A secluded spot off British Columbia offers surf with 'soul'

Tatchu provides all surf gear, including learner boards and wetsuits, plus all meals, snacks and drinks. We just needed to bring clothes, a towel, sunscreen and a sleeping bag.

Surfers can stay in the main lodge or one of two treehouses Hunting has built by hand using wood he milled on site from old cedar and spruce trees. Each treehouse sleeps up to four people and has double beds, a wood stove for heat and a big deck with ocean views. Or, surfers can sleep in tents on the beach -- our choice.

No one said it was easy

My husband had never tried surfing. I had been on a surfboard only once in my life, when I took a three-hour lesson at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. On Oahu, I wore just a bathing suit and shared the beach with dozens and dozens of surfers. On Nootka, I wore a 5mm full-length wetsuit with a neoprene hood and booties, and the only things I was sharing the surf with were large harbor seals and an instructor who was used to teaching beginners -- about 35 percent of the people who come here have little to no experience on a surfboard.

Philips spent the first day teaching us how to hop up onto the board -- a frog jump -- and correctly position our feet for good balance, plus how to time our paddling and pop ups so we could catch a wave. We practiced for hours and managed to stand up for brief moments before belly-flopping in the surf.

When the waves died down, he showed us how to do turtle rolls and duck dives, in order to get through waves that we weren't going to ride and to avoid getting tumbled around by the surf.

He also explained the different types of waves found in the area -- from left-hand reef breaks to wind-protected point breaks -- and how to assess how they would break. And he explained surf etiquette, like how to paddle in a line-up and not drop in on someone else's wave. But mostly, we just practiced and played, doing our best to stand on our boards for more than a few seconds at a shot.

Saunas and salmon kebabs

At the end of the day, there was nothing better for easing tired muscles than the sauna. Hunting had built a sauna made of 18-inch-wide cedar planks next to a little stream in the woods, within full view of the ocean. We spent hours here, sipping cold drinks and basking in the warmth of the wood stove, followed by a refreshing solar shower and big dinner.

Rautter makes fresh, organic dishes -- over a gas camping stove, no less -- that could rival any found at Vancouver restaurants. We had muesli and buckwheat pancakes with fruit and organic syrup for breakfast, quesadillas and salmon shish kebabs for lunch, and "happy chicken" (free range chicken), vegetable lasagna or curry for dinner.

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