Well, as most of you know, my main theme in my tales concerns diving. This has been my passion for 47 years and to this day, I still enjoy each and every dive I go one. Some are better than others but all are good. However, as I related in an earlier story, when the weather was adverse, the group of us had other activities that we enjoyed. This was in the early to mid 60s, the era of Jan and Dean, and the Beach Boys. Well, we were not going to let the fact that surfing in those days was primarily a California pastime stop us....Uh.uh. We had waves and we were not going to waste them. The west coast of the Island{Tofino, Ucleulet] , Sombrio Beach, Point no Point....all had decent waves.Okay, it does not have the romance of pipeline, or Bondi Beach....but hey, you go with what you have.
So we started reading all we could, had our boards made and set to with a will learning this new [for us] and exotic [for us] activity. Part of the routine was to hold your breath as long as possible. Some of those rollers, when they crested and crashed on you, could hold you down for a long time and there was no fighting it. So, you held your breath and waited until the ocean let you surface. The training for this consisted of finding a large rock, and walking with it underwater as far as you could until your breath gave out. Then drop the rock and surface. Sometimes we would just hold the rock and sit down although that was the 'sissy' way out.
So, when we were not diving, we were surfing....basically we were a bunch of beach bums. But we enjoyed ourselves and had few worries. Since we were all in university, exams were the main concern. That and affording our next meal, rent, texts, course supplies......minor by todays standards.
So one November day, the wind was howling and we just knew that there had to be some choice waves happening.. Some of us had exams, some hangovers [yes!!! back in the good old days!!!] , but Bob Hooper, Doug Harley, Eric Kjeckstad, me and a couple of others headed on out. Long Beach [Tofino] was too far a drive so we decided on point no point, a delightful surfing area past Sooke on southern Vancouver Island. And when we arrived, the waves were really pounding. We had 5-6 foot rollers [with the odd 7 thrown in for good measure] hitting the beach. Up we suited, grabbed our boards and in we went.
You have to understand Point no Point, It forms a natural Vee shape. On the port side, looking out is a nice sandy beach. On the starboard side, oh man it is the rockiest, most treacherous landing area you could imagine. So this was the area that we always tried to avoid. More than one of us had had a few scrapes, bruises and wetsuits torn up there.
On this day, we were catching some good waves. We all had managed a few good rides, taken our rest [with a rum in the tea] and gone back out for some more. We would not see the likes of these waves again for a long time. Well, Eric was making his cut and got too far into the rocky side. With predicatable results. He crashed and smacked himself up pretty good though. There were no broken bones but there were a lot of scrapes and a repair job on his suit. He also managed to knock out a couple of teeth in the process. With blood pouring out of his mouth, and seepage from various other body areas, he came back to shore, swearing like a sailor. The suit was easy to repair, bodies heal but those teeth were not going to be an easy, or cheap fix. We all were on a limited budget and the financial wherewithall was beyong us.
Eric just laughed it all off and said not to worry, his dad was a dentist. Three days later, Eric shows up, new teeth in place and happy as a clam . Some things are just meant to be.
You can see in the photo, the vee that I talked about
All the best
M
So we started reading all we could, had our boards made and set to with a will learning this new [for us] and exotic [for us] activity. Part of the routine was to hold your breath as long as possible. Some of those rollers, when they crested and crashed on you, could hold you down for a long time and there was no fighting it. So, you held your breath and waited until the ocean let you surface. The training for this consisted of finding a large rock, and walking with it underwater as far as you could until your breath gave out. Then drop the rock and surface. Sometimes we would just hold the rock and sit down although that was the 'sissy' way out.
So, when we were not diving, we were surfing....basically we were a bunch of beach bums. But we enjoyed ourselves and had few worries. Since we were all in university, exams were the main concern. That and affording our next meal, rent, texts, course supplies......minor by todays standards.
So one November day, the wind was howling and we just knew that there had to be some choice waves happening.. Some of us had exams, some hangovers [yes!!! back in the good old days!!!] , but Bob Hooper, Doug Harley, Eric Kjeckstad, me and a couple of others headed on out. Long Beach [Tofino] was too far a drive so we decided on point no point, a delightful surfing area past Sooke on southern Vancouver Island. And when we arrived, the waves were really pounding. We had 5-6 foot rollers [with the odd 7 thrown in for good measure] hitting the beach. Up we suited, grabbed our boards and in we went.
You have to understand Point no Point, It forms a natural Vee shape. On the port side, looking out is a nice sandy beach. On the starboard side, oh man it is the rockiest, most treacherous landing area you could imagine. So this was the area that we always tried to avoid. More than one of us had had a few scrapes, bruises and wetsuits torn up there.
On this day, we were catching some good waves. We all had managed a few good rides, taken our rest [with a rum in the tea] and gone back out for some more. We would not see the likes of these waves again for a long time. Well, Eric was making his cut and got too far into the rocky side. With predicatable results. He crashed and smacked himself up pretty good though. There were no broken bones but there were a lot of scrapes and a repair job on his suit. He also managed to knock out a couple of teeth in the process. With blood pouring out of his mouth, and seepage from various other body areas, he came back to shore, swearing like a sailor. The suit was easy to repair, bodies heal but those teeth were not going to be an easy, or cheap fix. We all were on a limited budget and the financial wherewithall was beyong us.
Eric just laughed it all off and said not to worry, his dad was a dentist. Three days later, Eric shows up, new teeth in place and happy as a clam . Some things are just meant to be.
You can see in the photo, the vee that I talked about
All the best
M
