As most of us who live here are blissfully aware, you don’t have to go far to find a picturesque sandy beach for summertime fun or relaxation.
While Island View Beach, Sidney Spit, Witty’s Lagoon, Thetis Lake, Cordova Bay and Cadboro Bay spring to mind, Willows Beach remains a perennial favourite for families and sun-worshippers.
“Another day in paradise,” declared Arlene MacLeod, admiring the stunning Mount Baker backdrop as she stood ankle-deep in what passes for warm water on these shores.
The upbeat visitor from Nanaimo was one of many sun-seekers we encountered when we dropped by to check out the action in Oak Bay on a particularly hot summer day.
One sunbather who has had plenty of experience beating the heat was Chelsea Rojas, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who lives in Victoria.
After surfacing from yet another plunge, the bikini-clad beachgoer pulled back her drenched hair while tossing a Frisbee-like toy with her boyfriend Cameron Holizki.
“I really like the salt water, and I’ve always got to get my hair wet again,” Rojas said, smiling as she noted the temperature difference between here and the Caribbean. “This kind of makes you feel numb.”
For Holizki, their afternoon date at the beach followed by fish-and-chips brought back memories of his childhood.
“I used to come here with my mother as a kid, and then we’d go up there,” he said, pointing toward Willows Galley Fish and Chips on Estevan Avenue, before being upstaged by a flock of Canada geese gliding by.
There was plenty of snack food available at the Kiwanis Club’s beachfront teahouse, where Freezees were flying off the shelves, along with chicken strips, halibut burgers, hotdogs and french fries.
“We’re up $10,000 over last year at this time,” said front-counter staffer Jan Burns, acknowledging the economic impact of this year’s seemingly endless drought.
Nick Jones, a London-based film producer (Nativity!) who grew up in Oak Bay, was clearly happy to be back on the beach, accompanied by his Belfast-born wife Joanne and their young daughter Astrid.
“It’s so beautiful, a great place to get rid of jetlag,” smiled Joanne, who works in children’s television overseas, the day after they flew in from the U.K. to visit her husband’s family, with a sidetrip to Gabriola Island.
The couple hung out with Nick’s sister Suzanna Shaver and her three boys Jack, Max and Leo, and his younger sibling Rebecca Kirkwood, eight-months pregnant, and her children Abby and Holden.
“I just live five minutes away, so this is so easy for us and my boys just love this,” said Shaver, as their children paddled compact lime-green kayaks through the shallow waters.
Seconds later, the children squealed with delight at the sight of two seals that suddenly surfaced, a bonus attraction to augment the people-watching, beach-volleyball action and sandcastle-building on the cloudless day.
Even as 5 p.m. approached and the sun shifted its focus to the side of the beach closest to Cattle Point, it was enough of a sizzler to inspire some beachgoers to cool off inventively.
Two sunglass-wearing UVic students — Emily Broessler, who studies child and youth care, and Erika Holmes, an economics student — had the right idea, moving their folding beach chairs from the sand into the water.
“That’s why we’re doing this!” said Emily when someone observed aloud how ridiculously hot it was, a complaint not often heard in this temperate climate.
