Freezing water, sunny attitudes: How and why Sheboygan became an international surfing destination
Maya Hilty
SHEBOYGAN - Sheboygan has been called the “Malibu of the Midwest” and freshwater surfing capital of the world, a surfing destination for those from near and far to enjoy.
With its central location along Wisconsin's eastern coast, a shoreline that juts out into Lake Michigan, a lack of crowds and welcoming surf culture, some say Sheboygan is among the best surfing locations around the world during the peak season for waves — winter.
Here's what creates waves in Sheboygan and how locals put the city on the map as an unlikely international surfing destination.
Sheboygan's unique geography lends well to lake surfing
People surf all along Wisconsin’s shoreline. Because Lake Michigan is long and narrow, a big north wind will build waves along southern areas of the coast, while a big south wind will build waves in northern areas, said Jacob Bresette, a surfer and owner of Lake Effect Surf Shop just north of Milwaukee.
Sheboygan is one of the most popular surfing locations in Wisconsin for a variety of reasons.
Thanks to the city’s central location along the coast, winds from many different directions — from the north or northeast and south or southeast — will create waves on its shoreline.
In addition, the city and harbor jut out into the lake, creating sheltered areas on both sides of the harbor that help create clean, ocean-like waves, Bresette said.
While surfing in Sheboygan is a year-round sport, the best months for waves are around September through March, when cooler, denser air pushes water into bigger and more powerful waves.
In the summer, there may only be two or three days a month of good surf, but moving into winter, there may be two or more good days a week, Bresette said. One of his most avid surfing friends logged every day he surfed for one year in Wisconsin and, impressively, had more than 100 days of surfing, Bresette added.
Winter winds and storms can build waves 6 to 10 feet tall, said Larry Williams, a surfing icon born, raised and still living in Sheboygan. And bundled up in thick wetsuits with booties and hoods, the freezing temperatures don’t stop surf-lovers in the Midwest.
“The coldest I’ve been in was 24-below wind chill with a 33-degree water temperature,” Williams said. “The thing is, when it’s starting to ice up, the top of your board freezes over, so it can get too slippery to surf on at times.”
Williams even described a harrowing day when he realized his return to the beach was completely blocked by icebergs. He eventually had to throw himself onto an iceberg when it came plunging down after a wave passed, he said.
But the cold temperatures are worth it to have a place for people to surf thousands of miles from an ocean, Bresette said — and in fact, people from around the world travel to Sheboygan to catch waves.
‘For me, it’s become spiritual’: Williams brothers popularized Sheboygan as a surfing destination
Wisconsin surfing was not new when Larry and Lee Williams began catching waves in the 1960s, but the twin brothers played an important role in raising the profile of Sheboygan as a surfing location.
After learning to surf at a young age from older boys in the Lakeshore Surf Club, the brothers were always at the beach, Larry Williams said.
They started hosting an annual surfing competition, the Dairyland Surf Classic, around 1989, and what started as a statewide word-of-mouth gathering went national and then international, Larry Williams said.
The competition no longer exists since the brothers relinquished responsibility for hosting the event after nearly 25 years, but a more casual Labor Day Surf Weekend still celebrates the beginning of surf season in Sheboygan each year.
Nowadays, it’s not unusual to see license plates from four different states parked along Sheboygan beaches in the middle of a work week when the surf is good, with people driving hours and sometimes playing hooky at work to get in a day on the water, Larry Williams said.
After the Williams brothers were featured in a 2003 surfing documentary called "Step Into Liquid," Sheboygan made it onto the major surfers’ bucket lists of places to surf around the world, from California to places like Indonesia, Australia and France.
The city became known as the “Malibu of the Midwest” — a phrase coined by Larry Williams — and even the freshwater surf capital of the world. Surfers call it COTU, or the “center of the universe,” Williams said.
There are no sharks, and it’s not crowded — you surf every wave by yourself, Williams likes to tell people.
“In the legendary California breaks, everybody’s fighting for a wave, people are getting in your way and people have attitudes. Here, there are no attitudes in the water,” he said.
Bresette also said Wisconsin surfers are known for their typical Midwestern friendliness.
“What really makes Wisconsin special is the culture,” he said. “I've had people come here from different places around the country and say, ‘Wow, you guys are really cool, people were really nice to me,’ and they generally had a great time out there in the water. So it’s cool that the people, too, are what make it so special.”
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Surfing is not just a sport, but a lifestyle, Larry Williams said.
“It’s the way you decorate your house, it’s the cars you drive to get your boards to the beach, the food you eat. We have our own language, we even have our own music,” he said. “For some, surfing is a sport. For some, it’s a way of meeting new people. For others, it’s a physical workout. For me, it’s become spiritual.
“The serenity in the middle of that chaos of all those pounding waves dovetails with meditation,” said Williams, who practices Buddhism.
‘What are you going to do in the middle of winter in Wisconsin? …This is it’
Larry Williams not only encourages surfers to come to Sheboygan but encourages locals to give surfing a try.
EOS Surf Shop in downtown Sheboygan, the first surf shop in Wisconsin, is one place to go, with surfing and kiteboarding gear, private lessons and rentals, among other things.
“What are you going to do in the middle of winter in Wisconsin? Do you want an adrenaline rush? This is it,” Williams said. “Catch some big water, freshwater waves and you’re living the dream."
Reach Maya Hilty at 920-400-7485 or MHilty@sheboygan.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maya_hilty.