Written by: Ethan Kirk
The southern tip of Vancouver Island (including Victoria and Langford), the San Juan, and the Gulf Islands are the traditional territories of the Lkwungen (Lekwungen) peoples. We acknowledge and thank the Lkwungen People, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations communities, for allowing us to live, work and play on their lands. We also give thanks to the ancestors, supernatural ones, hereditary leaders and matriarchs, creatures big and small for looking after the rich resources and cultural teachings of this beautiful land.
It had been a couple years since the last time Lachlan and I had linked up. Previously Lachlan headed out east and met me in Montreal before I had started living here, and we crashed at Cody Lacroix’s apartment filming for about a week. We ended up putting a video together and Lachlan went on his way to meet his partner Lily, in Paris. If you haven't seen that video yet, you can watch it below:
Fast forward a couple years, and on the legs of a global pandemic, we thought it was only necessary to meet up again, this time in Lachlan’s new stomping grounds: Victoria, BC.
Personally I had never been out there before, but it met all my expectations of the west coast and more. Beautiful scenery, Spots galore, and good company. Lachlan, as the good host he is, greeted me with none other than an IPA from one of the many breweries that can be found across the city, No cheap lager’s here, only the best hard to swallow IPA’s. After that we knew we had our title, it was only fitting: IPA’s and Easy Day’s.
We spent about a week cruising around Victoria, and hit all the local parks, including a sick DIY type park, Fernwood. This had to have been my favourite within the area as there were just so many possibilities, rearranging rails and ramps for hours, it’s hard to get bored at a park like that.
Another sick spot we ended up hitting was the Six-Mile DIY, found under a bridge, this DIY was no joke. Tight transition, and crusty as can be, getting a clip here was no small task, but Lachlan handled it with ease. It wasn’t until we were walking out that we noticed the big ‘NO SCOOTERS’ graffiti on the entrance, but let’s be honest, there’s very few skaters that are actually putting that spot to good use. We were there for about 2-3 hours before another soul even approached the spot. Clean your trash, be respectful of the build, and I doubt anyone will have a problem. If they do after all that, they’re just on a power trip.
Along with filming some clips around some local spots, we did get to do some sightseeing as well. Lachlan and Lily took me to see goldstream provincial park, North-east of Victoria and it was as lovely as it sounds. Although I like most of my sightseeing to be famous spots, I was happy I got to take a step back and just appreciate what Vancouver Island has to offer.
No to go on too much longer, I’d like to send a big thanks to of course, North for sending me out to visit Lachlan, as well as Lachlan and Lily for the incredible hospitality while I was intruding on their space for a week. I hope everyone enjoys the video, and hopefully we can get Lachlan back out east for a V2 of the Montreal video.
You can check out the video we filmed below, or by clicking here:
