From a long ago carver's game to an old gents' treasure, a beach log with a dolphin carving has at last found its resting place by the Davis Bay seawall.
The dolphin log saga started in 1996 when carver Brian Bossé decided, just for fun, to carve a couple beach logs under cover of darkness.
"It was kind of a game," he said. "I was going down there before light in the morning, and I was carving before anyone woke up. Then when around seven o'clock came around, I'd disappear."
Bossé said he first carved an eagle onto a log; then he carved the dolphin log. The eagle log, he said, stayed on the beach for about three years before disappearing; the dolphin log stayed about four years.
"I don't know whether it washed away or whether it got buried," he said. "I looked for it, but logs look a lot different when they flip over."
Bossé said he's never found the time to carve another beach log since.
Fast forward to 2010. District of Sechelt staff came across the dolphin log while assessing damage done to the seawall following the severe windstorm of Jan. 18.
Sechelt parks foreman Perry Schmitt said staff decided the carved log would be nice in nearby Mission Point Park, and proceeded to move it.
No sooner had the log been moved, Schmitt said, but Sechelt received a letter of mock outrage from the Davis Bay Sea Wall Old Boys Walk and Bull*** Society - a group whom Schmitt describes as "a bunch of nice old guys" who regularly walk the seawall.
The letter asked the District to return the log to its former Davis Bay location: "Should you not see fit to grant this eminently sensible request," the letter humorously warned, "I fear the current rumblings of anarchic protest among our membership may be activated in the form of protest marches, sea wall blockades and God knows what other forms of senior citizenry mischief."
The District warded off the threatened "senior citizenry mischief" by granting the request, moving the log back, fixing it in place with rebar and cement bases to withstand future storms, and affixing it with a plaque crediting the "auspicious DBSWOBABS" with its discovery.
"We thought for relatively little effort we could share this really nice carving with the whole community," said Emanuel Machado, District manager of sustainability and special projects.
And shortly after, Bossé came upon the new art installation of his 14-year-old work.
"I got emotional," he said, describing the moment when he flipped off his motorcycle in Davis Bay and came face to face with his old carving. "It was a really nice time in my life when I carved it because I'd just moved up here with my younger two kids and it was just a fun thing to do. I figured it was gone forever, and all of a sudden to see it again - you know, it just brought back old memories. It was really nice."
