Exceptionally keen surfer, home board builder and luckily for us - smorgasboarder reader - Mike Roberson was kind enough to let us into his life surfing the Great Lakes in the United States of America. WORDS & PHOTOS: MIKE ROBERSON
California has long been the hotbed of surfing in North America and the East Coast has many decent breaks too. Unfortunately, I live over a 1000km from either ocean, yet I am a surfer. I am one of the fortunate few that surf America’s third coast - the waves that break along the shores of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes are a chain of five large bodies of fresh water located in the Midwest part of the United States. But these are no ordinary lakes. They are hundreds of kilometres long and wide and have a total combined coastline of over 17,000km with waves just waiting to be surfed. I live in Grand Haven, Michigan - a quaint tourist town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Grand Haven is a popular vacation spot known for its beautiful beaches and is quite possibly the birthplace of lake surfing. People first started surfing in Grand Haven as early as the 1940’s with a growth in popularity in the 1960’s that continues today. TOP: Surfing Mike’s homebreak of Grand Haven takes a lot of love and a plenty of rubber. ABOVE: Mike with one of his personal surfboard creations
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People are often surprised to hear that it is possible to surf the lakes, but due to their large size we do occasionally get pretty decent surf. In an average year there are over 100 surfable days. Of those, about 30 days would be considered very good and about 15 days of excellent surf. Most days it is knee to waist high, but occasionally we have chest high or bigger surf.
jul/aug 2012
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2/07/12 10:34 PM