River surfing in Montreal - Canada

As winter creeps up on us and we feel the urge of locking ourselves inside instead of joining the emptier lineups, I always wonder about the brave-hearted who despite the cold (and sometimes the snow) challenge the season and go surfing.

When I met Chloé Mocombe from Canada and learnt how passionate she was about surfing a river wave in her home town Montreal I was really impressed!
I had already heard about river surfing, but definitely wanted to get to know more. Mix this with extremely cold water and weather temperatures and then I'm sold, colpletely intrigued.

Today Chloé shares with us a "typical"(if we can say so) surfing day in Montreal, Canada.
Enjoy it and get stoked!

Where I live, I dream everyday about surfing in the ocean. I'm a inland surfer and river surfing in Montreal - Canada - is my reality.

On a Sunday morning, it’s quiet in the city and everybody is still sleeping from partying the previous night. My boyfriend William Pichet & I are already packing the car and putting the boards on our car's roof to pass the bridge. We are super excited to see the wave! The spot is named H67 and just behind some crazy buildings erected for the 1967 International & Universal Exposition (Expo 67) along the St-Lawrence river. We use a surfing application on the Iphone made by one of my friends to see the level of the water, the temperature and the statistics. But you really need to go see it yourself and see if it’s rideable or not, because the wave change a lot in one day.

After 15 minutes driving, we arrive at the spot and put on our wetsuits. In September the temperature of the water is starting to drop and wetsuit are a must. We don’t particularly love it, but we got used to it. We walk along the trail and already hear the water rapids. Through the trees, there we see the wave. It’s green today, it means that the water level is really low. For me the best condition is when the wave switches from green, to green with a little bit of whitewash on top. It’s a little bit easier to catch and so fun to ride!

To catch a river wave, you need to swim down the river with your surfboard and stay on the wave. It’s a never-ending wave. If you miss it, you need to get out of the rapids, walk back and start again. It’s really intense and makes you work your determination because yes, it can drive you really mad sometimes.

But that day, it was perfect. Will and I were catching the wave with the Ananus Surfboards we handmade. That feeling when you are on the wave is indescribable. You can do some crazy noseriding on a longboard or just enjoy the ride and chill on the wave. The river surfing season is on from March to December and it works when the water is not full of icebergs. (wtf?! - editor's note)

There's not plenty of women's river surfing here. It's mostly full of testosterone, but it's fun to see the community slowly growing. I believe that we are pretty lucky to have that river wave here in Montreal. It’s not the same feeling as an ocean wave, but this is our reality and I love it.

Follow Chloé and William's adventures on Instagram: @chloemoc @ananuswetdream @ananussurfboards
Photo by Alex CD Photography @alexcdphotography