Chicago, America's Next Surf City?

That's doubtful on many levels, but the city government is making progress. This past week, city officials voted to allow surfers access to specific beaches with the aside that they "Surf at Your Own Risk." Up to this point, wave riders risked massive fines for attempting a session as if 20 degree air temperatures and surf potential that makes Texas look lile Bali (was that a clear simile?) weren't enough deterrents to would be surfers. Now, however, the city that helped change Obama from Hawaiian bodysurfer to Presidential golden child will now let folks trudge through the city scape with their flotation devices like rafts and bodyboards and, of course, surfboards to grab a few cold ones. Chicago has a surf shop and a Surfrider chapter and sometimes even some surf, so why not?

According to this Time Magazine article, this is part of a push to extend surfing's influence inland, which is a valid observation. Global companies like Billabong and Quicksilver and Volcom see the writing on the wall. They know that expansion means going beyond nature's coastal boundaries. After all, that's where the cash potential lies. It's an untapped resource up to this point. But in reality, surfing is happening in bodies of water everywhere. Stand-up paddle boarding, wake surfing, kite surfing, surfing in rivers and giant lakes and Arctic seas, and even some action happening in truly viable wave pools. This might be a sea change moment for ocean surfers: the great shift inland for surf culture. It's an interesting thought.