Or at least… to “retire.” Words :: Mikey Nixon.
As far as migration patterns go, ski bums are full of surprises. Just when you think they’re the right age to settle down and get real jobs, they head west and become surf bums instead. Indeed, there’s a healthy contingent of humans from the corridor who, after years of circulating in the Sea to Sky vortex, have been spat out on the wave-rich shores of Vancouver Island.
Paddle out on any given day in Tofino and you might get called off a set wave by a mother of two who used to work at Sushi Village or her husband, who’s unofficially retired from banging nails and building bike parks. Or you might see Whistler snowboard legend Martin Gallant, aka “The Godfather,” slashing five vertical backhand snaps all the way to—as he likes to call it—“da beach.”
“I’m so hungry for it! I go out every day and I just wanna crack da lip,” explains Martin with his rapid-attack French Canadian delivery. “I dream that I can do everything I can’t do…I wanna become Kelly Slater!”
Even though he owns a house near Tofino’s North Chesterman Beach, Gallant hasn’t quite hung the snowboard up for good (he’s still one of the most photogenic riders to ever strap in). Still putting in solid chunks of mountain time above his place in the Squamish Valley, Martin admits his approach has changed with age.
“Me, usually I just wanna hit da launch,” he explains. “I just wanna jump, but now I try to stay on the ground because I need to save those hips. Everyone I know is getting hip replacements, man. If I stay in the Sea to Sky, I’m gonna need one, too.”
And “da beach” is calling him home. Yet, for a guy who basically starts vibrating when he talks about surfing, The Godfather’s got a surprisingly stoic approach in the lineup. You can usually find him way out the back, waiting for the waves that have more to offer than the rest. “Surfing is turning me into a better person, more patient,” he says. “I’m finally starting to listen to my body. Now I go out, I’ll wait for four good waves and then I get out. If I catch more than four, then the next day I’m not surfing. I’m too sore.”
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Gallant recently turned 51, and brings the same youthful stoke that’s fueled everything that got him to this point. “My first chapter was the city with the skateboard, the second was the mountains and now chapter three is the ocean. Three different lives of completely new things and new environments. Now on the coast here, I feel like a newborn child.”
Snowboarders (and skiers) being seduced by the sea is one of the best clichés going. And Gallant’s certainly not the only one giving in to that siren call. Marie-France Roy (aka MFR) balances a successful snowboard career in the Coast Mountains with an ocean-driven existence that’s staged out of her home in Ucluelet. “I always wanted to be a surfer, since I was a child,” she says, “But Quebec doesn’t have the best waves, so snowboarding had to do!”
“My first chapter was the city with the skateboard, the second was the mountains and now chapter three is the ocean. Three different lives of completely new things and new environments.”
MFR is surrounded by other mountain folk drawn to surfing and the lifestyle that comes with it. Her boyfriend, Timmy Taussig, rides for the Jones Snowboard team all winter, and froths on every condition Wickaninnish Beach has to offer in the spring, summer and fall. Two of Marie’s long-time snowboard friends, Leanne Pelosi and Robin Van Gyn, have also built homes in Ucluelet with their partners in both life and shred. All of those characters, plus a host of others who previously made their marks on the Sea to Sky, can be found lounging in the Wick parking lot between surfs whenever the snow’s no good. “We’re clearly just kids who refuse to grow up and we can’t stop feeding our obsession for boardin’,” MFR says with a laugh.
So after all these years, it looks like the ubiquitous stickers telling everyone “Whistler’s that way” aren’t working. Maybe they need to adjust the direction of those middle fingers. Or it could be that everyone’s just confused—because if you go to Jordan River, there are stickers reminding everyone which way Tofino is, too. But the vibe in Tofino and Ucluelet is actually more welcoming than the stickers suggest. Perhaps because the exchange between the mountains and the ocean goes both ways.
“I made the decision a long time ago. I kinda gave up snowboarding for surfing when I was 19 or 20 years old,” explains Sepp Bruhwiler, a born-and-raised Tofitian whose surfing takes notes from his time in the mountains, especially when he’s boosting airs above the lip. “I felt like the snowboarders were gonna figure out that, just down the road from them, there’s a town where you can surf year-round, so I understand why they’re out here. It makes sense to me.”
For those who spent their formative years in the mountains, “chapter three” as Martin calls it, plays out on the ocean. But what about that glorious period of time when chapters two and three overlap? Summers on the island. Winters in the mountains. That’s the BC Dream, baby. And it’s more attainable than Sea to Sky residents might think (especially if you live in a Toyota Matrix).
On the other hand, living in two places can also be mentally, physically and financially taxing. Some are forced to choose. “I could skip this winter coming up and not care,” says Martin. “I would rather surf every day or every other day. It’s newer to me. It’s relaxing. Every day I go and I look at the ocean and it just hypnotizes me and there are no problems. Every wave I learn something.”
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