FRESH News

Chicago Beaches are Officially Open!

Posted on June 19, 2009

After 9+ months of letters, emails, phone calls and meetings by your very own Lake Michigan Chapter of Surfrider…. Surfing is now officially legal at 4 beaches in the City of Chicago!

1. Memorial Day - Labor Day - Montrose Beach and 57th St. Beach
2. Labor Day - Memoril Day (off season) - Montrose, 57th, Osterman & Rainbow Beaches are open to surfing at your own risk.
3. More information on rules available at http://www.cpdit01.com/resources/non-motorized-water-sports/

(left-right) Todd Haugh, Vince Deur, James Pribram & Mark Thomas pose with surfboard presented to Chicago Parks District in appreciation for opening Chicago beaches to surfing. The board now hangs on the wall at the facility next to the Lollapalooza guitars.

The Push to Open Chicago’s Beaches to Surfing

By Vince Deur – Filmmaker/SFLMC Co-Chair
 
Surfing is not a crime. If I have learned one thing from this 25 year love affair with the sport of kings, it is that. The way you go about surfing can be criminal however… if you become violent when visitors paddle out to your favorite spot, steal a surfboard or even steal a wave from your fellow surfer on the set of the day…  But selfishness of this nature shows itself quickly in the line-up and often peer pressure from other surfers can be the best response to such actions.

That said, putting someone in jail for surfing alone on a cold, blustery day is not the correct response. But that is exactly what happened to local Chicago Surfer Jack Flynn when he tempted fate and paddled out at his neighborhood break in downtown Chicago. The spot he had watched for years was throwing barrels like he had never seen! So like any stoked surfer, he paddled out.
 
After a few successful rides, Jack began attracting a crowd, since seeing surfing on Lake Michigan is rare for most people and they cannot help but watch. So before too long there were several firefighters and police officers on the scene staring out into the blustery, cold lake watching with amazement. So as the radios buzzed of this bizarre occurrence, word eventually got through to the senior officer in charge who saw the situation as a threat to the rule of law. Because, technically, a surfboard is a flotation device and the City Parks District banned all floatation devices some 30 years ago.
 
So when Jack finally got his fill and walked up the beach to the seemingly supportive group of civil servants, he was handcuffed and put under arrest. This very simple act of surfing cost him over 36 hours in a south-side jail in his wetsuit. Later after his one phone call, his cell-mates, who had tried to hold up a bank earlier that day, kept asking over and over unable to hold back laughter, “tell us again…why did you get thrown in jail, you’re kidding right, you have got be kidding?!”
 
Meanwhile across the lake the newly formed the Surfrider Foundation: Lake Michigan Chapter (SFLMC) was growing its membership and its outreach by standing up to corporate titans like US Steel and BP for dumping toxins into southern Lake Michigan, funding a water quality testing program during the surf season, and speaking to local and state governments to defeat a proposed law that would ban surfing next to piers and breakwaters. After speaking to Jack and learning of the struggle, chapter organizers vowed to support his efforts and bring together the best team possible of Lake Surfers from the region to open Chicago beaches to surfing once and for all.
 
Over the next several months, letters were written, phone calls made and messages left, but no face-to-face meeting was on the calendar until a certain phone call was made to commercial airline pilot living and kite-surfing in Chicago who had recent experience with the Chicago Parks Department. Michael Urban and a small group of kite boarders managed to get Montrose Beach opened to kite boarding after presenting an extremely elaborate and professional proposal to city officials. Their operation plan required that each participant to sign a waiver to release the city from any liability and demonstrate their skills to their peers to earn certification. Officials were impressed with the detailed plan and the hard work and they approved the plan at once. Michael urged the surfers to use a similar strategy, but in our research we learned a similar system of registration and certification for surfing was tried in Newport Beach, CA for a short time in the 80s in direct response to growing fears about liability, but it did not last a season since it was too complicated and simply ineffective.  
 
Finally, a meeting date was on the books and on a cold December day, we arrived with at the Administration building to meet with City Park officials to present our proposal. Since many Midwesterners still see surfers as the lazy, self-centered and drug-using “Spiccoli” stereotype who only care about catching waves, it was important to make a good first impression. The reality is that throughout the world, surfers are made up of blue and white collar workers alike, they are doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, artists, musicians, dishwashers and the unemployed slacker, they are a true cross-section of America, and Great Lakes surfers are no exception. Our group consisted of a pilot, lawyer, filmmaker and pro surfer. We sat down at the table and spent several minutes defending what we expected to be a tarnished reputation, but to our surprise we were treated with respect and the meeting quickly got down to the business of “horse-trading” only with beaches as the horses. We had spent a fair amount of time, taking to surfers before the meeting to determine if we could only get a few (of the 22 beaches) to select the best possible choices. But since nearly all of the Chicago surfers travel to Indiana to surf, and swells on the lake don’t last very long (sometimes only 4-5 hours of decent conditions), there was not a lot of experience to pull from, because every time it was good, local surfers were either working or surfing somewhere else. We learned quickly though, that one of our first choices (North Ave) would not be accepted due to the heavy crowds there during the summer. They asked for a formal proposal to be submitted with contacts and examples of other beaches in the region.

So we left the meeting in high spirits, believing that indeed our proposal would be accepted and it was only a matter of which beaches and when. We submitted our proposal immediately after our December 7 meeting, but it ended up sitting in someone’s inbox through the holidays, all of January, February and into March. Throughout this time, we called, we emailed, we tried everything but a carrier pigeon to confirm that indeed they did have our proposal and were considering it. Finally we learned it was passed down from the top level of the CPD into middle management where things began to turn sour. When we pushed for our answer, we were eventually given a straight, flat out “NO, not now, maybe never.”

We were blown away when we heard this, it was nothing like the positive meeting back in December. So we went back to the top and pressed for a better reason for the denial, but that took another 6 weeks. In the meantime, the CPD had some staff changes, although, we had the support of a few in upper management, the momentum changed with the addition of a new Chief of Staff, his support coupled with the Superintendent rolled past the “naysayers” and by early June of 2009 we had a plan to open 2 beaches in the summer and 4 year round.

The best part was when officials said they were open to adding beaches next year if things went well. So the old adage; “You gotta start small and build” really means something to Chicago surfing… now if we could just get a big north blow to build down the lake, we could show just how well it can work.

Thanks to all of you who have supported this effort in one way or another… it truly was the work of the collective that made it happen! See you in the surf.

A Great Lakes Surfer Goes to Washington

Posted on May 31, 2009

Recently, I was asked to go to Washington D.C. to participate in Great Lakes Day, a lobbying effort to Congress on behalf of the Healing Our Waters Coalition. Dozens of organizations from the Great Lakes showed up to support restoring our wetlands, stopping sewage contamination and preventing new aquatic species in the Great Lakes. I was honored and proud to represent the Lake Michigan Chapter, below is a video blog I created about my trip. To learn more about the HOW coalition and their efforts please visit www.healthylakes.org.

Watch my video blog here

Vince Deur

Co-Chair/Surfrider Foundation: Lake Michigan Chapter

Q & A with Scientist Matt Cooper

Posted on April 03, 2009

Q - Tell us about the current water testing program, what is the overall objective?

M - We’re testing the water at the popular surf breaks on both sides of the Grand Haven channel. We’re looking for E. coli and Enterococcus because these bacteria are indicators of other pathogens that can make people sick. The Ottawa County Health Department does a great job of testing the beaches from Memorial Day to Labor Day but we tend to surf a lot more during the Spring, Fall, and Winter so we decided to take matters into our own hands and start our own testing program to make sure we aren’t surfing in contaminated water.

Q - What can you tell us that you have learned so far? (ie does temperature affect ecoli, turbulence, etc).

M - Well, so far, we can say that the water around Grand Haven has had pretty low bacteria counts, especially when the water is really cold. This has been a nice surprise since we really had no idea what we would find in the Fall, after the Health Dept. finishes their sampling for the year.

Q - Does the data collected so far confirm or deny your initial theories on water quality in GH?

M - Since the project focuses on ‘surf days,’ which also tend to be the rainy and nasty days with a lot of muddy runoff in the river, I expected to see more high bacteria counts than what we’ve found. Of course, this is good news for all of us who spend time in the water.

Q - Can we make any conclusions at this time based on the rain events last fall?

M - We’re going to continue testing while we still have funding but so far, we have no reason to think that the water is too polluted to surf. We’re blessed with a beautiful beach, a lot of Spring and Fall surf, and it appears that water quality is pretty good as well.