After spending eight hours driving down Route 1, we finally crossed over a small inlet in the Bay of Fundy into the land of "aboots," hockey obsessions and Tim Horton's. For three hours we trekked through gloomy suburbs and seemingly endless slabs of farmland until we made it to Canada's Atlantic Playground: Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia feels like Maine without the discount Burberry and Timberland outlets. It's rugged, has extreme weather, and is unpopulated.

A small camping ground and surf shop outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Sunrise on Lawrencetown Beach.

We woke before sunrise, packed up our tent and got in the water just as the sun was coming up.

Surf's up...

Surfing when the water is warmer than the air is an interesting proposition. The air was in the mid 30's and the water was in the high 40's. After 45 minutes the swell started to die down and the wind picked up. With the haste that only a surfer in freezing conditions knows, I jumped out of my wetsuit and into wool socks and my Mackinaw jacket.