 06:15:16 And so, once again we are up at the crack of dawn. I've been trying to get more sleep but it's always also good to get up and see the world before anyone else has the sense to do so.  We're a bit late for sunrise by this point and I had sort of hoped to go down to a place called Long Beach for sunrise. But maybe it's still worth taking a drive there anyway. Just to see it in the early morning before the surfers and other Labour Day visitors show up. So, remember how I mentioned that Chesterman Beach and Cox Bay were two of the three beaches I planned to visit on this trip? Well, Long Beach is the third of the three and with any luck we shall be visiting all of them at some point today.  06:57:43 Long Beach gets its name, obviously, from the fact that it is really long. You could see as much in the satellite image. Standing here at what is almost the Northernmost end of the beach you can't even see the other end of it as the beach stretches for several kilometres in front of you.  06:59:47 Long Beach is characterised for me by all the driftwood logs that litter the edge of it. Visitors often make little shelters and forts out of the driftwood  07:02:18 As you can see the gates to the beach aren't even opened until 08h00 so we were even too early to park the car properly, hence the somewhat shortened visit this morning. You can also see that we aren't the only people up this early in the morning.  07:15:08 Driving back to Chesterman Beach again I stop to take a photo of a cleverly graffiti'ed road sign. For those unfamiliar with Canadian signage this is a standard "Watch Out For Kids Running On The Road" sign that has been altered to put a surfboard into the arms of the figure dashing across the road. That is because Chesterman Beach is a popular surfing location (as we know from photos on our first day in Tofino). But there is a method to my madness of taking this picture of the Watch Out For Surfers sign... today we find out if my historical acute inability to surf can be corrected by an actual surfing lesson.  10:17:54 A couple hours later we arrive at Cox Bay (number two of the three beaches) to join a surfing lesson. Here I am in the parking lot, quite sunburned from yesterday, putting on my boots. So far so good... but I am pretty much the worst surfer / skier / snowboarder / skateboarder on the face of the Earth, so don't get your hopes up. I can put my boots on with the best of them, but that unfortunately doesn't translate into an ability to surf.  10:54:00 Out on the beach I take my place with the other students of surfing in a lesson with Canada's only all-girl surfing school.... Surf Sister! Our instructors today are Kate and Steph: Kate Specs: age 24, 5'8" 125 Status: Divorced with 10 kids (ha ha!) Kate grew up loving the ocean, but never thought she'd get to surf as she used to live in London- no waves there! At university she met a crew of continually stoked surfers and they got her started. She has surfed the UK, France, Australia, and Vancouver Island. Her favourite place to surf is Cable Gay, Wales. She loves meat- her favourite is fatty bloatty english fry up. Her home/surf wagon is a classy dodge caravan. She rides a 6'3" fish. Kate's special powers include fixing and making absolutely anything with duct tape! Steph aka Burnz Specs: age 22 Steph started surfing at 19, after seeing people surfing. She grew up doing watersports so it was kind of a natural progression to do another thing in the water! Her dream surf would be Indo for 3 months.........AND Steph, like Rhiannon, loves Bougars, paddleboats, fishing, and biking, and has surfed Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Canada, and California.  10:54:19 You can see my board sitting upside down on another board in the foreground. The reason for this is because I am old-school surfing and have a "hard-deck" surfboard and I don't want sand getting into the wax. For those who are un-hip to the surfing scene (but who are definitely better at surfing than I am, even if they've never tried) I shall explain what it means to "wax down your surfboard". Without getting into the whole history of surfing where lovely Hawaiian and Polynesian honeys rode big planks of wood out to greet the arriving European sailors, let me just say that like most sports and activities surfing has undergone changes as technology as improved. My surfboard, a "hard-deck", is basically a big fibreglass surfboard shaped thing three metres long. Because it is made out of fibreglass it is understandably pretty slippery when it gets wet. That's a good thing for the bottom of it, the part that glides over the water, but it is a bad thing for the side that people expect to stand on top of. The solution is to coat the part you stand on with a coating of wax to give you grip. (This is the exact opposite of waxing skis, ironically, where you wax the bottom part which glides over the snow...) So, that's me... old-school dude! The new-school surfboards are "soft-deck" and have a permanent polyurethane rubber coating on the top side to provide a slip-free surface on which to stand. Anyway... long story short.... my surfboard is face down to keep sand out of the wax, and also keep the sun off it (which would melt the wax).  10:57:10 Kate helps the guy who just turned forty and looks like Conan O'Brien with something on his wetsuit.  10:57:30 Steph demonstrates the paddling on a surfboard drawn in the sand. See the guy half in the picture at the right? Doesn't he look like Conan O'Brien?!?? And hey.... I might be a terrible surfer, but at least I have the sense to NOT pull on my wetsuit completely while we're lying around on the sand..... After learning how to paddle properly we practise "popping up" on the surfboard. This is the part I could NEVER EVER EVER do. Not even when I was younger and thinner, so it is no surprise that I still can't do it properly. Maybe it's because of knee injuries sustained in fencing and playing football and hockey... maybe because I am just not the graceful butterfly that most people think I am... or maybe I just lack the surfing (skiing, snowboarding) gene? I just can't do it! What do I mean by "popping up"? Well, to answer that I can only point you in the direction of the movie Point Break (1991) with Keanu Reeves and the scene where the surfing chick teaches him how to "pop up" on a surfboard. That pretty much explains it better than I can. I am sure that hardcore surfers hate that movie, but for me that was what got me wanting to learn how to surf in the first place. This didn't work out so well, but my confidence was high because before Point Break it was The Abyss (1989) that inspired me to take up scuba-diving, which I am fully competent at, I am glad to say. And so it was that when Point Break came out I already had a wetsuit (albeit a scuba-diving one, not a surfing one) and in a vain attempt to be cool I tried unsuccessfully to teach myself how to surf over the next few years.  11:07:17 Ok. Here we go.... Let's go surfing! (Notice the coating of wax on the surfboard...)  11:07:35 Heading out to the waves with the rest of the class... this is the moment of truth!  11:07:35 As you can see, once I am out on the water a miraculous transformation takes place.  11:20:23 For inexperienced surfers the easiest waves to ride are the ones breaking closer in to the shoreline, right about where I am standing at the moment. For the first "ride" of the day one of the Surf Sisters pushes us into the wave along as we ride the surfboard on our stomach, just so we get the sense of things. (And when I say "into" the wave, I mean into the wave in the same direction it is travelling, so that it catches you, picks you up and carries you with it...) This first ride was pretty good. The wave catches me and I steer the board along the wave a little bit before the water thins and the ride is over. I suddenly remember why I got so addicted to this in the first place, even though I couldn't stand up. The moment that wave grabs you is a magical moment.... it can't really be explained, but it is that moment, I think, which drives people to surf. You just kind of feel in perfect synchronous harmony with all of nature at that instant. And then you try to stand up and fall over instead - and by "you" I mean "me". But we're getting ahead ourselves a bit here...  11:20:44 Man! That was awesome! Let's see if we can do that again!  11:20:44 I wrote about my early surfing experiences in the first chapter of my book, which I will now quote for you (much to your intense joy, I am sure): The waves come in threes. Mostly. The first is a warning, a harbinger of the coming surge. If you can read it, you will know. If you can free your mind it will speak to you. It will tell you what follows. However, listening to the sea is a skill which, so far, lies beyond my reach. I am forced to rely on instincts which are often wrong. So I watch and try to read the signs. Out on the water I feel the first wave pass through me and I look back over my shoulder to study the swell. Sometimes she fools you and sends only two your way. The second wave rises abundantly and I foolishly crave the vast surge which must follow. Waiting, waiting, nothing. The sea sometimes fools you.  11:21:16 The second ride wasn't as good as the first one, I regret to say. I realise that my shoulder is not in condition to be able to paddle properly... and by that I mean that it not only lacks strength, but hurts like hell to do so.  11:21:50 Other people in my class are already standing up, as you can see (far left). I was almost discouraged or encouraged (not sure which) until I remembered that this particular chick already knew how to surf and was taking the class with her friend and parents.  11:22:07 Despite my excuses and whining, I guess I am still trying anyway. Maybe that counts for something? I can say one thing though.... I have good form when it comes to negotiating the waves with my surfboard (holding the board flat and always lining it up perpendicular). This comes from having been smacked in the face and knocked over a few times back in the early 90s for NOT doing so.  11:23:18 Nope. That doesn't count for anything. I still can't stand up!  11:24:28 On a brighter note... it is really another very nice day out here, isn't it?  11:27:05 Back out again for another try.  11:29:45 Maxi gets bored with waiting for me to be able to stand up and takes some pictures of the water. (I deleted the rest of the pictures... there were many... which tells you how long she was waiting for me to be able to stand...)  11:31:26 Kate gives me some help with my surfing form. I learned one important thing from this lesson, I am glad to say. I have learned to NOT drag my toes in the water while paddling because it slows you down. Instead you are supposed to get your toes up on the tail of the surfboard. Good information. I never knew that before. (So much for teaching myself to surf...)  11:32:46 Back out, yet again.  11:49:02 My shoulder eventually demands that I stop paddling and I come out of the water.  11:49:50 If I look discouraged, I don't mean to be. I can only say again that after trying to do this for quite some time previously in life that I have come to accept that I am just not very good at it. I am very glad that I gave it a try once again, actually, and I will certainly try again further on in life as well.  11:49:57 I should probably tie up the leash on the board properly. If I did that then I could at least LOOK like a real surfer. But I am lazy, so I don't.  11:56:57 The rest of the class comes in from the waves as the two hour lesson comes to an end.  12:07:51 The walk back to the parking lot seems a lot longer than it did in the other direction two hours ago.  And so we return to Chesterman Beach once again to go out and play in the surf (sans surfboard).  I am aware that this is a terrible photo, but that was actually the point of taking it... to accentuate how much of a doofus I am, I guess.  All these pictures out here in the water were taken with one of those disposable waterproof cameras, so I apologise for the lack of quality.  Maybe I can get a perfect wave photo from out here?  In the distance toward the right is Cox Bay where I was just at my surfing lesson.    Ever wonder what the inside of a wave looks like?       Too bad this isn't better quality... this on-coming wave is kind of like that photo from last year somehow.  Me and a wave.  This photo actually turned out a lot better than one might have expected.... I am well practised at taking my own picture from arm's length, you see.      14:16:18 After some fun in the surf it's time for a classic Canadian snack... celery with Cheez Whiz. One of my favourites.  14:33:47 Some of you might remember a place we ate at last year called SoBo's (which stands for Sophisticated Bohemian). Well, the tofu sushi was a bit weird last year, but despite that we decide to have lunch here again this year - Pacific Salmon Chowder, which was actually pretty good. (Notice the Friends of Clayquot Sound "booth" in the foreground-left. All this hippy-ness around here... Oh well, different people need to be dedicated to different things, I guess. Some people dedicate themselves to sitting outside in a booth collecting money to preserve Clayquot Sound and some people work at tax-free jobs to put war criminals in jail. Each to his own, right? But at least this dude in the booth doesn't have to deal with the UN bureaucracy!)  15:27:49 After lunch it's time for a stroll down Long Beach (consult satellite image from this morning if you forget where it is...).  15:33:04 The beach is busy with surfers, as is to be expected on this Labour Day weekend.  15:44:38 Again we see the litter of driftwood logs and the reason why this is called Long Beach.  15:57:38 I manage to take these pictures to make it appear like there's hardly anyone on the beach. I reality there are quite a few people out here (Labour Day weekend and all). They are just behind me, mostly, when I took this photo.  16:06:56 Some dudes riding Skim Boards at the edge of the water. Skim Boards are just how they sound... flat boards that you throw kind of like a Frisbee along the surface of the water before jumping on them to "skim" along. They are the surfer's version of skateboards, you could say.  16:40:07 The rocks up ahead have beckoned to us and demanded that we walk all the way to them, despite the fact that they are three or four kilometres from where we started.  16:45:46 It took an hour to walk all the way down here but it's pretty cool, I think, so it's worth it.  16:46:32  16:47:48  16:50:40  16:53:42 Climbing to the top of the rocks you can see that Long Beach actually continues a lot longer on after these rocks.  16:53:46 There was a woman standing down by the rocks in this photo, which kind of bugged me, so I took her out of the picture.  16:53:52 Imagine the force of the waves that threw these logs up on here.  16:53:58 Looking back in the direction we came from. We have to walk all that way back now.  16:54:44 I roughly stitched together an ICTY-esque panorama photo from the top of the rocks to give you a sense of the amazing view from up here.  16:56:25 Time to climb down off the rocks and make our way back up along the beach.  16:58:02  17:01:32  17:05:50 I thought that this might be a nice place to come watch the sunset so I went up the path into the woods to see where the access path led to. It leads up to some public camping sites up above.  17:10:07 Perhaps I should use the walk back to try and take some more wave pictures? I am not sure that I got the perfect picture yet.  17:10:38  17:11:24 The view back inland from the edge of the water.  17:12:03  17:12:44  17:13:04 The cluster of rocks disappears into perspective slowly behind us.  17:34:22 If you look closely you can see that I caught these birds in flight as they wheeled around us. These are Sandpipers, which are little birds that feed on stuff in the sand at the edge of the water.  19:44:53 So now we skip ahead a couple of hours. After returning home to the Beach Break Lodge for a rest we head down to the pier in downtown Tofino to watch the sunset. It wasn't much of a sunset, but from this picture you can see that it started off quite promising. And so, with that yet another day comes to an end here in Tofino. We did lots of walking and swimming today but tomorrow we pack the car up and head back to civilisation in Victoria. Until tomorrow then, I wish you a good night. Today's Travel Information Pacific Rim National Park www.parkscanada.com Although we've been in the area for several days now and have passed back and forth through the Pacific Rim National Park, today was the first day we were required to pay the park fee because we actually stopped, parked and spent an extended period of time in the park instead of just passing through it. SoBo's www.sobo.ca 1084 Pacific Rim Highway Tofino, BC V0R 2Z0 (250) 725-2341 This is a funky kind of place to eat. Not exactly comfort foods but interesting and definitely worth a try if you're in Tofino. Surf Sister www.surfsister.com (250) 725-4456 1-877-724-7873 $55 for 2 hour lesson (bring your own gear) $75 for 2 hour lesson (surfboard and wetsuit provided) There are many surf schools to choose from in Tofino, but don't forget that Surf Sister is the only all-girl surf school. And you even get a sticker when you take a surf lesson from them. Live To Surf www.livetosurf.com 1180 Pacific Rim Highway Tofino, British Columbia V0R 2Z0 (250) 725-4464 This is the place to rent a wetsuit when you're visiting Tofino. 
|