The Palmwood and Harrison's Reef is the last remaining place to ride in eastern Lake Erie due to shore ice.






On Thursday I checked out both breaks. Harrison's Reef was waist high and ice free and The Palmwood had an ice water snake of slush flowing through part of the lineup. It always is amazing to see waves coming out of ice fields. There were several massive, floating, boulders of ice tumbling round and round like they were in a clothes dryer. The waves late in the day were very clean and knee high and specifically good for longboarding.




Harrison's Reef is a break that is a distant, offshore, reef break off of Buffalo, New York. It was first paddled into by myself over 18 years ago. The paddle out to this spot takes about a half hour and an understanding of the three strong currents that are at play. Paddling there is not recommended for the novice surfer. The place has been ridden by wind boarders but they came years after it was surfed by myself. The break is seldom ridden and best rode with a jet ski to get a surfer into the waves. Otherwise the surfer will find themselves constantly paddling to stay in the lineup and at the end of the ride it is a tiresome struggle fighting to reposition for the following ride. The place is knarly and tricky to get to and gets the full force of lake seiche surf when the wind is howling.





As a tribute to 78 year old, Don Harrison the Wyldewood Surf Club hereby names this surf break off of Buffalo, New York as a way to honor our brother of highest stoke. Harrison is a Great Lakes Legend and has done some incredible things in the local surfing community long before the recent generation of surfers were born. It is fitting that we bestowe this recognition in Harrison 's name because of his Great Lakes aloha spirit. Captain Harrison was Don Harrison's grandfather. He would have avoided this dangerous spot off the Buffalo's harbour. Captain Harrison had a license to sail all five Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence River and the oceans of the world. Don Harrison took after his grandfather and rather than sailing across the waves in a boat, instead he rode the waves on a longboard. There you have it about our Great Lakes surf Legend and a Great Lakes surf break off Buffalo, New York that is named by one of the oldest surf clubs in honor of Don Harrison. No windboarder or other surfer has the right to claim the naming of this spot. It was first surfed by myself and since has never been ridden by another surfer on a board without a sail. Harrison's Reef would be extremely difficult for a paddle board surfer to ride as it is for a surfboard rider.





I have naming rights to two surfbreaks that I first rode in eastern Lake Erie: Dukes Point in Port Maitland, Ontario and Harrison's Reef off of Buffalo, New York.



Our local VW bus crew in the 2008 Furminger van have the naming rights for the distant offshore reef break in Lake Huron near Kincardine. I was the first to ride this wave followed by five other Canadian surfers this very summer. The resident community in this area will attest to this fact. They were astounded to see us first riding pealing and far offshore waves that were head high and better. There are no pictures of this day because all of us were too busy surfing. There are photographs that were taken by my wife of myself first surfing "Dukes Point" and there are some photographs that I took of the waves from my surfboard when I first surfed "Harrison's Reef."




Our local Canadian Legend Ron MacFarlane from Wainfleet, Ontario is the person responsible for turning me onto "Dukes Point" and the wave rider who helped me decide the surfer name for this break. There is a surfbreak at Lorrain Road in Port Colborne, Ontario named Ron's Reef after Ron MacFarlane. It is an offshore reefbreak in Lake Erie and can be stood up upon by a body boarder as a way to launch into the waves that come from three directions. I miss the days when MacFarlane lived there and had a marker buoy on the reef and would tow you out to the surf break in his boat.




"Old Crows" a.k.a. Silver Bay Point was first paddled into (aproximately) during the summer of 1969 by John O"Hear, Tom Christopher, and myself. It is a knarly work out surf break. "Old Crows" and Area 51 are two places where I have been held underwater during a wipe out more than a few times.



Derrick Richardson of the Wyldewood Surf Club was one of the first Great Lakes surfers to ride the Georgian Bay and Kincardine and throughout Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. He rode up and down the east coast and crashed in sixties surfshops and camp grounds. He surfed on the north and south shores of Lake Erie. I heard many surf stories about these lakes from him and it took me years before I got to experience some of the places that he rode in the heyday of the genesis of Great Lakes surfing.




A surfer named Lud from Australia and Canadian surfer John Newgard followed Canadian Derrick Richardson, Vern Ferster, the Gillie brothers and others in this part of the lakes.

This is a view of eastern Lake Erie's surf break named "Harrison's Reef."

The ice fishermen are loving this photograph: