Last weekend showcased the premiere of Standfilm and our last stop on the tour was Tofino, B.C. I managed to sneak in a sweet Long Beach Paddle Surf before a sup skills clinic set up by Catherine Bruhwiler at Tofino Paddle Surf. We had great turnout under sunny hot skies and spent a couple of hours working on forward strokes and turns. Thanks to the locals and people who came out to take the clinic. That evening we had the premiere and the following day we got ready for our Vargas Island sup expedition. Catherine and I had talked about doing a sup trip around Vargas Island with hopes of offering the trip to clients later in the summer. I have guided a number of kayak trips around Vargas Island an knew it would be the ideal location to offer standup paddleboard trips. White sand beaches, wildlife and some great surf breaks are all part of the Vargas Island experience. This trip also offers guests the chance for a true coastal experience as the west side of the island is exposed to the full power of the North Pacific. Day 1: We spent most of the afternoon on Day 1 packing up our gear and getting ready for the trip. There would be four of us on this trip, Catherine, myself, Pascale, a Tofino local and owner of Live to Surf and Coastal Bliss Yoga, and Zak, a writer and guide from Comox, B.C. We all had touring boards for this mission. Catherine was paddling a 14' Ace Carbon, Zak was on a 14' Carbon Touring board, Pascal had a 14' Surftech Coast Runner and I was on my trusty 12'6" Boardworks Raven. We would be self sufficient on this tour so we had our big packs loaded up

SUPing the Greatbear Rainforest. Photo: Derek Nixon After a few days of packing gear, loading boards and buying food Jen and I departed for the 17-hour road trip to the northern coastal community of Prince Rupert. Clients would be meeting us there for our 2011 Greatbear Rainforest standup paddleboard expedition. This is the second year of running Mountain Surf Adventures commercial SUP expeditions up here. I have guided in this area for 12 years and my first SUP expedition took place in 2009 with Explore Magazine. Since then I completed the 2010 Stanudp4Greatbear Expedition, a paddle that took me 400km from Kitimat to Bella Bella to bring awareness to the threat of oil tankers on our coast. After overnighting in Smithers, my favorite northern community, and sleeping in the back of the Frontier under a tarp, we rolled into Prince Rupert early in the afternoon to meet the team. GBR Vet Jamie McVicar on a break at York Point. Photo: Norm Hann By the time we got to Prince Rupert Sheila and John had already arrived by plane and were out exploring the area. Sheila Sovereign, from Vernon, is a very close friend of mine and is a great paddler and amazing person who has been at the forefront of SUP in the Okanagan. John Redpath, a soft spoken paddler, runner and video editor from Squamish has been training with Jen at her studio, Challenge By Choice, and has been knocking off running races, was well conditioned for the trip. Later that evening we were to meet my brother Brad, from Sudbury, who just celebrated his 40th birthday and was super stoked to be coming up. Personally I was really happy to have my little brother with me in a place that has been so important to me in my