He's surfed all over the world...and is happy to call Detroit home

Joe Bidawid has surfed Hawaii and California, but prefers to perfect his craft on the Great Lakes -- and at Kensington Metropark. Similarly, his highrise home on the Detroit River is his ideal home sweet home.

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"My buddies are living in rainforests in Hawaii, the most amazing places on Earth," Bidawid says. "To this day, people are like, 'What the hell are you doing in Detroit? When are you coming back?' "

He laughs.

"I tell them I'm not coming back."

He lives on the city's near east side on the 28th floor of a high-rise building where it is more common to see smartly dressed women wearing hats stroll past the doorman than it is to see anyone like Bidawid, usually dressed in board shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.

His apartment has a panoramic view of the swiftly flowing Detroit River, a sight he's come to love as much as that of any roaring ocean.

Detroit, he says, is different from other places he's lived or visited.

"I feel like people in the city have a lot of personality," says Bidawid. "They're open and they're engaging. But that's a reflection on the city."

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