There Is Surf in Cleveland!

While the rest of Northeast Ohio huddles in front of cozy fires in the winter, Scott Ditzenberger grabs his surfboard and heads to frigid Edgewater Park. The waves there are the next best thing to those in Hawaii, California, and Florida, says the Lakewood resident. His digital pics are part of Out of Place: A Portrait of Surfing the Great Lakes, an eight-artist exhibit of 25 photographs, paintings, and prints about local surfers that's now on display at Bela Dubby.

Ditzenberger's stills are from a documentary (due in the spring) about Lake Erie surfers he filmed over the past four years. "Northeast Ohio is not a stereotypical destination where you'd want to go surfing," he says. "But by the end of the movie, people will know that there's a really valuable thing going on here." One catch, though: Lake Erie surfing reaches its peak on blustery days, says Ditzenberger. "We're often out there when the wind chill is sub-zero," he says. "When the wind blows, you gotta go."
Fridays, Saturdays, 10-midnight; Tuesdays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Starts: Sept. 22. Continues through Sept. 30