“You mean to tell me there’s surf in Canada and you girls are in it?
by Myriah Mulvogue
Mid January. The breaking point of the Tofino winter. When your wetsuit-pasty skin refuses the obligatory 6mm of never quite dry neoprene, your fingers assume “claw” before the first paddle through icy salt water, and you get an ice cream headache just contemplating a duck dive, there’s little choice but to board a plane somewhere, anywhere, warm with waves. In mid January this year, seven fortunate girls were able to escape one of the toughest parts of Tuff City and join together for the first annual Surf Sister’s staff, friends and family retreat in Baja, Mexico.
A surf trip is one thing. An all girl surf trip is something else altogether (okay, okay, a couple of lucky guys sneaked in somehow… stowaways in the luggage, perhaps). Do you have any idea how much toilet paper a full house of girls go through in a week or two? Or the number of dripping wet bathing suits you have to fight your way through to get to the shower? No, but seriously, it was the crazy potential of having such a big group of kick-ass chicks with all the time in the world to really focus on what they love to do, catch waves, that really hooked me. The idea was just wacky enough to work. Lack of time, convenience of situation, and consistency of surf kept most of us happily making the rounds between the three popular Todos Santos breaks. There was something for everyone, close to perfect rights peeling forever, thumpy hollow lefts and gentler, more forgiving beach break (for when you just wanted to go surfing, not play keep-away with a death by drowning). There was even a sunset session or two when the wind died off beautifully that would have been a perfect longboard wave (had any of us brought one).
When the surf was not working as well as we’d come to expect, a smaller group of us made the decision to drive three hours away to a more remote surf spot on the word of countless traveling surfers who told us, repeatedly, that we had to go there. It proved to be one of the sweetest days of the trip. The beach was a Salvador Dali painting, with the overcast sky melting into the grey water, contrasted by the expansive desert landscape of rolling dunes and windswept brush. The shore was littered with giant lobster parts and unbroken seashells. The surf was even more surreal. Set after set of absolutely perfectly shaped waves working in all directions. Lefts and rights, point breaks, reef breaks and beach breaks; there was literally something for everyone. We caught it on a small day, about waist high, when most of the surfers camped out there were busying themselves with other forms of distraction (the most memorable being a guy fishing off his longboard, riding a wave to shore with catch and rod in hand). But the potential that place had for exceptional surf was clear. We needed more than a day, but it was definitely worth the trip.
A surf vacation is all about the waves, but even surf sisters need to dry out a little between sessions. Todos Santos is a happening little tourist town with great restaurants, coffee shops, and storefronts to check out in the day, and bars, clubs and the occasional live music show to check out at night. Believe it or not, a large group of Canadian surf chicks can really shake up a Mexican disco or two. There will be no naming of names or pointing of fingers, but cervezas were consumed… sometimes in excess… They say every action has its consequence. Let me just say there was plenty of action. It wasn’t quite Canadian Girls Gone Wild, (sorry to disappoint) but I’m smart enough to know it has no place in print. (If you’re really curious you can ask the 12 year old surf-sister-in-training for the juicy gossip. The finer details escape the rest of us). But don’t get me wrong, except for a couple fine indiscretions, we all in all managed to stay on the program.
So to sum it all up it was surf, sun, surf, sleep. Repeat. Pretty simple, really. And what better way to spend January in Tofino then on a Surf Sister surf trip to Mexico? Well, except maybe on a Surf Sister staff surf trip to Hawaii? Or Costa Rica? Or how about Indo? (Just some suggestions for next year, Jenny!)
Myriah Mulvogue is a Tofino based waitress and writer who likes to surf and help teach surf lessons.
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