Moncton, New Brunswick
Of Nephews and Bores - July 16, 2025
The next day, my brother, my sister and I headed off east for a day-visit with our two nephews, Matthew and Phillip, who both live in the bustling city of Moncton - about an hour and forty-five minutes drive from Fredericton. We had a narrow window: my nephew Matthew had a precisely one-hour lunch break over which he could meet us. The suggestion was that we eat at a quirky little eatery Matthew had discovered.
Notre Dame de Parkton
Our tightly-planned meetup went off without a hitch: we swooped in and picked up Matthew outside of his downtown office building exactly at 1:30pm, picked up Phillip at his apartment moments later, and were sitting in the church pews (yes, you heard that right, church pews) at the Notre Dame de Parkton cafe by 1:40pm. After a quick rundown of the menu by the owner/proprietor, I ordered my maple-bacon grilled cheese on white with baked beans and fries (over lunch, they specialize in variations of grilled cheese sandwiches). Yum-my.
Nephew meetup
We were done and paid up by 2:15pm, and by 2:27pm, we pulled up next to Matthew's workplace and he was off to start his afternoon shift. Clockwork.
But the clockwork wasn't done yet! As I sat in the backseat of my brother's Nissan on the drive to Moncton, I had glanced at the tide times for the Tidal Bore of the Peticodiac River, which runs through the center of Moncton. And as it so happened, the next Tidal Bore was scheduled to flow up the river at about 2:40pm. And we were right there at that moment in downtown Moncton. I mentioned this to my brother, sister and nephew, and we agreed that this would be a fun thing to catch, especially given the perfect timing.
We were literally only a few hundred metres from a nearby riverside park, and minutes later, we were standing on a lookout point above the muddy flats of the Petitcodiac River, looking downstream to catch the first sign of the approaching bore.
First Sighting of the Bore
For those of you who do not know what a tidal bore is, a quick refresher: you may have heard that the Bay of Fundy is the home of the world's highest tides, reaching up to nearly 17 metres (55 feet). A curious extra aspect to these super high tides: at the head of the Bay of Fundy is the outlet of a river that comes down from the interior of New Brunswick. This river, the Petitcodiac River, has a shape near its mouth that, when combined with the shape of the upper part of the Bay of Fundy, creates a funnel that focuses the large rising tides down into nearly a point. As a result, what you get is not a general rise in the water level, but an actual wall of tide-water that flows upstream until it runs out of energy and elevation. That wall of water is known as a tidal bore, and it extends quite far upstream - at least 30 kilometres or more.
Substantial front
The tide tables were predicting that we would see the tidal bore at any second now. We watched and waited, along with a few other bore-watchers. We were not disappointed. At 2:34pm, we saw a long white line appear on the surface of the river to the east of us. Slowly, it advanced towards us.
We could clearly see that it was riverbank-to-riverbank in extent - a single cresting wave, perhaps a metre high. The power of the Earth's tide, focused to such an extent that the difference between low tide and rising tide was a discrete quantum of time and height. Amazing.
As the bore moved towards us, we could clearly see the curl of the wave crashing against the riverbanks on either side. And in the middle - amazingly - a small figure; a surfer! A surfur was riding the bore, staying with the front edge of the incoming tide. I had heard about these bore-surfers, but had never seen one in action. Cool.
Bore Surfer
We watched as the impressive tidal bore (and bore surfer) drew ever closer to our vantage point. As it got closer, the apparent width of the bore in our field of view grew wider, making it all the more impressive. Behind the bore were a series of large deep ripples that I later learned are called "whipples".
Before coming parallel to us, the bore-surfer fell off the crest, and once off, there was no getting back on. He bobbed sheepishly in the whipples as the little crowd of onlookers (us included) gave him a short round of claps.
A Focus of Nature
The bore continued its inexorable glide upstream and before long, it was almost out of sight. Now would come a large general rise in the water level, up an additional twenty to thirty feet, in the course of less than an hour. When complete, the water would be up to nearly level with the tops of the banks of the river.
But for us, it was the end of the show. We headed back to the car and hopped in, giving a ride to Phil back to his apartment. My sister, brother and I then began the hour-and-a-half drive back to Fredericton, where we spent a relaxing evening next to Carl's pool.
Video sequence of the Tidal Bore
