SURFING NOVA SCOTIA – TRAVEL FEATURE – CHRIS NELSON
FREEZE FRAME:
SURFING NOVA SCOTIA
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Lance Moore has represented Canada three times at the World Surfing Games. ‘First time in 1992, we were like the Jamaican Bobsleigh Team. I learnt a lot,’ he says. ‘Now I can hold my own with anyone if the waves are good.’
THE IDEA
Chris Nelson was commissioned to write a a main travel feature exploring the surf potential of Nova Scotia, Canada.
THE RESULT
Chris Nelson wove together interviews and anecdotes to produce a cover feature for the Independent Travel supplement. Photography Richie Hopson.
Supported by Destination Canada
THE APPROACH
Chris was commissioned by The Independent to write an article exploring an ‘off the beaten track’ surf destination. Chris travelled to Nova Scotia accompanied by photographer Richie Hopson, to spend time with the local surf community, hearing tales of pioneers and adventurers, stories of exploration and adversity. Chris’s contacts and reputation allowed an unrivalled access the scene. Combining personal insights and interviews, the resulting piece ‘Freeze Frame’ was the cover feature for the weekend travel supplement. The trip was kindly supported by Destination Canada.
It is still dark as I struggle into my damp wetsuit. My toes are beginning to numb as I stamp my feet and breathe a warm, ghostly mist onto my pink fingers. The new block of malleable cold-water wax I’ve brought from Cornwall has protested at the drop in temperature by turning into something that resembles a lump of diamond-hard, coconut-scented flint.
As surfers, our quest is always for the perfect wave, but the fine print has always included a warm-water clause. Over the decades we’ve scoured the Equator looking for the ultimate ride; risked leaky ferries off Bali, malaria-riddled jungles in Java, shark-infested waters off Mozambique and civil wars from Nicaragua to Sri Lanka.
They have been surfing in this Canadian province since Saturday 7 July 1962. “The amazing thing about our surf history is that we can trace it back to the very first day a Nova Scotian paddled out on a surfboard,” says first-generation surfer Jim Leadbetter. “Rod Landymore and his brother had a father who was in charge of the Eastern Fleet. An American admiral came to visit and brought them two surfboards. They caught their first waves that very day.”