Surfing in Canada is practised on its east and west coasts, as well as via lake surfing on the Great Lakes, and river surfing on standing waves and tidal bores.
Surfing in Canada is practised on its east and west coasts, as well as via lake surfing on the Great Lakes, and river surfing on standing waves and tidal bores.
The Pacific Ocean on the west coast of Canada has the most active surf scene in Canada. [1] Tofino, British Columbia is the unofficial surf capital of Canada. Canada's west coast has surfable waves year-round, and Tofino was listed in the world's Top 50 surf destinations by CNN [2] and Outdoor Magazine named Tofino the 'best surf town' in North America in 2010. [3] In Tofino, ocean water temperatures are consistent year-round, averaging 8-12 degrees (C), and advancements in wetsuit technologies are attributed with making year-round surfing comfortable and safe. Bordered by an old growth rainforest, Tofino also has the most temperate climate in Canada. [4] [5] The Atlantic Ocean on Canada's east coast also has a growing surfing scene. [6] Tofino has remained relatively undeveloped due to its proximity to Clayoquot Sound, a UNESCO-protected biosphere reserve. [7]
On 24 July 2013, the North American record for surfing a single river wave was set on the Petitcodiac River's tidal bore, in New Brunswick. [8]
The Lachine Rapids in St. Lawrence River in Montreal is home to the Habitat 67 standing wave. [9] The Ottawa River in Ottawa also has an active river surfing community. [10] There are also growing river surfing scenes in traditionally inland prairie areas like Alberta, and Manitoba.[ citation needed ]
The Great Lakes in Ontario have an active surf scene. [11] There are surf communities on Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Lake Superior. [12] The Wyldewood Surf Club, dedicated to lake surfing, was established in Port Colborne in 1965.
Canada will try to participate in the 2020 Olympics surfing events, and the country's representatives were decided in May 2019, in Tofino, right after the Rip Curl Nationals. [13]
Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island. To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of New France. By total area, Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories, only two are landlocked while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans.
The St. Lawrence River is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border.
The Severn bore is a tidal bore seen on the tidal reaches of the River Severn in south western England. It is formed when the rising tide moves into the funnel-shaped Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary and the surging water forces its way upstream in a series of waves, as far as Gloucester and beyond. The bore behaves differently in different stretches of the river; in the lower, wider parts it is more noticeable in the deep channels as a slight roller, while the water creeps across the sand and mudflats. In the narrower, upper reaches, the river occupies the whole area between its banks and the bore advances in a series of waves that move upstream. Near Gloucester, the advancing water overcomes two weirs, and sometimes one in Tewkesbury, before finally petering out.
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
Canada has a large domestic and foreign tourism industry. The second largest country in the world, Canada's wide geographical variety is a significant tourist attractor. Much of the country's tourism is centred in the following regions: Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver/Whistler, Niagara Falls, Vancouver Island, Canadian Rockies, British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, Churchill, Manitoba and the National Capital Region of Ottawa-Gatineau. The large cities are known for their culture, diversity, as well as the many national parks and historic sites.
A tidal bore, often simply given as bore in context, is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay's current. It is a strong tide that pushes up the river, against the current.
Eastern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies a wedge-shaped area bounded by the Ottawa River and Quebec to the northeast and east, the St. Lawrence River and New York to the south, and Northern Ontario and Central Ontario to the west and northwest.
Ucluelet is a district municipality on the Ucluelet Peninsula, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Ucluelet comes from Yuułuʔił which means "people of the safe harbour" in the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth language and is the homeland of the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ. As of 2021, its population was 2,066, a 20.3% increase from 1,717 in 2016.
The Quebec City–Windsor Corridor is the most densely populated and heavily industrialized region of Canada. As its name suggests, the 1,150 km (710 mi)-long region extends from Quebec City in the northeast and Windsor, Ontario in the southwest. With more than 18 million people, it contains about half of the country's population and seven of Canada's 12 largest metropolitan areas, 3 of which are in the top 4. Its relative importance to Canada's economic and political infrastructure renders it akin to the Northeast megalopolis in the United States. The name was first popularized by Via Rail, which runs frequent passenger rail service in the region in its service area known as "The Corridor".
Ontario is located in East/Central Canada. It is Canada's second largest province by land area. Its physical features vary greatly from the Mixedwood Plains in the southeast to the boreal forests and tundra in the north. Ontario borders Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and the Great Lakes and the United States to the south. The province is named for Great Lake Ontario, an adaptation of the Iroquois word Onitariio, meaning "beautiful lake", or Kanadario, variously translated as "beautiful water". There are approximately 250,000 lakes and over 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi) of rivers in the province.
River surfing is the sport of surfing either standing waves, tidal bores or upstream waves in rivers. Claims for its origins include a 1955 ride of 2.4 km (1.5 mi) along the tidal bore of the River Severn.
Lake surfing is surfing on any lake with sufficient surface area for wind to produce waves. As with ocean surfing, ideal wave conditions are when the wind switches offshore. However, when this occurs over a lake the waves generated by previous onshore wind subside relatively quickly. This means lake surfers have a shorter window of opportunity to surf ideal waves. Lake surfers are often out during and experiencing the same storm that creates the waves whereas ocean surfers are more often surfing on swell produced by storms hundreds of miles away and that may have taken days to reach shore. In addition to making it more difficult to manage surfboards, high winds can make the face of a wave and water surface rough. Increased wave frequency due to shorter fetch results in less rest between waves and sets of waves. This can make it necessary to paddle out through waves because there may not be a long enough pause between sets to paddle out between them.
The Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben is a geological structure that coincides with a 55 km (34 mi) wide topographic depression extending from near Montréal through Ottawa. It is part of the Saint Lawrence rift system that also includes the seismically active Saguenay graben. This rift valley was formed when the Earth's crust moved downward about a kilometre between two major fault zones known as the Mattawa and Petawawa faults.
Nitinat Lake is a large lake and inlet on the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The lake is about 150 km (93 mi) northwest by road from Victoria, BC's capital on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, and about 60 km (37 mi) southwest by road from the town of Lake Cowichan. The city of Port Alberni is about 80 km (50 mi) by road to the north.
The Kampar River is on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, about 800 km northwest of the capital Jakarta. It is a well-known river surfing destination because of its tidal bore, known as Bono.
Tofino is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Peninsula at the southern edge of Clayoquot Sound. It is situated in the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations.
The Qiantang River, formerly known as the Hangchow River or Tsientang River, is a river in East China. An important commercial artery, it runs for 459 kilometers (285 mi) through Zhejiang, passing through the provincial capital Hangzhou before flowing into the East China Sea via Hangzhou Bay south of Shanghai. Its original name, the "Zhe River" or "Zhe Jiang", is the origin of the name of Zhejiang province. The river is also known, along with Hangzhou Bay, for having what is called by locals as the "Silver Dragon", the world's largest tidal bore, a phenomenon where the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave that can rise to a height of 9 meters (30 ft) and travels up the river or narrow bay at top speeds of 40 km/h against the direction of the river or bay's current, and can be seen from miles away.
Amphitrite Point Lighthouse is an active lighthouse in Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, named after Amphitrite, the sea goddess and wife of Poseidon in Greek mythology. It is also known for one of the sample pictures in Windows 7.
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