Gone Surfing.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006So… remember my birthday that just passed? Well, this is my birthday gift from some of my friends:
Getting into the water for the first time. Cox Beach, Tofino. Photo courtesy of Pacific Surf School.
Yep. I got [surf lessons](http://www.pacificsurfschool.com/packages.htm)!
On Friday morning, Michelle, Adam, Jayne, Desmond, Rich and I left for Tofino, stopping along the way in Coombs at the ["Goats on Roof"](http://www.oldcountrymarket.com/) market (yes, there are actually goats that live on the sod roof of this market!). It’s about a 5-hour trip including ferry and driving time… but so worth it…
The plans for this weekend only finalized a couple weeks ago and by that time practically all the accommodation in Tofino was fully booked. The only accommodations I could find were camping on the golf course or the Tofino Botanical Gardens. Luckily, we stayed at the botanical gardens. There is a new hostel-style facility called the [Clayoquat Field Station (CFS)](http://www.tofinobotanicalgardens.com/cfs/) where students and researchers come to learn more about Clayoquat Sound… funny thing though, most of the guests were other surfers…
There are eight dorm rooms that hold four guests each for only $32 per night. It includes hot showers, a shared dining area and lounge, as well as a shared kitchen for cooking. It was wonderful to be able to use the big kitchen to cook our dinner on Friday night (thai green curry with tofu, brown rice and lentils) and breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday. The restaurants in Tofino are a little pricey (dinner entrees from $26 and up) so I think we were pretty happy to have the opportunity to cook for ourselves. There was also a twilight yoga class at the CFS on Friday evening which Rich and Jayne took while the rest of us cooked dinner. If I were to go back to Tofino, I’d choose to stay at the [CFS](http://www.tofinobotanicalgardens.com/cfs/) over [The Wick](http://www.wickinn.com/) any day.
We had two days of lessons (three hours from 9 am to 12 noon) from [Pacific Surf School](http://www.pacificsurfschool.com/packages.htm) on Saturday and Sunday, plus we got to keep all our equipment to play with all Saturday afternoon. We ate lunch on the beach and I, of course, forgot to reapply sunscreen so now I have this ridiculous wetsuit tan that ends halfway down my neck! The weather was incredible and the water wasn’t as cold as people had warned. For the 7 or 8 of us in the lesson, we had two Aussie instructors — both super friendly and great instructors… lots of theory on how the ocean works plus 3D diagrams in the sand to illustrate different kinds of waves and currents. We spent both days at Cox Beach (right where the Long Beach Lodge Resort is) and it would have been nice to see some of the other beaches, but that’s for next time, I guess! And wow, what an amazing feeling to be standing up on a wave! Seriously, _seriously_ addictive. I’m already trying to figure out when I can go again…
A weekend with no cell phone access, no computers, no email, no television… _so good_. We sat around in the evenings and talked, drank yummy wine (Gray Monk Kerner and Sumac Ridge Gewurztraminer), read Adam’s surf magazines and did lots of knitting — Michelle on her Noro Silk Garden scarf and me on my Diamond Fantasy Shawl and Sizzle. I did more knitting during these past few days than I have in _months_.
It was such a nice weekend that when we found out that all the Sunday ferries were full (by 6 pm) it didn’t seem to bother us (well, except Dez who had to work on Monday morning). So we hopped on a different ferry, spent Sunday night on Salt Spring Island and then caught the 6:15 am ferry back to Vancouver on Monday morning. That’s a sign of a good trip, eh? When you just don’t want the weekend to end.
