Keenan Bush
Raph Bruhwiler thinks he’s at the 8th annual Bruhwiler Kids Surf Classic until his sister Catherine Bruhwiler pipes up from the surf judges’ tower that it’s the 11th.
“Maybe I’ve only been to seven,” he says with a laugh; an honest miscalculation of the space-time continuum that tends to happen when you’re surfing many, many smurry days on the West Coast of Canada.
It’s late June (or Junuary as locals call it) in Tofino, British Columbia, and a massive pod of wetsuit-wearing groms are having the best day of their lives on a drizzly Cox Bay Beach. Sure, they’re marching into the ocean wearing jerseys and charging heats, but there’s also an epic tug-of-war, eight expression sessions and a sandpit filled with buried treasures.
Related: Off The Grid In British Colombia With Canadian Surf Hero Raph Bruwhiler
“They’ve been digging for hours,” says Raph, sporting a Coast Guard red rain jacket and face tan. “They forget about the weather and how cold it is because they are having so much fun. Even if they are shivering or cold, it just doesn’t phase them.”
Raph’s mom Gisele, who is of Algonquin nation descent from Quebec, has been bringing surfboards to the beach for longer than she can remember. Most of her grandkids surf and her brood offspring — Francis, Raph, Catherine and Sepp — are all legends in their own right amongst Canada’s coastal backdrop.
“They are very much like animals. It’s kind of a gift because they were raised with surfing,” Gisele says. Her husband Verne, a lumberjack originally from Switzerland, brought an artistic rendering of Raph in a cold-water barrel with a face hole cutout to the contest, so all the kids leave with at least one memory of a tube ride.
Keenan Bush
“Surfing is a great sport,” says the Bruhwiler matriarch. “It’s challenging yourself, you know? You compete with others, but you’re constantly competing against yourself and the ocean. It’s nature, it’s you, it’s better than staying in front of the TV and phone all day. It’s so much healthier for them. Physically, mentally, spiritually… on every level it’s the best. Once you provide the tools, it’s just practicing.”
Holding her granddaughter Kali on her lap and sitting beside her 18-year-old niece Aqua, Catherine takes a breather on a hectic day of contest action to answer a couple questions.
“You know what Kali told me she doesn’t like about surfing?” Catherine asks.
“Nothing,” she says with a giant grin.
“If you want, you can surf 365 days of the year here,” Catherine reveals about surfing in Tofino. “It’s really wild and pristine and clean. Anytime you paddle out you’re going to see a friend or a family member or nobody, which is also cool.”
Aqua, who recently aged out of the Bruhwiler Kids Classic, zipped to the beach after her shift at Rhino Coffee House to help her mom and Raph’s wife, Joey Rukanvina, run the contest and cheer on her younger brothers Shea and Dusty.
“I’m just excited I get to help my family put this awesome contest on and hang out at the beach with friends,” Aqua talks about not getting to surf Kids Classic heats anymore.
Keenan Bush
Young gun Dusty, 13, buzzes by with friend Kai Grigg, who has a broken arm thanks to a mountain bike accident in Whistler.
“My goal is to be like my dad,” Dusty offers.
Kai chimes in.
“Surfing in Canada is awesome,” says Kai. “I love surfing in the cold water. Surfing in the warm water you surf with shorts and it’s way more crowded down there. Surfing in the cold water is way less crowded, the waves are really fun and with the wetsuit on, it just helps you float.”
“My hero would be Pete (Devries) or my dad Brian Grigg or Raph because they inspired Canadian surfing and one day I want to make it to the WSL with all my friends and go up in a heat in the WSL with one of my friends,” he continues.
Meanwhile out in the water, Shea Bruhwiler pulls off an aerial maneuver in the boys U18 final to take the 2024 Bruhwiler Kids Surf Classic crown.
“That’s the next generation,” notes Raph. “I remember Reed Platenius and Mathea and Sanoa Olin doing this. It all starts with the kids, really. We want to keep this going as long as we can.”