Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Reuben Buerge has been surfing sea kayaks in our area for the past 10 to 12 years.
This relatively new sport only reached North America during the 1980s and Buerge is not aware of reaching the waters off Quadra Island more than two decades ago.
“Surfing sea kayaks is a pretty kind of niche-y thing. You really only see it in a few areas in the world and we're lucky enough to have that amazing feature in our backyard that's perfect for us,” he explained.
“It's not something people do everywhere because There's not features like this everywhere in the world. There's one more on our coast called Skookumchuck, that's a really popular spot for whitewater kayakers, but surfing sea kayaks is a pretty kind of niche-y thing. You really only see it in a few areas in the world and we're lucky enough to have that amazing feature in our backyard that's perfect for us.”
There are two places to surf kayaks off Quadra Island.
Surge Narrows is only a 15 minute paddle from the government dock at Hoskins landing. A 3-4 foot wave forms during the flood, which makes this a relatively safe place to learn how to handle a kayak
in fast moving tidal water.
“You wouldn't necessarily want to be going there alone. It can be hazardous still. You want to know how to roll your kayak and have a good group of people around you in case anything goes wrong,” said Buerge.
“A modified a sea kayak seems to work best in most of these waves, but every once in a while you see guys join the party with a shorter standup paddle board or even a surfboard.”
He explained that most sea kayaks are not ideal to surf. They’re about 18 feet long, straight and paddle well, but they ‘don't have much rocker.’
“The ones we use are around 15 and a half feet long and they have a whole lot of of rocker in them. They're shaped like a banana and it allows us to really be maneuverable in these waves,” he said. “You're totally locked right into your kayak. You got a spray skirt on, so your airtight, waterproof. Water can't enter your kayak.”
The biggest waves are the Okisollo Rapids, at Cooper Point on the northern tip of Quadra island.
“On a big flood tide, you usually need about nine knots of current to make a nice, big way for you. It'll get up to 5, 6 feet, with a deep kind of hole so that's definitely a lot more intimidating, a lot more consequence behind the wave and a lot more Water moving through,” said Buerge.
He has never heard of anyone getting hurt.
“The people that are coming to these areas are usually pretty well-prepared with immersion gear, but we're all wearing dry suits, PFDs (personal floatation devices) and we have rescue harnesses as well. So we can rescue friends that might've capsized and weren't able to roll up. We can get them back into their kayak pretty quick,” said Buerge.
He added that people can watch videos of kayak surfing on YouTube and local courses teaching people how to use a kayak safely and have fun.
