Historical Crap#2: Surfing UND

In the spring of 1987 I was itching to get out my windsurf so on a warmish afternoon I launched my rig on the English Coulee that winds through the campus of the University of North Dakota.. I've always wondered what motivated them to used the term coulee and not the more obvious creek. There was just barely enough wind to move along a short stretch of the creek, but it didn't matter really. It was just something that a college student would do. The fact that it had never been done made it all that much more enticing.



It wasn't an accident that a photographer from the Grand Forks Herald was there. My friends called the paper ahead of time. But we never thought I would be front page news.

At that time in my life I was huge into the surfer lifestyle which was a bit of a stretch for a boy raised in North Dakota. But never the less I had the surfer look which in the 80's meant loud neon colors. Dude! Plus, my surfboards were always on top of my truck all Summer long so people would know I was a surfer. This was right about the time that the movie 'North Beach' came out starring my new friend Laird Hamilton.