WESTPORT, Washington —

The sport of surfing is most often associated with tropical climes like Hawaii and Southern California, rather than the frigid waves of the Pacific Northwest.

But when you love a sport enough, there’s a good chance you’ll find a place to enjoy it no matter where you live. Thus cold-water surfing is growing in popularity from Oregon’s south coast north to Canada’s Vancouver Island, wherever the sea rolls in sets that crest and tumble and break just right.

One such place is Washington’s surfing capital of Westport, a harbor town that guards the south entrance to broad, estuarine Grays Harbor, 130 driving miles southwest of Seattle and 163 miles northwest of Portland. Just off the rocky jetty at Westhaven State Park, the North Pacific current unleashes its energy upon a gray-sand beach that is considered to have the most consistent surf between the mouth of the Columbia River and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

“There are always waves to be had here,” said Johannes Ariens, chief executive officer of the Loge Camps, a Seattle-based property development firm with its first lodging facility in Westport.

“It’s never flat. I can catch a wave here 365 days a year,” Ariens said.

“La Push and Neah Bay (further north, on the Olympic Peninsula) can produce some incredibly powerful waves in winter, but the vast majority of surfers find Westport’s waves to be completely in line with their capacity and skill set.”

On any given midweek day in summer, dozens of surfers — each one clad in an insulated, Neoprene wetsuit to retain body heat in the icy waves — test their athletic mettle amid swells that form well off shore and roll toward land on a very gradual slant. “It’s waist deep a long way out,” Ariens said.

“If you know what you’re doing, there are big waves outside. Very advanced surfers live here and go out every day. But most people are beginners and, by and large, tourist surfers. They watch the wind, the weather, the tides (incoming is best) for waves of 3 to 5 feet.”

Ariens, 33, grew up in Allyn on the lower Kitsap Peninsula and learned to surf at the age of 15. But he’s modest about his ability. “I know how to not kill myself,” he said. “Where I’m at is a good, low-wind day with sets of 5 to 8 feet. And we get those days all the time. Being out here a lot, I’ve seen my surfing progress dramatically.”

Loge Camps

Although he and his wife, Marie, are Seattle residents, Ariens is committed to spending most of his days in Westport this summer and fall. His lodging property, Loge at the Sands, is attracting plenty of attention among younger weekend recreationists from Seattle and Portland.

It’s a unique concept, one that Ariens and his partner, Cale Genenbacher, hope to duplicate in other Northwest locations, inland as well as coastal. He anticipates starting work on a new property at Snoqualmie Pass this winter.

Loge Camps began with the purchase of a retro-style hotel that was, according to Ariens, one step from demolition. It has been reinvented as a surfer-friendly (and dog-friendly) lodge with multiple accommodation types — motel rooms, hostel bunks, RV spaces and tent sites, both upscale and primitive.

RV and tent plots surround a grassy lawn backed by a stage where Northwest bands perform on a weekly basis through the high season, and where movies can also be shown. An outdoor barbecue area frames its west end. Bunk rooms open into a common den and kitchen area that is shared with motel guests, should they choose to join the party.

In the heart of the property, a bar and cafe are nearing completion with the assistance of Bend’s own 10 Barrel Brewing, one of several companies with whom Loge has partnered. It adjoins a storage area where surfboards, stand-up paddleboards and bicycles are available for rent, with the support of EVO, an online retailer of sporting goods and apparel. The EVO amenities include overnight drying for wetsuits.

“I see us more in the outdoor recreation industry than in the hospitality industry,” said Ariens, who said Loge can accommodate up to 150 guests when fully booked. “What we’re doing here aligns with our client base: They are coming to town to surf and fish, and in doing so, they are supporting other businesses. And we want to bring people out who may not otherwise come out.”

The Westport community of about 2,500 permanent residents has been very supportive, Ariens said. “People who live here love it,” he said. “There’s been a positive reaction across the board. Statistics tell you that Grays Harbor County (which includes Westport) is economically depressed and is facing some very real challenges. Yet we are seeing an increase in tourist spending twice that of tourism tax revenue gains.”

The project, Ariens said, is bringing a local surf school, board shaper and apparel company together with restaurants and hotels. “It might be giving Washington state a much-needed cultural hub just for surfers,” he said.

Around town

Commercial fishing and yacht building have traditionally been the economic anchors of Westport, along with a U.S. Coast Guard station. Charter fishing and whale watching sustain a small tourism industry. The marina is the largest on the outer coast of the Pacific Northwest (as opposed to others located up river mouths or in large bays). Charter operators encourage successful anglers to enter their trophy-size catches of salmon and halibut, tuna and ling cod in the town’s season-long fishing derby.

While lodging and commercial businesses are located along the southern approaches to Westport, especially on Montesano Street where it runs north from Grayland’s cranberry bogs, the hub of the little town is in the Westhaven district beside the marina. Along a stretch of about five blocks from the old Coast Guard station (now the Westport Maritime Museum) to a watch tower at the mouth of Grays Harbor, numerous cafes and gift shops face the colorful fishing boats moored in the marina.

These include such restaurants as Aloha Alabama, a Hawaiian-themed barbecue restaurant and bakery, and the Blue Buoy, Westport’s most reliable choice for breakfast. Surprisingly for a harbor town, it’s hard to find freshly grilled seafood or raw oysters. A small oyster shop, Brady’s, at the west end of the State Highway 105 bridge to Aberdeen, sells shellfish to those willing to do the shucking themselves.

Surf culture

The town’s leading surf shop is — wait for it — Surf Shop. It was established in the mid-1990s by Al Perlee, who has been surfing these waves for more than three decades. “He’s a legend,” said Ariens. “And he’s awesome.”

Ariens estimated that 10 percent of the Westport population is immersed in its surf culture. “There is a very niche group of local surfers,” he said. “They are all ‘water people’ with day jobs as fishers, crabbers, clam diggers, yacht builders. And what they want most is to educate people to respect the surf and the surf culture.”

To that end, the Loge at the Sands is an outspoken supporter of the Surfrider Foundation. In fact, Ariens is the chair of the nonprofit group’s Seattle chapter, one of five in Washington. (There are four more in Oregon.)

“We’re pretty embedded with them,” he said. “But this is not a club for surfers. The foundation was started by people who set out to protect California’s Surfrider Beach (near Malibu) — its ocean, waves, sand — and by extension the habitat.” The foundation’s functions include education, political lobbying and grass-roots beach cleanups.

Indeed the Surfrider Foundation is the beneficiary of Westport’s biggest annual surfing competition, the Clean Water Classic in early October.

In large part due to the efforts of the Surfrider Foundation, the sands at Westhaven State Park are among the cleanest in the state. The surf community may put up tents and build driftwood bonfires within its fringe of saw grass, but they also feel a responsibility to leave it even cleaner than they found it, Ariens said.

Even for nonsurfers, there’s plenty to like here. One highlight is the 1.4-mile Westport Dunes Trail, a paved bike and walking trail that extends south from the jetty to Ocean Avenue near the Grays Harbor Lighthouse.

Bright lights

In service since 1898, that 107-foot lighthouse, tallest in Washington, remains active today. Once kerosene-fueled, now automated, it is a good quarter-mile inland from the crashing surf, but a docent-led climb of 135 steps to its original Fresnel lens offers proof that its view still extends a very long distance. In the National Register of Historic Places since 1977, it is operated by the Westport-South Beach Historical Society.

A yet more impressive light is the Destruction Island Fresnel Lens, housed since 1998 in a special structure at the Westport Maritime Museum. For more than a century, from 1891 to 1995, it warned ships away from the Quillayute Needles on the rocky Olympic Peninsula coast near Kalaloch, 50 miles north. Manufactured in France in 1888, the 6-ton, first-order lens consists of concentric rings of glass prisms — 1,128 in all — that bend light into a narrow beam and magnify it, sending a beam as far as 26 miles out to sea.

The rest of the five-building museum complex was designed according to the Coast Guard’s Nantucket architectural standards and dedicated as a life-saving station in 1940. With 18 rooms in three stories, it operated as Station Grays Harbor until 1972. Today its exhibits reflect on the history of the Coast Guard here, and include sections on oceanography, the marine economy, local history and marine mammals, with skeletons of the latter displayed in glass-sided out-buildings.

There’s nothing here on surfing, though. That history is just being written.

— John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.

Expenses

Round trip drive, Bend to Westport (647 miles @ $2.40/gallon): $62.11

Dinner, Aloha Alabama: $22.99

Lodging (two nights), Loge: $225

Breakfast, Blue Bayou: $10

Lunch, Bennett’s Fish Shack: $15

Admission, Maritime Museum: $5

Admission, Grays Harbor Lighthouse: $5

Dinner, The Islander: $30

Breakfast, Blue Bayou: $10

TOTAL: $385.10

If you go

INFORMATION

Westport-Grayland Chamber of Commerce. 2985 S. Montesano St., Westport; westportgrayland-chamber
.org, 360-268-9422.

LODGING

The Breakers Boutique Inn. 971 Montesano St., Westport; breakersboutiqueinn.com, 360-268-0848, 800-898-4889. Rates from $79

Glenacres Historic Inn. 222 Montesano St., Westport; glenacresinn.com, 360-268-0958. Rates from $82

Loge at the Sands. 1416 S. Montesano St., Westport; logecamps.com, 360-268-0091. Rates from $112.50 (motel), $40 (hostel/camping)

Westport Marina Cottages. 481 E. Neddie Rose Drive, Westport; marinacottages.com, 360-268-7680. Rates from $169 (off-season from $129)

DINING

Aloha Alabama BBQ. 2309 Westhaven Drive, Westport; alohaalabama.com, 360-268-7299. Lunch and dinner every day. Moderate

Bennett’s Fish Shack. 2581 Westhaven Drive, Westport; facebook.com, 360-268-7380. Lunch and dinner every day. Moderate

Blue Buoy Restaurant. 2323 Westhaven Drive, Westport; facebook.com, 360-268-7065. Breakfast and lunch every day. Budget and moderate

The Islander Westport Restaurant & Bar. 421 E. Neddie Rose Drive, Westport; islanderwestport.com, 
360-268-7682. Lunch Thursday to Sunday, dinner every day. Moderate

ATTRACTIONS

Grayland Beach State Park. 925 Cranberry Beach Road, Grayland; parks.wa.gov, 888-226-7688.

Surf Shop. 207 N. Montesano St., Westport; westportsurfshop.com, 360-268-0992.

Westhaven State Park. 2700 Jetty Haul Road, Westport; parks.wa.gov, 360-268-9717.

Westport Maritime Museum and Grays Harbor Lighthouse. 2201 Westhaven Drive (museum), 1020 W. Ocean Ave. (lighthouse), Westport; westportmaritimemuseum.com, 360-268-0078.