Five Lakes Surf Club

July 4th is the unofficial kickoff of the summer season in the Great Lakes. Thunderstorms, temp drops and summer breezes start to push some water.

Enjoy the freedom and be safe. Happy Birthday, America.

Video: Chill Adventures
Photo: Mark Cox

Lake surfers are the unofficial champions of making the best of what we have

First photo from Tom Whitman
Second and third photo of Tyler Rich Tyler Rich

New hats fer yer head

Cotton and polyester versions with our flag logo embroidered

Link to website in bio

Low inventory - will restock if the people demand

Localism. You thought we’d never bring it up.

It’s an important conversation, and the culture of it is formed by the community.

Some spots are dangerous and unsafe for the uninitiated. Some are on a permission bases on private property and risk extinction if not respected. Some are metros, crowded beach towns, and some are just a plain secret.

Disclaimer: at Five Lakes, we do our best to protect spots by keeping secret, sacred, or endangered locations obscured. We aren’t perfect, and we’ve messed up, but we do our best.

A few clarifying questions:
- Does anyone own the water?
- What is a local?
- Should we keep secrets?
- Is ettiquette important?

To start, unless it’s your waterfront property, you likely don’t own the access and certainly not the actual water.

Do you need to be born in the location of a key spot? Lived there for 10+ years? 50? Surf regularly? Once a week? Every swell? Did you need to discover it? This gets muddy fast.

As for secrets, you shouldn’t blow up a spot or give free passes to just anyone. But if someone finds a “hidden” spot (or even a popular one for that matter) on their own, does the research, shows up, paddles out, and practices good etiquette . . . then they are the type of person who has earned the “right” to surf that spot.

For those who show up with a bad attitude and poor etiquette, well, everyone has bad days. You can always try having a conversation. Some people are just like that. Try some of the other 10,210 miles of shoreline in the Great Lakes.

We wholeheartedly believe in the joy of discovery and secrets. The sheer vastness and mystery of all the unexplored points, coves and beaches around the lakes is in large part what makes surfing so fun.

As for etiquette, it’s important. Knowing the ins and outs of surf “rules” keeps people safe and the sport fair. That being said, take that party wave with the regulars, cut off your buddies now and again, and give your local longboard elders the waves they’ve been patiently waiting for.

But telling someone they don’t belong because they aren’t local (whatever that means), is not the way we do things on the Great Lakes.

Intro video courtesy of

What surf wisdom do you live by?

A guru once told me to never catch the first wave of a set.

Big ol block of cheese in the Chicago sky

Name one person you’d sacrifice to the lake gods for a day like this

Don’t know photo credit, let me know and I’ll tag.

Lake Erie may have frozen solid in the winter, but at least she’s 95F now, and all the two-headed fish are out of hibernation.

Weekend wave shots by Rose, Anders, and last one by

Recent spring photos from the SToNeY PoiNT surf spot FB page (a self-proclaimed religious organization)

Photo 1, 3: Matthew Pastick
Photo 2: Tom Rawlyk
Video: Brendan Pham