Five Lakes Surf Club

What surf wisdom do you live by?

A guru once told me to never catch the first wave of a set.

Big ol block of cheese in the Chicago sky

Name one person you’d sacrifice to the lake gods for a day like this

Don’t know photo credit, let me know and I’ll tag.

Lake Erie may have frozen solid in the winter, but at least she’s 95F now, and all the two-headed fish are out of hibernation.

Weekend wave shots by Rose, Anders, and last one by

Recent spring photos from the SToNeY PoiNT surf spot FB page (a self-proclaimed religious organization)

Photo 1, 3: Matthew Pastick
Photo 2: Tom Rawlyk
Video: Brendan Pham

Milwaukee leftovers for lunch.

Read our most recent surf town on our page!

Northbound toward the Dairyland mecca, Chicago surfers pass it by. And why would a Sheboygan surfer leave their slice of heaven? This overlooking of Milwaukee leaves their various breaks mostly empty. A crowd in MKE is only about a dozen, and that’s a dozen on a first name basis.

It is a city of contrasts. Passcode-protected communities butt up against struggling ones. Chain link fences divide industry from bike paths. It’s a constructed metropolis on the shores of an untameable sea. Nearly 600,000 people live here. Yet only a few dozen surf year-round.

Wave riders have found a home in MKE through the generations, with elders Ric L, Joe Medrow, and Snake and Todd Fillingham paving the way in the days of weather radios and beavertail wetsuits. Eric Gietzen, Ken Cole, Ryan Bigelow and John Altmann held it down in the 90’s and 00’s and can still be found in the lineup. Today, the locals congregate through their local Surfrider chapter.

Zoe, current vice chair of the chapter, is a graphic designer and one of the city’s few female surfers. She says the lake is another world. Only a hundred yards away from the stacks and towers and highways, she finds herself removed from the noise without even leaving the city.

Before any surf shop, the community was disjointed and underground. Andrew Wallus didn’t know of any other shortboarders until he met Rusty Malkemes and Adam Kuhnen. After a few years, a small crowd interested in similar riding styles had formed. The Brat Boys etched their own shortboard scene in MKE.

In the following years, Jake and Alaina Bresette tied everyone together through Lake Effect Surf Shop, where they supplied gear, hosted live music, and formed a gathering place. Sadly, their doors are closed after a decade of serving the community. Tamir, the local shaper, has stepped in to fill the void, supplying surf wax and steady ding repair courtesy of the city’s various cobblestone, rebar, and concrete hazards.

Some call it “Brew City.” Some call it Smallwaukee. If you decide not to skip it over on your drive, you’ll probably find yourself on the other end of a session sharing a local beer in the parking lot.

We made a correction to our wetsuit guide poster for the Great Lakes.

Sorry about the swim trunks non-sense. Plus, you can’t surf on the lakes anyway.

Some Lake Michigan day in October 2025

Photo: