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If you ask someone to imagine a surfer in the Great Lakes, most people, if they’re aware of any at all, might well think of Surfer Dan, aka Daniel Schetter. Schetter went viral four years ago, prompting Vice to publish of him venturing out into Lake Superior in the middle of a blizzard, catching harrowing waves and gliding back to the beach on top of the whitecaps of an improbably massive slate-gray wave, his massive beard encrusted in ice.

Schetter told Vice that he started surfing on a U.P. beach in a wet suit one winter. “And then I noticed I started to get icicles on my beard, and it made me feel like I was a kid again, when you take a shower before school, and you’re walking to school and your hair freezes. But it was on my face.”

It might be tempting to think of surfing as a West Coast sport, or to think that the nature of the Great Lakes as inland freshwater seas means that surfing here might be easier. But David Tuzinowski, Detroit native and owner of , an online surf gear retailer, estimates that there are 150 to a couple of hundred surfers throughout the Great Lakes. He points to the Great Lakes’ countless shipwrecks to say how difficult our waters can be.

“It’s pretty advanced surfing. … The water can be a little more extreme — cold water; a faster, steeper wave; a lot of rip currents — so it’s something that you need to have a little experience [with],” says Tuzinowski, whose shop, now online-only, was located on Cass Avenue in Detroit up until its closing in 2020 due to the pandemic shutdowns. “That’s not to say that you can’t go over to Lake Michigan and … get some smaller waves to learn how to surf. You can.”

The Great Lakes may be famous for the stormy weather that has resulted in so many shipwrecks, but “we can get some decent days with some decent-sized waves.”

Buoyancy is not as much of a thing in fresh water compared with the salt water most surfers are used to. While waves are less consistent, they usually come “much quicker,” according to Annabel Skrocki, co-owner of in Empire, even if “you have more time to breathe” between them.

“It’s such a refreshing and light, weightless feeling when you’re surfing, and it is also just so much fun,” Skrocki says. This summer will be the 20th year that the Skrockis have been in business. She calls her experience surfing salt water “wonderful and magical” but says fresh water is different because “the waves are brought in from storms, unlike the ocean when tides [bring] waves in consistently. Here, it’s hard to see that, so it is exciting and wonderful to see waves come in.”

Surfing lessons are available through summer camps and companies along Lake Michigan.

Sleeping Bear Surf provides surfing lessons as well as a shop to buy and rent equipment. , in St. Joseph, also offers surf lessons and shopping opportunities.

Boards usually range from the low hundreds to several thousand dollars, varying across several brands. But boards can be rented for a fraction
of that for a half-day or full day. Detroit Surf Co. is unique since Tuzinowski sells only the store’s brand (from surfboards to snowboards), unlike other shops that sell multiple brands.

Surfing can be a cliquey sport. Once they discover good spots, some surfers will want to keep them quiet. But a good place to start, according to Tuzinowski, is soft-sand areas on the eastern sides of the Great Lakes, along the Michigan side of Lake Michigan or the Ontario side of Lake Huron. If that is too far, Tuzinowski recommends Lexington, a beach town north of Port Huron, for great surfing.

This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of ������ Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of ������ Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our will be available on Aug. 6.