East Coast Hospitality
Written & Photographed by Steven Thomas
At the end of a long trip awaited a province I knew only by name. I could point to Nova Scotia roughly on a map and had only ever used basic and simple stereotypes to guess what happened there. But my intrepidness decided last minute that I would drive the width of Canada and spend the summer and autumn there. Being a traveler meant leaving much to chance and the rest to a willingness to explore.
As the long and drawn-out trans-Canada highway ended, I felt relief in seeing the Atlantic Ocean. I knew right away that I had made the right choice coming here. I knew little about the inner workings of this outcrop of land on the very edge of the continent, apart from knowing it had abundant waves. Surfing has taken me to many distant and remote places, which is one of the things I love most about the fickle sport. These far-flung corners of the world always have more to teach me than how to ride its waves: new languages, cultures, and good friends that keep in contact despite vast distances between. That’s what surfing is to me. And Nova Scotia was no exception.
Before arriving there, I had studied the province’s coastline for some time. I knew that it had almost unlimited potential for waves — which would most likely be unridden. The province has a very small population of a little over a million, which meant that the surf community would be tiny. When I arrived, I saw firsthand how the coastline careened in and out, featuring deep and long bays and endless beaches that sweep up all kinds of swell. Headlands jutted out into the Atlantic and likely had waves peeling off the sloped sides that rolled into the bays behind them.
The local economy in Nova Scotia relies largely on fishing and lobstering. Many bays have tiny harbors that shelter small fishing boats away from the relentless onslaught of wind and weather that the Atlantic brings. The industry is a lifeline for the province. Small lobstering huts stand by the roadside far more often than people. Even during its peak summer season, the province remains relatively quiet, which makes it the perfect place to explore and get lost in.
The winter before I arrived had left an indelible mark on the water temperatures — enough to give you an ice cream headache after going under your first wave. There was a definite crew of hardy surfers that surfed here throughout the winter. I was not a stranger to surfing cold water, but Nova Scotia pushed the boundaries on my ability to put up with surfing in cold climates. Luckily, the snow had gone. A scattering of frosts remained when I first arrived in the area, so the harshest of conditions had subsided — but still, it was frigid.
Surrounded in my thickest neoprene, boots, hood, and gloves, I got to know each surf break in the area at a snail’s pace. By looking at a map, you can see that any ocean swell would bring plentiful waves to a landscape littered with bays. There were many point breaks in the area, which are surf breaks from which the waves break in one direction only — like off a headland or a piece of land that juts out into oncoming swell.
