![]() ![]() Adam Zarowny/Courtesy Aurelien Bouche-Pillon (left) Lisa Walter/Courtesy Jamie Walter Bouche-Pillon walks through snowy woods on the way to Lake Ontario (left) Jameson Walter stands on an icy staircase leading into Lake Michigan. The senior Walter takes extra precautions with Jameson, applying petroleum jelly to exposed skin and dumping warm water down their wetsuits for a little extra heat before, during, and after their sessions. Hypothermia is a significant risk: Without appropriate protective gear, surfers could lose consciousness in a matter of minutes. For winter lake surfing in particular, proper gear is critical, including thicker wetsuits, gloves, and boots. The lakes’ waves tend to be smaller and choppier than on the ocean, and fresh water is less buoyant than salt water, which means lake surfers tend to spend more time in the water than gliding on its surface. Walter often surfs the lake’s lighthouse-studded shores with his 11-year-old son Jameson, who started surfing here when he was six-and now has both an Instagram following and sponsorship from Michigan’s Third Coast Surf Shop. ![]() Like a hand pushing down on the water, he says, the cold air pushes down on the lake and whips up the waves. Also, “hot air rises, and cold sinks,” says Lake Michigan surfer Jamie Walter. While surfers can be spotted exploring the lakes year round, wave conditions tend to be better in the winter, due in part to stronger winds. “When you’re in the pocket of a wave,” she says, “it’s like nothing else in the entire world matters.” Everything changed, she says, when “somebody told me that you could actually surf here.” She went on to cofound a surf school called Saltless Surf, where she introduces people to the freshwater waves. When Lake Erie-based surfer Sam Macsai moved to Ontario from her native Australia, she found herself homesick, missing the sunshine, and unable to escape cycles of negative thoughts. Surfing in general has been shown to improve mental well-being, and surf therapy is becoming increasingly popular for the properly prepared, catching a wave along the edges of North America’s vast inland seas may be particularly beneficial during the long Midwest winter. Abagail Mckiernan/Courtesy Aurelien Bouche-Pillonīouche-Pillon is part of a growing number of surfers who venture out onto the Great Lakes in winter’s extreme weather, sometimes braving sub-zero temperatures and snow squalls in pursuit of adrenaline, catharsis, and an escape from seasonal blues. “It cleans the mind and body.” Aurelien Bouche-Pillon on a Lake Michigan shore after a big winter storm. “There is something very special and very spiritual about the cold water,” he says. Surfing had kept him out of trouble in his youth, but the freezing lakes elevated the sport. “That was the beginning of a long journey,” he says Bouche-Pillon had brought only a wetsuit, no surfboard, so he borrowed one and caught a wave. ![]() Two men were already out on the lake, riding the eight-foot-plus waves drummed up by the hurricane. He drove along the shore, through the storm, until he found a pier by a stony beach. “I’m thinking, with this body of water and those winds-if I’m in the right place at the right time, there must be a wave somewhere,” he says. Then, in 2006, Hurricane Ernesto flew up the coast and barreled into New York State.īouche-Pillon’s thoughts turned to Lake Ontario. Aurelien Bouche-Pillon, however, is preparing to go surfing.īorn in the coastal French city of Biarritz, Bouche-Pillon says he came to America “with a surfboard and a backpack.” He moved to Rochester for a girlfriend, but found himself feeling low during the long winters, when he fantasized about California’s waves. Most of the city’s inhabitants are hunkered down in the warmth of their homes, preparing for an imminent storm. Icy wind rolls off the shores of Lake Ontario, blowing past rows of pines and naked birches and reeling through the deserted streets of Rochester, New York. ![]()
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