The pandemic is fuelling a surfing boom - in Ohio

With holidays to beachside destinations scuttled by the pandemic, adventure seekers in America's Midwest are hitting their local waterways, writes Stephen Starr.

In any year but this, landlocked Ohioans would descend in their thousands on the beaches of the Florida panhandle and the Carolinas for summer vacation. The pandemic, unsurprisingly, has changed all that.

In July, a Covid-19 outbreak in central Ohio was blamed on holidaymakers returning from Florida and Arizona, two states badly affected by the virus this summer. News such as this has forced many to abandon any out-of-state travel plans.

But for locals missing the sea waves, a new community of surfers has this summer sprung up in the most unlikely of places. In Dayton, Ohio, the pandemic has fuelled an emergent river surfing scene that's drawing adventure seekers down to their local rivers.

On the banks of the Great Miami River in downtown Dayton, Jake Brown is face down on a surfboard, giving instructions to a group of student surfers watching intently.