Access to two of Nova Scotia's premier surf breaks will soon become a lot easier.
The Coastal Access Committee announced earlier this month that a public park will be built on vacant land in Cow Bay, providing surfers and the local community access to the waves.
"It's quite a big deal for the surfing community. It's one of our premier breaks," said Iaian Archibald, co-chair of the CAC, a non-profit group working to secure public access to Nova Scotia's coastlines, and local surfer.
For years, the surfing community has been trespassing through Cow Bay residents' yards to ride the two popular surfing breaks Minutes and Backyards.
In 2008, access through private property was cut off by land-owners in the area.
"We really recognized it about three and a half to four years ago. We could see that access was going to be lost. We knew we needed to set something up for when it happened and when we did lose actual access to Minutes," said Archibald.
The CAC began talking to the city about land access to the water.
Halifax Regional Municipality purchased the 4.61 hectares (9.2 acres) of land, which is located roughly between the little Cow Bay church and Rainbow Haven Beach, earlier this year from a private land owner for $211,000.
"It will provide a legal access for surfers to get to the water, which will cut down on the trespassing through private property," said Woodside - Eastern Passage Coun. Jackie Barkhouse.
Construction will begin on the first phase of the project this summer.
Preliminary plans include the construction of a parking lot and boardwalk leading to the coast.
Presently, there is no designated parking in the area, and surfers have to park along the side of the road.
"It's not unusual on a day when the surf is high to see cars lined up for quite a distance there. It'll get them off the road, which is a problem now. There's no sidewalk down there, so in some areas it provides some safety concerns," said Barkhouse.
She said this new park has been getting a lot of attention since the announcement.
Although the project was championed by the CAC, the park is not intended for surfers alone.
The park will also provide public access for all recreational purposes and water sports, such as wind surfing and kayaking.
"It's not just a surf park, and that's a very important aspect of all this," said Barkhouse. "It's meant to be a boardwalk for the community to enjoy, for families to be able to use and for people to be able to walk their dogs. It's the perfect spot to provide an access for people. It's just beautiful."
Archibald said a lot of the local residents have also taken on the sport.
Located on Nova Scotia's Marine Drive, the property (a small wetland) includes a frog pond, and is a sanctuary for a number of species of plants, fish and birds.
At this time they don't have a firm price on the project, but Barkhouse said it will probably cost between $75,000 and $80,000.
The majority of that money has been donated by a private donor, which has speeded up the process.
"We really weren't sure we'd be able to do anything right away. We were going to sit on the property for awhile - it would provide that legal access point, but we weren't thinking we'd be able to develop it - but a private donor has come forward and the Coastal Access Committee, the surf community, is doing some fundraising to contribute toward the first phase."
Barkhouse will be contributing some capital funds as well, and the CAC is raising money for the project by selling engraved boards for the new boardwalk.
The buyers can get a name engraved into the right-hand side of the two-by-fours that will run along the boardwalk.
The boards are selling for $100 each.
"It's going good so far," said Archibald of sales. "Our goal is $10,000 to $15,000, and I think we've got over $2,000 right now, and we just started."
The boards can be purchased at Emma's Eatery in Eastern Passage, If Only Surfshop in the South End, Propeller Cold Beer Store in the North End and Kannon Beach Surf and Windsurf Shop in Lawrencetown.
The second phase of the project could include things like benches, a dock at the frog pond (so people can skate there in the winter), and some privacy partitions for people to change when they come out of the water.
This phase is contingent on provincial funding and is expected to be completed in 2011.
Barkhouse said everything that's done in the park will be done with the community in mind.
A consultation with the local community was scheduled to take place on May 27 at the Cow Bay community hall.
More information can be found at coastalaccessns.blogspot.com.
All about Minutes and Backyards breaks
The ocean along the shore of Cow Bay has two unique combinations of cobblestone and shale that allow Atlantic swells to break perfectly for surfing.
These two breaks, called Minutes and Backyards, have become favourites for local surfers and attract surfers from all over the world.
According to the Coastal Access Committee, the area has been surfed for at least three decades, but in the past four years the growth of the surfing population reached a point where up to 200 people could be seen hitting the waves on good days.
In this interview with Archibald, he explains what it is about the surf in Cow Bay that makes the area so popular.
The Weekly News: What is it about these breaks that attracts surfers?
Iaian Archibald: It's truly a combination of the two bottom types.
You've got the shale rock, and then it juts down to the ocean. You also have the cobblestone, which kind of fills in between the shale, so it makes the bottom contour very uniform, but also nice and shallow in the right way, so the waves break relatively strong and relatively shallow, but still don't close out.
WN: Where did the names for the surf breaks come from?
IA: Unfortunately we don't have the most creative names for our surf breaks.
Backyards is called Backyards because it's in people's backyards. You follow the backyards to get to the break.
Minutes can be a long wave, on the right day. The idea is that you can ride the wave for 'Minutes.'
WN: Compared to other breaks around the coast, how does it compare?
IA: I'd say it's in our top five breaks in the province. We've got hundreds of surf breaks, we're really a surfers dream here.
I've travelled all over the world and a place like Cow Bay has half a dozen surf breaks just in the Cow Bay area alone, and that doesn't really happen many places in the world.
lmckay@hfxnews.ca
