SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Larry Williams keeps one eye on the buoys bobbing in the setting summer sun and another on his 4-year-old daughter playing in the sand.

It's not a day at the beach along an ocean. In fact, the nearest ocean is about 700 miles away. Williams is just hanging out, waiting patiently until he and others can resume surfing waves that reach 10 feet off frigid Lake Michigan in the fall.

"I don't think we do it for the uniqueness," said Williams, who sprinkles Hawaiian lingo into his conversations. "A lot of us do it for the health of it, a lot of us do it for the sharing, the extended family, the 'ohana."

The 52-year-old Williams and his twin brother, Lee — the better of the two surfers — are well-known outside the Third Coast because of documentaries on Great Lakes surfing. Larry does the majority of interviews while Lee focuses on the surfing, and both have gained the respect of the surfing community during their more than 40 years surfing the lakes.

The season opens Labor Day weekend at the Dairyland Surf Classic, which is sponsored by beach beer Corona and has more than 200 surfers fly in to participate from as far away as Hawai'i.

What if there are no waves?

"Everybody asks, 'What happens if you don't surf?' What do you mean, are you kidding? It's a day at the beach," said Larry Williams, who looks the part, too, with a Hawaiian print shirt, tiger tattoos on his arm and a large shark tooth hanging from his neck. "It can never be a bad day if you're at the beach."

SURFING HAPPENS

It's also part swap meet, part old-fashioned beach party with people buying, selling and trading goods, to go along with the weekend's activities that include paddle races for youngsters and professionals, as well as a relay event.

Yes, surfing happens across the Great Lakes and even in Sheboygan, where surfboards are sold at the local mall.

"The only way before to get equipment was to buy it on the coasts or the Internet," said Ryan Gerard, owner of Third Coast Surf Shop in New Buffalo, Mich. "If you're talking about a 9-foot surfboard that's not easy to do, there's logistical problems involved."

So Gerard opened his store in May 2005 after a short stint catching waves in Santa Cruz, Calif. He said he feels his shop is in the ideal location because he gets a large amount of tourist traffic from Chicago. He said the number of new surfers is staggering.

"A few years ago, there were maybe 500 people," he said. "If we're talking about people who surf even occasionally, once or twice a year, I'm talking thousands easy, multiple thousands and that's probably conservative."

All the surfers say the vibe on the Great Lakes is a totally different experience from surfing hot spots around the world.

"A lot of people have compared it to what California must have been like in the 1940s," Gerard said. "It's a fairly small culture, a group of people doing this thing everyone is passionate about."

Gerard said the thrill of finding waves and the knowledge that there's coastline that still hasn't been surfed pushes them to find the best waves.

"To me, that's challenging and exciting," he said.

Because there are no tides, the best time to try is in the harshest conditions. The wind must blow at least 20 mph to 25 mph to form the swells. Those winds are most prevalent in the wicked winter.

"That's why a lot of people want to get into it here. They like extreme sports and surfing in a lake is pretty extreme," said Teek Phippen, who has surfed Lake Michigan since 1988. "We're not West Coast, we're not stereotyped as being surfer dudes."

SIGNS OF HYPOTHERMIA

Surfers must wear full body suits and be on constant guard for signs of hypothermia. Icebergs, not sharks, are the most dangerous enemies.

"It's eclectic, it's extreme, it's just different," said Vince Deur, a surfer and filmmaker who released a documentary last year on Great Lakes surfing that helped spark the latest wave of adventure seekers. "It requires a whole lot of effort. It's not like we have these summer days and you can wake up at 11 with a hangover, throw a surfboard in a convertible, drive to the beach and find overhead waves."

Sheboygan is the Capital of Freshwater Surfing because the county juts out five miles into Lake Michigan, meaning winds from most directions cause water to swell and form waves. It doesn't hurt that the Williams brothers constantly hype their Malibu of the Midwest.

"Lake Michigan is an inland ocean, it can create waves in excess of 24 feet, two and a half stories, several times a year," said Larry Williams, pointing just down the five-mile stretch of coastline. "North Point is now considered the Mount Everest of freshwater surfing. We had top California surfers come in here and they were backing off on a lot of waves."

"We get more waves than anybody else (on the Great Lakes), more quality waves, bigger waves, because where we're sitting, from North Point to North Pier, about a mile, it's really a deep bay and the waves sweep in."

Deur said it gets into people's blood once they start catching their first waves on the Great Lakes.

"There's something unique, almost religious, about surfing," Deur said. "That freedom that you don't experience in other places, those feelings drive all sorts of people to all sorts of extremes."

Even if those extremes include bitter temperatures and avoiding an occasional iceberg.

"Skimming along those waves, you always think of exotic places, islands, warm tropical waters," said Larry Williams, his voice trailing off. "Well, that's not Lake Michigan."

ON THE WEB

THIRD COAST SURF SHOP: WWW.THIRDCOASTSURFSHOP.COM/

Unsalted: A Great Lakes Experience: www.unsalted.tv/