Tofino

Tofino lies in the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht, one of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, whose main village, Opitsaht, across the harbour, is believed to have been lived in for at least 2,000 years; people have occupied Clayoquot Sound for some 4,200. In 1788 the British trader John Meares reported seeing about 800 people gathered in a single longhouse of Chief Wickaninnish. Spanish and British ships began a trade in sea-otter pelts, and in 1854 a trading post on Stubbs Island became the first permanent non-Indigenous settlement. A townsite was laid out on the tip of the peninsula in 1900, and the settlement took its name from nearby Tofino Inlet when the Tofino post office opened in 1909; it was incorporated in 1932.

Fishing and logging sustained the town. From 1917 Japanese Canadian fishermen settled here, forming more than a third of the population by the 1930s, until in March 1942 ninety-five of them were removed from the government wharf; in 2019 the mayor formally apologised. A road to Port Alberni opened in 1959, bringing surfers from the mid-1960s, a counterculture community at Wreck Bay and growing crowds at Long Beach, which became part of Pacific Rim National Park in 1971.

In the 1980s and 1990s Tofino was the focus of protests against old-growth logging in Clayoquot Sound, beginning with Meares Island and culminating in the blockades of 1993, when more than 800 people were arrested. The dispute contributed to the Sound's designation as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2000. Since the 1990s tourism has become the dominant industry, and Tofino became a resort municipality in 2008.

Tofino's culture grew out of the meeting of Nuu-chah-nulth communities, fishing families and the young surfers, artists and back-to-the-land settlers who arrived after the road opened. The Tla-o-qui-aht declared Meares Island a Tribal Park in 1984, and First Nations presence and art remain central to the town's identity.

Surfing is the town's sport and calling card. A local surf culture began in the 1960s, and since the 1990s it has become a large part of the economy, with locally raised competitors reaching international level and surf schools, including a women's school, teaching beginners on the sheltered beaches. The Queen of the Peak women's championship is held each autumn. The Pacific Rim Whale Festival each March celebrates the grey whale migration with exhibitions, films and tours.

Environmentalism runs deep. The protests of the 1990s left a strong conservation ethic, and debates over growth — water supply, sewage treatment and the spread of upscale lodges — are a regular part of local politics. The pace is relaxed, the dress is wetsuits and rain jackets, and winter storms are treated as a spectacle rather than a nuisance.

Tofino had about 2,500 residents at the 2021 census, up by more than a quarter in five years, but its summer population swells to many times its winter size, and the region receives several hundred thousand visitors a year.

Tourism drives almost everything: lodges and holiday rentals, restaurants, surf schools, whale-watching and fishing charters, floatplane operators and guiding. As of 2024 the tourism sector was estimated to generate about $657 million a year. Once dependent on fishing and logging, the town has had to grow its infrastructure fast; a severe drought in 2006 strained the water supply, and construction of a new wastewater treatment plant began in 2022, after years of discharging untreated sewage into the sea.

Life follows the seasons and the tides. Summer is busy, with campers, surfers and day-trippers along the beaches; winter is quiet, the town given over to locals, storm-watchers and surfers in thick wetsuits. Water taxis link the town to Ahousaht, Hot Springs Cove and other communities of the sound, and the long road over the mountains to Port Alberni is the only land route out.

Tofino's food starts with the sea. Salmon, halibut, spot prawns and Dungeness crab are staples of coastal menus in British Columbia, and salmon remains central to First Nations food and ceremony. Despite its size, the town has attracted many chefs and food professionals, and its restaurants and speciality shops are out of all proportion to its population.

For fourteen years the first weekend of June brought the Tofino Food and Wine Festival, which showcased British Columbia wines and the creations of Tofino chefs. Casual food fits a surf town, and food trucks and cafés sit alongside the more formal dining rooms of the town and the beach lodges.

Drink follows the province's pattern of craft beer and cider, with wines from the Okanagan and Vancouver Island. Bannock, a simple fried or baked bread, is served at Indigenous food stalls across the province, and candied salmon, the sweet cured strips sold at markets, is a coastal speciality worth looking for.