Vancouver Surf
jackel, watch out for bears, the Canadian women, the strongest hydro.
Take a good wetsuit.
Incredible snow surfing, which is pretty much all I know about in that part of the world, you will have an awesome time though, B.C. is fun.
Good times :)
I have a mate that used to surf a place called Tofino and it supposedly gets pretty good waves year round. Tofino is about midway along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Also, there are waves at a place called Jordan River about an hour north of the town of Victoria on Vancouver Is. The best surf is in Autumn/Winter when the big Arctic storms push down swell from the north Pacific.
If you head over the border into the US there's heaps of waves on the west coast of the Washington peninsular, but I heard there's some pretty crusty locals there so tread lightly.
In Autumn you could probably get away with a decent 4/3 and 3mm booties. Winter you will need 5mm rubber, 5mm boots and gloves and a 3mm hood.
But, go the snow as Welly says, Whistler and Blackcomb are just up the road along arguably one of the most spectacularly scenic drives in the world or head east along the Coquihalla highway through Keylowna to Big White and the mountains beyond. Great snow over in the US at Mt. Baker in northern Washington.
Beautiful Big Mountain skiing/boarding- powder heaven.
Canada is a great place, nice people, nice beer, smokin' chicks and epic snow.
PS And if you're into that sort of thing, apparently BC weed is mind blowing.
Awesome :D
I have a close mate who lives up the coast a little from van island, says theres lots of unknown waves uncrowded, as theres bears on the walk but mostly black bears which he says are harmless. Just yell out some sort of call to scare them off.
Hes a hardcore kind of guy though so im not sure if they are harmless. Canadians are pretty cool friendly people. Imo the photos of the reefs dont look as good as say south coast nsw but good still.
Beachies apparently sandbanks go a lot further out than aus.
Theres waves up in alaska and Aleutian islands north side and south side too.
Theres probably even unknown waves on the north coast of mainland Alaska aswell.
Mate wears a 5/4, booties and hood with gloves i think mostly. can give you his email addy if you like. Real cool intelligent guy. But travels a lot so might not be around all the time.
If he shows you any spots dont show or tell anyone the where abouts.
This fella has a few vids
http: //vimeo.com/51893590
My understanding is that good waves are rather fickle on Vancouver Island. Large tidal movements and small windows of favourable wind/swell combos means you've gotta be on the ball to score good surf. Tofino is the much publicised 'surf town' so it gets pretty crowded in the summer, so you'll have to look further afield for uncrowded options that time of year. Winter is very cold.
I can vouche for the Canadian hospitality though.. pretty amazing.
I'm shipping out to Vancouver for a PhD and want to know what sort of consistency the surf over there has. Coming from Sydney, I'm pretty use to long spells of crappy surf, but I'm hoping that Canada has something to offer me. Any stories/experiences from people who have been there?