Photo by Deb Gau Carmen Varpness was having a swinging good time with her mother Billie Jo Varpness at Cottonwood Lake. It was Carmen’s first time playing at the beach, Varpness said.

When the temperature rises, some people start thinking of sun, sand and a chance to cool off. The sand part can be a little hard to come by, but under the right conditions there is surf in southwest Minnesota. “It was really hot, and then we came out here and saw the waves,” Bryan Emery said, as he and friends visited the public swimming area at Lake Hendricks. Several area lakes have beaches or swimming areas, and every beach has its fans. It’s cool, and at some spots it’s free, patrons say, but the added experience of being “at the beach” is the real draw. There’s usually a little wind and a few small waves at Lake Hendricks, swimmers there said. But when the wind gets really strong, as it did last week, you can almost forget you’re thousands of miles from the ocean. “We like jumping waves, so we don’t get hit by them,” said Gavin Benz. He and Austin Benz said they liked to come out to the beach as often as they can.