SLEEPING BEAR SURF | You Never Regret A Swim

Celebrating 20+ Years of Sleeping Bear Surf with Ella and Annabel Skrocki

Interview and Photos by Tommy Moore

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

For 20 years, Sleeping Bear Surf and Kayak has held down the Great Lakes’ surf scene. The shop is located in Empire, MI, a small town at the base of Sleeping Bear Dunes at the north end of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The storied dunes tower 450’ over the shores of Lake Michigan, and are the type of site people don’t expect to see in the Midwest.

SBSK was started, and is still owned and operated, by the Skrocki family. Beryl and Frank Skrocki made the move from the East side of the state in 2004, opening the shop’s doors shortly thereafter. From the start, SBSK has been known as a community hub with always open doors.

From countless community events to becoming a founding member of the Great Lakes Business Network, Beryl was all in, all the time.

Late in 2022, an unexpected diagnosis took Beryl from the family and community she had meticulously and joyfully woven herself into. That day the spirits of Lake Michigan gained a giant.

20 years since Beryl opened SBSK’s doors, sisters Ella and Annabel have now taken the reins on the shop. Though they’re missing Beryl’s irreplaceable presence, the two are hard at work upholding the role that SBSK has played in the community since its birth.

On a beautiful, early summer’s day, I drove up to Empire, MI to spend a day with Ella and Annabel. From an honest, open, and heavy conversation in shop, to the top and bottom of the dunes, to a post sunset swim family dinner, the duo gave me a proper SBSK Sleeping Bear Dunes welcome tour.

@sleepingbearsurf

sleepingbearsurf.com

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Tommy Moore: 20 years for any small town shop is pretty impressive, let alone a surf shop in the Midwest. This was also the first true surf shop in the Midwest, right? What was the connection between your guys' family and the outdoors scene?

Ella Skrocki: Our parents were big watermen. As we were growing up, they didn't have a TV in the house. They were like, “Get outside! Whatever the weather is, find something to do.”

Annabel Skrocki: We had no technology. We had a home phone and we got rid of it, finally, when I was in middle school, only because we kept getting spam calls. 

Ella Skrocki: We’d have just a smidgen of computer time on a big ole dialup computer. That was the whole theme of our childhood–taking advantage of our backyard no matter the weather, and that's very much carried through the business. But Mom and Dad were big wind surfers, and we had a laser at our family cottage that they'd take out when it was maxing, like when you are on edge, pushing the damn craft to the limit type of energy. They had some old river rental kayaks that they'd rip on waves, and they’d use the wind surfer as a surfboard. But the thing was there was no established shop at the time. There was Modern Surf and Skate, that had like two boards every once in a while, hit or miss. Other than that, from the 60s onward, there were shops that blossomed out of people's garages, but nothing that ever really stuck. So this was very much the first established business that had full service offerings. It was all out of this interest in learning to surf and pursuing surf culture independently. That was our mom’s number one bucket list item, “I'm gonna rip waves.” They had a very playful perspective. Mom was the most joyful, childlike human being. She was like, “Well, if I can't find a board, I'm just gonna get a bunch of them, and then we're gonna have toys for the whole family.” Like, “Let’s bring more boards in and we can all learn to surf, and then if other people want to do that, too, then heck yeah! Come on! Let's give them that opportunity.” Then being that the cottage was at the base of this mega dune, they also had this incredible perspective to see the dune from the water's edge. They had very few other people on the water with him at the time, experiencing that same incredible, incredible perspective. They were like, “We need to share this. We need other people to be able to experience this, because our privilege is overflowing at this moment.” 

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Tommy Moore: Is that the shop mentality? Trying to figure out how to be a community space for whatever to happen and grow in the outdoor space?

Annabel Skrocki: Anyone that would come in would be an automatic connection, automatic friends. So many people came out of the woodworks and were just like, “Oh my God. Thank God there's a surf shop here.” So from the beginning, we made so many good connections. There's always been a very open door policy with the shop, and also that's just how we grew up with our parents. The house was never empty.

Ella Skrocki: As you can imagine, opening the shop in the heart of the Great Lakes back then when there's not social media to share with badass folk down in those more populated areas that were really getting after it was tough. There was a lot of cancer here in the type of energy people had. People weren’t so open minded.

Annabel Skrocki: They were like, “No, you can't surf the Great Lakes. I don't know what you're doing.”

"That was our mom’s number one bucket list item, “I'm gonna rip waves.” They had a very playful perspective. Mom was the most joyful, childlike human being."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Ella Skrocki: It's always been a business founded upon the joyous aspect of it all. I don't think that commentary even affected Mom in any way.

Tommy Moore: All these years later, what's the role that community plays, or that you guys are trying to play in community?

Ella Skrocki: When we were growing up, community came so naturally. My parents always had their hands in fun events through the community. We remember printing out little flyers at the library and posting them around town. “Movie night today!” you know? They just put a screen up on the side of the shop. Five people would come. If 20 people came, holy moly. They always were looking for more ways to get people in the water. They held a bunch of demos, paddle to the point races, skimboard competitions, and online surf competitions when Facebook came about.

It was just things to gather people in unique ways that hadn't really been seen here. Over the years, the natural growth of community has been really prominent in our weekly Friday Nights. My dad started a tradition of tailgating at the Empire beach every Friday at 7pm. People, friends new and old, come through and it's a massive shindig.

"What else are we gonna do? Of course we're gonna be down here watching the sunset and having a beer..."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Annabel Skrocki: It was Dad and Rod down on the beach watching sunset on the tailgate and hanging out. Then this stranger walked past and they started chatting and had this big conversation. All of a sudden another random stranger came in, joined the conversation, and then it escalated from there. It was like, “Oh, let's do this again next week.” Like, “What else are we gonna do? Of course we're gonna be down here watching the sunset and having a beer or glass of wine.” It was 15 years ago that they started doing that.

Tommy Moore: It's awesome just to have the space to do that, especially on the water.

Ella Skrocki: And that's been the hard part about this particular retail space. This is an incredible space to meet people, but it's not necessarily a gathering zone, but this is where people come to connect. I think the community aspect is something that we really strive to instill in all of our offerings and through our day to day. I think the word community gets used a lot. How do you foster community in a time where we're so interconnected on social media? I think it comes down to just connecting with the people that walk through your door and be like, “Hey, I'm here for you. Let me support you in this way. Let's find a common thread where we can actually connect, regardless of our political perspectives, or where we've come from.” 

Other than that, outside of the shop, we have been trying to host more weekly skate nights. We do monthly full moon paddles, which are really awesome. That was just kind of another thing that we started doing on our own. 

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Annabel Skrocki: It's huge. Last year, we had over 100 people, which was very, very fun, but a little stressful. It was so fun to see that many people came from all over.

Tommy Moore: I used to work for this shop growing up that had all their rental boards locked up and stored on the beach. I figured out a trick to pull out three boards from the rack, and it was one of my favorite summer night escapes. You just had to know how to wiggle the boards the right way and shift the metal bars just so. I’d always take them out for those dreamy, glassy night paddles.

Ella Skrocki: It's a really amazing way to connect with people and the water. 

Tommy Moore: I feel like all that stuff, too, being in such a tight knit, small town, it creates so much more potential for real and authentic connections. 

Ella Skrocki: One of my favorite aspects of the business are the camps and retreats that we hold. I’ve formed some of the grandest connections with little teenyboppers all the way to the inspiring women that I look up to. I think when you provide a service for somebody, you're not only just providing the service, you're sharing an experience with that person. That’s the most rewarding line of work.

"One of my favorite aspects of the business are the camps and retreats that we hold. I’ve formed some of the grandest connections with little teenyboppers all the way to the inspiring women that I look up to."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Annabel Skrocki: Not only that experience, but also their passion. We're so passionate about all human powered water things, surfing especially. So to share that with teenybopper little kids to older women and that could be my mom, basically, it's just so special. Recently, we've taught a couple of 80 year old guys. It was the same thing that Mom had, where it was just a bucket list thing and they wanted to learn how to surf. Grandpa's coming out and having a gay time. 

Tommy Moore: Great Lakes surfing has grown so much over the last few years, where it was very standoffish, right away. Like, “Why are all these people in water? Why is this actually a “packed” lineup for the first time?” But now it seems like it’s getting over the hump, where either the people that were so salty are getting weeded out, or people are finally coming around. Does that stand true up here as well?

Ella Skrocki: Yeah, it's been really interesting to watch it here. There’s a wave that has gotten a lot of attention north of here, and there was a lot of really negative energy around it. We're finally over that hump. Now, it's a really positive place, and everyone who surfs it is tight. It’s the grandest, most wonderful thing to see, because it should have never been negative–and that's the hardest part. 

It’s how you share what you love, and maybe with surfing it's such a spiritual thing that people are a little selfish in the way you want to have an empty wave to themself. But I think there's so much more good in sharing it. 

"It feels like our mom has a very strong presence in the water. We've always felt like she was the one that really fostered our relationship with the lake, and now it feels like that's where she lives." - Ella Skrocki

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Annabel Skrocki: Something that has been actually on my mind the whole time we've been in this conversation is when people come into the shop and realize all the fun that they can have on the lake. It coincides with them falling in love and then wanting to do it, and then gaining respect for all the land, and being like, “Holy shit. This is really important. We need to protect this, because if we don't protect it, and if we don't care for it, and we don't love it, then it's all gonna disappear right before our eyes.” Even just going for a simple swim, it can completely change your whole perspective on everything. 

Ella Skrocki: I don't remember one moment in my life where I was like, “Oh, I love being in the water.” It’s just always felt like it was a part of me–a part of us. And I don't think I've ever taken it for granted. I think that's a gift. Every day, I try to see the lake, and every day, I'm like, “Wow, it's just beautiful.” Every time I go up to the bluff, I'm like, “Oh, shit! This is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” you know?  I think our parents instilled this really deep love for this area through play. Just as  Annabel was saying, you protect what you love, and that love comes from positive memories and positive experiences. I got pushed into my first waves on a big ole windsurfer when I was six or seven. My parents threw us into the water and said, “Swim! Enjoy yourself,” and I think that instilled this deep commitment to this place. 

Tommy Moore: The last summer that I lived in Michigan, I had the privilege of living within walking distance of the lake for a month or so. It was a tough time in my life, and I remember the feeling where anything could be going on in the world or in my head, but if I walked down and watched the sun set over the lake everything would melt back into place. Then in the winter, a cold jump in the lake would shock me just enough to right my ship.

Over the past year, has the lake been that kind deep breath for you both?

"Even just going for a simple swim, it can completely change your whole perspective on everything."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Ella Skrocki: It took a while. It's wild to think back on it, because I didn't really get in the water for a full year–an entire 12 months. I couldn't. I was too vulnerable. There's such a deep level of connectivity to the water that it felt like, “Oh, shit, if I go in there, I'm spilling,” and it felt like such a vulnerable place to be.

Last January, I really wanted to take my life. I was bad, and we both were really bad. I remember, two days after I was on the verge, I went down to the lake, and I was like, “I’m fucking putting myself in this water.” It was freezing cold and there were waves. I pulled my car up and stood at the water. I felt the wind in my face, and it was the first time that I felt anything really. I walked into the water, I sat in the waves, and I just let myself fucking feel it. 

I kept up with that, and I honestly think that saved my life, because it held space for me to feel everything and made me feel comfortable with the uncomfortable. Being in cold water, particularly, brings you back to a center that sometimes you lose sight of. It got me out of my head, cleared me, changed my perspective, and it was like, “I'm gonna be okay,” because I just sat in there and the temperatures were freezing. I'm gonna be okay. Then the same with getting in the water on the surfboard in the middle of the winter. These are rough conditions, I shouldn't be okay, and I'm going to actually find joy in it, because I'm going to somehow ride a wave through this experience. I think that was probably the biggest gift that the lake has ever given me, reawakening my senses and really giving me that comfortability.

"My parents threw us into the water and said, “Swim! Enjoy yourself,” and I think that instilled this deep commitment to this place."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

I found some type of comfort in this, really, really, really uncomfortable experience. That was beautiful and hard, really hard, but really beautiful. The surf aspect took a lot longer to feel okay. I think part of it was sharing that experience with other people. My first experience surfing again ended up being in Frankfurt, and I actually had to get all my people around me. I was like, “You guys, be here.” I had my partner Mike, my good buddy, and two of our surf buddies literally walk me into the water. It was one of the most joyful days of my whole life. It was shitty surf, and the most joyful experience for me. Breaking through that barrier was really hard, but there was beauty in it. It was amazing, and I know Annabel's struggled with that too.

The social aspect is hard for me, but then the moment I'm in the water, it always resets for me, always. No matter how shitty my day has been, no matter how many dark clouds have been fogging up my thoughts, the moment I'm in the water I'm okay. I can breathe, because the lake’s literally breathing with me. It feels like our mom has a very strong presence in the water. We've always felt like she was the one that really fostered our relationship with the lake, and now it feels like that's where she lives.

Tommy Moore: I have a friend who was my cold water jumping buddy, and her saying was always, “You never regret a swim.”

"No matter how shitty my day has been, no matter how many dark clouds have been fogging up my thoughts, the moment I'm in the water I'm okay. I can breathe, because the lakes literally breathing with me."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Annabel Skrocki: That's something our mom would say all the time. You never regret getting in the water. You're never going to regret going for a surf. Our mom's mom, Muzzie, would swim from her cottage at the base of the dunes down the dunes and back. Every day, she’d wake up, go for a nice little swim, and would spend so much time in the water. 

After Muzzie passed, every time I went for a swim I would be talking to Muzzie, and be like, “Oh, yep. She's here. She's swimming with me.” So now it's just so much more expansive. In December or November of 2022 I was also on the verge of taking my own life. Thankfully, I had a really supportive partner that helped me, but I have had a really difficult time getting back on my board, because it is so vulnerable. I tried to go surfing in the spring sometime last year, and I went out and just completely broke down. I was like, “No, fuck this. I'm not I'm not doing this. I cannot handle this.” My whole body was just like, “Fuck this. You're not ready for this.” I couldn't stand up, couldn't paddle, and just floated on this really gnarly day.

But swimming has always been so meditative for me. I go free diving, and I love to just go down to the bottom and sit there, look up, and see clouds in the sky and the sun through the water. That brings me so much comfort. 

The way that things have evolved for me is like every single vulnerable part of you just gets ripped open and laid out, and then you just kind of have to let the water hold it all for you. It's really bizarre how much grief and water are so alike in that way. Grief destroys everything about you and does not care about anything, and the water, at the same time, will hold you all together and help you float, help you stay afloat, and keep your head above the surface, comforting you in such a delicate way. Then it can also just rip you to absolute shreds and smash you against the bottom of the sand. 

“Ride every wave,” is something that Mom and Dad used to say to me all the time. That is something that I have been trying to tell myself.

"'Ride every wave," is something that Mom and Dad used to say to me all the time. That is something that I have been trying to tell myself."

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Ella Skrocki: We had one fun session after a really gnarly session. I think that's something that has been helpful for me, particularly, is making sure I'm not putting myself in a situation where I'm going to feel over-stimulated. I think we just need to go and find some baby waves that match the energy that you can hold at that time.

Tommy Moore: With waves as chaotic as they are here, too, it’s definitely not the rhythmic experience if you're going out to see in SoCal or Indo.

Ella Skrocki: Oh yeah. They’re very different from warm water with a margarita in hand.

Tommy Moore: I grew up constantly hearing the story from a children’s book that’s rooted up here. Do you guys want to tell that story?

Ella and Annabel Skrocki by Tommy Moore

Ella Skrocki: I would love to. It's actually one of my favorite stories. Sometimes I cry while telling the story. It’s a very emotional and important story to tell.

Once upon a time, there was a forest fire in Wisconsin. Flames engulf the shoreline. Mama bear and her two cubs run with all the wildlife to the lake and get in the water. There's no land in sight that isn’t engulfed in orange. They start to swim, and they swim until the sun goes down and into the night. As the depths of darkness reach them, a big storm approaches and waves come knocking the little cubs here, there, and everywhere. Mama Bear continues to call to her cubs, “Let's keep swimming!” After battling fiercely for hours and hours through the raging storm, the cubs start to tire. Mama Bear keeps looking back and the cubs aren't far behind, but they're starting to drift. She has to keep swimming. As darkness continues to fall, Mama Bear loses sight of her cubs. When the sun starts to rise, she pulls herself up onto the shoreline, soggy and exhausted, and looks back once more. Her two cubs are nowhere to be found. 

She climbs up to the tippy top of the highest point that she can see and looks out over the water as the sun rises. There is no sight of her cubs. The lake comes to a calm, the storm subsides, and she falls asleep. Season after season, Mama Bear stands guard at the top of the dune being covered by sand, leaves, and snow as her tears trickle down to the lakeshore. After time, Mama Bear becomes what is now the Sleeping Bear dune, and her two cubs, their spirits now reside in North and South Manitou Islands. As time passed, Mama Bear’s tears turned into the Petoskey stones that now scatter the shoreline.

"After time, Mama Bear becomes what is now the Sleeping Bear dune, and her two cubs, their spirits now reside in North and South Manitou Islands."

Sleeping Bear Surf

Photos and Interview by Tommy Moore