Photo: Ben Gravy // YouTube
What is a surfer to do when the ocean is flat? Many would seek other avenues of entertainment, whether it’s taking part in another outdoor sport, or spending time with the friends and family previously neglected in favor of venturing out into the waves. For people like Ben Gravy, though, the answer is to find a wave somewhere else, no matter how unlikely. He looks at every single wave forecast on the planet every day, he admits. So in his latest video, that instinct took him to the shores of Lake Erie, where he scored in head-high freshwater bombs.
“I’ve been talking to the boys out in Pennsylvania,” explained Gravy, as he drove to the shores of the Great Lake. “We haven’t been lake surfing in a while. I always find it interesting when the lake’s gonna be head-high, and the ocean in New Jersey’s going to be flat. It’s mindblowing. We’re going to load up the car and get ready to head to all-time Lake Erie.”
Though they were certainly more substantial than what was available in the ocean (literally nothing), these waves didn’t come easy, either. In fact, conditions were so tough it led to Ben having a sort of existential crisis while driving back home. “When I was out there, I had an epiphany,” he said. “I had a realization that we take surfing for granted, like ‘Oh, I can’t believe the waves are not good.’ Lake Erie proves to me, every time that I come here, waves are not supposed to be surfed. We just surf them. You to go to Lake Erie and the wave’s literally like ‘get the fuck off of me,’ the whole time you’re riding it… You could duck dive literally 25 to 30 times, get out the back, think you’re in the spot, have to duck dive nine more waves, and then you’re never in the spot. You’re never out of the spot, but you’re definitely never in it.”
