As they say with Cox Bay, it’s weird when it’s not strange and strange when it’s not weird. Competition Day for the 2025 Rip Curl Longboard Nationals started with gloomy weather and a 4ish-foot windswell slamming shapelessly into the low-tide sandbars. All reports indicated that the first few heats didn’t come easy.
“It was pretty horrible,” says Rusty Goyer. “That’s just Cox Bay and we’re used to it.”
But the conditions improved as the tide came in and while it was anything but perfect, there were plenty on waves to go around.
“Conditions were consistent all day so that always makes it fun,” says Mathea Olin, who ended up taking first place for the women. “I’m very grateful that the sun came out and that so many people are down here enjoying this beautiful day.”
Yes indeed, the sun showed up around noon and shone brightly all the way through finals. That’s good because those of us who wanted to lazily enjoy the livestream discovered that, with the competition all unfolding over the course of a single day, the webcast wasn’t happening. So coffees were transferred into travel mugs and we got ourselves down to the beach for some good old-fashioned spectating.
In years past, the longboard contest has been a part of the three-day Rip Curl Nationals, but this year all the action played out in a one-day, standalone event.
“You can blame the ISA,” says the Canadian Surf Association’s Dom Domic. “There was an announcement, maybe in December, that ISA World Longboard was happening in April and we’d already committed to Nationals in May. So in order to do team selections, we decided that instead of moving the whole Nationals into March, the best way to do it was to splinter it off and have a longboard only event.”
The one-day event ran without a hitch and the sunshine brought out a sizeable crowd.
“I was shocked how many people were down there on the beach supporting the surfers,” says Domic. “It was almost as packed as our usual Nationals.”
The crowd was treated to high-quality longboard action all day long. The women all surfed with poise and style, but nobody could keep up with an in-form Mathea Olin, even though the day was a departure from her usual board of choice.
“I shortboard 99% of the time and I can’t even remember the last time I longboarded, so I had fun today hopping on one,” she says.
Her win marked her third consecutive Nationals longboard victory.
“I don’t really keep track but it’s always trying to push myself on a longer board.”
And the men put on a good show as well, with highlight reel moments from each heat. But the action culminated in the final between Adam Tory, Jean Laurens Vachon Vigneault, David Schiaffino and Rusty Goyer. With five minutes left, Goyer cross-stepped from fourth place to first, hanging all ten toes over the nose and styling his way to victory.
“Wave of the day” said Asia Dryden, who was watching from the beach after being knocked out in the semis. “That was amazing. I’m really happy to see someone win with a really solid hang ten.”
“Yeah it’s pretty crazy I did not expect that but I’m super super stoked,” says Goyer of his win. Now he and Schiaffino are the two men set to represent Canada in El Salvador at the ISA Worlds from April 19th– 25th. As for the women, Liv Stokes—who qualified through the World Surf League—will be there representing Canada. And Mathea’s working on a personal project, so she may give her spot to Carolyn Day, who got second at the Rip Curl Nationals. Either way, it’s rad that a grassroots event at Cox Bay can be used as a stepping stone to the world stage.
Written by, Mikey Nixon A Local Surfer
Photos taken by, Brett Hemstock
