Meet The Godfather Of Canadian Surfing | 1986 Tofino “… was not tourist friendly,”
Our boy Dom Domic aka the Godfather of Canadian surfing, is getting the recognition he deserves after 7 or so decades of leading our great country into the freezing cold water.
Since the 80’s Dom has lead the charge to get todays best Canadian surfers into competition. It’s also a little known fact that Dom has an encyclopedic knowledge of every surf heat that has happened since 1984, including wave pool contests.
Sample:
“Today, nearly 30 years after Domic’s unlikely conception, the contest has evolved to become the Rip Curl Pro Tofino.
In the early 2000s, it helped foster a future in pro surfing for local talents like Raph Bruhwiler and Pete Devries, all while Tofino accepted it’s own transformation into a surf tourism destination.
By producing the contest, Domic has become the steward of competitive surfing in Canada. And he has been a witness to the decades-long “roller-coaster ride of getting surfing into the Olympics.”
In 2015 it was announced that surfing would be included in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Last year, the International Olympic Committee added the sport, with four others, to the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
The challenge now, Domic says, is qualifying Canadian surfers for the Olympics. This year Surf Canada officially became a national sport federation, and Domic is searching the world to recruit new national team members.
Tofino’s Pete Devries, 34, is an example. In 2009 he won the O’Neill Cold Water Classic, one iteration of Domic’s contest. The six-star pro event was held at Chesterman Beach, where Devries learned to surf.
Today, Devries is Canada’s team captain and a potential Olympian for 2020. He credits Domic with keeping competitive surfing alive in Canada.
“He’s basically done it all himself, I would say,” says Devries. “He’s just completely obsessed with competition and surfing and he just loves it.””
Click to CBC to meet Dom Domic; the Godfather of Canadian Surfing
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