Surfing in Tofino, British Columbia
Growing up as a Canadian, becoming a surfer wasn’t exactly my dream. I’d always wanted to try it, but there were a couple of factors limiting my chances of doing it: the best places to surf are all in the south, and there is no surf culture in Canada. So, like most Canadians who love board sports do, I waited out each hot summer for winter, grabbed my snowboard and spent my weeknights and weekends in the terrain park at the local ski hill.I did, however, get my chance to try surfing not that long ago when I
. I was hooked. Coming from a snowboarding and skateboarding background, I couldn’t believe how free feeling riding a wave could be. Snowboarding in a backcountry bowl full of fresh powder is a very free and exhilarating feeling, but being propelled down a shoreline by Mother Nature is a feeling all on its own. When I left Costa Rica, I knew that there was one thing I needed incorporate more into my life: surfing.For weeks after the trip I watched surf videos, looked at boards online, and even considered buying a used board on Kijiji. I also started to research the closest surf spots to Toronto. A few spots in New York and North Carolina popped up, but, surprisingly, I found out that you can actually surf the Great Lakes if you’re really dedicated to the sport. I say dedicated because, unlike an ocean, lakes don’t have storms that create swells far off shore like oceans do, so the only way, for the most part, to surf a lake is to go out there when it’s actually storming (which is usually in the fall or winter). I decided I’d wait and see how desperate I got before I slid on a wet suit, bought a used board and hopped into Lake Ontario’s muddy waters during a storm.After I discovered that surfing in Ontario is technically possible, I decided to keep searching and see what else Canada had to offer. That’s when I found Tofino. Tofino, as it turns out, is a world-class surf spot on the north tip of Vancouver Island. It has several different beach breaks with waves of varying sizes, a downtown area that is imbedded with surf culture, and is surrounded by massive trees and mountains. The water is also frigid.As soon as I finished reading about surfing in Tofino, I knew I had to travel there as soon as possible. If there was a chance to truly surf in Canada, I had to be a part of it. In early 2017, after returning from a trip to Thailand in January and feeling travel withdrawal, I booked a flight to Vancouver for June, reserved an Airbnb downtown Tofino, and started looking into prices for ferry rides and car rentals.My friend, Greg, decided to come along as well. He loved the idea of surfing (especially in Tofino), but had never tried, so why not try it in the frigid cold waters of the Northern Pacific Ocean? When June 7th finally arrived, we both flew out to Vancouver after work, met at the Craft Beer Bar in Olympic village, drank a few beers and then went back to our Airbnb (which was also my first experience using an AirBnB!).The next morning, while pushing through a semi severe hangover, we grabbed breakfast at a little boutique spot in Gastown called Brioche Urban Eatery, took a $50 dollar cab to the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal and hopped on a ferry to Nanaimo. The BC Ferry, compared to the ferries we took in Thailand, were almost luxurious. They contained a food court, coffee shop, gift shop, modern toilets and a sun deck. The only thing they were missing was a licenced bar.The ride itself was smooth and, within two hours, we pulled into the harbour of Nanaimo, grabbed a Nanaimo bar from a kiosk in the ferry port (Nanaimo bars were invented in Nanaimo, BC) and met the Enterprise Rental Car Agent outside. She stood beside a large, grey Ford F150. I grinned.“Do you think that’s the truck we rented?” I asked Greg.He shook his head.“No. It’ll probably be a Ram. Ram’s are better than Ford’s.”“Doubtful. Ford’s are better, and it would look sweeter in our Instagram pictures.”The Enterprise Agent smiled.“Is this the truck we rented?” I asked.“It sure is,” she said.Greg sighed, as we threw our luggage and ourselves into the back seats of the quad cab, cheersed with our Nanaimo bars and ate. I don’t think we got "true" Nanaimo bars. The ones we got were completely coated in a melted chocolate that made it more of a chocolate bar as opposed to a lightly covered "true" Nanaimo bar, but they were a decent road snack. A few minutes after leaving the ferry port, we arrived at the Enterprise office, filled out our paper work, and checked the truck for scratches and dents and paint chips. The agent handed us the keys. Greg and I hopped into the front seats.“Dude,” I said, “we’re going Surfing in Tofino.”Greg beamed.“Hell yeah man.”Greg turned the key in the ignition, the engine roared, and the truck rolled out of the rain-soaked parking lot. The back wheels slipped. The radio blared. Greg turned the truck down the highway, and we cruised into the large trees, lakes and mountains.About forty five minutes into the journey, the trees doubled in height, their trunks widened and their boughs blocked out the mountains. Two small parking lots appeared on the side of the road. We pulled the truck over, grabbed our cameras and stepped out of the truck. A sign for Cathedral Grove Provincial Park stood on the side of the parking lot.
Cathedral Grove is an old growth forest. It contains some of the oldest trees in the world. Some of the trees in there are over 800 years old, so one thing to be cautious about when you’re walking through the trails there is the fact that those old trees could fall at any moment.We headed into one of the trails. Massive trees covered in green moss lined the wooden boardwalk. I’ve never felt more like I was in a scene from Jurassic Park than when I was in this forest. I was positive a T-Rex was going to come clambering through the trees at any moment.After we walked through the park for a while, we snapped a few photos of Greg walking along a massive tree that had fallen over a river, and me at the base of a tree that had a gap between the trunk and the ground that rose well above my head. Once we had our insta-worthy pictures, we hiked back to the truck. I hopped in the driver’s seat, continued driving through the mountains, and then stopped at a Subway Restaurant in Port Alberni.Port Alberni is an interesting stop because it’s the last place you get cell signal before you reach Tofino (which is about another 2 hours from here through the mountains). The drive that ensued after this point was one of the most incredible drives I’ve ever done in my life. After leaving Port Alberni, the highway curved into the dense trees, wound between large, tree-covered mountains and passed wind-swept lakes. Rain splattered against the windshield. Bald eagles hovered above. The highway led us closer and closer to Tofino, pulled us up mountains sides and offered us views of mountain lakes, which are lakes that form on upper levels of mountains. After about an hour and forty five minutes, we rolled past the sign for Pacific Rim National Park. The park boasts some of the most scenic shorelines in all of Canada, as large trees, rocks and massive waves protrude along the sandy beaches. It also boasts one of the most famous beach breaks in the area (Longbeach).After we drove past the exit sign for Pacific Rim, another sign indicated that we were very close to Tofino itself. The rain clouds started to dissipate. The sun lowered in the sky. As Greg and I pulled into Tofino, we stopped at Live to Surf, which is the first surf shop you’ll see when driving into Tofino, rented wetsuits, gloves, booties and a couple of longboards, and decided that the only thing to do on your first night in Tofino was fit in a sunset surf.About thirty minutes later, we drove down Chestermain Beach Road, as the sun lowered beneath the giant cedar trees, parked the truck in the lot across from beach walkway, and pulled on our wetsuits. Pulling on a wetsuit was no easy task. I’d never surfed in water this cold, so it was the first time I’d ever worn one, and man did we both fight with these things to get them on (by the end of the trip we had this process down. It’s really not that difficult). We pulled the longboards out of the truck bed, clutched them under our arms and walked towards the beach.A thin layer of water glistened across the sand. The waves broke a few hundred yards in front of us. Rock cliffs, islands and large trees framed the beach. We grinned, strapped our leashes to our ankles and sprinted into the water. The Pacific Ocean slapped my legs. The wetsuit deflected the water for a moment, and then water seeped into my boots, slid down my ankles and dispersed between my toes. Yep, the water sure was frigid. We clenched our teeth, tossed the boards on the water and started walking out towards the break. Water splashed on my reddened cheeks. The undertow pulled at our legs. After a few minutes, the water beneath our wetsuits warmed against our skin. I turned towards Greg.“Wow,” I said, “these things are actually pretty warm. I thought I’d be out of the water in ten minutes. I may actually be able to go until sundown now.”We surfed Chestermain for a few hours, as the sun crept lower in the sky, and then we drove back to our Airbnb, walked into Tofino, ate surfbowls at Shelter (which are amazing post surfing meals) and had some drinks. Tofino doesn’t really have a night life, so we stayed out until midnight, walked back and slept.
The next day, we drove the truck to Cox Bay. The walk to the bay would have been rad if we weren’t carrying 9’ longboards, as you have to traverse down a tree-covered boardwalk, along an open pathway beside a resort and across the beach, but the walk takes a good five to ten minutes, so our arms were exhausted. When we reached the beach, though, we regained our energy. Large, rocky islands jutted from the rough Pacific waters. Waves crashed along the beach. Beneath the gray sky, the water chopped, waves smashed into each other and the whitewash thundered. The waves were large, but the break wasn’t overly clean. We strapped on our leashes, walked into the Pacific and headed out towards the break.We surfed Cox for a few hours, thrashed around the rough waters and drank a Tofino Brew Co beer on the beach, as rain swept across the sand. The waves were powerful at Cox Bay, but it was hard to read the surf, as the waves didn’t seem to break consistently like Chestermain. Our initial surfboard rental was expiring at 1 o’clock, so we headed back to Live to Surf, returned the longboards and rented the wetsuits for the rest of the trip. Live to Surf doesn’t apparently rent boards of varying lengths (or at least not when we went), so we drove into town and rented boards from the Pacific Surf Company. I rented a 7’2 Funboard, which was the board I rode in Costa Rica. Greg rented a 7’8 board. We threw the boards in the back of the truck, headed to RedCan Gourmet for a burger and rolled down the Pacific Highway again back towards Cox.The next day, which was our last full day of surfing in Tofino, Greg and I woke early, grabbed a coffee from Rhino coffee, checked out the Vans Duct Tape Festival at Cox, and then headed further down the Pacific Highway. Tofino faded behind us. The small road-side shops disappeared. We passed the sign for Pacific Rim National Park. After a few minutes, we pulled into a parking lot, parked the truck and gazed through the brush and fallen timber at Longbeach. Longbeach, as its name suggests, is long. Sand stretches along the barren coast, large trees surround it, and waves crash continuously on the shore. I’d heard Longbeach was one of the better beaches for waves, but it was apparently always crowded. When we arrived, there were only a few people in the water. The sun was also out. We grabbed our boards, traversed across the fallen timber towards the beach and hopped in the ocean.The waves seemed small and weak. I worried that we’d struggle to catch any waves with the shorter boards we’d picked up. After rolling over the backs of several waves, I almost considered suggesting to Greg that we should head back to Chestermain and try our luck there. That’s when large, curling waves ripped towards shore. The undertow strengthened. The waves thrashed at our bodies and boards. As a wave approached, I turned, paddled and, as the wave started pulling my board forward, popped up and dropped in. I grinned. Longbeach seemed like the place to be.Large waves are great, but there’s also a bit of an edge to them. After catching that wave, the next few threw me around, tumbled me under water, and even sent me into a double barrel role. After a while, I walked out of the ocean, sat on my board and stared at the waves. My body stiffened. My legs shook.Greg and I decided, after a thorough thrashing, that, yes, we would head back to Chestermain South for a sunset cruise, just like we had on our first night. We threw the boards in the back of the pickup truck, headed into town, ate, relaxed for a while, and then cruised to Chestermain Beach.As the sun started to lower in the sky, a perfect left broke along the beach. The waves were the cleanest we’d seen them all weekend. We dropped our boards on the wet, glistening sand, studied the break and listened to music for a while. The sun shined along the peaks of the waves. Our faces burned. After a while, we walked into the water, headed out towards the break and rode a few clean waves. Water thrashed against the rocky shores to the left. A bald eagle hovered above us. I smiled, stared out at the horizon and watched the reds, yellows and oranges mix amongst the Tofino sky.
Tofino stands as not only one of the best surf spots in Canada, but also, I’d say, as one of the best surf spots in the world. The Canadian wilderness is an incredible and unforgettable experience, and to be able to surf in it with such powerful beach breaks creates an entirely different surf experience than your typical beach vacation down south. So, if you’re up for a little bit of cold water and road trips through Vancouver Island’s mountains and tall trees, the surfing in Tofino is well worth the journey. And trust me, the beer always tastes a little better after you’ve been surfing in the cold water all day.
Favorite Beaches
Chestermain South
Cox Bay
Long Beach
Favorite Surf Shop
Favorite Post Surf Meal
Surf Bowls –