Pick up Fran and Jess at MacKenzie Beach where they had tent camped and we roll into Tofino to rent surfboards and sign up for lessons. Our lesson would be at Cox's Beach where, according to the daily surf report (yeah they have that), the waves would be best for the day. In Tofino you have to surf in full wet suits which I can tell you are a b.... to get into and out of. Getting in is something like stuffing a sausage and getting out is something like being born. If you have any extra fat at any location on your body, you will find it right quick in a wet suit. Second pic is of me in said suit, looking really bedraggled. And don't get me whining about the machinations of getting three surfboards on the van roof rack. First pic is the final product after about 10 attempts. So our instructor is a kid named Alastair who looked to be about 13 and I figure he's just gonna take us out to the waves and ditch us to play video games, but he was awesome! He sorta started with the history of surfing, drew lots of diagrams in the sand to teach us how to judge the local currents, described how waves form and how to determine which ones are surfable and at which point in their life they are most useful, had us do some yoga-type stretching, then showed us the mechanics of surfing while we laid in the sand and pretended to "catch" waves. He had obviously put some thought into his lesson plan and it turned out that he's a Uni of Vic student about to finish up with a degree in engineering. We drag our boards into the surf and he spends the next 2 hours very patiently working with each of us. Jess caught on right quick as did Fran but I'm basically hopeless. I got up and actually rode about 3 or 4 times. No pics for posterity (of me going into the water face first) since you can't surf and photograph at the same time. The whole ordeal was a little disheartening for me since I'm athletic and usually catch on to a new sport pretty quick like. After the lesson we broke for lunch and decided we should try to find lodging for the night before the daylight was gone. Tip: Make arrangements for weekend lodging in Summer in Tofino at least two years in advance. We'd all been kinda free-forming the lodging so far with really good results, but there was truly no room at the inn on this Saturday evening and we ended up at a campground on Long Beach a far piece out of Tofino. The campground owner said surfing was good at Incinerator Rock, nearby, so we did a little afternoon surfing there, well Fran and Jess did. Mostly I just wound myself in the leash and drank salt water. By the time we got back to the campsite rain had rolled in and we had no luck trying to start a fire. Next two pics are of a couple of Brit chicks trying to start a fire and pitch a tent. We were the most pitiful crew ever. I slept in the dry van. Fran and Jess slept in the tent on rocks with water leaking in. I'm pretty sure that my karma is in tatters over that. Back to the east side of the island tomorrow.
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