He surfed roughly 5-inch early ice Wednesday on Silver Lake. He’s also a 66-year-old retiree skateboarder. “I started sailing in the early ’70s,” said Kimball resident Jerry Sandell.

The conditions for surfing the lake are rare, and are an inherently intense time to be out on the lake. “It rarely blows hard enough,” says Sebastian Hall, a born-and-raised Truckee local also ...