It is perhaps fitting that the next stop across the Pacific from Wickaninnish Beach is Japan.
The 2020 Tokyo Summer Games hung over every aspect of the Surf sa国际传媒 Nationals, which ended Sunday. Home-Island surfers stamped their intent ahead of their sport making its Olympic debut in two years.
Peter Devries of Tofino won his eighth Canadian men鈥檚 title and then looked across the Pacific to what is looming.
鈥淭he Olympics will be exciting for the surf world and it keeps you motivated and pushing forward,鈥� said Devries.
鈥淚 still feel I鈥檓 at the top of my game at age 35 鈥� even better than I was in my mid-20s. I feel I still have a place.鈥�
He then went out and proved it Sunday to show why a younger generation of Island surfers looks to him as a role model.
鈥淚鈥檓 definitely more and more playing a mentor role,鈥� said Devries.
鈥淚t feels good to be looked up to that way. You see the younger generation鈥檚 excitement and enthusiasm for the sport . . . and to help foster that.鈥�
That was evident as Reed Platenius, also of Tofino, won the men鈥檚 U-16 Canadian title. Californian Wheeler Hasburgh from Encinitas, who was born in Richmond, won the men鈥檚 U-18 national title.
All classification winners earned spots on the Canadian national team for 2018 international events.
Californian Bethany Zelasko, from Huntington Beach but with a Canadian-born mother, won the national women鈥檚 senior and U-18 championship and Mathea Olin of Tofino the women鈥檚 U-16 championship.
Olin is only 15 and is earning considerable media attention across the country as Tokyo draws nearer, especially since she became the first Canadian to win an international gold medal in surfing last year at the Pan American championships in Peru. But she is trying to put all that building pressure to the side and concentrate on the waves that roll onto near her backyard in Cox Bay.
鈥淚t would be incredible to be in the Olympics,鈥� said the Island prodigy. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 just taking it step by step, and working on improving myself.鈥�
What can happen in sport was evident Sunday as Olin, nursing a hurt back, slipped to fourth place in the national senior women鈥檚 class.
鈥淚 was not surfing my best and would have liked to have done better,鈥� said Olin.
鈥淏ut my body is feeling better and better.鈥�
Finishing second behind Zelasko was Sanoa Olin, the 13-year-old sister of Mathea. The two-time world big-wave champion Paige Alms of Maui was third. Alms, well-known within the sport as a professional Hawaiian boarder, was born and raised in Victoria to age nine before moving with her mother to Maui. So, like Zelasko, the 30-year-old Alms can compete for sa国际传媒 in the Olympics and other international events.
Devries, meanwhile, said the Olin sisters have risen so quickly at such a tender age and people overlook that: 鈥淭hey are getting better by the day. But they are so young and people tend to forget just how young they are.鈥�
Mathea Olin won the women鈥檚 long-board nationals over the weekend. The Olympic events, however, will be on short-board.
The national surfers will now be joined by those from around the world descending on Tofino for the RipCurl Pro International event this weekend on Cox Bay.
Devries will again be looking to ride home-Island advantage.
鈥淵ou get to sleep in your own bed and you know the routine, rhythms and the waves, so it is an advantage,鈥� he said.
