December Surfing on Lake Michigan

["Shannon Briggs" <BRIGGSSL@michigan.gov>]

I wish the article included pictures!

http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/100220-6227-127.html           
 
Lake Michigan is the ultimate rush for land-bound surfers

 
By Scheffie Sarver
The Associated Press
December 8, 2003 1:06 AM

WHITING, Ind. _ The ride lasts only seconds, not even a minute really.
Yet that span ignites the kind of longing that makes a man slide into a
neoprene suit and sit in icy water for hours waiting for the next wave.

This is lake surfing, a sport passionately followed by the few hardy
souls willing to brave Lake Michigan in the depths of fall and in the
middle of winter _ the season when the waves are right.

Roger Coppinger, 33, of Porter has been surfing for 13 years. The only
thing that keeps Coppinger out of the water is shelf ice. Otherwise,
he's under the sky, bobbing in time with the waves waiting for his next
ride.

"It's just becoming one with something," he said. "You become one with
the water. Everything else gets blocked out of your mind and it's just
you and that piece of water you're riding on."

In the winter, this siding installer surfs Lake Michigan or visits
California when the shelf ice begins to overtake the shore. In the early
fall, he visits the East Coast to look for hurricanes.

Surfers are amateur weather forecasters and they follow the waves
wherever it may lead. Hurricanes, Coppinger says, generate great waves.

At 54, Mike Turnipseed of Hammond has ridden the best waves Lake
Michigan has to offer, from Whiting to Michigan City. After three
decades of lake surfing, Turnipseed is known to other surfers as the
"godfather of surfing" or the "local heavy."

Originally from Carlsbad, Calif., Turnipseed comes from a long line of
surfers _ his father and grandfather also enjoyed the sport.

"I don't like to surf when there's ice," Turnipseed said. But he's not
averse to cold. "I'll surf when there's snow on the beach."

Surfing is essentially a payoff of adrenaline after a lot of
preparation, he said.

"It's like riding a bicycle, but you don't really have to pedal," he
said. "It's effortless. But there's a lot of effort that goes into
catching the waves and finding them."

Surfers come from all over to ride Indiana waves, Turnipseed said.

"The East Coast surfers do respect us," he said. "They say, 'You're a
hardier breed.' They see the ice and snow."

By definition, lake surfing in winter is a crazed notion. Typically,
polar bears splash around in frigid water, not humans. But Dave Doherty,
29, an attorney from Chicago, insists that the blessings of technology
free the modern surfer from temperature limitations.

On a recent wind-swept afternoon, Doherty and about 30 others were
braving the water because the waves were breaking foamy and high.

The previous day a windstorm had tossed the waves to heights between 10
and 14 feet _ the kind of waves that inspire men in black wetsuits to
jump off rocky outcroppings with surfboards.

"It was like an ocean this morning," said Jack Flynn, a 28-year-old
graphic designer from Chicago. "That was pretty close to perfection."

Asking someone to describe what it feels like to surf is akin to asking
them to lasso fog. It is, Flynn says, a simultaneous loss of control as
the water takes you and the empowerment of control as you ride the wave
out to its end.

He and his friend, Mark Caputo, 27, of Chicago, had already been
surfing that day for eight hours straight, and they planned to stay
there until dusk. It was the middle of the week and most of those on the
water were playing hooky from work.

Peter Lambert, 36, of Naperville, Ill., didn't want to talk about how
his physical education classes were faring without him. During a short
break, his eyes were glued to a churning inlet surrounded by the
smokestacks of industry.

A native of Long Island, Lambert has surfed for nine years.

"Fall's the best time. That's when you get your gales that come
through," he said. "The ocean has more power, but we deal with a lot
more currents."

Like most surfers, Lambert travels to keep up with his passion.

During the summers he journeys to the East Coast, Mexico and the
Caribbean. The lesson is to enjoy the surf while it lasts.

"Tomorrow you could come out and the lake could be flat, so you have to
make the most of it while you can," he said.

Distributed by The Associated Press



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