Now, here is a winter activity you may not have thought of even though Tom Barlow did a post about it a few months back. I know I didn't. I didn't even know this was a summer activity. A little item arrived in my email box a day or two ago about a posting by Orac on his blog, Respectful Insolence . He came across an article in the New York Times this past week so it struck him as something to post. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Surfing Lake Erie. Just like the postmen who deliver our mail through rain, sleet or snow, these folks don wetsuits and goggles to catch a wave. They are part of Cleveland's surfing community. That's the word used in the article I received. Community. This must mean there is a decent sized group. One of them even quit is job as a lawyer to surf more and make a documentary about their activities.

Lest you think that they are totally out of their tree, this is sort of like the Polar Bear clubs-those people who go swimming in the winter, and we're talking places like Coney Island, NY-except that seems nuts to me in a way. I hate to get cold and swimming isn't my favorite. I'm a dry land sports sort of gal.

Surfing Lake Erie as winter approaches is not for wusses. You have to be able to put up with chunks of ice (the article says "the size of bowling balls"), freezing rain that can make goggles stick to your face, sometimes 40 mile per hour winds-- and sewage. Even though Lake Erie is cleaner than it was back when, it's not that pristine.
Surfing might be just the ticket to working off those holiday pounds. If you're interested head to Edgewater State Park about 2 miles from downtown Cleveland. If you do go, look for Mongo. He's one of the surfers who might be there.

Here is the link to the NY Times article where the blog I received came from. You can see a picture of the surfers. At least it looks like the sun was shining.

Here is another article I came across about surfing The Great Lakes. There's even a book on it.