Everyone dreams of going to work and doing what they love. Kristen Montgomery is living that dream. She explains how a drawing she did in university helped her become the owner of Surf Sisters, a surfing school and shop in Tofino, B.C., that features an all-female staff. 

The week began with the students dipping their fingers in the Pacific Ocean on the first night. It ended on the lawn in front of Victoria’s Empress Hotel, where they reminisced about the week gone by. For this year’s winners of Canada’s Coolest School Trip, it was a week they would not soon forget.

A Grade 8 class from École Antoine-Roy in Rivière-au-Renard, Que. beat out 38 other competitors to win the top prize – a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. While there, the class visited Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site, went sea kayaking, watched whales and learned to use a seine net.

Read more about the beginning of the trip; how the students learned about invasive species; what happened when the students went whale watching; and what the students enjoyed most about the trip.

Photo Essay