On a recent trip to Duluth, Minnesota, the wind could really be felt pushing against the car and I began to wonder what the waves on Lake Superior were like. They’ve been know to get quite large and treacherous at times. Large enough to sink large ships – AKA the Edmond Fitzgerald. I’ve read about people out surfing these types of waves and I was curious to see if the conditions were right. On the north side of Duluth there’s an area to pull off the road and view this grandest of lakes so I headed there. Entering one of the snow covered parking spots I could see large waves crashing against the rocky shore and looking over to my right, there they were. A group of surfers! My wife and youngest daughter was with me and we sat there just watching these surfers as they would grab a wave and then paddle back into the zone.

It was interesting to see and compare as the week before we were in Hawaii watching surfers there. How was it different in these two bodies of water? Certainly water temperature was a main challenge and those people on Lake Superior had on wet suits to keep in any warmth in these frigid waters. The water temperature could not be that much above freezing as splashes from the waves were freezing on shore. Another very noticeable difference was the wave size. Many of the waves in Hawaii were as tall, if not taller than the people out surfing them while on Lake Superior they were only about 2/3rds the height of surfers. From a few discussions with the surfers in Hawaii I learned about using different boards for different wave types. I’m guessing the surfers in Minnesota were on different boards than those in Hawaii were using.

Watching these people out on the water with their boards in the middle of winter was a nice treat and reminder of warmer places from a few weeks before.  ‘Stay Warm!’ I thought as we pulled back on the road towards home.