January 3rd, 2009 by admin
The craziness of the holiday season is over and I finally got a window of opportunity to get some surfing in. I set out for Jordan River around 8:00. On the drive there big flakes of snow were coming down pretty heavy. I got to Jordan River a little after 9:00 and the waves looked pretty decent, although any waves would look good at this point considering a haven’t been able to get out for a few weeks. The waves were about 3-4 footers and were coming in from the Northwest. There was very little wind. I decided to get right at it, so I suited up and hit the water. Due to the waves not being terrific I had the whole bay to myself.
While I was paddling out the sky opened up and huge flakes of snow began to fall again. There were dark gray clouds directly overhead but the sun was poking through some blue sky and was reflecting off the snow capped mountains on the horizon. I paddled right past a family of 6 seals wrestling and playing around. On the opposite side of me there was a big curious sea lion who had decided to come right up and investigate to see what I was all about. He hung around and watched me surf for a couple of hours. A few times he infiltrated my comfort zone and got within 10 to 15 feet away from me so I’d hold my board straight up in the air and let out a few loud grunts. I don’t know if this was establishing my dominance or if he just thought I was a crazy lunatic either way he never got too much closer to that.
I surfed until about 1:30 the waves pretty much flattened right out by then so I decided to hit the road. I got quite a few good rides in, the waves weren’t huge but as always they were fun.
The time spent out in the water surrounded by nature was absolutely surreal, one of the most memorable trips to date.
November 23rd, 2008 by admin
Adam and I left around 5:45 and headed up to Port Renfrew. This is my first time ever being to Renfrew, what an awesome spot, definitely coming back camping.
There was a pretty thick layer of frost covering everything it was a bit nippy but a beautiful day, not a breath of wind. Unfortunately there were no waves either. 
We could see the lines approaching in sets of 4 or 5 coming in from the Northwest. They were sooooo close, they were breaking pretty much right on shore but you could see the potential. We hung around for about an hour or so and watched the tide come right in with our fingers crossed but it just didn’t happen. I talked to a man who was camping on the beach and he said the waves were three times the size for the last four days. That was the last kick in the nuts with a frozen moccasin we could take, we headed back to Sombrio. SKUNKED!
The pic below is what the waves are supposed to look like at Port Renfrew.
At Sombrio the waves looked alright but as usual there were far too many people out there trying to catch them to be even worth suiting up.
China Beach was a mild lake. The highlight was that some way, some how, someone got a car all the way through the narrow winding trail all the way to just before the steps to get on the beach and that’s where they left it. I really have no idea how they got it down there or how the hell they will get it out.
Jordan River looked like it was going to be alright when we first past by at day break but when we got back they had died right off to the odd white cap.
The MagicSeaweed report called for 9.5 footers which was obviously way off.
November 15th, 2008 by admin
Razor and I hit up Jordan River Camp. We got out there around 10:30 and it looked very flat and there was no one around. After watching for a few minutes we noticed there was actually some nice sets rolling in from waist to shoulder height coming from the Northwest. (MagicSeaweed called for 7.5-8 footers.)
We went in straight off the parking point and got some nice little fun ones right off the bat. It is quite shallow right off the point so we would have to bail off after a fairly short ride.
There was a graveyard of logs, drift wood and debris floating around in the water. We were a fair ways out from the point now and I was riding a wave in when I looked down and saw big jagged rocks maybe 6 inches below the surface of the water. I kept cruising and luckily a couple seconds later it got a little deeper again so I bailed off, “sacrifice the body and save the board” is what was going through my head.
After a short break we decide to venture across to the center of the bay. Razor stayed and surfed here, where he said he got some nice rides in and I continued past the bay to a rock bed break.
Great waves about shoulder height. My arms were feeling the burn from being out of shape and paddling so far but I stayed out for a few hours and caught some really fun rides. Fairly shallow on some spots and big boulders rather than the gravel that makes up most of the bay. Worked a lot on my turning and feel like I am getting a much better feel for controlling my board under my feet. There was no wind at all which made it very enjoyable no fighting against the white wash coming in, it was perfect.
It was a long paddle back after I had worn myself our catching waves. When I finally got back to shore Razor told me that there was a sea lion that tailed me all the way across the bay just a few feet behind me. I imagine that the flailing of my rubber arms and my out of breath grunting probably mimicked a wounded seal pretty closely.
October 18th, 2008 by admin
Adam and I left Nanaimo and got to JR point in real good time. Tide was on it’s way in so we stayed in the truck and examined the waves while we were waiting for Lanny, who camped over at Renfrew but woke up to a glassy lake so he was on his way to meet us.
We checked out JR camp which also looked decent and then LilChina which looked to be shaping up but was breaking to shallow.
Lanny arrived so we did a recon on the beaches again before deciding JR point would be our best bet. The waves had definitely begun to tame down, but Adam and I got suited up anyway hoping for the best. After about another hour of sitting in the truck (sweating with our suits on) the waves progressively got worse and worse. There would be 1 set of 1 or 2, 4′ waves every 15-20 minutes coming from the Northwest. Anger.
Oh yeah, we did see a whale though, that was pretty cool.
