We've featured a lot of interesting people in our Ohana Profile, and we've had surfers who've surfed virtually every ocean, gulf and surfable sea. Kenny Ashburn, though, is our first bona-fide Great Lakes Surfer, and we're fascinated by the whole idea of fresh-water surfing - the dedication, the brotherhood, and the waves.

Although we had to see it to really believe it...

Picture this: Industrialized Buffalo, New York.

Factories

Concrete

Cold

No Ocean

So how did we get from there to here?

Kenny Ashburn walked into the Classic SurfShop about 4 years ago, and chose a top-of-the-line, 9 foot, three-stringer from the rack. Right off I was taken with his friendly personality and knowledge of surfing, but I could tell that he wasn't from Hawaii. We got to talking that day, and he told me that he was from New York. Well, I know other New York surfers, there're plenty, so that didn't really stand out in my mind. But Kenny did. "What a nice young man," I remember thinking. And I was right. Over the past couple of years I've come to acknowledge that Kenny's not only a sweetie, but he's a hard-core, dedicated, die-hard surfer, AND, he's from The Great Lakes.

Here's some of Kenny's story.

"My Mom's a cop in Buffalo, still. She spent some time in California when she was younger, though, and used to talk about that, the beaches and all. I guess that sparked my interest in surfing, because there sure wasn't anything in Buffalo to point me in this direction. I was always interested in surfing, would see it on TV and stuff, and I sent away for this surfing video when I was a kid; it came from somewhere in Florida and I remember I watched it over and over and over. I dreamed about surfing. I think I learned how to surf without a surfboard, just watching that video. I grew up along Lake Erie, and always knew that the waves there were surfable, but I just never saw anyone surf it."

"There was nothing to do in Buffalo but bowling and boozin'. So, that's what I was doing. I finished school and went to work in one of the factories, and just followed the pattern. I thought there was nothing to do but party, so I partied. And all along, while I was looking for something to do, it was right there under my nose."

At this point Kenny stops and states with all seriousness, "Surfing saved my life."

What he means, and later points out, is that the life he was living would have just made him another statistic -An unhappy alcoholic. Instead, he took what steps he could to change his situation. And then, on a trip for a job interview in Virginia Beach, Kenny stopped by the beach and his life changed forever. They were surfing.

A couple of hours later he walked out of a local surfshop with a new longboard. That's the day he caught his first wave, and that's the day the Stoke bloomed in Kenny Ashburn. It's still there.

Two days later Kenny was back in Buffalo, checking out the Great Lakes. Determined to find surf, he drove from Lake to Lake, and this time he did find other surfers. Propitiously, there was a big swell pushing in. It seemed in just a few days, he met the whole local surf crowd, and they in turn, were delighted to have another buddy to surf with. Kenny was warmly welcomed by his new-found friends. In fact, if you consider that the total of Great Lakes coastline exceeds the entire total of North American Pacific and Atlantic coastlines combined, and that there are, (at a generous estimate) no more than 300 surfers inhabiting this entire region, you'll understand just why this sort of brotherhood exists. Anyway, these guys showed him the best spots and taught him how to read the weather and forecast the waves. They admitted him into that "brotherhood" of surfers, those of kindred spirit, and he found a sense of camaraderie that (in spite of team sports and previous friendships), he'd never experienced in his life.

Suddenly he had a reason to get through the work day, and it wasn't bowling and boozin' anymore.

One of the first of the Great Lakes Surfers that Kenny met was Magilla Schaus, a Buffalo, New York, Fire Fighter that had surfed Hawaii back in the 1960s. Magilla, one of the founding fathers of the renowned Wyldewood Surf Club, sort of took Kenny under his wing, and most certainly had a positive impact on Kenny's initiation to surfing. Their friendship continues to thrive, and Ashburn always sports the Wyldewood logo on his boards.

Click Here to Continue Kenny's Story