The average person watching the weather on the evening news pays attention to see if they’ll be waking up a half hour early to warm up their car and shovel the driveway.

Some watch the blue and green radar blob surging through the Midwest for a different reason. They watch the weather in anticipation of their prize wave; the best our humble lake front shores can offer the surfers of the Midwest.

“In the Northern Hemisphere, the fall and winter has more volatile weather which generates a lot more waves,” said Bob Tema. Tema is a cofounder of the Superior Surf Club, an organization dedicated to uniting and informing Midwest surfers about weather conditions and upcoming events in the area.

Intense winter storm weather makes excellent waves for Midwest surfers. Although these waves are nothing like the swells that break onto the shores of Hawaii and California, Duluth surfers are proud of the niche they have created in surfing our fresh water.

Starting as a novelty as people watched from the shores in awe, surfing is now a well-known sport among Duluth’s hard-core outdoorsmen and water sports junkies.

When the conditions are right, you can find surfers in three main areas of Duluth: the mouth of Lester River, Park Point, and Stoney Point; the last of which holds the title given by the locals for best waves in Duluth. Unfortunately this year it is hard to find surfers in these locations due to inadequate weather patterns. Some surfers are calling this season one of the worst in recent memory.

Unlike ocean surfing where the current is constant, freshwater surfing requires ideal weather conditions and wind patterns. The wind must blow at the right direction, at the right speed to produce conducive conditions.

According to Randy Carlson, coordinator of the UMD Surf Club and a ten-year Duluth surf veteran, good surfing weather comes with a lot of high pressure “parked above [our] cold northwest winds.”

Carlson teaches UMD students how to kite board, paddleboard, and surf, but with stubborn weather hitting the Midwest, Carlson has a difficult time finding time and conditions suitable to teach.

“Without the waves we can’t use the surfboards.” Said Carlson.

Wayne Gatlin, a UMD junior, has been surfing with Carlson and the UMD Surf Club for three years. Gatlin bought equipment this year in the hope of riding waves on his own time without the surf club.

“I haven’t been out for a month and a half,” he said. “I haven’t had many seasons, but this is the one where I have been out the least so far.”

The less-than-ideal weather is not only cutting into time for teaching and fun. For some, it is hindering business.

John Abrahms is the owner of Superior Surf Systems, a specialty store related to water sports. Abrahms stocks kayaks, canoes, paddles, life jackets, wetsuits and for the past year, surfboards and accessories.

“It’s terrible this fall,” said Abrahms. “If there aren’t waves, no one is standing on the shores looking to buy surfboards […] this is supposed to be the peak of the surf season sales.”

Even with a crummy season underway surfers aren’t hopeless. They still have Minnesota’s unpredictable weather and several winter months ahead, and the chance that they’ll yield some serious surfing conditions.

“Who knows maybe we’ll have a killer December or January,” said Gatlin.

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Park Point is one of the most popular surfing spots in Duluth.

The 2.0 mile Chester Creek Trail is challenging and can take up to two hours to hike.

By RYAN HANSON Correspondent

Walking the steep trails along the banks of Chester Creek, Dan Proctor navigates the path like he’s been here before.

“I’ve been doing work here since 1985,” says Proctor, of the city owned park. “If you wait for permission, you’re never going to get it.”His house backs up directly to Chester Creek, and a steep path winds its way from his back yard down to the creek. He’s essentially the sole caretaker of the 2.5 mile trail.

While the park is owned by the city, Proctor says they are often slow to respond to its maintenance needs. Subsequently, Proctor takes matters into his own hands.

He collects scrap lumber from contractors around the city. With it he builds runoffs so trails don’t washout. He usually has the trail fixed before the city is even alerted to problems. But he isn’t paid for the hours of work he puts in on the trails; it’s completely voluntary.

“It’s understood,” says Proctor with a smile, “that Dan Proctor does the work out there.”

Passing by drainage ditches he dug earlier in the week, he stops to quickly clear them of leaves. He greets everyone he meets on the trail with a warming “Hello!” and a smile. Everyone smiles back at the 55-year-old man with graying pigtails, carrying a bucket, shovel and pickaxe.

“There are opportunities for doing work in any community. Rather than telling someone else to fix the problem, offer to help,” says Proctor.

Proctor has had full-time jobs in the past, but now opts to work three or four days a week at The Positively Third Street Bakery, which he’s done for the last 15 years.

“Do what you love, and the money will find you,” says Proctor. “The money hasn’t found me yet,” he adds with a smile.

He shovels mounds of dirt, moves rocks, and expertly swings his pickaxe, cutting through earth, roots, and rocks. Before long, a drainage ditch is completed. The walk back to his house takes 15 minutes. All the way he keeps his eyes on the trail, searching the grounds for a new project tomorrow.

Photo by Mira Southworth

Planting her feet deep in the Park Point sand, Mira Southworth knew she would settle down in a house near the end of the Point. It was the year 1934.

She named her post “Outermost House,” since it was the closest house on the Point to the shore of Lake Superior. From there, she devoted her life to teaching and photography, touching thousands of lives along the way.

Southworth spent much of her childhood in Minneapolis, after moving from Massachusetts when she was about 9 years old.

After receiving her B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1909, Southworth took a job teaching English at Duluth Central High School.

After 17 years, she took a hiatus, returning to the East Coast to earn her Master’s of Education degree at Harvard University. It was not long before Southworth was back at the front of a Central classroom.She regularly packed her car full of students who would hitch a ride to school with her.

Margaret “Mugs” McGillis, a lifelong friend of Southworth’s, reminisced from her rocking chair: “She always took us to school if it was raining. She taught us all to drive even though she didn’t drive too good herself, racing up that hill.”

John DeRosier, a lifelong Duluthian and one of Southworth’s former students, wrote in a 1999 letter to the Park Point Community Club, “When the new school year started, and the students were setting up their programs, Miss Southworth’s room was filled with students trying to get into one of her classes. Every seat was taken and the students were standing, completely lining the four walls. Miss Southworth would put the names of each student on a piece of paper, put the papers in a waste basket, and have someone draw out names of those allowed to stay.”

DeRosier was one of the “lucky ones.” The names that were not drawn were assigned a different teacher. “Believe me, there were many tears shed in that room,” he wrote.

Along with her passion for teaching, Southworth loved photography. Founding Central’s Camera Club in 1923, she served as the club’s advisor for almost 30 years.

Her prolific collection of works feature breathtaking scenes from the Park Point area, the North Shore, and other locations along Lake Superior.

Always accompanied by a crowd of young friends and followers, Southworth roamed the shores of Lake Superior recording the changing landscapes and scenery, documenting history as it happened.

“When we were kids, we used to go out and hold the light meter for her,” said McGillis. “She could make a picture out of anything, even a blade of grass.”

Scribbles of original poetry cover the back of some of her photographs. Southworth occasionally composed to accompany her work. Still more photographs have hand-written captions. Many of her photographs can be distinguished by a slight leftward tilt. She stood unevenly due to a limp.

During World War II, Southworth created postcards out of her photographs and sent more than 300 of them to servicemen from the Duluth area.

An entire collection of her photography survives to this day in the house and care of “Mugs” McGillis.

Southworth retired from teaching in 1951, but continued to photograph the Lake Superior scenery she knew so well.

She died in 1975 at the age of 92.

Her outstanding work in schools and in photography was memorialized on May 14th, 1999, when the Southworth Marsh, a small scenic wetland, was named after her. May 14th was Southworth’s birthday. The marsh is located right across the street from Outermost House.

Dave Johnson, former president of the community club, said that many of Southworth’s photos were taken in and around the marsh that now bears her name.

“She took some of the earliest photos of [Southworth Marsh],” Johnson said. “She should be a local or regional legend.”

A Park Pointer to the end, Southworth spent her final days at the Surf & Sand Nursing Home, just three blocks from Outermost House. McGillis smiled to herself knowingly, “Once you get sand in your feet, you can’t leave.”