SOLSTICE 2007 - Remarque #6/10

SOLSTICE 2007 - Remarque #6/10Edition Date: November 2007 Artist: Roy Henry Vickers Medium: Remarque Image Size: 19 7 8" x 11 5 8" Story In 1980, I moved to Tofino, where most of the people I met had surfboards and wetsuits so they could play in the ocean any month of the year. I remember the first home I bought had a huge furnace, and the door had a unique handmade emblem of a surfer. I asked the local man who made it if he surfed, and he told me he did so in his younger days. He

Story

In 1980, I moved to Tofino, where most of the people I met had surfboards and wetsuits so they could play in the ocean any month of the year. I remember the first home I bought had a huge furnace, and the door had a unique handmade emblem of a surfer. I asked the local man who made it if he surfed, and he told me he did so in his younger days. He didn't seem that old to me not to surf. Well, here I am at sixty-two, and I enjoy watching the surfers. I remember the last time I surfed, which was more than a couple of years ago. I think, like my old friend Jim, that the younger ones can ride the waves.

I watched a local surf competition in Tofino this month, which took me back to those days when I sat on my board off Chesterman Beach waiting for waves.
People think it's too crazy to be out there in the winter months, but that's when some of the best waves can be found. The ocean does not change more than a few degrees between the hottest summer day and the middle of winter. Some of the top surfers in the world are local guys who grew up in Tofino or have moved there to enjoy our West Coast surf.

My thanks to Tofino's Jeremy Koreski, who took the photo that inspired me, and to Raph Bruhwiler, the local surfer in the picture. Times have changed since the 1980s, and that change is why this year's solstice inspiration is a surfer leaving footprints in the snow.