The Gorge Waterway is a narrow channel joining Victoria’s Inner Harbour with Portage Inlet, a tidal basin northwest of the city centre.When the tide drops in the B.C. capital and the water in Portage Inlet drains to the sea, the ebb is constricted below the bridge at Tillicum Road. The resulting current—up to 8 knots (14 kmph)—forms a rapid with playboating features. Like all tidal rapids, the whitewater changes character at different phases of the tide cycle. It might be a wave, a hole, or a little of both.
The Tillicum Narrows rapid certainly isn’t in the ranks of the mainland coast’s famous Skookumchuck wave, and the rapid is always a little flushy, but it is a fun spot with a convenient location and nearby parking. As local paddler Sarah Brown says, “It’s not a bad place for a little surf session, especially when it hasn’t been raining much. You can go after work and be home before dinner.”
Many of the Victoria area whitewater paddlers avoided this spot in the past because of water pollution, although flatwater paddlers frequently used the calm stretch upstream from the rapid. However, due to the cleanup efforts of local volunteers and organizations like the Veins of Life Watershed Society, who worked to reduce contaminants being washed into the Gorge through storm sewers, the water is clean enough for swimming. In fact, the Canadian open-water swimming championship was held here in 2001. Paddlers should now be more worried by the sharp barnacles that cover the rocks on either side of the rapid — my boat still has little bits of them embedded in the plastic from my last visit.
Since the water flows in both directions but only forms a rapid on the ebb, check a tide table before you go.The rapid starts to form 3 hours and 15 minutes after the high tide in Victoria. Don’t forget to add an hour to the time on the tide table if it’s daylight savings time. The speed of the current varies depending on the range of the tide, but the rapid is good to go so long as there is at least a three–four foot difference between the high and low.
To get there from downtown Victoria; head out of town on Douglas Street. Take a left turn onto Gorge Road. Turn left again at Tillicum road. Take the first right from Tillicum road to enter Kinsman Gorge Park. Go two hundred meters to the end of the access road. Parking is conveniently located beside the water and the rapid is directly underneath the bridge.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Rapid Magazine.
