Minnesota is probably the last place you might think of to go surfing, but a group of diehard Minnesota surfers are quietly proving that the Midwest might just be the next extreme surf spot.
Photographer and Minnesota-native John Haynes heard about the burgeoning scene on Lake Superior last year and went to go check it out.
The kicker is that the best surfing is during the freezing Minnesota winter. Haynes shared some photos of the beard icicles, and frigid swells with us, but you can check out more of his work at his website.
Most surfers go out to Lake Superior to surf, two and half hours from Minneapolis.
Picking which day to go is the trickiest part. In order for there to be good waves, there needs to be a very specific type of wind blowing, which usually happens around strong weather systems like snowstorms.
The weather can be so unpredictable that surfers will see an ideal wind forecast the night before a trip and then wake up in the morning to find out that the wind changed and everything is calm.
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