So it’s no secret now that there’s not a lot of snow on the coast… thanks for blowing the top off that one MattCote. Citing mental health and pow-deficiency issues, we decided to load up Julian’s super-sick and highly functional Toyota HiAce (pronounced Hiiiiiiyaaaaa-che!!!) LandVehicle and travel out to the coast for music, friends, fires and surf.  First stop was the Betty and Kora presented show in Victoria that totally rocked and left me tuckered and sleeping in the van on a chilly coastal night. The van fired to life before I was even awake in the morning and I wasn’t even out of the sleeping bag before we were rolling West to cook breakfast and search for swell.

vanlife – crazyface

After a tasty breakfast and a few rounds of coffee at Jordan River we started contemplating actually getting in the ocean when my buddy Pat rolled up. During the time we were mentally preparing for the ocean there was a non-stop stream of surfboard-laden vehicles pulling into the lot, u-turning and then heading left back onto the highway to Sombrio, and it was this convoy that prompted up to suit up to harness the swell buildling right on front of us. We had a solid hour of surf to ourselves before the passerby’s realized that we might actually be onto something and before long there was a line of surfboards getting waxed along the rocky shore. Arms became tired and we wanted to try to capture some evening light at the picturesque beaches of Sombrio so we packed the van and rolled back out on to the highway, arriving to a full hour of hazy gold skies and epic Olympic mountain vistas.

The van slept the three of us quite comfortably (perhaps Jules and Matt more than I) and we drank our morning coffee back down at the beach wondering where the swell went. Saturday evening was pumping chest-to-head high and by Sunday morning had dropped to waist-to-chest high slop. We waited for the tide to come back up and with it the swell, and by lunch were back in the water fighting lineups and paddle-battles. My own arms were still jelly-filled like doughnuts from the previous surf and I quickly paddled back in and grabbed a nice little Paipo (traditional Hawaiian-style wooden body-board) borrowed from my buddy Tim at Radish Boards. With nobody on the inside, I managed to snake a few good bodyboard rides before collapsing up on the beach. Julian had hot water bottles ready for the wetsuit change back at the van, and we hastily donned some fine Granted sweaters to keep the heat in. All in all, we were likely the most comfortable dudes on the beach thanks to the miracles of neoprene, Japanese right-hand-drive vans, heavy wool sweaters, and friendship. Cheers, and much thanks to all!