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.

September 2nd, 2006 by admin

Alex and I arrived to the campsite in Ucluelet Friday afternoon.  Cidey and Dana were already setup by the time we got there.  We quickly set up camp and the four of us headed for Tofino.  We arrived at Long Beach, where there were 3 - 4 footers that looked pretty clean.  We had an awesome day of surfing this was my second or third time out and by the end of the day I was catching every wave I was attempting.  Had a ton of fun, awesome group to surf with.

We headed back to the campsite and the rest of the crew started to arrive.  Brooke showed up first and the Kelly, then Adam, Rich and Ryan.  Out came the beer bong and the party was officially on.

We all woke up in fairly good time and headed back out to Tofino for another day on the water.  We once again hit Long Beach and the conditions were virtually identical to the day before, the only slight difference was that I was having a little harder time catching waves than the previous day.  This was the first time that I felt the effects that a good hang over has on my surfing abilities.  It was great beeing out there with so many friends at the same time.  Nearly every surfable wave turned into a party wave.  brooke was out a fairly long ways away from the group so Dana decided to go out to her to see what she was doing out there.  A couple of minutes later we noticed that both of them were quite a ways out now, so I decided to paddle out and see what they were up to.

As I approached I could see that they were both struggling to paddle their way in.  They were trapped in a rip tide that was sucking them straight out.  We formed a train, Brooke grabbed my feet and Dana grabbed Brooke’s.  I paddled and Dana kicked and we were able to angle our waythrough and out of the rip.  This was my first encounter with a fierce rip tide and from that moment on I will always respect the sheer force that a good rip can have.

All in all it was one of the best camping trips of all time fun times and fun rides.