I’ve been surfing lately. It’s the season around here, as the weather systems start dropping down out of Canadian cold and blow across the still warm lake. A good friend of mine and award winning film maker, Ryan Bigelow, put together a quick video of his session this morning along with some shots of a session from a few days ago. My son is featured which is very nice for me. I made it in just after they left this morning.
Click either image to go to the video.
It was the horizontal sleet in my face that was the hardest to take. It nearly blinded me.
Saturday we had gale force winds, sleet and snow. The winds kicked up some good size waves on the western shore of Lake Michigan. We had quite a bit of rain the days before and along with a ton of melted snow the sewage system here in Milwaukee was overwhelmed and the water works was dumping sewage into the rivers and lake. That shut down a couple of beautiful surf spots, leaving few choices if you wanted to paddle out.
One spot far enough away from the sewage release had a hellatious current. That left a spot just south of the ruins of a once well maintained beach resort. All that is left these days are three groins made of jumbled concrete that go from the beach directly out into Lake Michigan and the rotting slabs of concrete along the shore of what were once large structures, bath houses, concessions, and even a tramway. Now the slabs thrust rusting rebar up into the waves near shore making surfing there especially dangerous.
With north winds the groins create a point break of sorts, bending the waves around in clean arcs of peeling grace. Saturday was a different story. Saturday was just this side of manageable chaos, near washing machine conditions.
The wave period, the time between wave peaks was a mere 6 seconds. The waves were waist to chest high but were being blown in as chaotic peaks. The air was 38 degrees as was the water and the sleet came in horizontally. Looking out into the lake to watch for incoming waves hurt like hell.
I paddled out by myself around 3:30 Saturday afternoon, turning around just in time to catch a great wave. That is the sucker wave of course. Not because you’d paddle for it and miss it, but because that one great ride would entice you to stay out in the storm looking for another great ride. Tim G. joined me before I could catch another wave. There wasn’t much chance of talking. Occasionally we shouted a few words, but mostly we watched each other over the tops of the waves as we traded rides.
I was done in after an hour. My face felt sunburned from the pelting it took from the sleet and I headed back up the bluff. Here’s where civilization comes in.
From the time I paddle ashore to the time I was soaking in the most delicious hot bath was no more than 30 minutes. It was there, lying in that tub of hot water that I realized what has to be the best mark of a civilized society, the ability to heat water and to bathe, to luxuriate, to spend time thinking and philosophizing, letting your mind wander down lazy pathways, soaking in that wonderful warm, nay, hot liquid.
I don’t access a high speed connection on weekends. This blog will more than likely not have weekend postings.
I did access some surf this weekend though. Friday night into Saturday the wind blew close to 20 knots out of the north north west (NNW) and that set up some sweet waves by Saturday afternoon. There’s a spot I like on a NNW that’s less than 10 minutes from my house. The waves wrap around a point and large structure and come pealing in parallel to shore for some really nice long rides. There some pretty good size boulders out there and you have to paddle several hundred yards to get to the line up, but the waves are worth it. At least I think so. So far I’ve had a hard time getting any of my surfing buddies to try it. One guy did and really liked it, but he’s flying all over the world on business these days and hasn’t been surfing much.
On Saturday I was able to get a couple of more friends to try it and a surfer that’s new to the local scene paddled out as well. So we had a total of four surfers on chest to head high peaks that peeled along glassy walls for yards and yards and yards. Everyone was hooting and hollering and having a gas. It was pretty cool to have the new guy out since he was a California surfer and this was only his third time surfing fresh water.
Sunday I was able to put the winter log on Orca’s mooring. A messy job as you have to haul out the summer mooring buoy that is about one third covered in slimy algae and handle the heavy, algae covered chain. All from your little eight foot dinghy. I was also able to take the rest of the sails back to the shop for winter storage. Soon Orca will be tucked away under her winter tarp for a long winter’s nap. That’s alright, at least I can rest easy knowing she’s safe for the next couple of months. And, I can look forward to winter surf season, when winter storms tear across the plains bringing howling winds that push up great waves on Lake Michigan.
Saturday I was able to take a friend I surf with and his girlfriend, whom I’d never met, sailing on our Ranger 26, Orca. What a beautiful afternoon here in Milwaukee. The wind was out of the south south west around 20 knots. We’re on the western shore of Lake Michigan so that put the wind coming off shore which meant very little waves. The sky was clear, the air warm for late October. We reached on reefed main and big genoa north along the shore spotting sites we regularly surf.
After an hour or so the wind veered a little more south and we had to come about and beat back. The wind built some as did the waves and before long we had the occasional wave over the bow. I was a little afraid that one of my guests may get a little sea sick. Usually, that can happen as you’re sitting on a pitching boat, not thinking about much and just staring off into space. Luckily, my friend’s girl friend had taken 2 ginger capsules before coming aboard and my friend was an experienced sailor with little tendency to get sea sick. The ginger capsules worked great and we are able to carry on an animated conversation even as we pitched over ever building waves with the occasional spray off the bow hitting us.
M, my friend’s girl friend, works in internet sales for a large retail corporation and we began discussing my goals of a new web site with online sales capability. T, my friend is a writer and currently works as an editor for a sailing magazine. What a great afternoon we had out on Lake Michigan. We talked about classics, about the internet, about commerce all as the wind grew ever stronger. At one point M asked what kind of furniture I make. I found myself talking about the difference between Louis the IV and Louis the VI styles, about the history of Biedermeier, antique Asian finishes, mid-century modern and my own, organic, Scandinavian-influenced, studio based style. Luckily for M and T the harbor approached fast as we were really smoking along and I had to go up on the fore deck to take down the genny and could not carry on and on about furniture and art.
Sunday I ran into T at one of my favorite surf spots. The wind had built overnight and come more out of the south and we had chest high waves to ride that wrapped in around the sea wall along the north side of the Milwaukee harbor. Just as the wind backed a little to the west the waves cleaned up and offered a good 3 hours of surf. This spot is cool because we’re surfing right along the sea wall and rocks put in to protect the road that runs along the lake front and these both are great places for people to view us surf. Since it was again warm and sunny we had quite the audience. Too bad the waves tended to back off after the initial drop. Nevertheless it seemed that everybody was having fun.
