I’m decked out like a seal, head to toe in 5/4mm neoprene that I’ve been told will withstand water temperature of eight degrees. Yet as I sit on a grey sand beach, on a grey drizzly day of just nine degrees, staring at the grey Pacific Ocean as it churns onto the west coast of Vancouver Island, I’m in no way convinced that plunging into the depths of that hostile environment is a wise idea. Surf’s up at Tofino, nicknamed Canada’s surf capital.
Credit: Destination BC/Cristina Gareau Since 1988, when the first surf event was organised on its storm-pounded beach, the village of Tofino has been known as the “Surf Capital of Canada”, attracting champions from the Cold Water Classic circuit as well as regular surf enthusiasts keen to take on the challenging but consistent waves and insanely cold water temperatures. But as I listen to my instructor Ashtyn, from Tofino’s female-led Surf Sister surf school, advise on how best to paddle and pop up to ride the waves, my thoughts are more on surviving hyperthermia than style. But here goes nothing.
A post-surf hot shower is just a short walk away at the beautifully appointed Wickaninnish Inn Carrying my board to the water’s edge, I’m relieved to discover the wetsuit booties I’m wearing are doing their job, with the extra-thick material resisting the cold as I inch my way in. In waist-deep white-water, Ash wastes no time in positioning me on the board, telling me to paddle furiously as a wave approaches. Within secon.
