Whilst possessing nowhere near as much disco as Disco Jones, whose story preceded this one, I can also attest to being part of the Tofino surf crew, albeit for a measly four days.
Nonetheless, I’m claiming it, even though I don’t have too much photographic evidence of my exploits. You see, our friend Marcus Paladino, a famed surf photographer based in Tofino, was off shooting in some tropical clime at the time, and with no one else available — nor qualified with the kind of high-tech equipment you need to capture my high-speed aeronautical manoeuvres — I have limited photos of my time there.
My daughter Phoebe tried her best on her iPhone, but there is only so much you can catch, even in panorama mode, when you’re shooting someone travelling at the speed of light like I do.
For as long as I can remember, I have had an ongoing obsession with one day getting to surf in the snow. Some may dream of super clean, glassy, tropical barrels. Others may pine for mountainous swells in far-flung lands. I cared little for all of that. I wanted to surf where snow covered the beach and the white stuff pelted down whilst I carved up the waves, all while I froze my knackers off.
There were times when I thought I might never get to realise my dream. I ventured to what normal surfers — well, at least those who hail from Queensland — would perhaps call ‘more remote, colder breaks’ in search of adventure.
I have surfed around Port Fairy numerous times: cold, yes; snow, no. I ventured to New Zealand and tasted the icy barrels around Dunedin. Again: cold, yes; snow, no. Invercargill, same story.
So, when our two youngest kids decided to desert their poor mum and dad and work a couple of ski seasons over in Canada, I saw this as my opportunity. I was obsessed with Vancouver Island. That obsession first developed when I came across the work of Marcus Paladino.
Regular readers of Smorgasboarder would know we have featured Marcus and his work more than a few times over the years. I reached out one day, we chatted online, and have since developed a relationship with Marcus, albeit only over the internet.
For me personally, Marcus’s work encapsulates and epitomises what I like in surf photography. I prefer not just to see a close-up of a surfer on a wave that could be anywhere. I prefer to see the surrounds — an image that transports me there and helps me envision what it would feel like to be right there, surfing that wave. Marcus’s work only served to feed my obsession with surfing in the snow and, of all places, Vancouver Island.
I set about hatching my plan. My wife Katie and I, along with our eldest, Mikaela, would head over to visit Phoebe and Sam while they worked at Sun Peaks. I figured we could then duck across for a week-long family reunion/holiday over on Vancouver Island. And it is there, in Tofino, that I would realise my dream.
Now, before I get into the surfing side of things… Vancouver Island: bloody incredible.
The capital of the island, and indeed the province of British Columbia, is Victoria. This is an amazingly beautiful city that wraps around the active Inner Harbour, which then opens into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There are heaps of cool craft breweries, which also happen to be another one of my passions aside from cold-water surfing. Indeed, Phillips Brewing I rate as the best in Canada, if not the world. You’ve got to love their Thunder Punch. Wow.
A trip to Vancouver Island would also not be complete without going on a boat ride in search of orcas. Seeing one was another of my lifetime bucket-list moments. Whilst the chances were slim, given it was the middle of winter, I had a feeling. Well, we scored the sighting of a huge pod swimming alongside our inflatable rubber ducky for the better part of an hour. Thank God they’re not interested in humans or floating rubber toys. They’re more interested in what our guide funnily referred to as ‘rock sausages’, otherwise known as seals.
I was also fascinated to learn — and immensely pleased to hear — that Vancouver Island had next to no sightings of great whites, despite the island’s proximity to Oregon, part of the notorious Red Triangle, an area of the northern and central California coast where an outsized number of great white shark attacks take place.
The reason, reportedly, is the presence of a healthy population of orcas. Now, I was fully aware of orcas’ penchant for eating the livers of great whites, but what I was not aware of (and what our guide informed us of) is that if a great white has a run-in with orcas and survives, it will not return to the area for seven years.
Comforted by this fact, I felt I could now bask in my winter wonderland of waves without fear of something chomping into my arse whilst I did so. All I needed now was some snow — and some waves, of course.
To make this island experience all the more memorable, I searched Airbnb for a dreamy beachside shack — you only live once, right? To say this place was a cracker would be a huge understatement. When we arrived, it took our breath away. Sure, it may have blown a few months’ wages, but memories like these with your kids — when you don’t know if it will be your last holiday all together — last a lifetime.
This house was the stuff of dreams, and it was good to dream about what it would be like to be a billionaire with a house right by the beach, plus a sauna and hot tub too. Did I forget to mention that? This place had a sauna with a window where you could check out the surf whilst sweating away. A few cold IPAs stashed in the snow besides the hot tub after a surf was absolute gold.
When we arrived in Tofino, it was late afternoon: gloomy, wet, and cold. But that did not dampen my spirits. Having come to the realisation that the local surf shop that hired boards and wetsuits had closed for the day, I was not going to let that get in the way of christening my lily-white body in the chilly waters of Chesterman Beach.
Much to the surprise — and somewhat concern — of my son, I went in search of boards under the beach shack where we were staying. I thought to myself: they would have to have boards. And voilà, two nine-foot foamies.
Okay, so there might have been no wetties, but as I said to my son, “What are we made of? We have come this far. What’s a little cold water?”
Sure, the outside temp at the time was around six degrees, and the water the same. Double sixes — that was surely a sign of good luck. It was time to pour ourselves a cup of concrete, get our boardies on, and tackle a few waves.
And what an experience. I did think I had torn my calf at one stage, but that was merely my leg going a little numb five or so minutes in. We had surfed one-foot slop sliders at Chesterman Beach, Tofino. Our first surf was complete.
The next day we headed to Live to Surf Tofino, the town’s original surf shop founded in 1984. We picked up two Firewires: a Machado quad fish for Sam and a Fat Beaver for me, which was kind of fitting given the amount of craft beer I had consumed on this trip.
Our next two surfs were certainly memorable given the surrounds, but my surfing was far from impressive, even though I refer to my abilities as ‘elite’, sarcastically. Personally, I blame the booties. When you’re not accustomed to regularly surfing in Ronald McDonald shoes, it takes some time to get used to.
On Sunday, 2 February, however, we struck gold. A rare and widespread winter storm blanketed Vancouver Island in snow, with Tofino officially recording 16cm of pow. The temp dropped to 2.5°C, hovering near or just below freezing as the snow fell. The water temp also dropped, but who cares? It was snowing.
We awoke to snow everywhere. The beach was fully blanketed in snow, as were our wetties. Note to self: don’t leave your wetsuits outside overnight in places like these. They were frozen solid.
Once we defrosted our wetsuits, it was time to hit the beach. There were some fun little slop-grovellers to be had. Whilst out surfing, it went from overcast to sunny to light sleet and eventually to a blizzard as the waves picked up. It was absolutely bucketing down snow for the last half hour of our surf session before we had to leave.
The gods had delivered. My dream realised. And I got to experience it with my son Sam — what a memory.
The only downer was that Phoebe couldn’t experience it with us. Our usual surfing trio had been reduced to two when she broke her wrist snowboarding in Sun Peaks just prior to our trip.
Thank you, Tofino. Thank you, Vancouver Island. Katie, Sam, Phoebe, Mikaela, Harley (her partner) and I all had the experience of a lifetime. We will certainly be back one day, hopefully.
Tofino is one of the coolest little surf towns I have ever seen, and I have been fortunate to see quite a few.
