Surfing the Great Lakes, no matter the temperature

It's been awarm December, but not warm enough that people flock to the beach.

But that's exactly what some are doing right now, complete with their surf boards.

Robin Pacquing, an instructor withSupGirlz, a stand up paddle board school in Toronto, is one of those people.

"Yes you can surf here on the Great Lakes.It's alittle bit different than the ocean," she toldMetro Morning.

When she looks at a map of southern Ontario, she sees the shores ofLake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Georgian Bay and LakeSimcoeasopportunitiesto surf, especially when the "winds are howling."

How does one start surfing in the Great Lakes?

"You start off...not necessarily in the winter," she said."Bluffer's Park in Toronto is a great place to start. Same thing withAshbridgesBay Park, which we callA-Bay."

ThoughPacquing doesn't recommend novice surfers going out in winter,all the Great Lakes produce rideable waves throughout the winter. She just wears a thicker wet suit.

"It's actually not as cold as you think," she said, as thewateris often warmer than the air."You're better off being in there!" she said.

She said surfing is about being connected to natureand having a mindfulness about what you're doing. She also described what it's like surfing mid-winter.

"It's such a magical feeling when the snow falls and you've caught a wave," she said.

But then surfing is not without its risks.Pacquing urged new surfers to make sure they are strong swimmers, then try surfing with a friend and have all the right equipment, because it's "an extreme environment."

It can be so extreme, she said, that people passing by sometimes call the police out of concernwhen they see people in the water in the dead of winter.

But that doesn't botherPacquing, who said she feels at home in the water.

"I grew up here in Toronto and I didn't grow up learning how to surf," she said. "But being somebody with immigrant parents from the Philippines they grew up in the ocean, and instilled in us that the water was a good place to be I wasn't afraid to be in the water. Andwhen I found you could surf here, I just kind of threw myself into it."