When French explorers first charted the waters of the Great Lakes, they called them the “mers douces”– the sweet seas…and not without good reason.   There aren’t tides or salt water, but there are just under 11,000 miles (17,500 km) of coastline to paddle, and when conditions are right, we can get some awfully good surf.

On my home waters, Lake Erie, good conditions mean north winds blowing at least 20 knots.   We get lucky on occasion in the summer, but mostly it means paddling cold, wet, and gloomy days in the late fall, when arctic air flow starts dropping in on us from Canada.Lake Erie waves tend to be steep, with a wave period of generally 2-3 secs….in other words, you don’t have a lot of time between waves.   So, we learn to do things fast up here!   Of course, the Great Lakes have their advantages…for instance, you don’t have to wash your gear off afterwards!

I’ve been collecting bits and pieces of video footage for a short video of the 41° North crew surfing our big pond.   I’ll let you know when it’s done! 

Top:  Me getting pushed around by a bit of Lake Erie surf.   Left:   41° North paddling instructors Nick and Marius and a whole lot of white water.

  

Posted by Mark Pecot

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 12:54 am and is filed under Surf.