Santa Barbara to San Francisco. And on to Vancouver. I get up at 3:30 am but so far I am doing ok. The friendly rental car company supplies me with 420 ponies packed into one and I am somewhat disappointed with the fact that while having been in the car for a good 20 minutes I haven’t gotten past 40 kilometers per hour. It’s sunny, warm and my mind is bubbling.
I check into my hotel and immediately make off to meet Jesse Williams at his home and office on 2nd Avenue. Jesse has a big beard, very Canadian, and turns out to be a super sweet guy. His apartment is in a modern-looking building and it isn’t large but it’s very nice and looks like it works. At the door, I am greeted by a ball of fur about 6 inches high and responding to the name of TK. We get acquainted, me and the fur-ball as well as Jesse, and I take a couple of photographs of Jesse’s workspace.
I am hungry, haven’t eaten all day and it is about 2 pm so we head out to drive up to Mount Seymour ski resort and get some food on the way. We stop at a little mall and grab some food and a coffee at a little coffee shop. After we are done Jesse shows me a skate bowl that is located hidden behind the mall stores. It’s a fun little park covered in graffiti and we take a couple photos of Jesse posing for portraits as well as dropping in and rolling around. It’s warm out and I wonder if this is normal for September. Feels like a great summer day.
We make our way through a little neighborhood and back onto the highway leading up to Mount Seymour. Along the way, our pony clocks 150km/h on a straight stretch up the mountain road, and initial feelings of lack of use of all this party power under the hood start to diminish. There are a bunch of cars in the parking lot and Jesse seems surprised. There are lifts, not operating but hinting at what is going on when there is a bunch of snow around. They just sit there, chairs attached, which I think is odd and I ask if they do a mountain bike park on this mountain but Jesse tells me no. We chat about the changes in mountain resorts towards mountain bike parks while we hike down a beautiful little path toward a lake. Jesse seems to be aware of the fact that there are no bears, pumas, or other, possibly threatening, man-eaters around and I am surprised, hadn’t thought of that at all. I guess we are in Canada but I just ran into a mountain lion in Santa Barbara and it was an exciting encounter.
I had gotten up real early to go on a hike and at around 6:30 am just about 15 seconds into my hike I hear this loud noise across the creek about 40-50 feet from me. I stop and listen and look and wait. Nothing. Then the sound again, closer this time. And I look and there is this big fat mountain lion, probably 140 pounds, walking along the creek across from me maybe 30 feet away. Doesn’t see me either. I am frozen. Then there are two women chatting on the road still visible and below me. The puma is between the women and me and I wonder if he is going to come my way but I never see him again. Consider going back to the car but I got up all early and want to get my hike in. So I grab a sharp rock and go, freaked out about being stalked for the remainder of the hike…
Anyways, we don’t see any animals actually and after some cool photos in the foliage with the sun poking through the trees backlighting and flaring the scene, all warm and buttery summery, we get to a small pond and Jesse is wondering and remembering it a lot bigger. We talk about water shortages and climate change and the effects we have on the planet and keep walking only to find the real lake, which is much larger and we laugh.
We take some portraits and I send Jesse around the lake to climb a little cliff and sit in the middle of it so I can take a picture across the perfectly still water with trees all reflecting in it. I eventually join him on the cliff and we soak the scene in for a moment. It’s a perfect day in the mountains, incredible really. It’s amazing how swiftly one can change their environment these days.
We roar back down the mountain road and make our way through town to a place called Seylynn Bowl in North Vancouver. It’s a snaky skate bowl winding down a little hill, full of graffiti but looking really fun. And there is nobody here?!? I tell Jesse that when I was a kid in Berlin this thing would have been packed on a Friday afternoon with perfect weather. He tells me that it gets busy sometimes but usually is mellow. Sounds good to me!
We are here at the perfect time, too. The sun is low and shining through the trees making for some dappled light on the colorful concrete. Jesse is popping some Ollies on the bank and we get great photos. I am too tempted so I borrow his board for a second and roll down the snake. Not quite as smooth as Jesse. I pop some mandatory Ollies on the flat and then return the board. Breaking my foot right now, bad news. Ah, the pressures…
We walk over to a river and I can’t believe how clear the water is. Crystal clear! Looks so rich, like I want to just jump in and touch it and feel it but it also looks cold, and cold water is a tough cookie. People are cruising around going for late afternoon strolls, life seems good and I really want to touch the water. We chat about places for dinner and Jesse mentions a place called Tacofino but thinks that I will eat there at the main location in Tofino on Vancouver Island in the next couple of days so it is dismissed. Instead, we drive to Main Street and park. About to cross the street we run into a friend of Jesse’s and they chat for a moment. We then encounter an old 1950’s Mercury police car and Jesse is obviously excited. It is parked outside a church and through the window we see a police officer and we discuss the scenario.
We have Sushi, it’s good. A beer too, also good. We sit outside and while the sun is setting we watch people, for the most part hip urbanites, walk past in front and slightly below us. I see a girl covering her chest with her sweater when she approaches us and it is obvious she felt observed. Bummer, not really the vibe we want to put out but what can you do? It is a big city and there are a lot of people and I guess you just don’t know who stares you down (not that this is necessarily very different in a small town, except for the fact that you might know the person staring you down… and they might not be the kind of person you want to be stared at by… so maybe that’s actually worse).
I like a lot of wasabi, my soy sauce and wasabi mixture usually is pasty and green, not very fluid, and Jesse looks at it and laughs. Sure enough one bite is smothered too heavily in my concoction and I am about to gag, sharp pain shooting all through my head. I survive.
We make our way through town to the Vancouver Skate Plaza, a skatepark Jesse has told me about that sounded like a great location. We get there and it is 9 pm or something, I actually have no idea, all I know is it’s dark out and I am approaching something in the vicinity of an 18-hour day at this point. My brain is dead, my body is getting tired. There are a bunch of kids around and I feel a little uncomfortable walking around with expensive camera gear. We are under a freeway overpass, just feels a little off. And I am tired. Can’t get into it. Just too tired. I shoot a couple of shots but have to call it a day.
It’s Saturday morning and we are on our way to a coffee shop Jesse is all excited about. But the roads are blocked. We have no idea what’s going on and wonder if Obama is in town. Who else gets all the roads closed to pass? The question lingers in the car while it’s roaring along, deep rumbling. We decide to take a different route and when we stop at a stop light a young and rather fit-looking black homeless girl is standing on the corner with her back to us. She isn’t wearing any pants! I look at Jesse and ask: “Is she not wearing any pants?” “I don’t think so,” he replies. I am perplexed. She actually looked somewhat attractive and I am wondering if she is pulling a stunt or is just high but Jesse starts talking about homeless people. I am startled, she doesn’t seem homeless to me. Maybe it’s that the homeless in Santa Barbara look way more like bums, I don’t know. Jesse keeps talking about this area being notorious for crazy homeless people and how the city is not really working on fixing it. We see some tweaked-out people aimlessly wandering down the sidewalk with the morning sun on their empty faces, just walking, lost and not there. Just bodies. They aren’t present, it freaks me out. Like zombies, I have this subliminal, semi-subconscious vision of not knowing what humans are and looking at the people on earth functioning in society and then the people I encounter here. People who live like animals, no possessions, no sense for where they are or what to do. Mind detached from body. In the middle among all these other people, like two different species. How is this possible?
And bang seconds later and we are in downtown and yuppies with coffee’s in their hands are walking around, phone on their ears equally disconnected from their current physical location but different, aware.
And the culprit is: A marathon! We can’t get to the coffee shop and are uncomfortable with parking a red Mustang GT rental car with thousands of Dollars of camera and computer gear on the streets. Probably paranoid, but again, certain mistakes are more painful than others.
We end up on Delman Street, have coffee and some breakfast and then drive into Stanley Park. The weather is ridiculous. Perfect temperature, perfect everything. We walk the boardwalk and take some pictures with Vancouver in the background. A seal is cruising the water right by the sea wall and I can’t believe how clear the water is. I get very excited to get the water housing out and shoot in the water in Tofino.
We take a shortcut through the woods and somewhat close to the path find a pair of red lingerie. We have a discussion about couples and Stanley Park at night and we get back to the car. We stop two more times, at a beach and at a lookout and then I am pushing to get going since I have to catch the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in a few hours.
I drop off Jesse at his apartment and wish we could have spent a little bit more time but I am in a little bit of a hurry.
Sure enough, the city is on gridlock. The marathon is still messing up traffic and while I highly support the act of getting off your ass and going for a run, I feel like I am going to miss my ferry now. Takes me an hour just to get back to Stanley Park and to Lions Gate Bridge. Traffic is insane! I haven’t seen traffic like this in a long time. Not in China, LA or anywhere really. I can’t believe how bad it is.
I get to the ferry toll booth and it says something like “on hold” on a digital display above. I have ten minutes so I should be fine. The lady tells me I’ll be on the 12:50 and closes her window back up. I sit and wait. It is 12:44. Another car rolls up behind and the guy gets out and asks the woman if he missed the ferry and she says yes! I freak out a little. Didn’t she just say I was going to make it? Whaaaat?!? I ask and she confirms.
“There is a ten-minute cut off.”
“So I missed it by what, 4 minutes?”
“Yep, but it was full anyway.”
“When would I have to have been here to make it?”
“20 minutes ago.”
AAARRGHH! So I have to wait for 2 hours. During which I walk around and take a bunch of photos and have lunch. I was first in line and the guy told me to come back by 2:30 to be ready. 3:30 rolls around and the ferry is late and I am waiting. Finally, get on, rumble the Mustang goes, deep growl. I park and am the first car before the Pacific Ocean. I climb around the ferry and take a bunch of photos. Then I hear the speaker go: “We need the owner of a red Mustang to come down to the car deck immediately!” I’m going, Oh shit, what happened, did the car catch on fire? Did it fall off the boat, get loose somehow? No, not possible…
So I get down there and the guy immediately asks me, “You in the red Mustang?” “Yes…” And I hear it! The alarm!
“We’ve had all kinds of problems with those new Mustangs. The alarm gets triggered by the vibration.”
I unlock the car and he locks it from the inside and it’s all good. Crisis averted.
I get out of Nanaimo quickly and hit the highway towards Tofino, winding through the dense woods. At an incredibly picturesque part of a river running through rock formations, I stop and climb around and am overwhelmed by its beauty.
Just before I get to Tofino I catch up to two cars. One has both of their tail lights out and the other one is speeding trying to get around the one with the broken taillights. The speed limit is 80km/h and we are all going 120. It continues like this all the way into Tofino and I get the feeling that I am entering a world of certain rowdiness. I am excited.
I drop some of my stuff at the cabin where I am staying and get back in the car to go to a place called Shelter and have some dinner. It’s past 9 pm, I am tired but hungry enough to make the trek. Ming texts me and lets me know that she’ll be at Shelter as well. She spots me at my table and I join her and her two friends. Beer and a teriyaki bowl. The guy next to me works on ships and had a girlfriend from Hamburg. He is going over to Germany in a few weeks and we chat about it. I can’t quite tell what he is about but he is very nice.
Tired, bedtime. I climb up the narrow wooden stairs into the loft and fall straight asleep.
7 am, Jah Gringo screaming out of my phone and I let it run through twice. Stumble down the stairs, put on some clothes, and walk outside and across the road, all green and lush and early morning cold and damp and fills my lungs with fresh air all alive and rich. I walk and go down this little path through thick vegetation, past fences, across roots and damp soil, and ferns on the side and it’s dark but there is a light and opening and it’s the Pacific Ocean with a wide stretch of beach before it. I walk out of the canopy into the open, the sand and the sky and the salty air. It’s cold. Feels good.
I walk down the beach towards Franks Island. It’s private property and I am a little annoyed and walk on there anyway, I guess the middle of it is open to the public. The water is incredibly clear and I get very excited about hopping in later.
I walk around the little complex where Beaches Grocery’s, Tofitian and Live to Surf are located and eventually meet up with Ming, Allison and Jen and we have some breakfast. From there we head out to go on a little hike to a look-out. Allison tells me hiking shoes, Jen thinks flip flops. I am torn, I like both ideas, but eventually settle on the hiking shoes given that I need to cover it and may need to run/climb and get into spots hard to access. Turns out that was a good idea. Jen does it in her Birkenstocks, though! Respect! It’s muddy, steep, and rooty. I am stoked I have the hiking shoes on. At one point I try to take a picture and the viewfinder is all black. I look at it and the lens is clear and the viewfinder, whole camera really, look normal. I look again through the small opening allowing me to frame and focus and decide and it is pitch black. What the fuck?!? I pull away and inspect again and now I notice that the display is on live mode. I didn’t switch anything??? Takes me a second to figure out how to get out of it but it scared me for a moment. I had two cameras with me, even at this very moment, but losing one is never fun.
It is incredibly lush on the hill and we end up looking over Cox Bay. It is an incredible view. Kuma, Ming’s dog and his wolf-like appearance pop out of the bushes here and there and Jen spots a quail and gets all excited. She thought we were going somewhere else and is in good spirits about discovering a new spot. I start to understand the three personalities a little bit. They seem to add up rather well, everything in there to make for some entertaining group dynamics.
It is hot and when we get back to the beach they all run to the water. They can’t believe the weather. And it didn’t really dawn on me until now but the weather is kind of like home, like Santa Barbara. Sunny, warm but not too hot, no wind, just kind of perfect. I can’t really think about a thing to make it any more pleasant. And I realize that for me there was no change in weather while to them this was exceptional. I somewhat envisioned foggy, misty cool cool-looking scenes and here I am and it is just like at home. Only with lush hills and clear water (Really, thinking about this makes me wonder, is this better than Santa Barbara?) But seeing those three excited about it tells me that these are exceptional conditions. Kuma models on the way back to the cars. Good dog.
We decide to shoot some paddle boarding next and I get back to the cabin and get the water housing ready and prep my wetsuit and stuff all excited about the clear water but a little worried about the water temperature. We get to the Best Western where the paddle boards are waiting and I get a vibe that the Mustang is perceived as ridiculous. And of course, it is. Stupid car, really, Really badly made. The only thing it’s good at is going forward fast and even that is not what it could be with some better engineering behind it. Bad on gas and just looking like a bully.
We get in the water and it feels cold at first but then I am not sure if it’s me thinking it’s cold and it actually ain’t that bad. Incredibly clear it is though. I look down while paddling a paddle board away from the beach. Not Virgin Islands style but clear, inviting, probably cold to be submerged in. Can’t wait.
We paddle over to a kelp forest and I jump in and shoot the girls paddling around me for a little bit then get back on the board and we keep paddling a bit over to some rocks. When we get there I realize that the camera is stuck in that live view/video mode again, like earlier on the trail. I’m going, “shit, how do I get out of that now?!?” I play with the buttons for a while and try to switch the camera from video mode to photo mode but am not even sure that’s what the problem is. Can’t figure it out. Display is on but I can’t take any pictures, won’t fire. Won’t get out of that mode. Fuck! I don’t know what to do? Finally, I decide that I have to open the housing and change the camera mode. I sit on the paddle board and it is super stable, water is glassy and no bumps. I figure I can do it. I open the housing and turn the camera off and back on again. The stupid video mode is off. Ok. Seal the camera back up and inspect the seal. Looks ok, but there are spots where it seems that water drops are being squished. It’s minor though and I dismiss it. Hop straight back into the water and dive down to shoot some. I hear the camera go click, click, click, every time I press the button, yeah back in business. Then I hear a rapid-fire which I did not initiate and I look at the camera while being submerged. The display reads: “Error communicating with the lens. Clean contacts.” Or something like that and I get a little worried. I get above water and climb on the board. I look at the housing and see water sloshing around in it. WHAT THE FUCK! I stay oddly calm and put the housing down and open it up and there is a good half liter of water flowing out of it. FUCK! I seal it back up and tell the girls that I’ll go to the beach to check it. At the beach I open the housing again and another half liter flows out. Oh shit. Camera is dead, nothing…
The girls come in as well and we decide that they’ll keep paddling for a bit and I’ll paddle back and check the camera.
Dead. completely dead. Nada. Death by saltwater. That same saltwater that looks so beautifully clear with little fish swimming around in it and kelp floating weightless and the depth of life somehow part of its appearance. It killed the camera.
I get back in the water and paddle back to the spot where we entered. At the car I open the housing once again and pull the camera out. It’s wet and looks odd to me. Looks so perfect! Not a scratch, looks exactly like every time I look at it. I trust that a little sunshine and heat will dry it out and it’ll come back. Looks like nothing is wrong, just won’t turn on, has to come back, a camera this clean has to work. Otherwise, what’s the use?
We decide to find some surf and I am going back to the cabin to change equipment and take another look at the camera. After another fruitless examination of the departed camera, I get back in the car and we go to surf off of Wick Road a bit south of Tofino. The light is right in my lens and with the flare, the surfers look like black flared dots in white. I go surfing.
I surf a yellow 9’1”, longboard called the “Spitfire”, after it having a big bluish-black circle around a white circle and then a red center circle, a graphic used on Spitfire fighter airplanes of WWII. It is fun! It’s not big and so the longboard is perfect for picking up fun little longboard bumps. The water feels warm, the air is warm, the sun is shining down on us baking us in our wetsuits, it’s so playful. Feels like a good summer surf day.
I only surf for a little bit and get back to the car to get my backup camera. Ming comes walking down the path towards the car and it is this ridiculous scene, backlit by the late sun, yellow, reddish, violet and warm. Too big hedges on each side looking dark and flared framing Ming with her board on her side walking down the narrow opening of the path, the source of most light, it looks ridiculous! It looks like how you would do it if you built it as a set in a studio somewhere to fake the shot. I ask her to stop and we do a couple shots of her walking toward and away from me, it’s so visually striking. All the pieces fit together so well, Ming’s personality, the colors, the shapes, the warmth, the attitude. All of it. It feels like I captured something special right there.
I shoot a little bit at the beach of the people in the water but the light is not very favorable and the waves aren’t that big. I hang on the beach and walk down it a little to get another angle, not so backlit but using the light as a rim a little. Doesn’t really work though and I wander back. When the girls get out we hang out for a while and they all can’t believe how warm it is. And it is warm, I got fried actually.
Upon leaving the beach I try what happens when you fully press your foot on that pedal down there, leaving an intersection and turning left. And what happens is this:
There is a loud, deep noise coming from the front of the car and the back. Actually, it seems loud just about everywhere. The car jolts forward and you have to handle the steering wheel. Smoothly move it in the direction you’d like to travel to and go to your zen place, stay focused and smooth while the world outside the car seems to be exploding or something. There is that metallic thunderous growl of some machine that must be killing something right now and the screeching of rubber on asphalt, that high-pitched sound of contact that would be very painful if one of the two contact surfaces was part of your body. Your body will feel some forces working on it, directional as well as mental, and all the while you smoothly handle that steering wheel to where it needs to be, foot stretched out far and solid until the steering wheel needs it to help with the steering of the car a little. It is an immature move but there is a sense of purpose in it. Controlling something like this makes you feel powerful right up until you lose control and something unpleasant, for either your mind, body or wallet, or any combination of those, happens. “Control is an illusion you infantile egomaniac. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next!” as Dr. Lewicki has so clearly stated in the 1990 release, and best movie ever made, Days of Thunder. Feeling control is a good thing and learning to find your own edge is as well.
I get to Long Beach and walk out onto the sand. Climb a big fat rock that is sitting right on the beach and it’s a little painful barefoot, sharp that fucking rock. Ming eventually joins me with Kuma and we take a couple portraits with the pretty light. The day is fading.
We eat a great dinner at Wolf in the Fog and there is a sculpture of a wolf made out of driftwood on a table and I can’t take my eyes off it. Great rendering. I am told that there are wolves in the area and that sometimes you can hear them. I have a wolf hybrid as a pet, his name is Milan and he once caught a seagull in air. Anyway, wrestling with that guy made me realize that if you get into a fight with one of them you have a chance of walking away. The moment there is more than one that chance goes “puff”.
We all drive out to Florencia Bay beach in the morning and the parking lot is in a rainforest. It’s so lush! All the girls walk down this path towards an overlook and they are framed by this incredible vegetation while the light dapples down on them, it looks ridiculous. After some time looking at the surf from up top the beach, we climb down some stairs and walk onto the sand. There is one other guy down there but way far from us. The surf isn’t great but there are a few nice bumps. After some back and forth we decide that Ming will surf here and I will take some shots and the other girls go check another spot.
I am standing on an empty beach, it’s warm and instead of wearing my shirt on my torso, it’s on my head to shade me a little. I can’t believe where I am and that there is nobody else around? It is so pretty! Kuma is running around and seeing him, looking all wolf-like, I remember the stories about wolves in the forests here. I look behind me and decide that wolves probably wouldn’t swim after me if I just booked it into the water.
The other girls show up all suited up just when Ming and I are sort of done but Ming gets back in the water with them and I get a few more shots before we head back into Tofino.
In the afternoon we shoot some portraits and other stuff around the office of Nitro Snowboards Tofino. Cutie, Jen’s dog wants to be in every photo. I want to take a group shot but would love to do it in the rainforest. The girls ponder over that for a little and we end up walking straight into the woods off the highway across the street from the office. It’s a narrow path through thick vegetation, doesn’t look like it gets a lot of visitors but some for sure. Large tree trunks, uprooted and massive on the side of the path. Ferns and moss, it is so green!
We end up at a small opening that is surrounded by some very large trees. On one end of the opening, a bunch of the trees decided to have a party, and it’s a massive pile of roots and trunks. I am told that there has been a wedding staged here not too long ago and it was raining cats and dogs so the little opening was filled with people holding up colorful umbrellas while the marriage was undertaken up in the roots of the tree party. I look around and picture it in heavy rain and with all the umbrellas and like the visual in my head.
We take some group shots of all the girls and Cutie, who at some point jumps off a ledge a good 7 feet from the ground, seemingly unaware of the height. She survives but the impact does not look pretty. Luckily the ground is super soft. I want to go back to a little bridge-like setting between two trees and take a few more photos of them all together so we go and do that and I get some cool shots.
Within 30 seconds we are out of what seems to be dense forest and are walking into a luxury resort. I am perplexed, did not see that coming. I thought we were at least somewhat disconnected from civilization. I guess the path did seem oddly manicured…
We have some coffee and hang for a little bit. I get suggestions on what to do next with a little bit of daylight left to shoot in. I haven’t really been to downtown Tofino yet so I decide that I’ll wander and shoot some around town and we all book it back to the office to not waste time.
I park the car and start walking around but very quickly get pretty tired. After all the cool scenes from the last couple of days, the town is not very inspiring to me. Might just be that my brain is kinda dead. I walk for a while, shoot some seaplanes and the inlet and decide to be done.
We have some great Sushi for dinner in town at The Inn. Overlooking the inlet and the hills and mountains beyond while the sun goes down is spectacular. A little beer, a little Sake, all good. We decide to have a scout go out in the morning to check where the swell hits the best. Everyone is excited about having waves coming in and we want to pick the best spot.
The decision is made for Dix Bay, I get a text in the morning. I actually don’t feel too good, my stomach is off. Hoping it’s not the sushi from last night. Not feeling sick but definitely off. The thought of paddling a board is not sitting well with me. I get some coffee and make it to the beach which is getting hit with good-sized sets all around the bay. A lot of people are out. A lot of girls are out. Odd ratio actually. Seems like more girls than guys. There is a little bit of wind but it is blowing off shore. The water seems rough, definitely not the kind of summer afternoon surfing from a few days ago. This is Tofino! I remember the guys racing into town at night without taillights and I am sure those two are sitting out there in the moving water. Feels raw, rough and powerful. I gaze for a while and decide that I will definitely not be paddling out. I’d puke within seconds.
Ming shows me a little path through thick vegetation which spits us out on the rocks to the right. I find a good position and with my long lens can shoot right into the waves with cliff and forest behind the surfers, cool spot. I make camp and sip coffee while the camera sits on the tripod. I am having a good little one-man party on the rocks, cheer for people getting great waves and sing songs, talk to myself and the birds and go pee about three times within an hour and a half. I am overlooking the whole bay and the water is littered with people in black suits so I have no idea where the girls are. Here and there I can pick out the yellow Spitfire that Allison is riding and then I follow them through the viewfinder for a while but eventually lose them in the mess of waves and bodies.
I leave the rocks after a couple hours and get lost in the vegetation for a couple minutes. When I get to the beach it feels like the wind has all of a sudden picked up a bit and when I clear the rocks and get a view of the bay this feeling is confirmed. The waves are throwing huge sprays from the offshore wind, the water is choppy, the waves look mean, people are getting pummeled.
I meet the girls and then decide to climb all the way out to the tip of the bay to shoot some more. When I get out there I realize that I am now really close to the large sets coming in and it is incredible to see the ocean’s power so close up, yet totally safe from it. At the furthest point, I get whipped by the wind and occasionally a large wave explodes over the rocks and I get sprayed but it feels so rich, so engaged, I am laughing and yelling at the waves. I put the camera back on the tripod and shoot a little bit more but eventually make my way back to the beach and to the car.
Ming is having lunch on Industrial Way and I join her and a German friend of hers. Afterward, we walk over to Tofino Brewing Company and have a beer tasting and I take some images. Then I rest, inspired by the beer tasting.
We all meet up in the evening at the Brewery again to go skate a bowl that Jen’s boyfriend has built upstairs in the warehouse. We walk up some stairs and when I get a look at the bowl I can’t believe it. A private little (actually not so little) skate bowl, indoors, with tunes and all. Wow!
I’m not a vert skater, actually haven’t really skateboarded in 10+ years but I still skate down mountain roads and go to the park every blue moon. But this setup is ridiculous and I grab a board and play for a little. Throughout the evening people keep showing up and we have pizza and beer and there is a good session going on between Ryan Taron and Lise and some others. I shoot and drink some beer and the music is going and everybody has a great time. I feel like we are a bunch of teenagers. Seems so absurd? Drinking beer at a skate bowl and eating pizza and everyone is trying to top each other’s tricks on a skateboard, music is loud and everyone is sweating and laughing and focused but not really, energy is shooting through the room. And then Ming speaks my mind:
“It’s funny, we are all above 30, except for maybe Helen, but we all behave like teenagers here.” Feels good, feels like this should happen even when you are above 30, and have two kids, and and and… too many rules, too many expectations, who cares!
I wake early and gather my things. The Mustang sits obediently in the driveway waiting to gallop back to Nanaimo and then Vancouver. And gallop it will! I stop at the rainforest hike and walk for about 2 minutes but actually get a little freaked out. Nobody around, it’s early and I think about wolves and bears and being breakfast. Back into the car and pedal down!
I stop at that same spot I stopped at on the way out again and explore around a bit more with the light being a bit better now. Water is so clear, I can’t believe it. I then stop at a cafe-type place and sit down by the window. I spy an older guy checking out the Mustang and am amused. However much I want to hate that car, it has been rather fun. Passing trucks and other cars on the windy road from Tofino has been a loud and exhilarating experience, even on the shortest of passing opportunities. I am not really that hungry and the waitress is doing a bad job of hiding her disappointment by my lack of interest in food. I have a coffee and a toast with some jam. She is happy again.
I make the ferry all fine and it is all wrapped in a soft blanket of fog all the way across the water and to Vancouver. When I get back to the car about 15 minutes from Horseshoe Bay I spot a whale tail fin in the water. At first, I wonder what it is since it is moving so slow. Like unnaturally slow. But then it is fully out of the water and very clear to make out. Whale must be sleeping or something.
Vancouver is another episode of traffic gone mad. What is going on in this town? So bad! I am stuck in front of the Georgia hotel for a while and have great memories but am a little bit on a tight schedule and wouldn’t mind things moving along quicker than they currently are. The last thing I get from the Pony is a wild “ROARRRR” behind the rental car agency’s building. I guess the agent is trying to tame it…