Aaron’s Surfing Logbook

The morning of surfing we all arrived at the school around 7am at building 140. Once

everyone had shown up we proceeded to get instructions from Matt and Bruce on surfing gear

such as helmets, cam sack straps, boards, gloves, boots and wetsuits. After our lesson on the

gear we started to size ourselves up for proper fitting wetsuits then began packing all of our

gear into blue totes and onto the trailer. Once that was all done it was 8am and time to hit the

road, we began our trip down the highway and only made one stop at a starbucks in Port

Alberni around 9am before getting to the beach. We approximately got to Tofino around 10am

and started to unload our gear off of the trailer. When the trailer was finally unpacked

everyone decided to squeeze into their wetsuits as well as have a snack before hitting the

water.

Everyone finished getting ready around 11am and we then made our way down to the

beach for a couple lessons with Matt and Bruce. Matt demonstrated what was called the cobra

pose for beginners; it helps us to learn how to feel the wave a bit better before attempting to

stand up. We then went into the water and began practicing on the smaller white waves; Matt

proceeded to call us into the beach two more times throughout the 3 hours to give us more tips

and tricks to help us progress. After about 3 hours of surfing we decided to call it a day because

everyone was exhausted, we packed up everything off the beach and took off to the showers

for a rinse and to change into warm clothes. Everyone helped out with loading the trailer and

then we took off back down the highway; we stopped at McDonald’s in Port Alberni for some

food after a long day. We all ordered and ate our food then hit the road again, once we got

back to building 140 on campus we started to unload all of the boards and gear while also
hosing everything off. All of the wetsuits and gear were hung up to dry and the boards were

stacked up carefully in their racks. This was all finished up around 7:30-8 and that’s how we

concluded our day.

For myself I had an amazing day, growing up in a small northern Manitoba town I never

would have guessed that id be learning how to surf with an entire class in Tofino. It was a very

surreal day for me seeing as it was only my second time being in the ocean, the first being a

week prior. It was also a very humbling day considering I am used to picking up on sports very

quickly but all in all I had a very good time and learned a lot, can’t wait for our next adventure!