It was a dark and stormy morning. There was no transition from drop to drizzle - the rain moved straight into a downpour of the torrential sort. It seemed as if there was as much water coming down from the sky as there was beating the shore. So it was particularly unfortunate! that this was the day that I, a rookie, had chosen to learn to surf.
It's no news flash that women are increasingly taking to riding waves, as the rash of women-only surf schools popping up around the world attests. But with the opening of the new surf-chick movie Blue Crush this weekend, the wave of interest among women is rising. The actors in the movie are well-tanned and well-toned - perfect images of California girls. Having grown up on a farm on the Alberta prairies, I didn't think anything could be cooler than a girl on a surfboard.
So I headed to Canada's answer to California: Tofino, B.C. - which did not quite fit with the image I had in my mind of sunny sand and warm waves.
In the weeks before the trip and during the drive from Edmonton to the West Coast, I had visions of myself - brown-skinned and in my bright bikini - using my incredible natural talent to skillfully navigate a short board through waves that would make a Californian's mouth water. I had come on a pilgrimage - in search of the perfect wave, and a chance to develop the ability to get on that sucker and rip.
Out of a myriad of surf schools offering instruction, one struck me as the best possible fit: Tofino's Surf Sister, a place specializing in teaching girls and women how to surf. All clinics and private lessons are taught by female surfers, and the business is owned by 28-year-old Jenny Hudnall. When asked what the male surf instructors think of her business she responds with a smile. "They call us the hot surfer chicks - but at least they call us hot."
Surf Sister doesn't exclude men from their classes, but Ms. Hudnall explains that their mandate is to share the sport with women. "We want lots of girls.to start surfing because there's already a million guys in the water."
Well aware that she's cresting the wave of a new surfer-girl fad, Ms. Hudnall is hopeful that the response to Blue Crush, which opened yesterday and is being touted as more fuel to the wholesome, athletic surfer-girl craze, will help support her original reason for opening the business.
Meeting at the site of partner stores Surf Sister and live To Surf, we loaded up our gear and headed to Chesterman Beach. Ms. Hudnall proudly told me that surfing is the only sport that requires getting naked in the parking lot; my task was to master the skill of changing without accidentally flashing someone. I needed assistance to stuff myself into the skintight wetsuit, which, when everything was in its rightful place and zipped in snugly, was actually quite flattering.
Ms. Hudnall, who would be my private instructor, started surfing at age 13 to impress a guy, and 15 years later she's competing and sharing what she knows in her classes. "I started surfing to be a cool teenage girl, and then I kept surfing because I realized I really love it."
Walking out to the beach with her and the other surf students under mercifully clearing skies, I started to get a sense (beyond the coolness factor) of the appeal.
Tofino is located at the end of the Trans-Canada Highway just outside Pacific Rim National Park on the west side of Vancouver Island. It has incredible scenery, rich wildlife, and rad waves. The smaller, gentler swells are great for learning how to surf, and when you take a spill and you will- the long beaches at Tofino are soft and sandy, not sharp and rocky.
All of Surf Sister's clinics have two instructors - ours would be Ms. Hudnall and Molly Chater. Once the five other students and I put down our boards and got comfy sitting in a circle on the beach, we spent the next 30 minutes learning what we needed to know about surfing, including how to handle our gear - wetsuit, booties and gun (what "real" surfers call a board) - and how to identify hazards - rocks, rip currents and surfer guys.
Then we were taught the three steps to surfing: Step 1: Getting out there. You need to know where to lay on the board and how to paddle. Step 2: Catching a wave - how to identify a good wave, catch it, and hopefully stay on it. Step 3: The pop-up - how to get from your tummy to your feet in what should be one graceful, agile movement. Finally, a little bit of surfing etiquette, such as not dropping in on someone else's wave.
First we practised in the sand, paddling and popping up, eyeing the waves steadily rolling in just in front us. Then it was time to wade in with our boards. Surf Sister uses beginner boards for their clinics that are long and wide and feel somewhat like surfing on a kitchen table. Soft and squishy on top with a texture that provides good grip when wet, and with soft fins on the bottom in case you get the board in the head after falling off, they are much safer to learn on than the short, slippery boards pro surfers use
Having suited up for the conditions with wetsuit and booties, the chill of the water didn't register until I dunked my hands in, and realized it was more than a little cold. When a wave got me right in the face, I swear for a moment I thought my heart stopped. The temperature of the water averages around 12 degrees during the summer and 10 degrees in winter.
When I caught my breath, I decided I was ready to give this a try. Staying in only waist-deep water, Ms. Hudnall held the board as I hauled myself up on top of it and got used to the feeling of laying in the perfect spot on the board, rocking gently back and forth on the water. Then a wave that looked just right came in, Ms. Hudnall gave me a good shove, and I rode the board on my tummy to the shore.
"Woo hoo! That is my kind of fun," I thought. Not bad for starters; but after a few more rounds of that I was ready to surf. I started with the same routine, getting myself up onto the board with Ms. Hudnall holding it, then I went to catch that wave. First I was on my tummy, then my knees and then, well, I didn't quite jump to my feet and ride the wave, super-cool surfer-girl style. That pop-up is harder than it looks - a tricky little manoeuvre combining a triad of flexibility, strength and balance that I just wasn't able to master. Ms. Hudnall told me that it took her almost a year to actually stand up on her board when she was first learning, but she did learn on a short board after all, back when most girls weren't at the beach to surf.
But I'm not giving up on becoming a surfer. I have to return and keep trying - because the waves at Tofino are calling me and because I already bought a Surf Sister T-shirt and now need to earn the title. There's a nice breaker on the horizon, and one of these days I'm going to squeeze into my wetsuit, grab my gun, wade in, paddle out, pop up, hang 10, and ride it all the way in.