We started our journey early Monday morning loading our bags and the food we would need for the next 3 days setting off from the east side of Vancouver Island to our destination on the west, Tofino.
Excited for the waves that we would be riding over the next couple days we sang our way to a pit stop at Cathedral Grove. Cathedral Grove is home to Vancouver Island's largest trees, and they were right on our way, so we had to stop! Taking in the grove of Douglas Fir trees some reaching heights of 240 feet and diameters of 29 feet.
These monsters were mind-blowing for many of our students, we nearly lost sight of what we set out to do in the first place, surf! Although we had one more stop between us and the beaches of Tofino.
Wallies Creek, huge rock formations with rushing water flowing through it, with mountains shooting up to the sky on all sides of us. We took that time to stretch our legs and walk out on the rocks taking a closer look.
Now we had our sights set on Tofino. We had a final push until we arrived at Long beach where we took some time to admire the ocean we would soon surf. We broke out the skim board, where one of our fearless leaders would effectively show us how to fail miserably getting completely soaked in 2 inches of water.
We made our way to the church where we would be sleeping and eating for the next few days where we had a chapel time, played some games, and prepared for the big surf days that were to come.
On Tuesday we were ready to hit the waves. We got our wetsuits, boards, met our instructors, and thus, the shredding began.
We spent the entirety of the afternoon in the water, where many members of our group who were beginners at the beginning of the day were far from it by the end. We would have stayed all night if we could have, but the hunger that our bellies felt had other plans. We peeled off our wetsuits and headed back to the church for the evening, refilling our bellies and getting some rest for the big day that Wednesday would be.
Throwing our cold wetsuits on we hit the water once again. Only this time, the sun was brighter and the waves were bigger. We enjoyed the beautiful day of surfing before we went and enjoyed walking through the town of Tofino with surf shops around every corner we dreamed of working in this small town becoming hippies who could surf every single day.
We were finally able to peel ourselves away from the surf culture with enough time to make it back to Camp Qwanoes before sunset. Although we were able to leave Tofino behind, the surfer lingo that was picked up in 3 short days does not seem to be going anywhere.
Continue to pray
For our students as they move into a more class heavy season of the program.
For our students as they begin to serve in the Qwanoes weekend retreats over the next few weeks.
That our students would continue to allow their experiences and things that they are learning penetrate their hearts and spur them on towards growth together as a community, as well as spiritual growth.
