Pure stoke and a dream is all that Tyler Beatson had growing up as a “land locked mountain kid”. Spending a good chunk of his life as a skateboarder with the odd opportunity to surf a river on a borrowed wind surf board, surfing was out of reach until making the move to Wellington, Ontario. It was in Prince Edward County where his dreams of surfing became a reality and his shop, Oak Surf Club, began. With the support of his wife and fellow surfer Adelaide, Oak Surf Club was able to grow as an extension of her already established boutique, Oak Clothing Co. Now, as a veteran lake surfer and business owner, Tyler joined us to tell a story of the best session he has ever had out on Lake Ontario.
Tyler: It started with the night before anticipation of the most wild storm/wind switch we had ever seen on paper. I woke up at 4:45am, checked the buoy, and the other buoy, and the last buoy - three for three, all of them were still cranking. I had pre loaded my gear the night before for a stealth getaway so as to not wake up the family. Once on the road I made the 40 minute drive in 30 minutes to meet up with some great dudes. We could hear the waves thundering on the limestone, we all looked at each other with absolute froth! We all got dressed and took off into the dark woods, geared up and ready to paddle out. After the roughly one kilometre hike, we arrived to the sun peeking through the trees illuminating the lake and the waves. It felt like we were seeing things! Perfect 5-7 foot ground swells rolling in at 8 second periods, feathering up as they approached the reef. We surfed until no more waves would roll in. It was absolutely the best session so far.”
Anyone who reads that story will be able to tell you that Tyler has an obvious passion for surfing, though any surfer would have been able to spot that passion from just one sentence - “It was absolutely the best session, so far”. It’s in this sentence that perfectly sums up the mind of a true surfer. Someone who is completely driven and obsessed by the endless search for the next best session. Whether he knows it or not, Tyler was born with the mind of a surfer and is an ode to what Land Locked is all about.
Cover Photo by: Calder Sidley