Beautiful British Columbia. Driving from the mountains all the way to the ocean; it’s just constant beauty all along the road to Tofino. But there was more beauty hidden out yet to be discovered, and I got to see it all when Gotsurf partners Adam Dewolf and Raph Bruwhiler showed me the way! I had the chance to get a feel of Tofino’s true potential, and see beyond what the common tourists have access to...Blessed, I am! Here’s what my eyes have seen throughout this part of our journey.

I once edited a hunting movie. Need I mention that the budget was an issue? Poor filming of hunters trying to kill their prey, which they didn’t even plan to eat. With that said, there was an awkward ending to one of the adventures caught on film, as they hunted a grizzly somewhere in the Yukon.  After tracking down and killing the beast, they realized the sun was setting and they had no time to carry “their trophy” back to the truck considering its weight. They decided to return on scene the following morning only to discover that another, much bigger grizzly, had moved the carcass half a mile away from where they had left it, and had eaten its heart.  That footage was the only contact I had ever had of a grizzly before I started this road trip.

In Alaska, we had the opportunity to camp on a deserted island for five days, where we planned to surf an outer reef.  A few days prior to our departure to the island, we heard that there had been two grizzly attacks in the town where we were staying. Taking into consideration the high concentration of grizzly in Alaska, we armed ourselves with some bear spray…just in case. We searched the internet and read up on ways to avoid grizzlies and how to protect ourselves if we ended up at their mercy.  The advice we compiled was to be very noisy, and in case of an attack to "straight-in-the-face-push-kick" the beast… yeah right! So armed with this new knowledge and our secret weapon, we were good to go.

After the boat left shore, leaving us on the deserted island, we now had to face a new reality. Picture this; two guys each carrying 70 pounds of gear plus their surfboards, walking on lava rock, singing aloud and yelling to scare away any grizzlies… I bet the grizzlies had quite a laugh! In search for a good place to set up camp, we realized that our secret weapon, our super bear spray, was still sealed in its packaging… practical isn’t it…?

During the entire five days, only one grizzly showed up. Lucky you say? I guess we did a good job setting up. A nice fire, tent, and food set up in a triangle. Let’s not forget sinking our food, and keeping a look out for wild life when cooking. I was lucky enough to catch our new friend on film. Even though the 700 pound grizzly noticed our presence, there was a mutual "respect" between us. Wild animals are indeed dangerous, but stupid humans are even worst.

The great thing is, once we got back on mainland, we got a refund for our still sealed up bear spray…

We had to start somewhere... So why not begin our journey on a totally remote land where most of the waves can only be accessed by boat. A spot where the swell and winds switch four times a day. A part of the world where the forecast is always wrong... This is where we got back to the basics. There weren’t as many peelers as we had hoped for, however, we did find a pure connection to wilderness. Grizzly, totem and campfire... Welcome to Alaska.

Planning. I became quite good at it even if, as an artist, I was miles away from being a "tight schedule manager". My agenda was first a complex drawing book, but slowly turned out into a brilliant mirror of my high speed life. I quickly understood that I needed a full page per day and that my unorganized artistic life was now a thing of the past. It was left behind somewhere in between college 420's and my old hip-hop band.

When I first started surfing, planning surf trips forced me to learn and develop new skills. Swell forecast, hurricane models and historical data were my day to day hustle. More experienced surfers broke it down for me, so it wasn’t long before I was able to read the ocean through a surfer’s eyes. I became quite good at reading the forecasts on my own until I tried to anticipate the swell in Alaska. There's a place in the world where buoys have a totally different reading every 6 hours, winds switching 4 times a day, tides giving you only 2 hours of decent surf... Even with all the knowledge from our local friends and the boat trip out to the surf spots, our 13 days in Alaska resulted in only two seaweed surf sessions in no more than knee high waves. Bummer! A warm thank you to the surf forecast websites for their 3.5 ft at 15 sec swell estimation. Internet and LOLA models clearly do not give you a true perspective of what is out there. You have to paddle out to see it for yourself and experience what the ocean has to offer. You cannot understand nature through a computer without having experienced it first.

I had been anxiously awaiting this morning for the last six months. Our journey finally began. Alaska to Panama. Only 5908km stood between us and the Pacific ocean. Just a turn of the key in the ignition and the engine was running... First of all, Ontario should be renamed "Longtario"... On the second day, we almost lost our RV on a "smooth shoulder". Luckily Ontarians are great people , because the only towing big enough to get us out of that mess was based two streets from where we were. It could’ve been the end of the trip after only two days. We needed new tires, and we found some along the way in Lloydminster. The fun really began when we hit Alaska Highway. At this point we’d seen three bears, two mountain goats, four moose and thirty four buffalos... that was it! Mountains, glaciers and wildlife. We stopped to fish some trout on our way; catch and release, just to see if we'd lost our fisherman skills. We then took a few minutes to stop at Watson Lake where there lies a Signpost forest. Obviously we had to take part in this, so we built our own signpost and found a decent spot to nail it. In Whitehorse we discouvered a nice long skateboard run along the river and between trees... a bit of exercise well deserved. After six days, we finally arrived at Skagway's custom. Nothing to declare, even though the costums officer had a hard time believing us. I guess this officer had never seen two guys in an old RV heading to Alaska on a surftrip before. Before we could set our wheels on our final destination, I figured it was time for me to buy a fishing liscence to keep me busy while we waited for the ferry in Skagway. Later you realize it's a twenty bucks well spent when you’ve got a freezer filled with a dozen salmon. Finally we were aboard the Columbia vessel which became our home for the next 18 hours. Sleeping on the top floor in a heated solarium was an incredible experience. Surrounded by peaks and water, I knew all the waiting was finally over and paying off.