Unsalted in the press [ PDF: 1.5 MB ]

www.unsalted.tv
2005 Theatrical Schedule
California
Newport Beach
Lido Theater
June 2
La Jolla
Museum of
Contemporary Art
June 5
Encinitas
La Paloma
June 6
Santa Monica
NuWilshire
Theater
June 7
Ventura
Buena Ventura
June 8
Santa Cruz
The Del Mar
June 9
Corpus Christi, TX
Executive
Surf Club
June 12
Houston, TX
Rice Media
June 13
Center
Southeast
Pensacola, FL
Silver Screen
June 14
Ft. Lauderdale
Cinema Paradiso
June 15
Cocoa Beach, FL
Surfside Players
June 16
Daytona Beach, FL
Ocean Walk
June 17
Jacksonville, FL
Pablo 9
Mid & North Atlantic
Wrightsville, NC
Level 5
City Stage
June 20
Virginia Beach, VA
Surf n’ Sand
June 21
Ocean City, NJ
Strand 5 Theatre
June 22
NYC, NY
Clear View Cinema
June 23
W. Hampton Beach
West Hampton
Beach Performing
Arts Center
June 24
The Fox
June 26
Canada
Toronto
Midwest
In The Press
Premiere
Surfer Magazine
Lake Magazine
Saugatuck Waterfront
Film Festival
Traverse Magazine
Newport Beach California
Cleveland, OH
The Cedar Lee
June 28
Grand Rapids Press
Chicago Century City Theater
Grand Rapids, MI
Studio 28
June 29
Toronto Star
Milwaukee Wisconsin
Sheboygan, WI
July 1
Stefanie H. Well Center For The Performing Arts
Ludington Daily News
Louis Vuitton Hawaii
International Film Festival
Duluth, MN
Norshore Theatre
July 3
Associated Press
Minneapolis, MN
The Lagoon Theatre
July 5
Feature Story
Chicago, IL
Century Centre Cinema July 7
Sports Story
R E A D A RT I C L E . . .
Surfer Magazine / May 2005
8-page Feature Story
R E A D A RT I C L E . . .
Lake Magazine – Oct./Nov. 2005
R E A D A RT I C L E . . .
Traverse Mag. – Nov. 2005
R E A D A RT I C L E S . . .
Grand Rapids
Press
Toronto Star
Associated
Press
R E A D A RTICLE...
New York Times
INTO THIN ICE: LAKE SUPERIOR COMES ALIVE
Surfer Magazine, May 2005
Vol. 46, No. 5
by Vince Deur & Joe Curren
On Saturday, January 22nd, a major winter storm was wreaking havoc across the greater Midwest and
Northeast of the United States. While normal folk were hunkering down next to wall heaters and
fireplaces during the much-hyped “Blizzard of’05,” a handful of surfers viewed the storm as an
opportunity to find a little slice of surfing paradise along the shores of Lake Superior. Vince
Deur, a documentary filmmaker/surfer from Grand Haven, Michigan, has spent the last four years
examining the weather, waves and lives of people on the lakes for an upcoming film entitled
Unsalted. For this special occasion, he and his lake surfing buddies invited Californians, Joe
Curren and Bron Heussenstamm to come share the experience. The following accounts are about the
adventurous day:
VINCE DEUR: Stony Point is a 700 mile drive from my front door, It sits on the northwest shore of
Lake Superior, and 355 days a year it sits as flat as any other lake. But when winter storms blow
through the Midwest with winds upwards of 40 knots there’s a slab of reef that actually produces a
high quality wave. If you’re lucky enough to be there during the right window of opportunity,
you’re rewarded with a few hours of offshore perfection. I’d actually scored Stony Point back in
2003 after more than one failed attempt. Its quality astounded me, and the reaction I received from
the video footage helped sell people on the idea of my current project.
JOE CURREN: The guys at Op sent me out to the Great Lakes last year to help Vince with his project.
I didn’t exactly score on my first trip, but I was definitely sold on it afterward: at 31,700
square miles, Lake Superior is the largest fresh water surface area on earth. It’s 330 miles at its
widest point, and
the largest wave ever recorded was 35 feet. So swells come. But what amazed me most was just how
diehard the tight-knit surfing community there is. These guys are so surf-stoked they’ll drop
everything to chase swells. They drive long hours through extreme weather just to be at the right
place at the right time. It’s a contagious thing they have going.
VINCE: I’ve racked up some great footage over the past few years, but that one “magic” day we could
end my film on still eluded me. We had numerous aborted missions, and one very painful missed call
in which it got good and we weren’t there. But time was running out. With three weeks to go before
I had to head into to final edit, I was seriously considering an alternate ending to my film.,, and
it was killing me.
JOE: Vince and the guys at SURFER had me on call all winter long, and we had to pass on some
chances during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then California started going off after the record rains
we had. The sandbar at Rincon was as good as I’ve ever seen, even the old timers were freaking,
while the Midwest was getting buried in snow. The network news stations were all doing special
stories on the “Great Blizzard of ‘05.” I was checking some footage of closed airports and people
stranded in cars when my phone rang...apparently, it was time.
VINCE: My juices were flowing on January 20th. It was the “perfect storm” setup for Stony, but the
big concern, of course, was the weather. It was damn cold outside. Duluth, Minnesota was hovering
near -20 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills around -50 F. My home break was completely socked in
ice, so I wasn’t sure if Stony would even be surfable. I called Greg Isaacson, one of Stony Point’s
originals, and asked him to drive north to check the ice.
JOE: There was no time to hesitate. I had to make an instant decision. The swell at Rincon was
dropping, but it was still good enough to make this a torturous call. .1 tried not to look at her
as I drove by on my way to LAX to catch the redeye.
VINCE: As soon as plans were finalized and tickets were purchased, I got some bad news from Bob
Tema, another Stony Point hero. He was feeling queasy about calling the boys in and having them be
disappointed. He and his friend Brian Stabinger had been there on days when ice floes would
completely take over the break, making surfing impossible. Ice chunks the size of VW bugs blow in
and take over the lineup. I was losing my hair by this point, but there was nothing I could do. The
boys were
already on their way and I was trying to finish packing to make my flight from Grand Haven.
JOE: I met up with Bron Heussenstam and photographer Brian Nevins at LAX, and we were all pretty
excited at the prospect of a new adventure. Even though this wasn’t my first time, I don’t think
any of us knew what we were really in for.
VINCE: My planned flight had a layover in Chicago, so before boarding I figured I’d check the
weather there just to be sure the planes were still flying. It didn’t look good, plus, my stressing
over the ice had already made me late to the point where I would be missing my flight. I
immediately began psyching up for the 10-hour drive through hell.
JOE: The shock of the cold arctic air and whiteout conditions immediately dampened our spirits as
we deplaned. Vince wasn’t there either, but his buddy Bob Tema was. Apparently Vince was driving
over from Grand Haven, and was held up by the blizzard. The predicted high for the day was 14
degrees, with a wind chill of-10, and the surface temperature on the lake was 33 degrees. For most
of us, Santa Cruz at 52 degrees was cold as hell. Even Brian seemed pessimistic and he grew up in
New Hampshire. I asked him if we could survive. He couldn’t believe we were allowed to fly.
Exhausted, going on two hours of sleep, the last thing I heard before I nodding off on our
three-hour drive north is Bob saying, “The surf should come.. .the only issue could be the ice.”
VINCE: I powered all night through some of the worst blizzard conditions I’ve ever encountered. The
snow was falling horizontally, sticking to the windshield and not melting. The wipers on my 1983
Jamboree RV were hopeless against this storm. When trucks passed me I was blinded and nearly blown
off the road. The flashing yellow lights of tow trucks pulling cars off the side of the road were
the only colors breaking the monotony of white. By 7 a.m. I was falling asleep at the wheel, so I
pulled over
to take a 45 minute nap.
JOE: When I realized that Fargo, North Dakota, was 300 miles to the west, it really put things in
perspective for me. To find surfers living in the perpetually frozen and remote city of Duluth
comes as a shock. Winters here are the harshest in the country.
VINCE: By the time I woke from my nap, the driving conditions had improved, save for the intense
gusts coming from the northeast. But for a lake surfer, this was a welcome nuisance. Those are the
winds that bring waves. Things looked to be improving until the RV started to sputter and spit. I
was so preoccupied with the drive that I’d run out of gas. All I could do was scream, “No, not
here! Not now!”
JOE: We reach the break to find ice chunks rolling around in the shore-break. But we were told the
entire lineup was buried earlier this morning, and now the ice is backing off. I begin to mentally
prepare myself I figure I’ll be lucky to last a half-hour.
VINCE: My RV came to rest about 100 feet from a small farmer’s pump station sitting among the
frozen fields, and I was back on the road in 15 minutes. When I realized there were no other
stations around for miles I was convinced my luck was turning. About a half-hour later, from
Superior, Wisconsin, I could see Duluth, Minnesota, across the bay. Above it was nothing but blue
sky. I was screaming with joy now. Just then my phone rang and it was Bob. “Where are you, man?
It’s getting good!” He wasn’t exaggerating. When I arrived I spotted an overhead wave being
caressed by a light offshore wind.
JOE: We waited for Vince before paddling out, and good thing too because the waves seemed to be
picking up the whole time. Finally it was time. I slogged through chest deep snow to get to the
water, wearing my 5mm suit, an extra vest/hood attachment, 7mm booties and 5mm gloves. The wave
immediately reminds me of Windansea. While waiting for a set I grab a chunk of ice and take a bite.
VINCE: Once the boys hit the water cars began stopping along the snow banks that fenced in the
point. Naturally, people were shocked at what they were seeing. Not just the waves, but the surfers
on them. It’s safe to say nobody’s seen surfers rip the place the way Bron and Joe did. A peanut
gallery formed as the sun warmed us up to 25 degrees. The sun on my face felt incredible.
JOE: My head practically imploded when I finally had to duckdive a wave. It hurts bad. From then on
I scramble for the channel after riding every wave, doing my best to dodge the insiders. I have to
laugh
because I’ve never been so scared of little 2-foot waves in my life.
VINCE: Within an hour I had all the footage I needed, and the relief I felt was unbelievable. Greg
Isaacson, Bob Tema and Brian Stabinger were all smiles too. I know they felt a sense of validation.
I think we all did. To hear Joe and Bron raving about it made us all happy.
JOE: I lasted for two hours, but Bron lasts for three and a half, earning his stripes with the
locals. Before I go in, however, I’m convinced I can get a tube. I’ve seen numerous waves spit, so
I push deep and wait for the right one. Sure enough, I slip under a tossing lip on my next takeoff
and stay in a dry little tube for a couple seconds before coming out clean. It’s not the best
barrel of my life, but certainly the most surreal. Standing and watching from shore a few minutes
later, I couldn’t believe how fun this whole thing had been, especially sharing it with guys so
willing and happy to share their waves.
VINCE: If I were to sum the goal of my movie, it’s simply to give a voice to some surfers at the
bottom of the totem pole. Hopefully it will.
JOE: When Bron finally got out of the water he told me this was the best surf trip he’d ever been
on I had to agree. It’s hard to imagine a more pure surfing experience exists.
By James Prichard
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:35 a.m. May 31, 2005
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. – After seeing Vince Deur’s new movie, surfers looking for the next hip spot to
hang 10 may be inspired to head for the West Coast – of Michigan.
The 38-year-old filmmaker hopes his documentary, “Unsalted: A Great Lakes Experience,” will expose
what could be the nation’s best-kept surfing secret: Under certain conditions, great waves can be found in
the Upper Midwest.
The 56-minute film, which documents 40 years of Great Lakes freshwater surfing, debuts this week in
California. Its Michigan premiere will be at a free outdoor screening on June 9 at the Waterfront Film
Festival in Saugatuck.
Deur, a lifelong resident of the Lake Michigan summer resort town of Grand Haven, has, since age 14,
spent countless hours surfing the lake.
“When you grow up surfing here and you go to other places, no one believes you when you tell them you
can go surfing in a lake,” he says.
Deur’s obsession with the sport almost cost him his life while he was attending Northern Michigan
University in Marquette.
The film opens with dramatic footage that he videotaped in November 1990, when he nearly drowned
while surfing Lake Superior near Whitefish Point.
“I just remember being scared the whole time,” he recalls while taking a break in his Grand Haven
production studio.
While paddling on his board, he became caught in a rip current. After spending about an hour stroking
futilely toward the shore – “I know now you need to swim parallel to it,” he says – Deur found himself
suddenly and inexplicably released from the current’s grip.
When he was safely back on dry land, he breathlessly pledged on camera that he would someday make a
film touting the wonders of surfing the Great Lakes.
“Unsalted” segues into a history of Great Lakes surfing, incorporating home movies and other film shot as
far back as the 1960s that Deur culled from various sources.
As the film continues into the present day, it depicts professional surfers as well as local amateurs riding
waves at various sites throughout the lakes. Deur shot this footage himself – nearly 150 hours of it – over
the course of several years, often bringing in pros from California who knew little, if anything, about Great
Lakes surfing.
Deur says people surf all five of the big lakes. His movie not only captures these enthusiasts in action but
also explores why they do it.
Surfing the lakes isn’t new. It’s just that most people – including many who live near the water – aren’t
aware that it has been going on. Surfers have gotten together and formed groups and held tournaments for
years. There are books and Web sites devoted to the subject.
“You just don’t see people doing it, mostly because when the weather is good for surfing, there’s no one
at the beach,” says Chicago author P.L. Strazz, who has surfed Lake Michigan for about 10 years and has
written a book titled “Surfing the Great Lakes.”
He estimates that between 500 and 750 people surf the lakes at least once per year, with most of the
activity about equally divided between Lakes Michigan and Erie, followed in order by Ontario, Superior
and Huron.
It’s a solitary pursuit, not only because few people do it but also because the waves are at their best when
the weather is at its worst.
“It’s conceivable that you could be the only person surfing on a lake at any given time,” says Strazz, 38.
Although most summers have a few days that are well-suited to surfing the Great Lakes, the conditions
greatly improve during the fall and early winter. That’s when storms and strong winds churn the lakes
and create dangerous waves that sometimes reach heights of 10 feet or more near the shore.
Water temperatures dip into the 30s and 40s at these times of the year, so insulated wet suits are a
necessity.
Generally, the longer a weather front travels along a lake, the larger the waves it will generate at the far
end, Deur says. Some of the best waves he has seen have been near Manistique, on the northern side of
Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, and in Ontario’s Alona Bay, along the southeastern shore of Lake
Superior.
While shooting his film, he often monitored lake and weather conditions by way of the Internet. If he
felt the conditions were right, he’d jump into his van with his Betacam and head for Sheboygan, Wis., or
Buffalo, N.Y., or wherever the waves were likely to be cresting.
David Vanderveen, 36, a childhood friend of Deur and fellow surfer who now lives in Laguna Beach,
Calif., says the film, which he helped finance, is creating a buzz in surfing circles.
“What’s cool and fun is freshwater surfing near cornfields,” says Vanderveen, who owns a beverage
company called XS Energy Drink. “It’s the new, new thing.”
The world premiere of “Unsalted” will be Friday in Newport Beach, Calif., followed by engagements at
theaters in other parts of California, Texas, Florida and along the East Coast.
For more information about Unsalted, go to www.unsalted.tv
Surf’s Up in Harbor Country!
Film maker documents the Great Lakes’ unique surf culture
“I said, ‘I think the outer reef is blocking all the wave action’ but Vince said, ‘that’s not an outer reef, that’s ice!’”
California pro surfer Bron Heussenstamm on his first experience surfing Lake Superior in January.
Grand Haven native Vince Deur has made one of the most enthralling Great Lakes films you’ll ever see – a
documentary about the quietly thriving surf culture hugging the shores of the Midwest’s “inland oceans.”
“Unsalted: A Great Lakes Experience”, delivers 57 minutes of thrilling surf and lush travelogue footage through
the 8 states and one Canadian province that are home to the Great Lakes.
The 15-year oddessey to make Unsalted began in 1990 when Deur, who is himself a Great Lakes surfer, nearly
lost his life off Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Caught in a violent rip current, Deur battled
waves for an hour before being miraculously released and pushed back to shore. Video camera in hand, Deur
made a pledge – burned onto tape – that he would make a film “so people can understand how intense Lake
Superior is.”
Thus began the quest to document both the phenomenon of surfing the Great Lakes along with the dramatic
character of the lakes themselves. What Deur didn’t realize at the onset was the parallel adventure he would
take to get the film produced and distributed.
Unsalted opens with some jaw-dropping facts: 6 quadrillion (yes, that’s a real number) gallons of fresh water
fill the five Great Lakes, which also boast 11,000 miles of shoreline. Small wonder a surf culture developed
along this massive expanse of coastline. But the unlike the warm, hazy days surfing in Malibu or Waikiki, the
best Great Lakes surfing is from September through January. Think full-body wetsuits, ice flows, and 30-knot
gales pushing choppy 10-foot waves.
After graduating from Northern Michigan University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Deur took his
Communication degree first to North Carolina’s Outer Banks then to Breckinridge, Colorado. He cut his filmmaking teeth working for a cable “vacation channel” doing lots of outdoor shooting. But Deur missed the Great
Lakes and when a position opened up in Grand Haven, he moved his family back home.
Deur spent the next 10 years running Grand Haven’s educational cable access channel and chasing waves on
blustery fall weekends. He did two shorter videos simply titled “Surf Michigan Volume 1” and “Surf Michigan
Volume II” chronicling adventures in his home state. The works gained a small cult following, primarily among
other Great Lakes surf enthusiasts, but Deur knew he ultimately wanted a broader audience.
In 2002 Deur said he got serious about completing Unsalted. One of his earliest supporters was XS Energy
Drinks, a west coast company headed by long-time friend and veteran Great Lakes surfer David Vanderveen.
“Most of my neighbors in Laguna Beach, California, or across the country, for that matter, have no idea how
large the lakes are and that they generate storms not only with good waves for surfing, but also with currents
that can be dangerous,” says Vanderveen. “My goal was to help Vince get the story developed, shot and
produced so that more people would see it and understand a little bit about the stoke that surfers on the Great
Lakes feel.” With XS on board Deur had the all-important initial investor, but he knew that he needed more.
He started by pitching other surf and extreme sports-related companies in California. “But I ran into
roadblocks, getting lots of ‘no’s’” he says. “I originally sent out press packets and didn’t even get replies (from
potential sponsors). I did hear from one of them – and the response was like “this is a joke. I don’t see why
you think this is a good film idea.” I thought, ‘Whoa.’” Deur knew he needed a new strategy or Unsalted would
never get made.
In the spring of 2002, Deur traveled to Maine for an intensive film and photography workshop geared for
fledgling film makers. “Basically we spent 12 hours a day for six days doing nothing but pitching our films to
other people, writing business plans, refining our scripts – all that.” The experience was tremendously helpful,
forcing Deur to see Unsalted through the eyes of the non-surfing public. He refined his vision and took aim at
the west coast surf establishment one more time.
Like many budding entrepreneurs, Deur put the airline ticket on his credit card hoping the gamble would pay
off. Through Vanderveen, Deur got a meeting with the head of marketing for Ocean Pacific (Op). A giant in
the international surf culture, Deur knew this was his “do or die” pitch.
With a conceptual DVD in hand, Deur told his story again – to his most important audience to date. “I played
the trailer and told him I had been working on the project for 10 years. I pitched him on the whole idea – the
unique guys around the Great Lakes doing their own thing and how my film would chronicle the lifestyle and
story and ‘exotic’ locations. He immediately started lighting up.”
Then the question every film makes lives to hear: “how much do you need?” At that point Deur had whittled
his budget from $60,000 down to a barebones $20,000. “I told him the figure and he said, ‘OK, Vince, the
paperwork is right over there.’ It was so easy at that point I was flabbergasted!”
With a major sponsor on board, Deur could finally concentrate on getting the big surf footage he needed. Op
lent some of their pros for filming, including three-time world longboard champion Colin McPhillips and
top international female longboarder Jenni Flanigan. During the fall of 2004, Deur chauffered his crew of
California surfers hundreds of miles around the Great Lakes – in a motor home – following a trail dictated by
the National Weather Service’s storm forecasts.
Stephen “Slydawg” Chews wrote about his experience with Deur for the on-line publication “Happy”. Slydawg
hails from California and came to the Unsalted crew with a healthy dose of “I doubt it” – as in, “I doubt you
can really surf on a lake.”
But after a brutal baptism along Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shoreline, Chews became a true believer.
“The waves were getting crazy, and I actually found myself backing out of a few ... on a lake? This one
Sheboygan doctor originally from Newport Beach, who could surf pretty good, even broke his Al Merrick super
sled in half that day.”
Slydawg goes on to recount the perils of wave riding in near-freezing temperatures while dodging ferocious
surf. “I was searching for that golden Sheboygan “E ticket” again, and I saw thee wave and some that were
even bigger, better, and more hollow, but I just couldn’t get to them. My three-and-a-half-hour session was
turning into a situation. I was getting so tired trying to get one more wave, fighting the current, and the rest of
the elements that I thought I might drown out there. How ironic would that be? I could just see the headlines:
‘Tavarua Lifeguard drowns in Lake Michigan.’”
Though Deur got some great footage that day he knew the truly spectacular, “this will make you a believer,
too” shots still eluded him. But with a production deadline looming and his budget virtually exhausted, Deur
was considering a non-surf ending for Unsalted until “it” came – the blizzard of ’05.
In white-out conditions, and with all the airports east of Chicago shut down, Vince and a small crew of surfers
drove 700 miles to Minnesota in search of huge, blizzard-churned waves. Unsalted documents that January
adventure at Stony Point, including shots of pro surfer Bron Heussenstamm romping through 2-foot snow
drifts on his way down to the Lake Superior shore. It was during this trip that Heussenstamm saw an “outer
reef” blocking waves – he was actually looking at a huge ice flow off the shoreline.
Wrapped in thick bodysuits, including hoods, boots, and gloves, California pros Heussenstamm and Joe
Curren paddled through the freezing waters (the air temperature that day was 20 degrees) and gave Deur
spectacular footage of Great Lakes surfing. Unsalted finally had the ending it deserved – shots that give you a
big freshwater taste of surfing these huge lakes.
Deur raced through production this past spring and started the difficult task of peddling an indy documentary.
He found an ideal partner in former international surf pro Ian Cairns’ distribution company, so Unsalted
has been screened across the country including dates in California, Florida, Texas, New York City, Chicago,
and Toronto. It was also featured at this summer’s Saugatuck Film Festival. But like many independent
producers, Deur is now on his own, submitting the film to other Fests and hoping for additional screenings
and word-of-mouth buzz.
In the end, Deur says he couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out and Vanderveen echoes those
sentiments. “I didn’t enter the project hoping to make any money, although I think Unsalted will do well
financially based on how it is being received.” Deur just hopes that his 15-year oddessey paid proper tribute to
the Great Lakes that he not only calls home but also loves and respects.
For more information about Unsalted, go to www.unsalted.tv
Untamed, Unsalted
TRAVERSE November 2005
THE GALES OF NOVEMBER CAN CRUSH A GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER.
SURF’S UP, DUDE.
TEXT BY EMILY BINGHAM AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS
One blustery November day in 1990, Vince Deur, a surfer and a sophomore at Northern Michigan University
(in that order) left Marquette with his buddy, Brian Vanderkooy, and headed east to Whitefish Point on Lake
Superior, their surfboards in tow. Deur’s fiancée, Kim Hirai, a lifeguard, couldn’t bring herself to go along and
watch.
Deur was no stranger to Great Lakes surfing—he’d grown up on the Lake Michigan shore in Grand Haven and
had spent his childhood catching waves with his friends. After high school he’d stayed around Grand Haven for
a couple of years building seawalls. Deur says it was a great job for a surfer: “When it was windy you didn’t have
to work.” He had surfed in the fall before, but he had never pushed the season as far as he was pushing it this
November day. He was emboldened, he recalls, by a new dry suit.
The pair arrived at Whitefish about 3:30 in the afternoon to find magnificent swells breaking at 8 feet and higher.
Before hitting the surf Deur set a camcorder up on a tripod on the beach. A film minor, Deur was almost as
obsessed with shooting footage as he was with surfing. As the camera rolled, it picked up Deur’s last words before
the pair plunged in: “We’re going to go out now. We’re scared as hell.
See ya later.”
The first few waves were pleasure rides. Then Deur found himself caught in a wicked Lake Superior riptide. With
the air temperature hovering around 38 degrees, the water temperature at 45 degrees and a 35-knot offshore
wind, Deur was fighting for his life. When Vanderkooy realized Deur was in trouble, he went for help and
eventually rounded up a guy who lived down the road and had a Boston Whaler. The man brought his boat to the
launch but the lake was so rough he was afraid to put in.
Back then, Deur didn’t know the correct way to get out of a riptide, but by some fortunate turn of nature, after
an hour-and-a-half of wrestling to stay afloat, and as night was falling, the riptide released him and he made it
to shore. The camcorder had blown over and turned off. Euphorically (Deur describes himself as a perpetual
optimist), Deur grabbed the camera, turned it on, and filmed the scene he’d just escaped. The horizon tilts as the
camera shakes in his hands; thick gray clouds hang overhead, and the lights of a barge can be seen in the distance
over the night-blue water. Deur’s voice is breathless and barely audible over the 35-knot gale, but he manages to
eek out a vow: to one day show people the power behind the lake that almost took his life.
Fifteen years later that video footage would open Unsalted: A Great Lakes Experience. Since the quirky, 56-minute
documentary was released in May it has quietly cultivated an underground following—and in the process, given
freshwater surfing its rightful spot in the cosmos of extreme sports.
That the film took 15 years to complete is testament to how difficult it is to find perfect waves on the Great Lakes—
waves that really illustrate the exquisite surfing the freshwater seas can dish up. Great Lakes waves are notoriously
less predictable and less clean than their ocean counterparts since they travel shorter distances. Conditions change
quickly and unexpectedly, making wave chasing a cross-state and even cross-international border sport.
Four hours of good swells is a scarce and beautiful thing. The real kicker though is that the Great Lakes’ best surf
season isn’t summer. It’s autumn and winter, when the waves roll bigger and better as the weather gets worse. The
science behind that phenomenon is that the cold, dense air presses down on the warmer water, causing waves to
build faster and larger than they do during summer. “Let’s face it, the conditions stink,”
Deur admits about the best season for his favorite sport. “It’s cold. It’s difficult. It’s time consuming. It’s
unpredictable. Sometimes there’s hail, and it’s stinging you in the face. But it can be so worth it. You still come out
of the water just a better person than when you come in.”
While Deur was waiting for prime wave conditions to align with his ability to reach them, he set about
documenting the history of Great Lakes surfing. There’s wonderful vintage home movie footage in Unsalted:
surfing in Buffalo, New York, in 1965; Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 1969; Grand Haven, 1972. Then Deur introduces us
to a handful of other Great Lakes surfers as obsessed as he is. One is a lawyer—his wife says not even a deposition
can keep him in the office if the surf’s up. Another is a doctor who concedes that he will stick around the hospital
for a birth, but otherwise he opts for the surf. There are others, too, guys in their 40’s, 50’s and older who, at some
point in their lives, walked into a one-degree-above-freezing lake with a surfboard under an arm and fell in love
with the sport.
But the film is as much a documentary about the Great Lakes as it is about surfing. Or make that a documentary
about how little people know about the Great Lakes. In one segment Deur films a series of man-on-the-street
interviews in New York City. Question: How many Great Lakes are there? Answers: Quite a few; I don’t have a
clue; Seven; Aren’t there like 10,000?
Obviously, during these years Deur was also building a life off-camera. He and Kim married in 1991. After he
graduated from NMU he worked in North Carolina for a visitors bureau—a job that kept him near the beach. Next
he moved to Colorado for a stint with the Vacation Channel filming skiing and snowboarding (the next best thing
to surfing) in Summit County. In 1994 the Deurs moved back to Michigan, settling in Grand Haven, where Deur
opened his small film company, Vince Deur Productions. The ensuing years brought two sons, Alex in 1997 and
Zach in 2001. Being back in Michigan also ignited Deur’s drive to complete Unsalted.
He began shooting footage from all around the Great Lakes—from the cliffs of Pictured Rocks to the dunes of
Sleeping Bear. From Toronto to Duluth. In 1999 Deur invited Surfer Magazine editor Chris Mauro to Grand Haven
for a day of playing in the waves. The weather turned out to be crummy and the waves were choppy, but Mauro
had a good time nonetheless. He left telling Deur that if Deur could deliver footage that showed Great Lakes waves
were worthy of a feature story, Mauro would run it. Deur was game to try.
In November of 2003 Deur discovered Great Lakes surfing paradise. He emailed Maura footage of sweet, clean,
offshore rollers breaking in an A-frame (surfer lingo for a wave with a nice peak). Hawaii? California? Nope. Lake
Superior at Stony Point, Minnesota.
Deur was beginning to turn heads in the surfing world. In September of 2004 the surfwear manufacturer OP
(Ocean Pacific) sponsored a handful of professional surfers to play in Great Lakes waves while Deur filmed them.
Stars of the surf world, including Joe Curren, Mongo Miller and Slydawg Chew, came to ride waves, rave over the
Great Lakes scenery and party at the, believe it, annual Dairyland Surf Classic in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Deur
could see Unsalted approaching its grand finale and set a May 2005 release date. But first he wanted the ultimate
surf footage from Stony Point.
Mauro sweetened that thought by telling Deur that if he could assure him good surf, the magazine would send a
photo crew for a story to coincide with Unsalted’s release. But a series of weather patterns flattened the lake for
weeks. The clock was ticking on Surfer Magazine’s editorial deadline. Then, the evening of January 21, 2005, at
home in Grand Haven, Deur saw that the forecast he had been waiting for was gathering at Stony Point. He had 17
hours until the surf was up. True to his word, Mauro put a photo crew on a plane to Minneapolis—along with pro
surfers Curren and Bron Huessenstamm. The California boys landed in a Great Lakes blizzard. Deur had to drive.
As the storm moved through, it eventually shut down all the airports east of Chicago.
You don’t have to care a lick about surfing to appreciate the footage Deur shot that day. The clouds blew out, but
wind remained, as did sunshine, bracing air, great powder. The video shows the surfers clad in dry suits— black
and wet, like seal skin—Vaseline on their faces to keep their cheeks from freezing. They wade through knee-high
snow to the indigo lake with its lace of ice chunks and whitecaps. Cut to Mauro back in California who tells the
camera that Curren contacted him to ask, “Do you think we’ll survive?” But they do live to spend the afternoon
whooping it up in the waves. If it wasn’t Endless Summer, Deur finally had what he needed to show off to the
surf world. True to its word, Surfer Magazine ran the story in May 2005. The cover copy read: MUST SEE
MINNESOTA.
Unsalted was released the same month, premiering in Newport Beach, California. It played next at the Waterfront
Film Festival in Saugatuck. In September Deur’s film took gold at the Surfrider Foundation Film Festival in New
York City. Unsalted was on the bill at the Milwaukee Film Festival in October. Deur couldn’t make that gig because
he was in Honolulu for the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, where Unsalted also played. But
Deur will be back to the Great Lakes in time for the gales of November.
Count on it.
Emily Bingham is an intern at TRAVERSE. Elizabeth Edwards is managing editor of
TRAVERSE. [email protected]
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Endless Winter: A Surfing Paradise Not for the Faint of Heart
By MATT HIGGINS
Published: November 19, 2005
BUFFALO - It is November and the gales have arrived on the Great Lakes, with gusts up to 60 miles an
hour, the very conditions that 30 years ago this month sank the lake freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. At this
time of year, as the temperature drops and the wind wails dirges for another lost summer, swells of 10
feet or more can build. And when they do, a handful of hardy surfers in cities and rural communities from
Lake Superior to Lake Ontario will ride them.
They are men like Magilla Schaus, a 54-year-old firefighter in Buffalo. On a Sunday earlier this month, as
50-knot winds lashed Lake Erie, he organized a surf contest in southern Ontario. Wearing thick wetsuits
and hoods to ward off the chill, Schaus and a half-dozen others paddled out under pewter skies to ride
ocher-colored waves heaving up six feet along a rock reef a hundred yards offshore.
In the end, the wind and currents were too powerful for competition. A few surfers caught rides, but
Schaus, the Great Lakes district co-director of the Eastern Surfing Association, canceled the contest.
Standing 6 feet 2 inches and weighing 215 pounds, he is a powerful man with a near unshakeable
confidence in his skills as a waterman. But he conceded that carrying his 11-foot longboard along the
beach with the winds so strong was “like wrestling a giant lizard.”
Meanwhile, at a break 20 miles farther east along the Canadian coast, with the Buffalo skyline in the
background, a dozen surfers rode overhead waves in front of an audience of less intrepid people sitting in
cars.
And so it goes for Great Lakes surfers: One spot may provide rides, another may offer nothing, and still
another may leave men scratching for the safety of the shore. Finding the best waves is an odyssey.
“That quest, it’s a metaphor for your whole life,” said Vince Deur, a surfer from Grand Haven, Mich.,
whose 2005 film, “Unsalted,” documents surfing on the Great Lakes. “To be ready, to be in position, to
have the skills to paddle out and drop in and ride the wave - you can’t control it; you’re along for the ride.”
For some Great Lakes surfers, riding waves is more than a metaphor for life. Take Schaus. He has been
surfing since 1964 and insists he was the only youngster in Buffalo to get a surfboard as an eighth-grade
graduation gift the following year. He began riding in front of his family’s cottage on Lake Erie and
eventually was married on the same stretch of beach - by a surfing minister.
“There’s an old saying,” Schaus said. “ ‘Surfing is like the mob. Once you’re in, you can’t get out.’ “
Others on Lake Michigan, especially in Grand Haven and Sheboygan, Wis., had also discovered freshwater
wave riding during the early 1960’s. Both communities retain strong surfing scenes.
Despite the 40-year history of Great Lakes surfing, fewer than 500 men and women surf the lakes today,
Deur said, and they are spread over a vast area. In fact, many people - in Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago,
Milwaukee and Toronto - have no idea of the thrills available just offshore.
That was the case with 18-year-old Sebastian Duque. In May 2004, his parents moved to Toronto from
Florida, where he had surfed fanatically. But in Canada, without waves, he fell into a funk. Then, in
August, he awoke to news reports of dangerous surf on Lake Ontario caused by the passing remnants of
Hurricane Charley. Grabbing his wetsuit and board, he got on a bus bound for the waterfront, enduring
puzzled looks from other passengers. Once at the beach, authorities tried to keep him from the lake, but
he ran past them and surfed for hours, getting 10-second rides on glassy two-footers.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is heaven,’ “ he said.
Most people never see surfers because they visit the Great Lakes during pleasant days at the beach.
“Everyone takes sick days on the nice, sunny days,” said Matthew Roy, a second-generation Lake Erie
surfer. “We wait for the nasty days.”
Those nasty days can occur in summer, but they arrive regularly during autumn, when waves can grow
dangerously big. Nothing demonstrates the power of the Great Lakes better than the legacy of the Edmund
Fitzgerald. On Nov. 10, 1975, the 729-foot freighter sank in 30-foot seas on Lake Superior, 17 miles from
Whitefish Bay, Mich. All 29 men aboard were lost.
Now, as the gales of November turn to December and January along the Great Lakes, snow will fall and
so will the water temperature. “The winter is the best time for me,” Schaus said. “When the weather starts
changing, then the fair-weather surfers go away.”
Only the most dedicated will continue until expanding shore ice covers the last spots where waves break.
“On the ocean they say, ‘A surfer leaves nothing behind but his footprints in the sand,’ “ Schaus said. “A
Great Lakes surfer leaves nothing behind in the sand - or the snow.”
With Wind-Driven Lake Waves, Timing Is Key
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: November 19, 2005
Other than a lack of salinity in the Great Lakes, the main difference between lake surf and ocean surf is
wave formation. Lake waves are generated by high winds blowing in one direction over a sustained period.
Ocean waves are whipped up by isolated storms, often thousands of miles offshore. Great Lakes waves
arrive and disappear in a shorter time frame than ocean waves.
Predicting surf requires basic knowledge because each lakeshore develops waves under different
circumstances. A comprehensive source for this and other information is the book “Surfing the Great
Lakes” by P. L. Strazz. It covers everything an aspiring surfer would need, in a simple, entertaining
format.
Another resource is the forum at www.thirdcoastsurfshop.com, which offers advice from experienced lake
surfers.
Vince Deur, a filmmaker and Great Lakes surfer, offered his own recommendations: Gain experience by
learning during the summer, when waves and the risk of hypothermia are lower, and never surf alone.
After September, a 6-millimeter-thick wetsuit with hood, gloves and booties is a must. Board selection
depends largely on a person’s height, weight and personal preference. And use a leash to stay connected to
the board.
A basic board, a leash and a wetsuit will cost at least $500. At least the waves are free