Walk the beach on a frosty day and you might spot one. An inky-black silhouette gliding over the lake’s icy swells. Catching a Lake Michigan surfer in action during wintertime—unbelieveably, the best time to surf here—is exhilarating, even from the relative warmth of dry land. It also raises a lot of questions. First and foremost, ‘Are they crazy?’

We talked with three locals from one of the lakeshore’s most active surf crews to get answers.

Are you crazy?

No, definitely not. Just well prepared, very careful, and probably enjoying the best seclusion and unique beauty the lake has to offer. —Ted Burdett

But why surf in winter?

The lake has a lot of different faces, a lot of different energies moving through it. In the summertime, the water is warm, but it’s also super flat and quiet. We get a couple swells here and there, but for the most part, there’s not a lot of waves. —Ben Sass

Big cold fronts out of Canada push wind down the lake. Here on the south end, we’re ideally situated. There’s a lot of surface area for water to be pushed to Southwest Michigan. And at this time of year, we get some of the biggest surf. You’ll have these amazing, glassy, buttery waves rolling in that look like corduroy. Very even, straight folds of water. That’s the stuff that we live for. —Billy Burdett

How are you not freezing to death?

With modern wetsuit technology, we really don’t have any limitations. The wetsuit allows some water in, then your body warms that water up. You also have a hood, booties, and mittens. Sometimes I’ll pour warm water from a thermos into my mittens. —Billy

Being in the parking lot after I get out of the water is the moment I’m freezing: standing there in the wind, trying to get my car unlocked and heated up. Being in the water with your body moving is actually quite refreshing. —Ben

How does it feel when you hit the water?

Because your face is the only thing that’s exposed, there’s an intense flush. —Billy

You have a half second that’ll take your breath away. Then the wetsuit starts to heat up pretty quickly. Surfing is 90 percent swimming, so you get hot. It’s a good workout. —Ted

What’s it like to have a beard full of ice?

Did you ever walk to elementary school on a really cold day and think, ‘Wow, my hair is frozen,’ or, ‘My eyelashes are hard and crusty but shouldn’t be.’ It’s kind of like that. Except it’s heavy. It starts to jangle around. I call it beard bling. It clinks back and forth and sounds like jewelry. —Billy

Local Tip: Fascinated and want to know more? Ted and Ben collaborated on Great Lakes Surf Craft, a photo book/primer on Great Lakes surfing, boards, and the craftspeople who shape them. Find it, plus more of Ben’s in-the-water Lake Michigan surf photography, here.

Words  Lena Singer
Images  Benjamin Sass, Alexander Kramer
February 2026

Edited for length and clarity.