Where else except from the west coast of Vancouver Island, the spiritual home of surfing in Canada, should the waves roll across the Pacific to Japan?
It is fitting the process to select Canada’s team for Tokyo 2020, where surfing makes its Olympic debut, will begin on the Island with the Rip Curl Nationals from May 10-12 to be followed by the Canadian Olympic qualification trials May 13-14, both at Wickaninnish Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
Tofino surfers are among the top hopes for the Canadian Olympic team and that list includes veterans Peter Devries, Michael Darling, Noah Cohen and rising young sibling stars Mathea and Sanoa Olin.
“Competitors in the open shortboard [which is the Olympic classification], who get a great result at Rip Curl Nationals, will be invited to compete at the team trials for a shot at qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games” said Dom Domic, executive director of Victoria-based Surf Canada, in a statement.
“By combining points from nationals and team trials will give those competitors multiple opportunities and will greatly increase the odds that the surfers representing Canada are our absolute best.”
The event is for Canadians only and that is a significant departure, said eight-time and defending Canadian men’s champion Devries.
“I think it’s amazing to have an all-Canadian event to decide our national champions,” he said.
“In the past, our Canadian champions have had to battle through rounds at an international event, which can skew the results for some competitors. This event is a much more fair way to decide a national champion. Having it at Wickaninnish Beach will really level the playing field and add a new twist to the works.”
Other names of note are defending women’s Canadian champion Bethany Zelasko and Hanna Scott, Paige Alms, Cody Young, Sean Foerster and Kalum Temple.
Zelasko, Alms, Young and Foerster are competing for Canada by birthright. The 30-year-old Alms, well-known within the sport as a professional Hawaiian big-wave boarder, was born and raised in Victoria to age nine before moving with her mother to Maui. Zelasko is from Huntington Beach, California, but was born to a Canadian mother. Young is from Maui and Foerster from Costa Rica and both have Canadian parentage.
