The present tourist hotspot and former hippy haven of Tofino (BC, Canada) got his current name when in their 1792 expedition to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca commanders Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés of the schooners Sutil y Mexicana named an inlet in the west coast of Vancouver Island after their mentor and fellow hydrographer Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel.
Rear admiral (his final rank) Tofiño (1732-1795), was an astronomer, cartographer and mathematician greatly renowned and respected by his contemporaries. He was director of the Midshipmen Academies at San Fernando, El Ferrol y Cartagena. He produced numerous books, treatises and maps, but perhaps the contribution that earned him the most fame was the maritime atlas of the coasts of Spain and adjacent islands elaborated under his direnction in the period 183-1788.
And now the kayaking connection (though many would know already): among the older models of Necky kayaks was a double named Tofino. And, in 1987, it was a minimally modified Necky Tofino that he baptized Bananafish that Ed Gillett paddled from California to Hawaii.
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