Surf's up at Saskatoon's Traffic Bridge construction site

A surfer's not something you'd except to see navigating the South Saskatchewan River in the heart of Saskatoon.

In order to build the new Traffic Bridge, work crews have had to create a berm into the river with a small opening. When the swift-flowing river is chanelled through the breach in the berm, it creates a stationary, ready-to-surf wave.

"There is something really surreal about river surfing," Jonathan Storey told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

"You could do it on a kayak, a canoe; you could do it on a piece of plywood."

"We get on that eddy and it actually pushes us and slingshots us towards the wave," he said.

"Then, right as you get close to it, you hit what's called the eddy line and that's where the two forces are kind of shearing on each other. The trick is getting over that, and once you are over that, you are kind of on the wave."

Not a sanctioned activity 

Before you grab a piece of plywood with the intention of hanging 10 while your buddies cheer you on from shore, remember that the water is dangerously cold. Storey has a drysuit to keep the water away from his skin and to keep hypothermia from setting in quickly.

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Great surf sessions do not last forever, and the Traffic Bridge wave is no exception to that rule. With ongoing construction, the wave is changing and will soon be nothing more than a distant memory.  

"Its glory days have actually kind of passed," said Storey.

Also, a word of warning: No officials have sanctioned river surfing.