ISSUE 18 SAMPLE Upping The Halifax Slide Factor

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E L P M SA E L C I T AR #18

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THE STILL-WILD WEST NOVA SCOTIA + MITCH ABSHERE FAMILY TREE + ARGENTINA + MENISCUS MALDIVES + JAY JACKMAN + PACIFIC NORTHWEST + NEW PLYMOUTH

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Embracing Length in Nova Scotia Words by Dean Petty For the most part, Maine has small, gutless surf. So, naturally, like most beginners, I made my surfing debut on a 6’0 Spectrum thruster. But not long after that, a little yellow VHS tape titled Super Slide entered my life. It opened up a dimension of surfing that I never knew existed: longboarding.

From there on out, it was heavy singlefins, 50/50 rails, and spoonedout noses. My brother and our two closest friends went all longboards, all the time. Knee high? No worries.

We were now stoked on any ripple the North Atlantic threw our way.

Groveling on small boards didn’t make sense anymore, after watching the greats like Miki Dora and Joel Tudor effortlessly shred tiny peelers.

After four years of trying to re-live the Super Slide in Maine, I went to college and migrated north, in 2006.

As a surfer in Maine, the American stepbrother of eastern Canada’s Nova Scotia, I heard my fill of tales from the more tuned-in local surfers that Nova

Scotia was a land of perfect points.

(That was all in needed to hear.)

Once in Nova Scotia, I found the amazing points I’d heard of – glacially formed, drumlin land formations, transforming ocean swells into small, perfect, liquid walls. (But I didn’t see many people riding boards over nine feet.)

Any surfer who froths on peelers of all shapes and sizes would absolutely lose their mind seeing a long-period groundswell come through these parts. They might think they’ve just stumbled on a well-preserved Rincon session from the late-1950s (with better neoprene around, of course).

1. One Nova Scotian peeler plus proper equipment, times talent, equals chilled bliss. Photo: Zak Bush.

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The diverse coastline, riddled with quaint, paint-chipped fishing villages, old and rusty broken-down cars, and brightly-colored lobster boats, make any passerby slow down to take in the beauty. That is, if you can keep your eyes off of the hundred-yard peeler over the guardrail. The surroundings, vibe, and wave setups provide a certain je ne sais quoi that really seems to suit trimming on a heavy longboard.

(But no one is.)

With all that, there’s still an absence of a core, hipster longboard scene in Nova Scotia. What’s this about?

We have an art school. There are plenty of groovy, tight-jean-wearing, comb-over-having heads walking around town.

To get to the bottom of this mystery, I needed to look at the ingredients to find out what discourages people from exploring the slide.

Perfect peeling points. Check. It’s clearly not the surf that’s stunting this movement. Loads of people joining the surf scene every season. Check. No shortage of new characters in the water. Check. Local shops carrying adequate sleds.

Check.

The proper equipment is available.

So why isn’t this longboard cake a-bakin’ here?

To learn about the growth of surf culture in Nova Scotia, I decided to get some info from a wide-range of perspectives. I sent a series of questions to some older, more soul-surfing characters, as well as to a group of younger shortboard shredders.

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1. The rocky shores of Lawrencetown serve as ground zero for many local sliders. Photo: Scotty Sherin.

2. A little effort reaps big rewards; this coast is packed with perfect waves. Photo: Sherin.

3. Jenner Cormier, Nova Scotia’s premier homegrown retro surfer.

Photo: Sherin.

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Here is what I gathered.

From both young and old, there was a general consensus that, due to the relative newness of surfing in the province, there hasn’t been a whole lot of intergenerational love going on. Roman Husiuk, a 28-year-old core shortboarder, expressed this sentiment.

“There aren’t enough older longboarders who actually know how to surf influencing youth,” he said. “They see all the 19- to 35-yearolds riding shortboards and dissing longboards. So they don’t want to run against the pack.”

To run against the pack in such a small surf scene does pose some problems. It’s social surf suicide. So why is going against the grain so damn scary? Perhaps it’s the conservative nature of the Maritimes. Or maybe the groms joining the scene have been excluded entirely from longboard culture.

The media may be the culprit on this one. Jenner Cormier is 23. He’s one of the few younger guys exploring the art of the slide on Nova Scotian peelers. “Log riding is frowned upon around here,” he said, “and I think the media is to blame. The media portrays surfing as doing airs, getting barreled, and getting aggro on waves.”

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1. The province’s southeast-facing, convoluted coast is loaded with beachbreak after reefbreak after rivermouth after pointbreak, like this one. Christmas Tree Point.

Photo: Michael Kew.

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But, even so, hasn’t every surfer watched The Endless Summer? Mike Hynson and Robert August made longboarding look pretty damn cool, did they not?

An integral character in the creative expansion of Nova Scotia’s surf culture is 35-year-old Richardo Salcado, and he shed a different light onto the situation. “There are few younger guys surfing at all here in Nova Scotia compared to

grown folks,” he said. “It seems a lot of people here come into surfing as adults. And that brings a whole set of issues in terms of etiquette and hierarchy, which are more organic in places where kids learn to surf at an early age and eventually find their fit in the lineup.”

Glen MacDuff, a 38-year-old, rideeverything surfer, offered his two cents: “Surfing for most youth and their parents who support them is

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firstly an unknown, and secondly it is not easily accessible. This speaks loudly to how sheltered Nova Scotia is from the rest of the surfing world.”

Without the support of parental units, learning to surf as a kid in Nova Scotia takes the will of a lion.

With the majority of Nova Scotians living in Halifax, and the closest peeler a 20-minute drive away, surfing without wheels is nearly impossible. Unless, of course, you

are a committed long-distance rollerblader or a professional hitchhiker. This may explain why the kids aren’t surfing as much as their driver’s license-toting counterparts, but it doesn’t help explain why the grommies out there aren’t exploring longer equipment.

It might be the general inconvenience of toting a massive piece of foam around. Surely this is a factor behind the minimal

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1. Investigative journo Dean Petty, researching for this story during a holiday back home. Photo: Nick LaVecchia.

2. Snowy beach paths can lead to frosty tubes. Petty shows he’s also comfortable on a 6’2. Photo: Bush.

3. Top Canadian surfers Nico Manos and Peter Devries, scouting a dawn patrol at one of the East Coast’s heavier spots. Photo: Sherin.

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longboard presence in local lineups.

On a cold winter morning, taking the extra five minutes to strap a log onto the roof can feel like ascending the final leg of Mount Everest. But, if you’re jonesing and the points are waist-high, the most fun surf of your life may await.

Okay. I think I got it. No one wants to be called a “beginner.” In the Maritimes, longboards are seen as novice equipment. Some associate longboards with surf trunks over a full wetsuit, others with a hot surf instructor pushing you into waves on a tropical island. The basic equation for longboarding understood by most is simple: longboard + you = kook2 So when can we begin to rewrite this equation that Einstein set in stone so many years ago? What will it take here in Nova Scotia?

Good old-fashioned osmosis, I say. With cats like Jenner Cormier displaying the grace of a longboard on all our points, it’s only a matter of time before some grom happens to be out at the right moment to get fully inspired.

Nova Scotian surfers were recently treated to the first Canadian Surf Film Festival, made possible in Halifax by some very dedicated people in the surfing community.

The featured movies, like Stoked & Broke and Musica Surfica, offered a different perspective on riding waves, bound to open the minds of the viewers and get people excited about exploring

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1. Locked in and drawing a long line just outside Halifax. Photo: Bush.

2. Bitter air and ocean temps don’t stop Brian Villeneuve from an L-town Point log mission. Photo: Sherin.

3. Dean Petty, cooler than a polar bear’s toenails. Photo: Sherin.

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different equipment. Both movies highlighted the fact that being different and exploring all sorts of surf craft is not only okay but also really cool.

It takes a certain personality and some seriously thick skin to be different in such a small scene. “If I took it to heart every time someone made fun of me for riding a longboard,” Cormier said, “I would be a huge loner and probably would have given up on surfing. I just smile and keep paddling.”

As surfing evolves in Nova Scotia, and as the surf community is exposed to more creative outlets of riding waves, I’m confident that a more diverse lineup will follow.

And despite those negative stigmas attached to riding logs here, going retro seems to be picking up momentum these days. Since the return of skinny jeans and the fanny pack, I have full faith that anything is possible.

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1.Tucked-away tracks like this goofyfoot delight remain riderless more than often. Photo: Todd McLean.

2. American East Coaster Eric Dranginis enjoys Nova Scotia’s pointbreak solitude during a trip above the Canadian border.

Photo: Alexa Miller.

3. Dean Petty, paying homage to the greats that piqued his logging addiction. Photo: Bush.

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