00:00What if I told you there's a spot here in Montreal, hidden away, where surfers went
00:05to ride on waves that didn't move? Sounds hard to believe, but it's real.
00:22This boxy architectural oddity is Habitat 67. Designed by a Montreal architect in the
00:291960s, it's a souvenir from Montreal's Expo 67 World Fair. And while the well-known Habitat is
00:37impressive in its own right, tucked away just to the side of it is something you would never
00:42expect to see in a city like Montreal. We're heading to another Habitat 67, located right next to the
00:50iconic building it's named after. It's a standing wave in the St. Lawrence River, and almost on any
00:55given 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. And
01:04it's a strange sight because you don't expect to see that in Montreal. And this whole area,
01:08I'm walking down this little path right next to Habitat 67. The 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. And since then,
01:32the scene's really, really grown to make Montreal actually kind of like a surf destination.
01:37Standing waves are the weird cousins of the kind of waves that you're normally used to.
01:43First, 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,
02:06is that you have a lot of time. There might not be the speed, there might not be the power behind you,
02:11but you can really hone in on getting your feet in the wax. Surfing in the ocean is like just a million
02:16variables, where you don't really stand up that much. You're positioning, you're reading waves,
02:20you're looking at wind. Whereas on a river wave, it's really just surfing. It's a water skate park.
02:25It's very consistent, you have a lot of time, and it's just a lot of fun. You could surf for 30 minutes
02:30if you really wanted to. You 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. River surfing dates back to the 1970s,
02:39and has been a go-to for surfers living in the city. Given their extremely secluded location,
02:45not a lot of people knew you could even surf here for a very long time. But in recent years,
02:51the Habitat 67 standing wave has been making its way onto must-surf bucket lists.
02:58It's really rare that a surfer in a beach town will get the number of days surfing that we get here,
03:03because it goes from late February to really like November.
03:06Now, if you're going to check it out, make sure to be careful of the whirlpool behind the bigger waves.
03:11And honestly, it's not the best for beginner swimmers. You got to know how to paddle and stay
03:15above the water. Stay safe, have fun. And that's it for season one of Hidden Montreal.
03:21We've gone high above the city for a bird's eye view of some crazy sights
03:25to deep below Montreal's streets. I hope you've been inspired to look around you,
03:30because you never know what you might find.
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