Lake Swell Diaries

Photo & video diary of my freshwater surf adventures on the Great Lakes.

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 13

More waves on Lake Ontario. I decided to check out Oshawa today seeing there were 20-30km/h S winds switching to SW later in the day. A surf friend I met at Bond Head, Chris, told me he was heading there and I immediately hopped in the car and drove like crazy.

The waves were messy, but not too crazy. My good friend Matt lives in Oshawa and surfs as well, so I told him to come out and catch some waves with me. He did, and that was awesome.

As the day wore on the waves became more hectic, I would relate the feeling to being inside a washing machine. Waves going every which way, crashing into each other and making it quite difficult to catch a break. We managed to grab a few rides, but nothing amazing. There were a couple other guys there that were ripping closer to the pier, that was pretty sweet.

Right before it got too dark to see, the winds really whipped up and were blowing us all over the place as we fumbled our way to our cars. Apparently the winds will be 60+ km/h with gusts up to 100km/h SW, which means there might be good swell tomorrow in Toronto!

*Note: I am out of shape and shall begin exercising more often.

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 12

Winter weather in southeastern Ontario is in full swing. Snow, cold and wind. Fortunately, this works out for surfers as you all know. After seeing some waves in the forecast on Lake Ontario, I started chatting with surfers in the community trying to make plans to meet up. Jonathan got in touch with me the night before asking if I'd want to go to Cobourg to try and score some swell. I was down for that. The next morning I met with him at the pier and instantly realized the waves weren't so great. The winds were coming from the SW, which meant that further east would probably would have better conditions. We hopped in the Volvo and made our way to Sandbanks.

We scouted a couple of other possibly breaks on route, but none offered good enough size/power of waves. When we pulled up at Richardson (Sandbanks) we knew it was worth the trek. Wetsuits were donned, wax was applied to the boards and we hopped in the frigid waters of Lake Ontario.

Another surf pal, Lewis, and his brother arrived shortly after us and just like that we had a little gang. The waves came in nicely, 3-4 feet, and the wind wasn't too strong either which made being out in the open a bit more manageable. We were in the water for over 2 hours and had a good time as usual.

Looks like more waves are coming this week as well!

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 11

Yay! More wind! I've been paying attention to the weather lately because it's November; Prime time for waves. Saw there were going to be some decently strong W/SW winds soaring across Lake Ontario and decided to head east in search of some swell. The forecast was true. The 20-25km/h winds had created some fun 3-4 foot waves at Bond Head. I had been chatting with a couple people through the Toronto Surf Club Facebook page and knew there would be a good sized gang in the water which is always fun.

Waves were decent, and I was making an effort to paddle more and sit on my board waiting for waves. This in turn caused me to become very sore and out of breath all the time due to me being out of shape (haha). But nevertheless, I managed to catch a couple good waves on my longboard. Unfortunately, the cold weather sapped the power out of my GoPro and it turned off mid session. I stayed in the cold waters for about an another hour and grabbed a couple more rides as well as some great faceplants.

Met a couple of cool guys today who have only been Facebook acquaintances. Gavin, Chris, Mark and Ben were all out ripping. Gavin was on his new homemade board and it looked pretty sweet.

I can't type anymore because my arms feel like overcooked pasta.

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 10

Ugh, been missing out on surfing lately due to work and had to do something about it. I'm going to keep this pretty short cause I'm tired and want to go to bed.

Saw some wind, possibly 4-5 foot waves in Lake Ontario. Drove to Bond Head, no waves. Drove to Cobourg, decent waves (2-3 feet along the pier). Put on new 5.4 wetsuit, boots and gloves. Proceeded to sweat and get very warm while attempting to ride little waves. Had fun.

Can't wait to go out again soon!

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 9

Surfing twice in one week is a beautiful thing. We had gone out on Monday to Ashbridges Bay and scored some unexpected waves and then today we got to surf again! The forecast was showing good swell all over the Great Lakes so I decided on heading east to take advantage of the strong SW/W winds.

I grabbed Sascha early in the morning and made our way to the 401. My fiancé lives in Picton which just so happens to be close to some great surf breaks, so the roadtrip doubled as a way for me to surprise her. It's a decent drive, about 2 hours, but it is always worth it. We arrived in Picton, dropped off the dog, and headed to Sandbanks. We checked out Richardson Beach but the wind was howling. 50km/h W winds had turns the waves into a big sloppy mess and it would not have been fun at all. The other spot that I haven't surfed at in the are was Wellington Beach, so we got back in the car and proceeded to drive there.

As soon as well arrived at the beach we knew we had scored. The waves were coming in with a lot more consistency and size; between 4-5 feet every 6 seconds. Wetsuits were put on and the boards were waxed. I took out my Walden longboard which has been really fun to ride the last couple sessions. I walked out in the warm water and got my first wave of the day on my first attempt! Stoked. We surfed there for about 2 hours and it was a blast. My last ride was one of the best I've ever had, riding across the wave on my frontside.

Quite drained, we grabbed some pizza and garlic bread from a local pizza shop in Wellington and headed back to Picton. I still wanted to surf though, so our break time was short lived as we headed back to Sandbanks in hopes of catching some more waves. We stopped on the other side of the point there due to the wind still being too much to be enjoyable. The waves were small, 2-3 feet, but it looked fun for my longboard. Sascha was exhausted so he slept in the car while I got in an hour of surfing.

We headed back to Picton when I was done and cooked up a feast on the BBQ and relaxed for a couple hours before heading back to Toronto. Super awesome roadtrip. I can't wait for more surf days this fall!

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 8

Today was fun. Extremely fun. Sascha, who I haven't seen in months, messaged me about any waves in the forecast. I didn't think there would be any for a couple days at least near Toronto. Boy, was I wrong.

I noticed a fellow surfer mention he was going to Ashbridges Bay to surf in the afternoon. This piqued my interest. I immediately checked all the usual wave hunting/forecasting sites and low and behold: there were going to be waves 2-3 feet in the west end of Lake Ontario due to 20-25km/h E winds blowing. I was out running errands at the time but when this information became known, I quickly sped home and packed up the gear for a surf session.

On the way down to Ashbridges I picked up Sascha and we made our way to the break. We tossed on our gear and hopped in the water alongside a couple other surfers and a SUPer. Everyone was ripping. I was using my longboard mostly but traded with Sascha so he could catch some smaller waves. The swell grew throughout the sunset session and by the peak they were about 4 feet and had some nice clean faces.

Unfortunately, my GoPro hadn't been fully charged. It died mid session. Oh well, we had a blast and I can't wait to get out throughout the fall while the water is still warm.

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 7

I've been missing out on the waves the last week or so on Lake O. Freelance work and assuming there won't be any waves is to blame for that. Thankfully the winds have continued to blow, from the southwest, which meant there was some action at Sandbanks. My fiancé travelled to Ottawa to see family and I said that I could come to Picton and clean the house and make dinner for when she returns Saturday night. Little did she know I was planning on jumping in the lake to catch some waves.

I left Toronto around 11:45 and arrived in Picton around 2 PM. Dropped off my dog Juicebox and headed right to Richardson Beach. Voila. There were waves; 2-3 feet and a little bit mushy. Totally okay with that. I quickly donned by wetsuit seeing as the water and air temps were hovering around 17 degrees, which is a shame considering it's mid-August. Ran down to the beach and got in the water. Two other fellow local surfers were there as well, they were a bit more experience than I and paddled out to the where the waves were breaking nicely. They caught many long rides into shore.

I managed to snag a dozen decent rides, so I was happy. I somehow managed to get hit on top of my head by my board towards the end of the session, probably cause I was getting tired and just gave up on a wave. Ouch. Overall it was a fun day, and I shot some extra footage with my new Lumix GH4 after I had packed up. It also looks like there may be waves tomorrow at Sandbanks again which I am stoked about.

HTTP://WWW.LAKESWELLDIARIES.COM

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 6

It has been just over two months since my last post, which means it has been just over two months without going surfing.  Brutal.  The summer months are not favourable for surfing on the Great Lakes due to the warm air temperatures and lack of strong winds.  But if a storm system is passing through there is the chance that waves will grow and might even have enough power to be surfed.  I noticed on the SurfRadar.info that there was a possibility of 3-4 foot waves at Sandbanks due to SW 20-25 km/h , so I wiped the dust of my gear and headed east.  My fiancé lives in Picton, which is only 15 minutes from the beach, which means I can check out the waves quite easily.  I headed over to the break at Richardson Beach around 1 PM but they were just little bumps, but I had a good feeling about today.  Making the trip back around 4 PM, I could see the waves were building and were almost getting good enough to ride.  But I knew the high point was going to be after 6 PM, so I went back to the house to play videogames.  Dana (my fiancé) finished work at 6 and we quickly jumped in the wagon with the dogs and made our way to the beach.  When we arrived I saw two local surfers (Dan & Dustin) in the water and got really stoked.  Finally, I get to surf after two months AND get to use my new board which Dana had given me for my birthday back in May!  The waves were averaging 3 feet but there were a few 4 footers as well.  I caught a ton of waves and scored my longest ride yet, all the way to the beach!  Hopefully there will be more waves as the summer turns into fall.

Also, I am very happy with how the Walden Magic Model performed.  It really did catch almost every wave I paddled for with ease!

[lakeswelldiaries]

Ashbridges Bay / Peanut : took the dog for a run, water is a really nice blue but 20km/h E winds not enough to produce waves #lakesurf #lakesurfing #ashbridges #toronto #surf #surfing #nowaves #panoramic (at Ashbridges Bay)

[lakeswelldiaries]

Fresh new vinyls on my fish. If you are interested in getting some custom vinyls done hit me up! #lakeswelldiaries #surfing #lakesurfing #greatlakes #vinyl #decal #custom #toronto

[lakeswelldiaries]

DAY 5

Mother nature has been kind to us surfers.  The winds have been whipping across our Great Lakes creating decent swells for the past 4-5 weeks.  The gusts continued from yesterday (Day 4) but had died down to about 20 km/h E/NE.  I met up with an old friend/new surf buddy, Jamie, at Ashbridges Bay and scoped the spots there before deciding to give it a go at Peanut.  The swell had calmed but was still unruly and disorganized.  The larger waves were useless, 4 feet and just dumping.  The smaller waves were about a foot high and mushy.  But ever so often, some medium sized ones would take shape and were just right.  I stood up on a couple which I am stoked about, even though they were short rides.  I didn't work on my paddling as I promised myself I would, but the water was too choppy and I just wanted to practice my pop-ups (definitely need to work on these more as well).

After surfing, I decided to drive over to Surf Ontario.  Dangerous stuff.  I've wanted a new longboard ever since I sold my 7'11" Coco-Mat, and have been doing some research on a couple different models.  My birthday is coming up and I took advantage of this.  They had a brand new Walden Magic Model 9'1" in stock which I instantly fell for and then called my fiancé and told her I knew what I wanted for my birthday.  She was down, and I am now the owner of a new longboard (complete with stripey sock).  I also took this opportunity to get a bag for my 7S Superfish as well.  Overall this was a bomb ass day loaded with stoke

[lakeswelldiaries]

Day 4

Took a gander at the forecast as well as GLCFS and noticed the winds were picking up (E/NE winds 35-40 km/h) which usually means some waves.  The sky was grey, the rain was intense and the winds were howling.  This didn’t stop us from attempting to surf today… key word ‘attempting’.  As we approached the break at Ashbridges/Peanut we could see the whitewash on the other beach; we started getting excited.  It was working… sort of.  I say sort of because it was just messy and chaotic.  The waves were 5-6 feet but had no shape or consistency and just dumped over and over.  On top of that the wind was brutal and everytime I looked out to the oncoming swell it felt like pebbles were being thrown at my face.  Needless to say the waves weren’t very surfable and we only stayed in the water for about 30 minutes.

Hopefully the wind will die down and produce some promising waves tomorrow!

[lakeswelldiaries]

Really cool map of our wonderful Great Lakes #lakes #lakesurf #surfing #lakeswelldiaries #greatlakes #lakeontario #lakeerie #lakemichigan #lakehuron #lakesuperior

[lakeswelldiaries]

Day 3

You might be confused as to why that says day 3.  Well I’ve already been out twice this year.  Day 1 (Ashbridges/Peanut) was pretty weak, more so just a test of my new suit.  Day 2 (Ashbridges/Beach) seemed like it was going to be a write off until we noticed some small waves breaking, which built a tiny bit and I ended up getting a few fun rides in.  OH, I picked up a new GoPro! Very excited about that.

I had been keeping an eye on the weather and saw some S/SW winds 25-35 km/h in the forecast for today.  Stoke set in.  I informed Sascha about this and he was down to check out our local breaks.  After work we met up and drove over to Ashbridges.  The wind had died down by now and after exploring the various spots we came to the conclusion that A) The wind direction/duration/strength was not enough to create waves or B) we had missed the waves by a couple of hours.  It was almost working the most westerly point, but not enough power was in the water.

We left there and made a quick stop at R.C. Harris, just to check out the spot and hoping maybe there was something working there.  Again, nothing.  Our hope had faded, but we thought that we should check out Bluffers.  Unfortunately the winds had not made enough of an impact on the lake to create surf here either.  You win some and you lose some, this one was definitely a loss

BUT we did get to check out a bunch of different breaks and enjoy the nice weather we are having as of late.  I’m heading to Mexico on Wednesday with my lady (not to surf, just some quality R&R) and am hoping the winds and waves are good to everyone on the lakes!

[lakeswelldiaries]

Looks like there might be some waves this afternoon in Toronto #lakeswelldiaries #lakesurf #surf #surfing #greatlakes #weather #wind #spring #lakeswell #windswell

[lakeswelldiaries]

Welcome to my surf journal.  I have been surfing for about a year and I am still learning.  Surfing on the great lakes isn't necessarily an easy thing to get into, but once I stood up on my board for the first time and rode a little wave at the end of last summer I was hooked.

I didn't feel like I would survive surfing in the winter (which is what a lot of people do) but now that the ice is melting and temperatures begin to rise, I have found myself checking the weather more often and itching to get out in the water.

I will be attempting to document every time I go out and posting it up on here.  The video here is from last summer at Richardson Beach at Sandbanks Park in Prince Edward county, probably in September.