Over 100 surfers will hit the waves at the eighth annual Queen of the Peak surf competition this weekend
Tofino’s all-female surf event runs from Sept. 29-Oct. 1 this year and will be held at Chesterman Beach or Cox Bay, depending on wave conditions.
The competition’s successful and rapid growth was on display in full when registration for the short board and long board categories opened on Sept. 4 and filled up within five days.
“We’re elated with the turnout,” Queen of the Peak founder and Surf Sister Surf School owner Krissy Montgomery told the Westerly News. “It was crazy. Our contest has never filled that quickly before.”
She said she was particularly pleased to see an abundance of out-of-town surfers sign up.
“They’re hearing about this contest and how fun it is and how friendly and open and welcoming this area is for female surfers,” she said.
“In addition to the roster of strong competitors from Tofino, Vancouver, Victoria and other Canadian towns, we are seeing an uptick in the number of women travelling from the around the world to compete this year. We have registrants from California, Washington, Oregon, New Zealand and Norway. It’s an extremely talented group of women athletes coming to compete in a beautiful location with a welcoming and supportive surfing community.”
Queen of the Peak’s growing popularity has sponsorships coming in strong with Billabong presenting the event and over 20 local and global sponsors supporting it, leading to $10,000 in cash and other prizes being put up for grabs.
“With more sponsors getting on board, we’re able to do things like increase the prize purse so it attracts higher level athletes to come up and those higher level athletes are influencing our surfers here and upping our level of talent,” Montgomery said. “We see how well they can surf and we want to surf like that. It all just fuels itself.”
Montgomery launched the Queen of the peak competition with her friend Mike Jacobsen of Shelter Restaurant in 2009.
“We started it because we wanted to celebrate how unique the Tofino area is in that we host such a large number of talented female surfers,” she said. “I think we just have a strong female presence out here. There’s so many women on the West Coast that are strong confident individuals. Tofino attracts that type of person. What I think is special about this town in general is just how many awesome talented women there are. There’s boss ladies everywhere.”
She said the event was important because it put females in the spotlight.
“The girls get a bit sidelined. The men get to surf at the prime time and they get the major prize money,” she said adding it’s important to bring out of town surfers into Tofino’s positive vibes.
“It is a very welcoming culture so, I think, a lot of people are excited to come check it out. It’s not as closed off as other surf communities can be,” she said.
“I feel like other surf spots haven’t caught on like we have in Tofino. When you’re in California or even Hawaii you would think that these would be areas where you would see a lot of females in the water but the numbers are still just a fraction of the representation out there…It’s still mostly a male dominated sport anywhere else you go. In Tofino, it’s kind of shocking actually how many women surf.”
The three-day surf competition has evolved into a week’s worth of celebrations including Zumba, Yoga, movie premiers, and dance parties.
“It’s gained momentum organically,” Montgomery said.
“People have participated. They saw how fun it was and the word spread. The vibe on the beach itself has kept people coming back to support it.”
She added local men have helped create a welcoming and positive surf environment.
“You’d be shocked at the sexism you can experience in other places, whereas here, the guys are awesome. They’re super supportive,” she said. “They’re the volunteers who are putting up the scaffolding, they’ve really embraced it.”
She hopes to see this vibe spread to out of town competitors home communities to make other surf spots more welcoming to women. Queen of the Peak launched a Princess of the Peak competition for surfers 16 and under in 2013 in an effort to foster a younger generation of local girls who feel comfortable getting into the sport and Montgomery said that event is still running strong with 16 youth expected to compete this year. .
She said the West Coast’s support of Queen of the Peak continues to motivate her efforts and added she loves contributing to the town she loves.
“The community has been so supportive,” she said.
“Surfing changed my life. Tofino changed my life and if I can help spread that stoke in a positive way, I’m all for it.”
The proceeds raised by Queen of the Peak will flow into the Tofino General Hospital Foundation.
Anyone unable to make it to the beach to watch the event can check out a livestream at www.QueenOfThePeak.com.