I am happy to share with you the portrait of Patrice Manuel through my #isurf photo series. Patrice has travelled a lot in search of waves. Originally from New Brunswick, he now surfs the Great Lakes. Patrice and I have spent numerous days exploring the Great Lakes. In our group, Patrice is the person pushing us to discover new spots and ride every wave we can find!

It had been a long school week

I could feel myself drowning under the pressure of my engineering assignments. Luckily for me, I got the regular surf phone call from Mark! He was thinking of heading out to Lake Huron for a whole day! The winds were good and it seemed that we could have a whole day of surf. The next morning, I was in Mark’s van. However, on that day someone else had taken my seat (I would usually sit at the front) and that person was Pat.

“Hey man! My name is Patrice, but you can call me Pat!”

Mark met Pat while surfing on Lake Erie. They both started chatting in the water and it didn’t take them long to realize that they were both from Guelph. Pat grew up in New Brunswick and comes from the village of Saint-Simon. Following his father’s footstep, he worked on his dad’s fishing boat since he was 9. He would pick up surfing while on a trip to San Diego and would go on to travel around the world before settling in Guelph, Ontario.

Pat always has this huge childish smile on his face

His enthusiasm is always more contagious when we talk about surfing! Pat is always checking out for new spots to go to, enjoys chatting with other surfers and has the most hilarious stories. He always keeps notes of the conditions and spots after each of our surf sessions and never gives up on the search to find the hidden gems of the Great Lakes.

The #isurf series follows people of the Great Lakes community and retells their stories through anecdotes, interviews and photographs. #isurf will be released every other month, the first part will be released on the Wednesday and the second on the Friday.