The ice is flowing down the Niagara River past Buffalo. It is mostly following the Canadian side of the river and than changing sides further along where the current shifts before the railroad bridge.

Today it is too cloudy to see a space image of Lake Erie. I was in Fort Erie today and the flags where flapping on the Peace Bridge from a hard SW. So I had to go take a look at see if the ice had cleared out from some surf breaks in this neck of the woods.

The Palmwood is still totally iced up. The ice pack is extensive and all the way to historic Fort Erie. It goes very, very far out into the lake.

At Area 51 massive amounts of ice that have no breaks in the ice also go way out far into the lake.


Wyldewood Beach has a large open area of water near shore but massive ice fields far off shore. It looks like this ice field is all the way past Cedar Bay. I didn't see any wave action way out in the lake using my naked eye. I didn't travel any farther westward on Highway 3.


It won't be long now before Canadian eastern Lake Erie is ice free. I bet some of these storms we are getting are going to speed up the ice removal process.

At approximatley 5 p.m. tonight these observation where made by me.

Look to the future always.

A hard SW will bring some excellent waves to these places that are not in the shadow of Long Point. There are many point breaks in that area and some are better than others and like all places in the lake when the conditions are correct there will be wave riding opportunities. Last year I rode in that westward area all by myself without a soul anywhere around.


I was tuned in last year to Dukes by Ron MacFarlane one of the best bodyboarders and stoked surfers in this part of eastern Lake Erie with a wealth of local knowledge and a passion for surfing. He took sixth place in the past senior mens division of bodyboading only a few years ago at the ESA Eastern Championships. We are still proud of this achievement till this day. He made us proud to be from the Great Lakes.

Now the photograph below is intended to demonstrate what can be found out there on a cold and gusty day when everyone else is doing something like watching a Sabres game or trying to get in one last day of snowboarding or playing on the internet or whatever. So the favor that Ron passed on to me I pass onto another intrepid and stoked lake surfer with an indomitable spirit for wave riding. The reward you find is in trying.


Photograph by Christine Lovett-Schaus

Copyright C 2006:

We were also down to Port Colborne and followed through to Buffalo and down the Niagara River. Everything was still blocked up with ice....Out here where I am (Port Maitland area) there's only a few ice patches left here and there and further on down near Selkirk there's nothing.

The report from yesterday at Ron's Reef in Port Colborne. Furminger and Steve surfed there as the winds died down.

Ron's Reef is a outside/shallow reef in Lake Erie. It takes a lot of paddling and some determination to find the spot. For bodyboarders and surfers the best way to come into it is off the west point. It's a very long paddle. The good thing about the spot for bodyboarders is that they can stand on the reef and then launch as waves come from one, two, or three directions. The rides tend to be shorter but the wave jacks up right there.

The place has been ridden by only a few surfers. It's fun and you earn your waves in the long paddle.

Ron MacFarlane used to have the place buoyed off when he lived there. He would shuttle surfers out to the reef in his boat. Man those were the easy days.

Tarik if you want to know more about the place email me.