Surf Report # 12

Location: Grand Haven, MI – North Pier
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Air Temp: 28° F
Water Temp: 34° F
Wind: From W 10-14 mph
Waves: 3-5 feet
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves, .5 mm hood

Holy crow! What a great session! My sources claim that the water was 36 degrees, but as I dodged ice bergs near the shore I’m willing to wager it was a tad colder. The air certainly was under the freezing mark. Ever spent an hour and a half in near freezing water? I have and I can tell you that removing your gloves after this is a might difficult. Especially when you have ice caked on the outside of your fingers. Also had a nice layer of ice on the bill of my hood and a chunk of ice dangling from some exposed bangs. Funny stuff. One of those days that I didn’t mind the feeling of numbness all over though.

Took about ten minutes after I entered the lake to warm up the water inside my wetsuit and after that everything was reasonably toasty other than my fingers (I really need to invest in some nice thick lobster claws). Waves were super fun and I think it had to do with surfing near the pier rather than farther down the beach at North Shore (maybe more trapped water pushing toward shore?). It just felt like the waves had more oompf today. Felt comfortable catching most of the stuff I went for and probably had three of my top five all-time rides this afternoon. Felt good placing my board on the wave and felt good popping up. Even had a few suedo bottom turns. Dan was catching more than his normal share of waves as well so it definitely was a nice power day. A couple fishermen watched us from the pier like we were crazy.