January 11th, 2009 by admin

Adam, Rich, Kelly and I left Nanaimo at 6 and got to French Beach around 8:30. The road to China Beach, Sombrio and Port Renfrew was closed. Apparently there was a giant sink hole that opened up and took the road right out.

The waves looked pretty nice at Jordan River A and B but there was a ton of giant drift wood and other debris floating around out there in the waves.

We all suited up and hiked down the path to Frog Beach, once we hit the beach we hiked along the shoreline and portaged across a couple of (freezing cold) rivers including the Strait of Juan de Fuca until we got to a real nice point break.

I sat on the beach for a while and examined the break, the best line to get out through the waves and the best spot to catch the swell for the longest ride. The waves were beauty, anywhere from 6 to ten footers probably the biggest waves I have ever surfed to date. I was a little intimidated to paddle out through the waves but once I got out and actually did it there was nothing to it, it was surprisingly simple. We stayed and surfed in this spot for a while, I got a few real nice rides out of it. Right before we decided to leave the break and venture further down the shore Kelly got cracked in the face with his board and instantly got a lovely black eye and a giant goose egg on his cheek.

We hiked down the beach a little further and portaged across another icy river until we reached China Beach. The waves were awesome! They were rolling in perfect sets, not too close together and smooth as glass there was absolutely no wind. Everyone was getting some real stellar rides in. It was nice to ride some decent sized fast waves, it took a little while to adjust but I could feel everything click once I did.

We surfed at this break for an hour or maybe a couple hours before we decided to pack it in and start the long walk back to the truck. We left at just the right time, the tide was coming in and if it was any higher there would be no beach to walk on and we would have had a hell of a time climbing over logs and pushing through the rain forest with our boards.