The Current - Winter surfing in Canada's oceans and Great Lakes

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Winter surfing is a thing, and it's happening all over Canada — from the giant waves of Lake Superior to the Atlantic coast to Tofino, B.C. Three winter surfers from across this country share their love for the sport, how it compares to summer surfing and what keeps pulling them back to chase waves in the frigid winter waters

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Watch free on CBC Gem. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Sunny skies, sandy beaches, warm, tropical oceans. These are the conditions you most likely imagine when you think of surfing. But not everyone who loves to surf lives in places like Hawaii or Southern California. Here in Canada, the biggest waves tend to happen in the winter. That's not the ocean you're hearing.

It's Lake Superior on a windy December day. Every winter surfers chase waves in the frigid waters of the Great Lakes, sporting ice beards, frozen eyelashes. And if you're thinking, what? Are you kidding me? I could not possibly do that. Stop right there. Let me introduce you to Vessa Luo Moranta.

Vessa has been winter surfing since 2008. Is the owner of Superior East Board Shop in Sue St. Marie. Vessa, good morning. Good morning, man. Describe, people might have seen this video of the waves in Lake Superior over the last few weeks or so. I mean, describe what it looks like. They're just enormous waves that pound onto the shore when those winter northwest winds kick up that generates a pretty big wave. Yeah, it's pretty spectacular to see as it hits and the

sound of the water. It's pretty awesome. I mean, I've spent some time in Hawaii. It looks like the north shore of Oahu or something like that. It does not look like a great lake. No, the waves get bigger than most people expect. But yeah, no, it's not the ocean, but there are definitely some rideable waves. see them and you think rideable waves, why would somebody, Lake Superior is cold, you know, at the best of times, in the winter, it's very cold. Why would somebody do this? For the love of surfing, for just the love of the waves. I like the cold, but I don't like the cold that much. But the fall, winter season is kind of when the waves kick up. So if you want to surf in this area, this is what you've got to put up with. How cold is the water? It gets down to about three Celsius, four Celsius. So it's, the water is warmer, a lot warmer than the air. So when you're in the water paddling, it's fine. And near what's who keeps you warm. You mentioned the wetsuit.

I mean, what are you wearing so that you don't freeze up? Wet suits come in different thicknesses. And in a winter surf condition, they refer to it as a 6-5. So a 6mm stick of neoprene in the chest, 5 in the arms and legs. And then it usually has a hood. And I kind of wimp out and I kind of put extra layers underneath. Try you to stay a bit warmer. Do you stay warm with that on it?

Oh, plenty. Yeah, yeah. When you're paddling and moving, you're really warm in the suit. It's just the post-surf once you're wet and you're covered in ice and then trying to get back to your car and change. That's the downside. Yeah, I think that would probably be pretty chilly. When did you realize that those big waves out in the Great Lakes were something that you could tackle?

So I grew up snowboarding. So I've always kind of had, like, you know, thirch to be sliding sideways and having fun in the snow in the winter. I honestly heard of first people surfing their kayaks in Superior before surfing. And then they told me, you know, the waves are big enough. And then there's a surf scene. I kind of looked into it and discovered that people have been surfing on the Great Lakes for a long time. Do you remember when you went out for the first time and thought, you know what? It's cold, but it's worth it?

Yeah, it would have been about that 2009 time frame. I got my first cold weather wetsuit from a shop in Thunder Bay, got my board from them, and I was excited to get into the water and try it out. And do you remember the first wave you caught? Yeah, the first one wasn't in the Lake Superior, the very first wave I ever caught. We were on vacation on Myrtle Beach, and yeah, and I will never forget that feeling of that first wave, and that's your hope for life. And then, I mean, is there anything that you've hit in Superior that compares to that feeling?

Oh, yes, yeah, yeah. we get waves that are well overhead, meaning the size of the wave. You know, it's a big wave, and they come in just like it looks like an ocean. It comes in, the waves come in sets. The feeling's the same. So you're not the only one who's out there doing this. Let me bring a couple of other people into this conversation. Jess DeMis teaches surfing full-time in all weather conditions.

It's Surf Sister School in Tifino, British Columbia. Dean Petty is a former professional surfer, the founder of Camp Buano, Surf Sanctuary, in Cal Bay, Nova Scotia. Good morning to you both. Hey, good morning. Jess, when you hear Vessa talk about what he is riding in Lake Superior, what goes through your mind? Well, I've seen videos of the surf on Lake Superior, and it is one of the great lakes that I would really love to go visit. How did you fall in love with winter surfing?

I mean, what was your story, your origin story, Jess, for this? Well, in 2008, I moved out to British Columbia to chase the snow, and then I went to school in Kamloops at Thompson Rivers University. They actually have an adventure guide program there with a bunch of different disciplines that you can participate in, one of them being surfing. And my best friend convinced me that I should sign up for the surf course, even though I had only done about a week of surfing at that point down in Costa Rica. And I thought, why would I want to surf the cold water? Sign up for the course anyways, listening to her advice. And it's kind of changed my life since then. I absolutely fell in love with it.

I love wearing the wetsuit. and just being out in the cold is just kind of in my nature so I really enjoy it. A couple of things I want to come back to there. Dean, what about for you? You've been doing this, you've been surfing for, what, 30 years?

Yeah, yeah. I feel like, yep, that is the reality at this point. Yeah, for me, it was kind of like I started in the North, the North Atlantic, and it's kind of always just been the reality that, you know, surfing involves wetsuits and cold. I'm sure we can all agree that it maybe wouldn't be our first choice to paddle out when it's like mine.

minus 16 and the water is four degrees in February. But I think the more you travel and you get away, you do realize there's like some romance to the pain of it. What do you mean? What's the romance? I think it's the grit, I think. It's, you know, warm water surfing, it's a luxury. It's beautiful. It's like it comes with this, you know, beachy tropical sentiment.

But there's like the, I don't want to say it's the darker side of it. It's just like, it's just a very core feeling because you're, you know, the element of surfing is always you, you in the ocean. and then this adds just this kind of layer to the equation that it makes you grid in a bit more. And, you know, there's obviously fewer people that kind of want to do it. So then you're part of a smaller community and the smaller the community, the tighter it is. Fessa, it sounds like, I mean, to Dean's points, does it take like a special person to be able to do this or want to do this? I think if you get over the fear, there's always that initial fear of, oh, it's going to be ways you cold.

But once you realize how warm the wet suit keeps you and how warm you actually are in the water, it's once you do it once you do it once, you'll realize. that it's not that bad and, you know, then you'll continue on your winter surfing journey. Jesse said one of the questions that you asked yourself is, why would you want to do this? How did you answer that question? Oh, well, I always live with this kind of motto of, you know, if something is new to you, why not try it? And, you know, if you feel the fear, do it anyways, the old classic saying. So that's kind of how I approached cold water surfing. And my first experience was with warm water.

And I thought, why would I want to wrestle to get into a wet soup? but now it's like literally a third of my wardrobe is wetsuits. And you said it changed your life. I mean, it's not just your wardrobe, right? Yeah, totally. So I was on track to working towards becoming a mountain guide. That had been my dream for the last 10 years. And then once I caught that proper first green wave out in Tifino, I was hooked.

And even my coach at the time, he said he saw the look on my face and knew that that it was a game changer for me. What do you remember about that? Tell me and tell me about the look on your face. face. Well, I don't really know what the look on my face was, but I'm sure it was of pure joy, because every time I teach a lesson, I feel like I see that on my student's faces when they catch that first wave and get to their feet. It's just a stoke that it's really hard to explain until you feel it. And that's honestly why I love teaching so much, because it kind of reminds me of those first moments when I first experienced surfing. And every lesson that I teach,

that's a beginner lesson, when everything kind of clicks for them. And I see that that moment of happiness. And like, yeah, I know that feeling. Dean, do you still get that surfing in the winter, that that feeling that chess is describing? Yeah, absolutely. I think it's something that, you know, as you kind of progress in surfing, you take the moments differently. Like surfing is a journey of like, you know, improvement and then maybe a plateau in that and you become a little more like you seek that moment. I think you always seek that moment in surfing. But absolutely, when the, when the things line up, winds right, tides, right, you're with the right group of people and you get that. you know, the kind of wave maybe you've been waiting for that season or that winter or that

session, and it all comes together, of course. I think that's what we chase in it. Because we have more waves in the winter, it's kind of the probability of like getting in that space again and finding that moment is there. You just got back from California. Is that right? Yeah, I did just get back. For people who, I mean, they might think, well, I mean, that's where you have to go to find the waves. What are the conditions like in Nova Scotia right now? Well, yeah, so I got back. It was absolutely dumping snow. I woke up this morning and I couldn't tell you how like kind of full of happiness I was to be back in this climate. I think part of having seasons and seasonality is like our bodies kind of gear up for winter. It's important to take a break. But also it's like, you know, seeing how there's a

progression of season and the energy and the ocean that changes, you know, it's Nova Scotia. We get every weather under the sun in like a five hour period sometimes. And you just, yeah, you have like like a readiness for it. It's almost like you're geared up mentally to kind of go into battle. What about in Tofino, Jess? What are the conditions like? I mean, Dean's talking about what it's like in Nova Scotia. And you mentioned you'd seen those videos of the waves pumping in Lake Superior. What is it like in Tefino these days? Honestly, it sounds like summer in Tefino, comparatively to the Great Lakes in Nova Scotia, which is, you know, that's a lot of the reason why Tefino is so great because the climate here is so mild year-round.

We don't really get like a hot summer, but we also don't get a really cold winter. We'll get maybe a spot of snow once in a while. The water might get down to 5 degrees Celsius, like the depths of winter. But I was checking the buoy this morning as part of my normal routine, and it's still saying it's 11 degrees Celsius,

which is pretty balmy for this time of year. Do you have to watch the conditions just so you know when the right time is? I mean, you don't want to miss out. Yeah, exactly. There's that, like, magic window, that 20-minute window that we're all trying to find. And these last two days that I was surfing, I was just lucky enough to be out there at the right time where you're out for about an hour and a half. And there's about a 20-minute, maybe 10-minute window where everything just seems to line up with the wind and the tide and the swell.

And you get those really nice waves and you look at your companions in the water and you're like, yeah, this is that moment. and then the moment passes and you're like, okay, time to go back to shore, time to get back to work. So, yeah, forecasting is a really big part because in the wintertime, the conditions can change pretty quickly and they change hour by hour. And because we are such a tidal-affected beach as well, too, like we've got a six-hour window of tides where the water really does make a difference in the way that the wave breaks. So trying to pinpoint that moment and also trying to line it up with all your other responsibilities in the day can be tough in the wintertime. make the pitch just finally for somebody who's listening and they're like I'm sorry it's cold and I want to stay inside by the fire or by the furnace vent I mean we're a winter nation but people will often go out of their way to avoid the winter just make the pitch for this oh boy I don't promise people a lot of things in life just because life always throws us curveballs but if there's one thing I can guarantee you you will be warm in a wetsuit in the water and it will be the best time of your life if you don't Surf when you come to Tefino, you're going to leave Tefino and regret it. The best time of your life?

Yeah. That's amazing. Vessa, what's the pitch for people who are thinking, these people are crazy? And I'm not going to do this. They can do it, but I'm not going to do it. I think the pitch here is a little bit different. It's going to be the conditions are bad. What else are you going to do?

If you can go surf, let's head out and have some fun and enjoy the weather that we have. I love it. Dean, from you? Yeah, it's just kind of that if you want to chase something to feel pretty alive. You know, you're very close to the elements, and it's definitely not for the faint of heart. It sucks most of the time, but most things that are challenging and hard are worth it. And they're worth kind of dedicating a lot of time and energy to. When are you going to get back out? Oh, I'm going surfing this afternoon.

Absolutely. Trying to get my work done and I'm out there. Fantastic. This is, as I said, we're a winter nation. You should embrace winter, whatever that looks like, whether it's being in the water or not. Thank you all for being here this morning. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jess Deemis, winter surfs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, Dean Petty in the Atlantic, off the South Shore, Nova Scotia, and Vessa Lumeranta in the Great Lakes. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.