Surf's up

HULL -- The water at Nantasket Beach feels numbingly cold, sometimes even on muggy summer days. It's difficult to imagine how this part of the Atlantic feels on the skin in the dead of winter.

Ron Lees knows. He's among a dedicated crowd of hard-core surfers who catch waves all year round.

On a recent frosty afternoon, as people bundled in coats and scarves walked along Nantasket Avenue, Lees slid his 9-foot Walden high-performance longboard out of the back of his truck and headed for the waves.

''People think you're out of your mind," said Lees, 35, who was dressed in a black hooded wetsuit. ''It's not cold."

Lees trudged down cement stairs to sandy beach. The water had a greenish tint. The sky was the color of a cinderblock. He stood on a large rock, observing the waves. Then he plunged in.

For the next hour, he rode the foamy surf -- waiting patiently, sizing up each wave, and then paddling full speed to gain momentum to catch the crest. After a few false starts, his board caught a 5-foot wave and he was off. He eventually returned to shore and looked forward to peeling off his wetsuit because, he said, he was hot.

All but his face, that is. While the thick wetsuit protects most of a surfer's body, the face is uncovered and vulnerable. Having your face slapped by water that's a few degrees away from being frozen, Lees said, is like getting an instant ice cream headache.

''The idea is not to get hammered really bad in cold waters," said Lees. ''In the winter after the first dive, the face feels it."

There are an estimated 3,000 surfers in Massachusetts. Only a a few hundred surf all year. For many, starting during the fall hurricane season is preferred.

Nantasket Beach in Hull and Egypt Beach in Scituate are among the better-known surf spots on the South Shore. Surfers are also known to frequent beaches on the North Shore, Cape Cod, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Surfing through cold weather is a must for serious New England surfers, according to Mark Keup, owner of Nor'Easter Surf Shop in North Scituate.

''You have to around here. There's almost no surf in the summertime," said Keup, 42.

While the waves found on Hawaii's North Shore reach 30 feet and curl into perfect rideable tubes, here the waves are smaller, slower, and rounder, making so-called barrel rides far harder to come by.

But as the temperatures drop, the waves get bigger. They seem to crash down harder and louder, each making a thunderous boom.

Lees said he has been able to catch 15-foot winter waves at Nantasket.

Winter surfing has given New Englanders a reputation, according to Keup. Once, while visiting Hawaii's famed Oahu, a local surfer mistook his Boston accent as Australian. When Keup corrected him, the local surfer replied, ''Wearing those 5-inch thick wetsuits -- in that cold -- you guys are crazy!"

''It's funny," Keup said. ''Our idea of crazy is the huge waves they have, and their idea of crazy is paddling through water in the winter."

More women are braving the brutal temperatures to surf, and Ydi Chella of Whitman is one of them. With about two years' of riding experience, she still considers herself a ''kook," surf slang for a novice.

Whenever Chella has time off from her job -- she teaches third grade at a Weymouth elementary school -- she enjoys riding the waves. That's what she did over Christmas vacation, and she will be hitting the beach again during February school vacation.

Chella has been tapped to host ''Surf's Up," a new television show on the Discovery Channel. The pilot episode will focus on East Coast riders who surf in the winter. It will be taped in New Hampshire later this month, she said.

Chella initially tried surfing whenever she vacationed in warm weather places like Maui, Florida, and San Diego. In March 2005 she started surfing more often, venturing into the colder waters off Scituate and Hull and Rhode Island.

''People were floored when I started taking it seriously" she said. ''They thought I was nuts. People think it's something you do only in the summer."

Chella said she hasn't encountered many female surfers. When she has, she introduces herself immediately.''It's not that we're out there having tea parties, but we're cheering each other on," she said.

Winter surfing is more challenging, according to Chella. The wetsuit is heavy and makes paddling more difficult.

''In summer, I can last four hours before I'm collapsing. In the winter, 45 minutes -- tops," she said. But, she said, it's worth it.

Surfing ''is empowering and humbling at the same time," she said. ''You get out there, it's amazing . . . you're cutting to the left, it feels like you're sailing above the clouds . . . then you paddle back out and you just get barreled. It so humbling, it makes you think, 'How did I just pull that off?' "

Chella has been knocked around a bit. One time her board hit her in the face and left her with a black eye. More recently, her leash got tangled and wrapped around her ankles. She managed to untangle herself in rough surf.

Surfers can find out the latest wave conditions by calling a local surf shop; most have their own surf report hot line, which surfers can call to listen to a recorded message that gets updated regularly. (Nor'Easter Surf Shop's report includes weather forecast, tide information, water temperature, and, of course, wave conditions, and descriptions like, ''They're knee to waist high . . . pretty fun waves out there. Swing on by, check things out, and praaay for surf. Later.")

Before suiting up to surf chilly waters nowadays, many surf the Internet first to see the wave conditions.

''One day the waves are 15 feet, the next day it's a lake," said Lees. ''With surf, there's no guarantees."

That's one reason Lees launched Northeastsurfing.com, a website dedicated to the New England surf scene. Lees set up a webcam in his office window, pointed at Nantasket Beach. He set up another in Rhode Island, inside Flo's Clam Shack, which provides views of Easton Beach in Newport.

Lees hopes to expand his website and put 30 webcams all over the Northeast.

At night, Lees is a deputy sheriff for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department. During the day, he surfs and runs his business, NES Surf Co.

Since he launched the website in 2002, traffic has increased to 40,000 hits a month. Visitors can check out lists of surf shops, weather forecasts, photos, links, pages devoted to surfer etiquette (''The person closest to the breaking part of the wave has the right of way"), and safety tips on winter surfing.

''Most people believe that surfing is just riding the waves," said Lees. ''It's a lot more then that. There is timing, there is lots of working out, meaning paddling, it takes a lot more to surf than what it appears from only watching. Being smart on the water is very important."

Waiting for the right wave is key, especially in cold weather, according to Lees.

In cold weather, the bigger the surf, the fewer rides you can pull off. But to hard-core surfers, it's worth it.

''You may only get a few rides," said Lees, ''but there's nothing better than that."

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.