Rainforest 'n Swells: Exploring Canada's Surftown

Lonely Planet has named Canada its number one destination for 2017. If you’re planning a trip, we at Huck would like recommend a little gem that we predict will be the country’s next ‘it’ spot.

When people think of Canada, they almost never think of surfing. Unless they’re in the know about  Tofino, that is.

Tofino on the western coast of Vancouver Island is where more than a millennium-old-rainforest meets the sea. Its 35 kilometre-long beach is where the Pacific storm wave break.

It was while watching a storm on their father’s porch, beers in hand, that Charles and Howie McDiarmid were inspired to build the Wickaninnish Inn so they could share the wonder of where they grew up with the rest of the world. Surfers have been coming to Tofino since the 60s but the brothers’ inn opened 20 years ago, the “Wick” has been credited with setting off a chain reaction that turned this town of 1,800 people into a dynamic food and hospitality scene. The Wick inspired Shelter, which in turn inspired the founders the Tofino Brewing Co. and so on.

A team from Huck recently made the trek from East London to Western Canada our neighbour John Quilter, aka YouTube’s Food Busker, to capture Tofino’s laid-back way of life first hand. The result is the short film for Explore Canada you see above.

To get into the waves, we brought along our own Aquaman with a camera, Allan Wilson, as director of photography and our friends at Arts & Crafts records helped bring on board Canadian indie bands Rah Rah and Paper Lions to provide the soundtrack.

We hope you enjoy this taste of Tofino — and get to experience it soon for yourself.

You can check out more films from the trip here and if you’d like to see more short films by the Huck team, why not subscribe to our YouTube channel?

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