Wow - where to start? It's been an exciting transition to my new life on the wild west edge of Vancouver island. The photo above was taken today, Boxing Day, at the entrance to Chesterman beach
That's my friend Allison, who is studying to be a hydrologist and is passing on some great knowledge to help me better understand currents, wave and wind conditions and how they interact. Our friend Dave kindly took the photo and then the three of us charged the waves for an hour or two.
We had done the survey of beaches enroute - Incinerator Rock at Long Beach was messy and disorganized, Mackenzie Beach - often a safe haven when conditions are tough elsewhere - completely flatlined but Chesterman showed some promise and got increasingly better with the rising tide. Sort of like a scene from Blue Crush, we'd called Dave to let him know where to meet us for the best waves.
That's the board I bought last spring at Long Beach surf shop in Tofino - a 7'2" egg-shaped "Blue". My landlady, Dawn Batenchuk, a surf instructor, advised me it would be a good board that I wouldn't outgrow. I just have to work on my core strength to keep my balance - a challenge when I work seated at a laptop so much of the time.
Fortunately, there are some great local options for cross-training - long walks on the beach and on the Wild Pacific trail with my dogs, Wolf and Owl (who are loving it here), fitness classes (Pilates) and in the new year, I plan to check out aquafit classes.
I got a chance to live my dream this fall and cover the O'Neill Coldwater Classic - interviewing some of the world's top surfers for the westcoaster: http://www.westcoaster.ca/boardsports/10037-Finding-Your-Comfort-Zone-Interview-With-Australian-Surfer-Julian-Wilson.html
I'm continuing to contribute articles to the boardsports section as well as the rest of this online independent paper. I even had a news story go national thanks to my amazing editor, Keven Drews.
I also worked editing a book with an incredible story about the Jamaica Dogsled Team in the Yukon Quest by John Firth, One Mush: http://johnfirth.ca/
You could say this book was also island grown - Barb Schramm in Ucluelet created that stunning cover design and Sandy Reber in Sooke laid out the book and photos and kept me sane through the process (there were a lot of 4 a.m. confabs) - and of course, it was brought to life on that other island - Jamaica - via Danny Melville, the genius behind the JDT and his wife, Carole, who provided a lot of the photos. (I've even got a few photos in it too).
In late November, I pursued another dream - driving all the way down the coast to San Diego, just me and the dogs and a surfboard strapped to the roof. Traveling through Forks, Washington of Twilight fame was a hoot (btw parts of Eclipse were also filmed near Wick beach here on the island) and Oregon had beautiful long, sandy beaches like at Manzanita and great camping especially at Cape Blanco, strobe lit by the lighthouse perched high on a rocky cliff.
We turned off 101 at Fort Bragg to take coastal Hwy 1 - like driving through an endless series of postcards - and stopped for a couple of days at San Simeon at a dog-friendly Best Western with a protected beach a level below our oceanfront room. A half dozen condors joined us on the sand and during one sunset stroll a harbour seal became enchanted with Owl (seals with a common ancestor are often curious about dogs). He kept popping up every few feet in the surf to check where Owl was as she played across the beach.
This was also the place I fell in love with some other pinnipeds - elephant seals who collect on the beach in the hundreds. I went back twice to take photos and then stopped across the road to snap some zebra-mules grazing on the Hearst Castle property.
I also fell in love with Cambria - the nearby town where my writer-buddy, Joe, connected me with his friends Bruce and Susan, who took me to the local side for dinner and made me feel at home.
I had a chance to write about all my adventures in travel and writing for West Word - including exploring The Language of Place and a new piece on writers' groups featuring my Cali trip. Imagine my computer glowing in my tent as I tried to out-type my waning battery. But the sounds of my one true love, the ocean, kept murmuring encouragement from just outside.
I have big plans afoot for this year too - I was accepted in UBC's online MFA program for Creative Writing and I'm hoping that will help push my adventures on and off the page even further. Thanks to my pals at the Clayoquot Writers Group for all their encouragement.
And I've been writing about my new surfing life in what started as an idea for the 3-Day Novel competition and keeps growing - jotted down in notes and ideas and expanding from the 90 pages of that caffeine-fueled long weekend to four sections. It's called The Surf Cure.
Beyond the adrenaline rush of playing in the waves there is a feeling you carry with you for the rest of the day, a kind of serenity that's as constant as the ocean.
Tomorrow, I'll be back out in the waves for more.
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