Here we are in gibsons, british columbia!
[cheering & applauding]
Gibsons, british columbia,
On bc's beautiful sunshine coast,
Sits between the snow capped coast mountains and
The deep blue georgia strait.
And for decades this place was home to fishers,
And loggers, and beachcombers, and...
The beachcombers.
[cheering & applauding]
The iconic name, legendary cbc series,
Based on the adventures of northwest log salvagers.
It ran from 1972 to 1990.
It is the longest-running english drama
In canadian television history.
[cheering & applauding]
-For now. -[laughing]
For now.
Although, unlike most contemporary dramas,
Beachcombers was only a half hour show.
So, if you're wondering who's actually produced the
Most content, well, that's no murdoch mystery.
[laughing]
That's heartland.
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see the people have a sense of humour
About hard times. -Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
Mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places you'd
Least expect it, canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there.
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is gibsons, british columbia.
♪
[cheering & applauding]
Through my short time here, I feel like I've really come
To understand a great deal about this place,
About the beautiful island of gibsons.
[laughing & groaning]
-What? -[laughing]
-Not an island? -[laughing]
What are you talking about? I took a ferry here,
I had to take a ferry. Look at a map?
I did look at a map- google maps.
Driving directions from vancouver to gibsons:
Not available.
No, I'm just yanking your crank, of course.
The fact of the matter is there's no road up here
To the sunshine coast.
And a lot of people, because they took the ferry,
Tend to think that it's an island.
I've seen the t-shirts, the bumper stickers:
"we're not an island."
You see it everywhere, almost to the point that
As a newfoundlander, I'm like, what,
You got a problem with islands?
[laughing]
♪
I wanted to talk to somebody who knew about the fishery
Here in gibsons, how it was booming for decades,
And where it all went prawn. -[laughing]
I had a chat with pam robertson.
[cheering & applauding]
Pam was a fisher, herself.
She was married to a fisherman.
She raised a fisherman, her son.
The robertson's are the worst thing that
Happened to shrimp since cocktail sauce.
[laughing]
We were growing up on the boats, for sure.
Yeah, it was a way of life. I mean,
I've been involved with fishing since I was
The age about four.
She was raised by people in the fishing industry.
She told me, basically, her daycare was a shrimp boat.
[laughing]
My mom would work,
And my daycare providers operated a shrimp boat.
So, they would bring me out on the water.
Yeah, I'd play with little octopus on the boat.
You know, while most girls playing with dolls,
She'd be playing with an octopus.
When I was that age, I wasn't allowed to
Play with pens 'cause I'd get ink everywhere.
[laughing]
But she said, you know for real,
People got into the industry at a young age around here.
She said it wasn't uncommon for teenage fellas
To drop out of high school.
They'd go out for a month to two months at a time,
Stay out on the water, fill up the boat,
And then come in and deliver.
You know, it helped our community thrive because
They would, you know, they have a habit of spending
Everything they earned really quickly sometimes.
-Right. -Yeah.
Everybody had some money, and the young guys, you know,
Fresh off the boats, hard physical labour,
Making money, they could show off
Some mussels while flashing some clams.
[laughing]
Tell me your nickname here in town?
Shrimp lady.
Pam said she would keep some of the shrimp catch to sell
Locally 'cause the bulk of the catch was processed in
Vancouver and shipped overseas to japan.
So, this way, some of the locals
Could get some of their own product.
And I'd be packing hundreds of pounds of shrimp and...
It's a fairly aromatic profession to be in.
So, yeah, the shrimp lady was something
That kind of caught on.
Who's knocking at the door: "mom, it's the shrimp lady."
[laughing] yeah, pretty much.
I want to make a tv show about it.
Gibsons underground prawn racket.
And I'm the detective that busts it.
-I call it, "shrimp dick". -[laughing]
I could play the shrimp dick.
[laughing]
As lucrative as it was,
The big shrimping era couldn't last forever.
Regardless of what red lobster will tell you,
There is no such thing as endless shrimp.
[laughing]
The fishing was starting to really disintegrate.
So, the number of the boats started diminishing.
The size of boats were diminishing.
Restrictions were eventually introduced,
Seasons were shortened, licenses became
More expensive and harder to get.
It just became too hard to make money.
There was a, quite a few fishing families engrained
In the community and they're no longer here
On the sunshine coast.
You know, shops were closing the doors.
So, things were fairly barren
For quite a good number of years.
Retail businesses began to close.
Without the stores, where will the adults do their shopping?
And without the shrimp boats,
Where will the children play?
[laughing]
♪
You know, not as many people these days are into the
Slog for logs, but I met two people who are in it for the
Long haul, even though it's no day at the beach,
Erik hammond and jennifer pasmore.
[cheering & applauding]
Real life beachcombers.
Now, they actually more often use the term log salvager.
But I didn't come halfway across the country
To not call you beachcombers.
[laughing]
Eric and jennifer gave me a rundown of
What the job essentially is.
Beachcombing is picking up logs that still have
Commercial or market value... -Yeah.
...That have been lost by the logging industry.
Logging companies, they cut down trees and
They float the logs in a boom.
They can move by the thousands.
You can see them all up and down the coast.
But sometimes, weather or waves
Or a break in the boom can separate logs.
And then people, you know, they comb the beach,
And they tow these logs out and sell them
Usually back to the companies that cut them.
I want to do a reality show about this:
Log the bounty hunter.
[laughing]
Well, we're looking for a suspect that is 25-feet tall.
It is reported to be unarmed and slippery.
[laughing]
When the logging industry was at its peak,
There were over 2000 licensed log salvagers
In british columbia,
More than a dozen here in gibsons, alone.
Could you guesstimate like sort of how many people
From gibsons are still involved in the industry?
-[laughing] -yeah, there's me.
I actually have a partner that I work with,
George moore. He's been around a long time.
And then, there's another guy.
I asked erik, how many are left here in town?
He started by saying, "well, let me see,
There's me and george and..."
I was like, "okay, I get it, I get the picture,
I get the picture."
It's a dying occupation, for sure.
You know, my grandfather did it.
My dad did it. Took over from my dad.
My son comes out with me sometimes.
He takes his son oren out, and literally shows him
The ropes, just as his father taught him.
And erik talks about, you know,
Beachcombing back in his father's day.
That was really the heyday.
There were far more logs.
It was more competitive.
Very rarely was it cooperative.
And that's, that's that kind of free spirit that
Kind of came with it.
It's up to you, you and your wits, and...
May the best man win, kind of thing.
A big part of it was the thrill of the hunt.
You wouldn't believe what kind of a thrill you could
Get hunting down something that isn't even
Running away from you. -[laughing]
Chasing down something that's moving at the speed of tide.
[laughing]
Back in my dad's day, like, you'd run into logs
With a 5-foot butt, you know.
And now we're talking like, like,
We're down to 4-inch tops.
It's not the same as it used to be.
Back then when they were cutting down the
Old growth trees, you could go find a log that,
Soaking wet, weighed about 7000 pounds.
You needed a 460-cubic inch
Big block v8 just to get it off the beach.
I don't mean to lose anybody with the technical lingo there.
Basically, they're looking for a boat that
Has all the tug of...
Well, a tugboat.
But all the speed of let's say...
-A speedboat, yeah. -[laughing]
It's not as complicated now that I say it out loud, but...
Erik said one big difference now is
You don't just sort of go out looking.
You can't use that jet boat unless you know there's
Some logs out somewhere, because you're just gonna
Burn more fuel than you're gonna make.
You can't just sort of roll them up and down the shore
In a big block v8 'cause all you'll be thinking about is
Like, oh my god, how much fuel am I burning?
Is this- you know, it's a bit like me on the treadmill.
It's like, okay, for what I'm burning,
Is this really worth it? And the answer's always no.
[laughing]
Erik said he was showing me some of
The basics of beachcombing.
So, he went and he got his jet boat.
This is a sort of low, sleek, very cool boat and
He brings it up.
And at the end of the rope or the chain,
You've got the spike, the dog, the log dog.
So, you take that, and you got to whack it in,
Make sure it's secure.
And not too close to the end of the log 'cause the
Log will split, and with tension,
That thing's gonna come flying back at you.
If you're going log dogging and
You got a log dog in the noggin...
[laughing]
Oh my gosh.
It's the first day on the job.
I don't know if I'm much good at beachcomb- I mean,
As you can see, any kind of combing, I'm not really...
[laughing]
And also, I go to a beach to get away from work.
Right, I'm not so much a beachcomber,
I'm a beach goer.
Between all the combing and going...
-Oh! -[laughing]
I'd rather just log out.
[laughing]
♪
I got a chance to visit the most famous restaurant
In the province, molly's reach...
[cheering & applauding]
As seen on tv.
The place where the beachcombers would hang out.
I had a chat with one of the owners, stephanie heins.
[cheering & applauding]
We were buying into something that was incredibly iconic
For canadian history.
There was a lot of pressure... [laughing]
...When we bought this place,
To keep it the home of the beachcombers.
When stephanie and the new owners took over,
Molly's had been closed for a while.
They wanted to update the look.
People were very vocal about their opinions.
They really did feel like we should honour this
As the home of the beachcombers,
But we wanted to add a fresh coat of paint.
You know, if you want to do any updates to molly's reach,
Like, people are concerned.
Everybody in town is gonna weigh in on it.
We don't own molly's.
-The community owns molly's. -Right.
She said it's like owning a restaurant
With 4000 other people.
Stephanie retains majority share,
But everybody's willing to invest their two cents.
[laughing]
Stephanie is a classic still standing name dropper.
And that's a good thing. That means during our chat,
She made a point of trying to mention,
By name, everybody who's helped out
With the reopening of molly's reach.
John and roberta red had done our logo.
We contacted another local, dan winehandle.
You know, mike and diane...
So, rachel and ross dempster, they, they really helped us.
From restoring the original booths,
To redesigning the logo,
To donating beachcombers' memorabilia.
Everybody who's had a hand in making this chapter
Of molly's reach a success.
And there is a lot of them.
Too many, really.
I'm not gonna, ah, I'm not gonna read 'em all.
They know who they are, they know who they are.
So, we have a lot of students that come in that help us
Over the summer, and they're like, "beachcomber what?"
They've never seen an episode.
So, I say, "go home, do your homework,
Watch an episode or two.
I'm gonna quiz you. It's part of our training."
Some of the younger staff, they don't know the show.
And she had a funny story that there was
Recently a 50-year reunion.
Some of the actors came to town for it.
And they totally came by unannounced.
So, my staff were like, "hi, how can we help you?"
-[laughing] -oh, no!
The young employee was like, "oh, geez, you know,
We're actually pretty full and we're closing soon."
[laughing]
"oh, we really hope that
We could come in for a milkshake."
"we're here for the 50th anniversary."
Stephanie caught them at the nick of time.
[laughing]
Got them into the restaurant.
I'm like, "get them to sign something.
Get them to sign anything!"
They autographed a plexiglas divider between the booths.
The next day, another young employee
Took a bottle of windex to it.
[laughing]
Tried to scrub it off, thinking ...
-It's graffiti. -It's still there, yeah.
"who put graffiti on? Who would put graffiti?"
[laughing]
♪
One thing gibsons is known for
Is a strong filipino community.
But if you call the sunshine coast filipino
Canadian association, you better pray for mercy.
[laughing]
Because it all depends who you get on the line.
And she's the best, mercy campbell.
[cheering & applauding]
All the way from the philippines. You know,
In the philippines, they have t-shirts that say,
"we're nothing but islands."
[laughing]
Mercy told me that there's nearly 500 filipino canadian
Families on the sunshine coast.
Because we have this community network,
A lot of the filipino are getting to know a lot of
People, and it becomes more like a home for them.
And that's why she founded the filipino-canadian
Association, as a way to provide moral and social
Support to the community, and promote the culture,
Often through fundraisers and events.
And they also teach traditional dancing.
And that's how we bring in the community to get together.
We try to introduce them to our culture by
Showing them what kind of different folk dance
That we have in the philippines.
She had some of the other ladies there with her and
They did some of the traditional dancing
With the fans.
Because back in the day tradition forbade a man,
Who was interested in a woman, from just
Going up to her and speaking to her.
All the movements with the fan mean different things.
It means that you are interested in that guy.
-Okay. -So, you're kind of like shy.
Like, if a woman makes eye contact with you,
And then she covers the lower half of her face with
The fan, that means possibly she has covid...
[laughing]
But also, that she is interested.
When you're fanning in like this,
You're really wanting to meet that person.
-Great interest. -Yes.
And if she looks at you, and she's actively fanning,
That means she's very interested.
Or very warm, I guess, I don't know.
That might be confusing.
Hey, I noticed you fanning over here.
Are you hot for me?
Or are you just, oh, you're just hot.
Okay, no, no, no, that's fine.
I was just wondering."
And if you kind of like this, put your fan like this.
It means that you're not interested.
A woman is not interested in you,
If she snaps her fan closed.
I said, "okay, mercy, what about when
She whips a purse at your head?"
[laughing]
Ah! One more time, one more.
She was trying to show me how, you know,
They whip the fan out in that quick movement, you know.
And I tried to do it.
So, 1, 2, 3.
[laughing]
And I accidentally threw my fan on the ground,
Right in front of her. Turns out,
Technically, we're married.
[laughing]
[applauding]
You know, the decline of two huge industries would drive
Anybody to drink, and gibsons is no exception.
It has become a bastion of bc booze making.
I met with the coo of persephone brewing,
Sara parsley.
[cheering & applauding]
Persephone brewing, better known by the locals
As the beer farm 'cause it's an actual farm.
And persephone was the first brewery
To open on the sunshine coast.
I think now there are three breweries, three cideries,
There's distilleries popping up now.
We now have the second most breweries per capita in bc.
This place has earned the nickname the brewers coast.
[cheering & applauding]
Which is probably better than the idea I had,
Which could be confusing, the yeast coast.
[laughing]
It's the hot spot to be in the middle of summer.
Cheers.
Sara said at the height of tourist season,
They can see anywhere between 500 and 1000 people
Come through that place in a single day.
There's so much space to just spread out.
People come in, have a beer,
Grab some food, and wander around,
Just chilling out and enjoying the farm space.
Another great thing about persephone is that they are
Partnered with scacl, okay, the sunshine coast
Association for community living.
[cheering & applauding]
Who work to remove obstacles for adults with disabilities
Looking for employment.
Right from the conception of this company,
We felt it was important to include
Adults living with disabilities.
It's a beautiful spot, even like,
Down by the chicken coop. Chicken orchard, I'm sorry.
You can go down with a beverage,
And then sit and watch the chickens run around.
I think it's the country's only
Fully licensed chicken coop.
At persephone, every night is wing night.
[laughing]
I met kara toews there.
[cheering & applauding]
She's responsible for the chickens, for feeding them,
For cleaning out the coop.
Kara said there was one rooster there that
Was particularly notorious.
Yes, his name was einstein.
He was just an aggressive rooster,
And he would just be attacking our legs and stuff.
And he'd like, peck at your ankles.
But maybe he was just looking for a bit of revenge for
Everybody who's eaten a chicken leg.
He's like, "alright, humans.
How do you like it when your legs are battered?"
-Aw! -[laughing]
Kara got me to feed the chickens.
This is the good stuff, hey?
This is homemade, high end organic chicken feed, okay.
Still looks and smells like crap.
[laughing]
I'm throwing some of this stuff out,
And the chickens go for it.
And then one of my camera guys was like, "oh, jonny,
Try to throw it right in front of the camera lens,"
And all the chickens flock over,
And we got some really great footage,
Until somebody up at the outdoor patio tables
Cracked a beer, and then my whole crew
Sort of started just going towards...
[laughing]
They were getting shots of the chicken,
And then it was like...
[mimicking open beer] "ksss"!
[laughing]
♪
You know, the heyday of fishing and prawns
Are long gone.
And the same goes for combing the beach.
But to say the place isn't thriving again,
Would be more than a bit of a molly's reach.
[laughing]
Learn some lessons with a filipino fan,
And take the dancing course.
Just don't drop it 'cause even though your partner is
Someone you hardly know, technically,
You will need a divorce.
[laughing]
Take your log dog down to the beach,
Have it fetch a three-tonne tree.
Or, grab a beer, blow off the foam,
Where the orchard chickens roam,
At the beer farm called persephone.
It's great that tourism is on the rise, though,
You tend to roll your eyes when they make
The old "island" mistake. On gibsons here
Between snow-capped mountains of green and
The deep blue georgia strait.
Thanks for coming out, everybody.
You've been great, thank you!
[cheering & applauding]
I am very proud to be a gibsons person.
He encapsulated our little town really well.
Yeast coast, jonny? I don't think so.
I haven't laughed like that in a long time.
So, I'm really grateful that I got to attend.
[off-screen] 3, 2...
Oh... [laughing]
-Here we go, in- -hey, do we do it on 1?
Or, 3, 2, 1, do it?
-3, 2, 1, go.