"On the beautiful west coast in the quaint little fishing town of Ucluelet lays Big Beach, a small beach open to the wrath of the mighty pacific. During the winter the roar of the sea can be heard while walking the streets of Ucluelet as the pacific lashes it’s rugged coastline, making for very animated and exciting storm watching.

My love for storms goes back a long time. I remember as a little boy getting excited for power outages every time a big storm would roll through and getting decked out in rain gear and sitting on the beach. As a teenager and into my early twenties I would wait for the biggest storms so I could surf on the east coast of the island closer to home. My friends and family have often shaken their heads at my lack of interest in vacationing on a hot sunny beach somewhere exotic but rather strongly preferring a stormy, wet, misty, rain forest stay-cation.

Like all coastal ecosystems, Big beach is teeming with wildlife, much of it is fairly inconspicuous until you stop to notice it all. A common sight here is the black oystercatcher hunting along the rocks, they are one of my favourite birds and while I didn’t want to take away from the main focus, the storm wave rolling in, it almost seemed wrong not to include some wildlife."
- Joshua Hansen -