This week’s dream: From the waves to the slopes on Vancouver Island
“It’s not every day you can watch the sun rise from a surfboard, then see it set while on skis atop a mountain,” said Margo Pfeiff in the Los Angeles Times. For me, such a day was “the oldest dream on my bucket list,” and to make the challenge more interesting, I was determined to accomplish the feat in my native British Columbia. Fortunately, my partner was willing to join me, so about this time last year we set our sights on Vancouver Island, hopped on a ferry to the island’s east coast, and soaked up some spectacular scenery on a three-hour drive across the island to Tofino, Canada’s own surf capital. But don’t imagine this was just a mere day trip. “To fulfill my surf-ski dream, I first had to learn to surf.”
Tofino is easy on beginners. Chesterman Beach is particularly novice-friendly, which is why I found myself there in a wet suit on a sub-32-degree morning following an instructor’s enthusiastic command to jump on my board and start paddling. I didn’t stand for that first wave, but I whooped for joy the moment I caught it and instantly “fell deeply and completely in love with the sport.” By the 12th ride, I was able to stay upright rightly. By the time I’d finished dinner that night at a place where we ran into Dom Domic, the godfather of Canadian surfing, I was ready for a sunrise start to my dream day.
We played in the waves at spectacular Long Beach for more than two hours before hot showers prepared us for the drive ahead. By lunchtime, we’d reached the hip, young town of Cumberland, leaving us with a 30-minute zigzag up an ever snowier road to Mount Washington Alpine Resort. Mount Washington enjoys one of North America’s largest annual average snowfalls and also “spectacular” views across the Strait of Georgia to the mainland’s Coast Range. The resort offers night skiing, and I couldn’t resist. But my dream didn’t require it: “By 2 p.m., I had clicked on my skis and was basking in sunshine as I made downhill runs on 7 inches of fluffy champagne powder.”
At Tofino’s Long Beach Lodge Resort (longbeachlodgeresort.com), doubles start at $195.