For UVic surfers, extreme weather is just another obstacle to catching the perfect wave
Photo courtesy of Ellie Conell.
From Oct. 18 to 20, an atmospheric river — a moving column of water vapour in the atmosphere — hit much of southern B.C., bringing heavy rains which broke previous records for rainfall in a number of locations in the province.
Here on Vancouver island, Tofino and the Kennedy Lake area received the most rain — 218 mm and 318 mm respectively — while Victoria received just over 40 mm. For most of us, this was a weekend to cozy up with a warm blanket, some soup, and a hot drink.
Not for UVic’s Surf Club.
Made up of novice expert surfers alike, the UVic Surf Club is an athletics club which aims to “bring people of different backgrounds together through the culture of surfing,” according to their Vikes recreation description. The club organizes surf trips to Tofino — typically three per semester — which are open to anyone.
“The point of the trips is to make surfing more available to people,” said Ellie Conell, UVic Surf Club president, in an interview with the Martlet.
October’s atmospheric river overlapped with the club’s second Tofino trip of the semester. According to Conell, the biggest challenge posed by the weather was transportation. Reaching Tofino — one of B.C.’s prime surfing spots — requires driving on the narrow, curvy Highway 4, passing through Vancouver Island’s central mountain range.
When they got to Port Alberni, Conell said they checked and saw a highway closure, but the exact details were unclear. She said she thought it was “the typical Kennedy hill road closure” — a common occurrence on that stretch of the highway.
“I had actually been up in Tofino the weekend prior, and knew that they still had that one way stop, so I just assumed it was there,” she said.
In reality, both sides of the hill near Kennedy Lake were flooded — leaving most of the surfers stuck in their cars for six hours or longer.
“We couldn’t turn around and we had no way to contact anyone. We had no service. I had an idea of where some cars were, so eventually my one friend and I went out of the vehicle in the pouring rain, and somehow we managed to find the two other execs’ vehicles.”
Most people on the trip made it through, but a few vehicles ended up turning back. Conell estimates around 15 people did so because of the warning posted by DriveBC, which claimed that the highway wouldn’t reopen until the morning. An hour later, Conell said, the decision was reversed, and cars were allowed through.
Despite the heavy rain, Conell said that the atmospheric river had little impact on the actual surfing.
“We knew there was rain coming, and we knew it was a lot of rain, but it’s Tofino and [it’s] the island. I’ve done surf trips in the rain. I’ve camped in the rain, I’ve surfed in snow, that’s just surfing on the island.”
“We do a wave check always … and then we always go to the beach with the smallest waves and the least amount of energy,” said Conell. “They weren’t dangerous at all. They were just messy.”
While this fall’s intense weather has not stopped the club from surfing, it has gotten in the way of another Surf Club tradition — family dinners. These are communal meals, prepared for the surfers by the exec team.
“We haven’t done any family dinners this semester because of the weather, especially like the October trip.… But typically we’ll do a big family dinner one of the nights, and then we all just surf and hang out,” said Conell.
As the Surf Club prepares for the next round of trips in the 2025 Spring term, Conell told the Martlet that the Surf Club has had a few meetings about how to handle situations like the atmospheric river, and is continuing to discuss it. She noted that the club already places heavy emphasis on driver safety, making sure the drivers on every trip are competent and feel comfortable.
Even in extreme weather conditions like October’s atmospheric river, everyone was able to make it to their destination or back to Victoria safely, said Conell.
The Surf Club’s next trip is scheduled for January 24-26. More information can be found on the club’s Instagram.
