Surfing in Michigan….on the Last Day of Winter
I spent a good part of my 20s and early 30s surfing along the East coast of Florida and around Galveston, Texas. While most of my surfer friends shared dreams about surfing Fiji, Indonesia, and Australia, I always fantasized about surfing odd, non-traditional surfing locales like Ireland, Morocco, and even the Great Lakes. Today I stumbled across this story at MLive.com about local surfers riding the frigid waves on Lake Michigan at Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon.
The last day of meteorological winter on March 19 brought strong winds to the Muskegon area, creating great waves for surfing.
Tuesday was the first time in months Lake Michigan was surfable due of an ideal mix of little ice and large waves. But it was still cold, with a high temperature of only 30 degrees.
Mike Sabatino and Scott Sportel drove up from Grand Haven to surf at Pere Marquette because, according to Sabatino, it was the only place in the area where the wind was hitting the water in the right direction to create ideal surfing waves.
About half an hour into the set, Sabatino broke the fin on his board. He paddled in, rested for a few minutes, grabbed his other board and hit the waves again.