A Day at the Coldwater Surf Fest – Duluth, MN

Well, it’s been a while since I did a post on surfing — way too long. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So, I decided I had to get up to the annual gathering of the Superior Surf Club this year, something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years, and I was finally able to break loose this time. So, early Saturday morning, I pointed the Passat wagon north for Duluth — board strapped on top. [That was for looks only — I’m a warm water surfer only! 🙂 …and just in case someone wanted to try my vintage 6-ft singlefin stick.] I’d been praying for both good surf and good weather for a couple of days, really hoping the event could get a big turnout. Sadly, neither happened — well, not much in the way of surf, anyway. The weather? It was downright horrible. But nothing stops these guys, so I didn’t let it get to me, either! Actually it started out sunny as I left the Twin Cities, and the forecast there was for 75 F. But I knew a nasty low system was just to the north of us, and rain was in the forecast for Duluth — a 70% chance. The forecast high in Duluth had been trending down for a few days and was now only 59 F. Well, it never even came close to that! My car thermometer was at 46 when I pulled into Duluth, and I doubt it got much over 50 before I left. But it was fun, anyway, and I’m really glad I went. I wanted to meet these guys, shoot some pix, and blog about the event, which is officially called the Coldwater Surf Fest — this year’s was about the seventh or eighth annual. It was held at Park Point beach park, a very cool place out on a long, thin sandy penisula stretching straight south from the Canal Park bridge, lined with beach houses and, yes, even some new condo developments cropping up. The road dead-ends at a small airport, and the beach park is just before that. It has a gorgeous, wide sandy beach, lined with birch and pine forest, and lots of park area, with barbeques, and a big log-cabin type public beach building with concessions inside.

My photos, a selection of which you see here, are now up on this Flickr set. Warning: these are not great shots, to say the least! Far from my best surfing photography…. But the weather and surfing conditions were hardly ideal! With temps in the mid-40s, and winds straight onshore from the East at 15 mph+, the wind chill had to be 30 F. Fog was blowing in onto the beach, and I didn’t even realize for a while that it was fogging my lens pretty badly! My exposed hands were freezing — I needed gloves! Very soon after I arrived, I had to ditch the shorts and Rainbows for long pants, socks and shoes, a hooded sweat and jacket — just to survive the hour or so at water’s edge shooting. The surfers, however, had all the right equipment (6-mil wet suits) and seemed comfortable in the 45-degree water — where hood, gloves, and booties are mandatory, or you will go numb, guaranteed!

Anyway, even though my photos aren’t the greatest, I still thought you like to see the event documented. But, hey, if you really want to see some great Lake Superior surf photography, get this little book called Lake Superior Surf Guide. At only $8.50, it’s a steal. You will be freakin’ AMAZED! It’s by two of the Lake Superior North Shore surfing pioneers — Bob Tema and Brian Stabinger — who were both at the event. These guys are somethin’ else. Both residents of the Twin Cities, they often head out at 3:00 am just to make dawn patrol at their favorite breaks on Superior. I also got to meet Greg Isaacson, another, more senior pioneer of surfing Superior, whom I’d been wanting to meet for a long time — ever since I read this great article he wrote a while back. Greg was also raising money at the event for the Tom Blake memorial just across the MN-Wisconsin border, to honor one of the fathers of modern surfing.

That’s right, all you surfers out there — we’re talking the Tom Blake, who is more famously associated with surfing in Hawaii and California. He grew up right here on Lake Superior, on what’s called the South Shore in Wisconsin. According to Greg, Blake was undoubtedly the first person to ever take a board out onto the Big Lake. The sport of surfing owes this man a lot, this pioneering waterman from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. The big hardcover biography published on him a few years ago is a classic in many surfers’ libraries. And I was stoked to see Greg honoring the memory of this great man with a fundraising effort at the Coldwater Surf Fest. He even had some cool Tom Blake t-shirts made up, and I just had to have one…

By the way, here’s my previous blog post on Lake Superior surfing, called Gitchigumi Surf, which I wrote way back when I first launched this blog. That’s how I ended up hooking up with some of these guys by email, when they found my story — including Bob Tema. Bob was one of the featured surfers in the great documentary of a couple years about Great Lakes surfing called Unsalted. Do yourself a favor: go buy the DVD at that link on Amazon — you’ll be amazed at the sub-culture of surfing all over the Great Lakes.

But none of that Great Lakes surf culture can be any better than this group of dedicated coldwater guys on Lake Superior’s North Shore! We also talked about the interest building here to form a Lake Superior chapter of The Surfrider Foundation. I’m really stoked about that! A couple of guys are coming forward to help make my dream of getting a chapter going here a reality — Stefan Ronchetti, a surfer and professional inline skater based in the Twin Cities, and James Perry, a surfing physician about to move here from Connecticut, who was instrumental in getting a chapter of the Surfrider Foundation founded there recently.

It seems only fitting to me that the birthplace of one of the real fathers of modern surfing, Tom Blake — second only to Duke Kahanamoku himself as a surfing icon — should be the home of a chapter of the premier membership organization in all of surfing. Hey, we may not have an ocean, but we have great water, great beaches, and great surf breaks to protect, too! As my friend Jim Moriarty says (he’s Executive Director of The Surfrider Foundation), surfers are truly a global tribe. And I’m here to testify that the stoke definitely lives here in Minnesota….

Surf on, Minnesota North Shore brothers!! And the rest of you: bookmark that great Superior Surf Club web site…and come up to the Big Lake soon to hang out and see the action for yourselves.