TRAVERSE CITY — Next month, three men — Joe Lorenz, Kwin Morris and Jeff Guy — will attempt something that has never been done: to paddleboard across Lake Superior, the largest, coldest, and most dangerous of the Great Lakes.
“It can pick up like crazy out there in a matter of seconds,” Morris said. Superior’s weather and waves have taken thousands of sailors and their ships to the grave.
The goal of this trip is to raise more than $10,000 for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.
“We’re working on a route where we cross over the site of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we can stop and give respect to all of the shipwrecks and sailors that have gone down,” said Morris, age 31, a teacher in the Elk Rapids school district. He and the two other paddle boarders are co-founders of Stand Up for Great Lakes, a non-profit organization set up to protect the Great Lakes and educate others about our freshwater resources.
The crossing will take place in July. Dressed in their dry suits, these men will battle the lake known for waves higher than 30 feet, and summer water temperatures that can be as low as the 30s.
“We have a weather window between July 9th and 20th,” says Corey Adkins, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and director of photojournalism at WWTV, Channel 9 in Cadillac, and WWUP, Channel 10 in Sault Ste. Marie, the CBS affiliate for northern Lower Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula.
Adkins will film the paddleboarders’ journey from the safer and drier position aboard a boat.
“The crossing itself will only take between 24-32 hours, but we need that weather window,” Adkins said.
The journey will begin from Sinclair Cove, Ontario, near centuries-old pictographs of paddlers painted on the cliffs by the Ojibwe nation.
They will finish up at Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the site of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
To watch a video about the crossing, visit https://youtu.be/_6zuZExON3o.
Morris and Guy said the idea of paddling across Lake Michigan first struck them when they were doing a standup paddle together. They later met Lorenz at a Christmas party, who had a similar idea. He said, “Let’s do it!” So, they put together the team and a plan, formed a non-profit and worked to make it a reality.
“They were originally going to try it alone and that wouldn’t have been a good idea,” Adkins said. “Then they talked to seasoned boat captain Ryan Matuzak, who is with North Country Sportfishing in Frankfort. Ryan encouraged them to wait a year. They researched and became much better organized.”
Their first crossing was Lake Michigan in 2015, a 60-mile and 23-hour journey in 37-degree water. They raised $10,000 for the Great Lakes Alliance. In June 2017, they crossed Lake Huron and raised $7,000 for Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The 90-mile paddle journey took over 28 hours to complete. Now they are attempting the most dangerous paddle yet across the deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes.
Each paddle boarder carries all of his supplies on his own paddleboard: food, extra clothes, and straws that filter drinking water from the lake. There are many dangers they’ll face, aside from hypothermia and fatigue. High winds can crop up, leading to big waves, and they will pass through shipping lanes in the dark.
“Fog can happen very quickly,” says Corey. “That’s what caused a lot of the shipwrecks on Lake Superior. We don’t want to lose anyone in the fog.”
To give their families peace of mind, they have taken precautions, such as having a boat follow them with an emergency medical technician on it.
“The first trip (on Lake Michigan) was a lot of unknown,” says Scott Lorenz, Joe’s father. “But they planned it out thoroughly. Their success has given us as family and parents much more confidence. Their paddle boarding journeys are an incredible accomplishment.”
For more information or to make a donation, visit their website at StandUpForGreatLakes.com. Follow their updates on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/standupforgreatlakes/
Guy, 32, is a financial adviser in Traverse City. He also enjoys golf, hockey and fishing. He lives in downtown Traverse City. Lorenz, 32, is a personal training manager with Anytime Fitness locations in Traverse City. When he’s not helping people achieve their fitness goals, he’s up for almost anything involving water, travel, adventure, fitness, or beer. Morris, 31, was born and raised in northern Michigan, making him a keen waterman, traveler, and adventurer. He is a teacher in Elk Rapids and a standup paddle surfing yoga instructor for Paddle Guys.