Montreal's Hidden Endless Wave | Hidden Montreal - video Dailymotion

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Embark on an adventure through five of Montreal’s most interesting, mysterious, and unusual secret places through our new series Hidden Montreal.     In this episode, Alex Melki heads to one of Montreal’s most iconic buildings to discover what lies behind it. A standing wave that lets surfers ride it endlessly. The unique physics behind this hidden surf spot is unlike anything in the city.    Subscribe to Narcity: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFpZ...    For more information, visit:  Alex Melki's Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/alexmelki/  Société québécoise de spéléologie  https://speleo.membogo.com/fr/caverne...    More episodes from Hidden Montreal:  Montreal’s Secret Alien Park | Hidden Montreal  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvk7gnfGSzs    About Narcity:  Narcity is the spark that powers your relationship with the awesome city where you live. Every single day, it gives you all you need to know about what's new, what's now, and what's next, as well as the tools you need to connect with the people, places, and passions in your city.    Narcity.com is owned and operated by Narcity Media, the leading digital media publisher for Gen Z and millennials, covering breaking local news and trends across North America. Narcity Media’s extensive network of journalists and creators spans from coast to coast to coast with the sole purpose of creating local content that engages communities. The brand’s news and travel websites attract 23M readers each month and its social channels reach 5M people daily.    For more information, please visit https://www.narcitymedia.com/.    Subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit us on:  Our App: https://www.narcity.com/download-app  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarcityCanada/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/narcitycana...  Twitter: https://twitter.com/NarcityCanada  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/NarcityMedia/    Surfing Montreal's Hidden Endless Wave | Hidden Montreal    #montreal #hiddenplaces #waves

Transcript

00:00 What if I told you there's a spot here in Montreal, hidden away, where surfers went to ride on waves that didn't move?

00:08 Sounds hard to believe, but it's real.

00:11 This boxy architectural oddity is Habitat 67.

00:26 Designed by a Montreal architect in the 1960s, it's a souvenir from Montreal's Expo 67 World Fair.

00:35 And while the well-known Habitat is impressive in its own right,

00:39 tucked away just to the side of it is something you would never expect to see in a city like Montreal.

00:45 We're heading to another Habitat 67, located right next to the iconic building it's named after.

00:52 It's a standing wave in the St. Lawrence River, and almost on any given day, you'll find more than a couple of people gearing up to surf the standing wave.

00:59 Many times, people catch a glimpse of somebody through the trees, in the water, surfing.

01:04 And it's a strange sight, because you don't expect to see that in Montreal.

01:07 And this whole area, I'm walking down this little path right next to Habitat 67.

01:11 The city of Montreal doesn't run this.

01:12 This is entirely governed and taken over by the surfers that ride the waves here.

01:17 Romaine has been surfing on these waves for a long time.

01:21 Kayakers discovered this wave, or discovered it, started using it in like the early 90s.

01:27 And then surfers kind of took it over, I want to say in the mid-2000s.

01:32 And since then, the scene's really, really grown to make Montreal actually kind of like a surf destination.

01:37 Standing waves are the weird cousins of the kind of waves that you're normally used to.

01:43 First, water moving at very fast speeds flows down into a hole shaped by big rocks,

01:49 with so much strength that the water shoots up above the surface, creating rapids.

01:55 What you end up with is a wave that keeps a surfer in the exact same spot for an endless ride.

02:02 So one of the advantages at Habitat 67, and most river waves in fact, is you have a lot of time.

02:08 There might not be the speed, there might not be the power behind you,

02:11 but you can really hone in on getting your feet in the wax.

02:13 Surfing in the ocean is like just a million variables, where you don't really stand up that much.

02:18 You're positioning, you're reading waves, you're looking at wind.

02:21 Whereas on a river wave, it's really just surfing. It's a water skate park.

02:25 It's very consistent, you have a lot of time, and it's just a lot of fun.

02:28 You could surf for 30 minutes if you really wanted to.

02:30 You might get a bit tired and people might get a bit annoyed at you.

02:33 Apart from that, there's really no limit to how long you can surf.

02:36 River surfing dates back to the 1970s and has been a go-to for surfers living in the city.

02:43 Given their extremely secluded location,

02:45 not a lot of people knew you could even surf here for a very long time.

02:48 But in recent years, the Habitat 67 Standing Wave has been making its way onto must-surf bucket lists.

02:56 It's really rare that a surfer in a beach town will get the number of days surfing that we get here,

03:03 because it goes from late February to really like November.

03:06 Now if you're going to check it out,

03:09 make sure to be careful of the whirlpool behind the bigger waves.

03:11 And honestly, it's not the best for beginner swimmers.

03:14 You gotta know how to paddle and stay above the water.

03:16 Stay safe, have fun.

03:18 And that's it for season one of Hidden Montreal.

03:21 We've gone high above the city for a bird's eye view of some crazy sights,

03:25 to deep below Montreal's streets.

03:27 I hope you've been inspired to look around you, because you never know what you might find.

03:32 Thanks for watching!

Montreal's Hidden Endless Wave | Hidden Montreal

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