltic Sea) has been a popular surf spot for more than 20 years. Jan Ekstedt was the first to surf Sweden in 1982, and later founded the Swedish Surfing Association.

Winter Project is a short film by Adam Falk documenting an unnamed surfer and this unassuming archipelago: