Live, Love, Laugh,...DREAM!: Riding the Wave....

Nov 3, 2014

Riding the Wave....

1st annual tofino paddle surf SUP invitational

surfers pic:event

Last weekend I attended the 1st annual Tofino Paddle Surf SUP contest in the beautiful Tofino BC. Tofino is part of the temperate rainforest and is one of the wettest places in BC accumulating around 130inches annual rainfall... It is a thriving yet still uncrowded surf town. Most beaches are protected under the national parks which keeps them open for the public and still pretty wild which is kinda cool if you ask me...

set up on north chesterman pic:event

Canada is a huge country with few people. Earlier this fall I found out the state of California has more people than all of Canada. Due to our large land mass and few people in between it is often difficult for the small sports with large equipment needs to travel across country to compete against each other. In SUP we struggle with this a little.. Unfortunately or fortunately? for us, it is often cheaper to fly to Europe, Hawaii, or south america than within our own country and therefore CAN can struggle with uniting from east to west coast..... BUT something magical happened this weekend...Over 60 SUP surf enthusiasts gathered together all the way from the east through to the west coast... we came together in the small town of Tofino to celebrate this wonderful sport of stand up paddleboarding. This was not a race but a judged SUP surf competition and it would be here that we would crown the champions and those that would come represent Canada at the 2015 ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships.

surfer pic:event

north chesterman pic:event

Heath Male open winner pic:event

28 competitors in the Open Men’s, 28 in the Amateur division and 8 Women gathered on the rainy Friday evening at the Tofino Brewing Co to pick up registration, meet, and enjoy a beverage or two....It was the perfect venue for the opening of the weekend:) and not to mention there was a lot of fantastic beer on hand...

The next two days were filled with Surfing and shredding on the waves and was led by Catherine, Zak, head judge Chris Freeman, and a stellar group of volunteers.. Tents were up, beach fires going, and people rippin it up on the water.... The rain did not let up on Saturday but the spirits were still high... Sunday the sun came out and people were giving it all they got out on the water... The conditions were tough but everyone shredded;)

I was lucky enough to judge, tabulate, and help out where needed as well as take a shot at competing... I magically made it into the finals where I went out and had some fun.... I came out with a 4th place overall, and lots of experience..... AMAZING.... Proud of the ladies that came out and can't wait to see the number of women double and triple in the coming years:)

final four ladies right off water

The event was webcasted live all weekend on SurfCam.ca. You can relieve the moments at your leisure:)
Official results and every contestant's placing will be posted on the event website at contests.tofinopaddlesurf.com in the next few days....

The awards banquet was held at Wolf in the Fog, which was perfect... We took over the upstairs where we enjoyed Tofino Brewing Beers, awards, and then some pretty outstanding food. If you are finding yourself in Tofino in the future, definitely check out this place, it will be worth it:)

final four ladies

CONGRATS to our NEWEST CANADIAN TEAM Members, off to the WORLD'S in 2015!!! Heath Thompson-1st place, Stuart Robinson second place, and Diane J Wenzel 1st place Women's

The trophies were amazing and the original art 1st place trophies and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place stars were pretty unbelievable and made by local Tofino artist, Sol Maya.... Woohoo...

First place award made by Sol Maya pic:from event

Also I managed to win the best prize ever from WoodShed Collective through a door prize... This little skateboard is beautiful and will hopefully help me with the feel of surfing when I am missing the waves... can't wait:)

woodshed collective shateboard made by Zak

Thanks to all the sponsors, volunteers, and surfers that helped make this happen!!! Can't wait for next year already:)

I surfed the SIC Recon 9.4 x 29 and it was perfect for the conditions...
My paddle was a Werner Small Nitro
I was judging in my surffur all weekend... and was wearing a 5'4 ripcurl wetsuit(but maybe a little much for the mild temps over the weekend?!?)