Lake Tahoe Surfing | Jan 15th, 2012

Craig showing how goofy footers do things on the Lake

I awoke in the early morning last Sunday to the unmistakable sound of the wind picking up and rattling the trees in my backyard in Truckee. The forecast from the night before had been correct – the windstorm was beginning.

The texts started to fly between myself and a few local surfers over on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, as we began to plan out the mission - the plan was to let the wind push water across the lake for the first half of the day and then jump in the water to reap the rewards in the afternoon.

Craig just missed this one toward the end of the day

Surf on Tahoe isn’t that unusual. Good, reliable, regular waves though are few and far between. I have become obsessed with the idea of photographing Tahoe surfing from the water, and in order to realize that dream I’ve acquired a water housing for my SLR camera. Doing so has allowed me to jump in the water with the surfers, in an attempt to document their shredding close up from a unique perspective.

I grew up in Hawai`i and love swimming in surf. Swimming in wind swell on Tahoe however is a completely different animal than being in saltwater. There are no real regular swells, as the wind whips the top of the lake into a frenzy, directing wave after frigid wave after wave to crash on your head. Shooting from the freezing water in Tahoe is challenging, but that’s why I love it.

Scott showing how good he can rail

The crew on Sunday were all veteran lake surfers – Scott Gaffney, Tom Burt, Mike Vail, Jay Kelley, and Craig Kimura. These guys are in the water without fail every time the wind blows, and they stay out until they are literally blue in the face. These guys are surfers, through and through, they just happen to live in Tahoe so they surf the lake when they can.

Heading right

As the day progressed, the wind gusts got stronger and stronger. Water temperatures out on the buoys was reading ~42 degrees F, as the water was still holding a slight bit of warmth from the never ending summer.

On Sunday, the spot they picked to surf on the East Shore lent itself to shooting from the elevated rocky shoreline, so despite being in my wetsuit ready to jump in, I stayed on the shore.  The perspective from a few feet off the water and towards the setting sun put the light coming from over my shoulder and backlit the waves nicely.

Mike goes left

Wave after wave came in disorganised, jumbled trains, and the peaks got more defined as the day wore on. The crew took turns paddling around catching waves, with no one spot proving to be the ideal location as the gusty wind threw the water around like foam and waves crashed into the rocks down the coast of the East Shore.

How Mike dinged his board

Mike Vail had one of the more memorable rides of the day, as he caught a wave about 50 feet offshore and rode it literally all the way into the rocks. His board got pretty dinged up but he paddled back out and kept charging. The other boys charged hard and caught some decent rights into shore, as the sun sank behind Squaw to the west and lit up the waves and foam.

Mike slashing off the lip

The waves might not be tight 5-second period A frames breaking off the coast of the Mentawais, but they are fun for the crew to ride, and even more fun for me to shoot. Winter is nearly here (finally) and that means more ferocious windstorms. You can bet that each time it does, you will find us in the water, searching for the ever elusive cold bluegreen Tahoe barrel.

Waves bashing the rocks

To see a complete gallery of Grant’s shots of people surfing Lake Tahoe over the last few years, go to his website.

Coming in hot right to the beach