Coming from the south east United States where the features are mainly small pour over holes, the Ottawa river was a big change for me. Really, one of the main reasons I wanted to come here was to surf big waves, because it was something that I really wanted to do, as well as getting coaching from some of the best kayakers in the world. When I finally got up here after months and months of anticipation, the levels were such that the main features were not all too much different from the features at my home rivers, however, as the water has begun to drop this week they have started to turn into he huge waves that I wanted so much. Just yesterday, the level was perfect for all of the awesome features at Mckoys: Horseshoe, Baby Face, Corner wave, and many others if you know where to find them. The stoke level was so high when we checked the gauge and it said 0.5, that everyone in the room just began chanting: GARB! GARB! GARB! Over and over again for a solid 5 minutes. That night was when I got my first ever big wave surf, and it was magical. I hiked up to corner wave and put in, getting in the back of the line. When I ferried out and caught the wave, I got a feeling that was so amazing I will probably remember it for the rest of my life. When you're surfing a big wave, it's just you and the water, alone, and suddenly everything falls away from you. "Soul surfing" is the term used to describe it, you and the wave with nothing else mattering at all. You don't even have to throw tricks, just front surfing and carving back and forth is enough to put you in a state of awe. As soon as I flushed out, I booked it as hard as I could back into the eddy so I could get another surf as soon as possible. Surfing holes and small features is fun, but until you surf a real big wave in Ottawa, you haven't really experienced the full magnitude of surfing. Even if it's for no other reason, I encourage anyone reading this blog to come out to Ottawa to experience the same feeling that I have already fallen in love with, which is surfing big waves.
Thank you, Alex Lambrecht
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