This week Chicago could remove a ban on surfing in Lake Michigan. The ban was enacted decades ago to prevent accidental drownings. If caught surfers faced a $500 fine.

Still, aficionados continued to sneak into the water, and after one ticket too many, a group of surfers last December sent Chicago's Park District a proposal asking that surfing be allowed at four of the city's beaches during the traditional beach season, Memorial Day to Labor Day, as well as year-round at a fifth beach. Officials are still sorting through various details of regulating surfing, such as whether there should be an age requirement and what, exactly, signs along beaches should say (for example, "Surf at Your Own Risk"?).