Tofino Thanksgiving

Evening session

Mid-October is usually cold, dark and rainy which isn't very fun for biking or climbing and still to early for skiing. With that in mind, I had booked a trip to Tofino where it doesn't matter if its raining because you are planning to be cold and wet surfing anyways. Much to our surprise, the fall ended up being really warm and dry which meant unseasonably warm sunny beach days in October.

Sunrise from the ferry deck

Angela and I had an early Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Dad, then left Whistler early the next morning to catch the 6:30 ferry. Tristan slept over in Horseshoe Bay to skip the 4am wake up and we met him in the ferry line. Hayden was not answering his phone and we ended up leaving without him as he had missed the memo on a morning departure and thought we had reservations for the 6:30pm ferry. Fortunately he was able to get a walk on spot on the next ferry and Angela waited to pick him up in Nanaimo while Tristan and I grabbed groceries.

Picking up the boards

It was hot and sunny when we arrived in Tofino, very different from the typical fog and drizzle I had been expecting. We rented boards and wetsuits then set out for an afternoon of surfing at Long Beach. We spent most of the weekend surfing and hanging out on the beach in the sun. The waves were big enough to challenge me but not too crazy (I am pretty novice). I definitely noticed improvement after 5 surf sessions and some tips from Tristan.

Drooling over new boards

Chesterman Beach afternoon session

Hard to believe its October

Post-surfing beach hang

Views from the Airbnb

Twilight magic

Another amazing sunset

After three days of sunshine, the clouds started to roll in and it got windy. Feeling tired, we opted to forgo surfing and instead do a bit of climbing before catching the ferry home. Angela and Hayden had a early reservation on the ferry to make it home for a "friends-giving" dinner but Tristan and I had neglected to book anything. We ended up cooking dinner in the ferry line as we waiting multiple sailings to return to the mainland. Note to self - book ferry reservations for long weekends!!

Moody Long Beach

Tristan is stoked to show off his camping set up in the ferry line