Ottawa River’s surfers and kayakers follow a different kind of current affairs in the capital

Each spring as the snow melts and the rain falls, the Ottawa River, St. Lawrence River, and Saguenay River in Quebec swell, creating world-class river waves that only last for a few weeks, drawing paddlers and surfers alike to the frigid waters.

River waves don’t behave like ocean waves. A river wave is a more stationary thing, a warp in the river’s surface as fast-moving high water cascades over subsurface objects and abandoned structures, creating localized churn. Some who ride the waves choose surfboards; others, kayaks or stand-up paddleboards. All spend the spring season on the hunt, waiting for the crucial volume of water to create the perfect conditions for their sport.

“I started freestyle kayaking when I was probably 15 years old and with the guys I was growing up with, we would go white-water kayaking after school,” says Joel Kowalski, a member of the Canadian Freestyle Kayaking team and the river operations manager at Wilderness Tours. “That’s just what we did. It’s a lot like growing up on a farm. You’re in it pretty early. My generation was the first group of teenagers to use the modern freestyle kayaks.”

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Nasser Yassine, a surfer and dietician from Ottawa, started surfing in Montreal around 2006 “when the scene started to grow.”

He was surfing off the coast of Maine, “but then I moved to Ottawa and met a few guys who were some of the pioneers in the area. I met a guy who knew a guy at a house party who told me about Bate Island.” The island, which is between Ontario and Quebec, and in sight of Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings, is a popular urban launch point for river riders.

“What I like about river surfing is that you know what you’re going to get. You can stay on a wave much longer, where in the ocean, you might only get a few seconds. You can really improve fast, surfing on a river,” he says.

Surfers and kayakers move up and down the larger rivers as waves peak and recede.

“I have trouble sleeping around the end of March, early April, when I can smell spring in the air,” says Mr. Yassine. “You sometimes don’t know if you’re going to have a season or not.”

“‘The stake-out’ is what a lot of kayakers around here call following the spring seasonal flow. You look at the trajectory of the water levels and put yourself where the wave is coming in so you can surf it at its peak, because it doesn’t last that long,” says Mr. Kowalski.

Some waves last weeks; others, just a couple of days. “You can catch many big waves if you bounce around the region and just be where they are when water levels are right.”

Lac Saint-Jean

DETAIL

Saguenay

River

Bate Island

Saguenay

Ottawa

QUEBEC

3 km

St. Lawrence River

Rouge River

Trois-Rivières

Gatineau River

Montreal

Ottawa

Ottawa River

DETAIL

50 km

VERMONT

JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAP

Lac Saint-Jean

DETAIL

Saguenay

River

Bate Island

Saguenay

Ottawa

QUEBEC

3 km

St. Lawrence River

Rouge River

Trois-Rivières

Gatineau River

Montreal

Ottawa

Ottawa River

DETAIL

50 km

VERMONT

JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAP

Lac Saint-Jean

DETAIL

Saguenay

River

Bate Island

Saguenay

Ottawa

QUEBEC

3 km

St. Lawrence River

Rouge River

Trois-Rivières

Gatineau River

Montreal

Ottawa

Ottawa River

DETAIL

50 km

VERMONT

JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAP

Waves often emerge in the Ottawa River first, as it’s the southernmost river basin. “When the waves are coming in, it feels like Christmas Eve. You know there will be many great surfing days ahead. Wave surfing in these rapids has the same kind of drawing power that people feel when surfing in the ocean,” says Mr. Kowalski.

Wave-seekers do a loop from the Ottawa River in mid-April, following a run-off sequence all the way north to Lac Saint-Jean, then heading back to the Ottawa area as the northern flows subside and moderate waves return around mid-May. There are also notable waves north of Ottawa on the Gatineau River and Rouge River in Quebec.

“Sometimes you are surfing and a beaver swims by, or a bunch of ducks, or a goose,” says Mr. Yassine. “If you go at night you can watch the sunset over the Champlain Bridge. I’ve done quite a few sunset sessions and it just feels magical. Sometimes, if it’s a clear night, you can almost surf by moonlight.”

Mr. Kowalski, who will be on the team representing Canada at the 2023 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships taking place on the Chattahoochee River in Georgia this October, says, “Our home waves are arguably the best in the world for river surfing. If you are competing at the World’s, this is the best training ground. The competition crowd makes up about a third to a quarter of the surfers. Lots of people in Ontario and Quebec come out who aren’t on the competitive circuit, but they might be the kayaking equivalent of a black diamond skier.”

“If my three-year-old sees me in my wet suit, she runs and puts her swimsuit on. One day, she will be in the waves with me for sure,” says Mr. Yassine.