MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — If you’re into surfing or paddle boarding or would at least like to learn more about it, you won’t want to miss the Great Lakes Surf Festival.

The event is scheduled for Aug. 12 from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Pere Marquette Beach. It will feature surfing, standup paddleboard lessons, yoga on the beach, kids’ activities, 40 plus vendors selling clothing, jewelry, all sorts of outdoor products, and of course, there will be food trucks.

The festival will include a surfboard art project. Thirty Muskegon businesses will be decorating surfboards which will be available to purchase. All of the money raised from the sales will go to the Pierhead Lighthouse Renovation.

Liz Lanning, the community outreach director for the Great Lakes Surf Festival, says hundreds of people are expected to attend.

“This will be our fifth year, not including that one year for the pandemic, but every year we’re growing a little bit larger, and we’re on track to actually beat the record for the largest surf festival in the world. Not just the Great Lakes, not just the country but the world. We’re expecting about 2,500 to 3,000 people this year. We’ve got people coming from all over the Great Lakes, of course, but we’ve got people coming from both coasts, but we’ve also got people coming in from California and China and Australia and Canada,” she said.

Lanning says August is a great time to surf on the Great Lakes.

“A lot of people don’t think surfing when they think of the Great Lakes. But we get really good waves in August here. But if for some reason Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, we have Freedom Boat Club of West Michigan this year providing waves for the lessons, just in case,” she said.

More information on the Great Lakes Surf Festival can be found on the Great Lakes Surf Festival website.