00:00What if I told you there's a spot here in Montreal, hidden away, where surfers went to ride on waves that didn't move?
00:08Sounds hard to believe, but it's real.
00:22This boxy architectural oddity is Habitat 67.
00:26Designed by a Montreal architect in the 1960s, it's a souvenir from Montreal's Expo 67 World Fair.
00:35And while the well-known Habitat is impressive in its own right, tucked away just to the side of it is something you would never expect to see in a city like Montreal.
00:46We're heading to another Habitat 67, located right next to the iconic building it's named after.
00:51It's a standing wave in the St. Lawrence River.
00:53And almost on any given day, you'll find more than a couple of people gearing up to surf the standing wave.
00:59Many times, people catch a glimpse of somebody through the trees, in the water, surfing.
01:03And it's a strange sight, because you don't expect to see that in Montreal.
01:06And this whole area, I'm walking down this little path right next to Habitat 67.
01:10The city of Montreal doesn't run this.
01:12This is entirely governed and taken over by the surfers that ride the waves here.
01:17Romaine has been surfing on these waves for a long time.
01:21Kayakers discovered this wave, or discovered it, started using it in like the early 90s.
01:27And then surfers kind of took it over, I want to say, in the mid-2000s.
01:31And since then, the scene's really, really grown to make Montreal actually kind of like a surf destination.
01:36Standing waves are the weird cousins of the kind of waves that you're normally used to.
01:42First, water moving at very fast speeds flows down into a hole shaped by big rocks,
01:49with so much strength that the water shoots up above the surface, creating rapids.
01:56What you end up with is a wave that keeps a surfer in the exact same spot for an endless ride.
02:02So, one of the advantages at Habitat 67, and most river waves in fact, is that you have a lot of time.
02:07There might not be the speed, there might not be the power behind you,
02:10but you can really hone in on getting your feet in the wax.
02:13Surfing in the ocean is like just a million variables, where you don't really stand up that much.
02:18You're positioning, you're reading waves, you're looking at wind.
02:21Whereas on a river wave, it's really just surfing. It's a water state park.
02:25It's very consistent, you have a lot of time, and it's just a lot of fun.
02:28You could surf for 30 minutes if you really wanted to.
02:30You might get a bit tired, and people might get a bit annoyed at you.
02:33Apart from that, there's really no limit to how long you can surf.
02:36River surfing dates back to the 1970s, and has been a go-to for surfers living in the city.
02:42Given their extremely secluded location, not a lot of people knew you could even surf here for a very long time.
02:49But in recent years, the Habitat 67 standing wave has been making its way onto must-surf bucket lists.
02:57It's really rare that a surfer in a beach town will get the number of days surfing that we get here,
03:04because it goes from late February to November.
03:08If you're going to check it out, make sure to be careful of the whirlpool behind the bigger waves.
03:12Honestly, it's not the best for beginner swimmers. You've got to know how to paddle and stay above the water.
03:16Stay safe, have fun.
03:18And that's it for Season 1 of Hidden Montreal.
03:21We've gone high above the city for a bird's-eye view of some crazy sights, to deep below Montreal's streets.
03:28I hope you've been inspired to look around you, because you never know what you might find.
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