Final post

It is with a heavy heart, that i make my final post on this site becasue........I have decided to move to another site, for their superior picture usage capablities. so thanks for being a part of this awesomely named blog. but the time has come to go here: http://surfinpat.wordpress.com/

and enjoy the pictures of my trip.

TTFN

pictures

So, im trying to figure out how best to put pictures up here. I am pretty unhappy with that layout when i have done this so far. The pictures just go at the top of the post and I can't live with such a setup. I need CAPTIONS and such. I would like to be able to speak about a foto and have the words come appear right below it. If anyone has a suggestion for me, I am all ears at this point.

On a different note. I am in Bali now. Staying here: www.thegrandbali.com for FREE! Thanks to my friend Brendan and his Uncle Charlie

Hasta La Pasta Africa

After 3 nearly 3 months, I am finally leaving Africa for the tropical paradise of Indonesia at 8:45am tomorrow morning Sometimes life is tough, but this isn't one of those times.
I won't be arriving until around 3pm in Indonesia the next day, a 1 hour flight from Durban folled by a 13 hour flight to hong kong, then a mere 5 hours flight to Denpasar airport in Bali.
Im a bit sad to be leaving SA but moreso excited for what is to come.
On a different note i think that Burger King needs to seriously consider bring back the SOurdough Bacon Cheeseburger, it was an amazing sandwich and I have been missing it since it's mysterious disappearance from the menu back in 2004 or 2005 (I can't remember which).
On another different note, I am seething with a bit of jealousy that 2 of my best and oldest friends, Matt a Rich are going to see one of my favorite bands, Mew, in concert tonight. I wish i was going with them.
Lastly, i would like to give out congratulations to my other good friend John Barney, who has very recently become engaged to his girlfriend Jessica: JOhn you are a bit crazy, but shucks I can't wait to get drunk at your wedding.
Ok Thats all for now, next you hear from me I will be in asia, a place Iv'e not been before.
TTFN

Mozam part 3

SO i believe when we left off we were at Hell's Gate, in Santa Maria, which is about a Kilometer away from Hells gate, Rick saw a woman carrying a Turtle. SO he took the Turtle from her and told her it was not legal to just take a Turtle and sell it or eat it or whatever, and that if the cops saw it there would be a 25,000 metical fine. THere are no cops anywhere near Santa MAria, so the people who live there have the run of the land and believe they can do what they like. SO this lady was not happy at all wioth Rick, and she argued with him and got other local people to defend her, some of whom didn't seem to keen to take her side. In the end Rick paid her 200 Mets to leave us alone.

It was a heavy thing to see these people who had lived in the area for so long, unable to understand why there were rules against taking a creature that was just walking through the woods, like they would have been allowed to for centeries before now. In the end it felt to me like justice was served when the lady got a few dollars from us, but in the long run that time of thing surly can't be permitted, i mean she basically got paid for breaking the rules and then complaining about it until Rick wanted her to just go away.

ANyways all of that happened around 4pm while we weere waiting for a man named Pepe to come pick us up in his boat so to give us a ride to our camp. Our accomodation was amazing. WE stayed in the contractor camps next to a fancy fishing resort called "Hell's Gate Resort" that was marketed to mostly AMerican and Europeans. From the beach the Resort Looked amazing, straw roof set in amongst the lush green Sanddunes. There is a lot of aluminum or titanium (I can't remember which) in the sand in Mozambique and that traps water in the sand, so plants flourish there. People were growing watermelons and corn right in the sand, like it was rich fertilized top soil.

As i was saying, our accomdations were next to the resort, in the trees. We had a kitchen with running water and electricity, a tent was set up with beds for us to sleep on (which were normally occupied by contract workers building the resort. When the resort is complete Pepe will open a backpackers in the area where we stayed, a much cheaper and most do it yourself enviornment. It should be an amazing place when it all works out. And Pepe doent get too many visitors so he was so friendly and so happy to have some new faces to talk to.

THe mornign after we arrived we waited for the tide to start pushing into the Bay of Maputo, and when it does, it creates a SERIOUS current running through hells gate pass. And about 10 feet from shore there was a rock ledge that dropped off about 9 or 10 meters at some parts and the snorkeling along there was spectacular. We would walk out to the where the ocean met the mouth of Hell's Gate pass and just float down with the current a few hundred yards diving down to explore the rocks and we saw lots of fish and urchins and a big old lobster. Apparetntly big kingfish and even some sharks are known to run in the pass, but we saw nothing like that.

AS the morning passed we went sandboarding down the dunes and just explored the beach, until we left for Bella Russia Point. Bella Russia has an wave setup that looks insane, just a point break wave over sand bottom that looks like it might peel for over a kilometer, and had we gotten it good there would have been only 4 or 5 of us in the water. Oh well. THe day and night we spent there was eventful, we went for another turtle walk at night, and saw a bad ass scorpion in our campsite, which I foolishly got no pictures of. And we slept without flys on our tents so we could watch the stars. THen next day was insanly hot so we had a surf early and decided to make it all the way back to Ponta do Ouro that day, around 6 or 7 hours in the car. Becasue the only place we had left to check out between Ponta and Bella Russia would for sure have no waves.

WE pulled into Ponta Do Ouro, the most built up place i saw in Mozambique, right aroud dark, and about 500 meters outside of town our Landy ran out of gas on a hill and we had to make a line to tow the car the remaining kilometer or so to Rick and Brian's house.

Ponta do Ouro is basically on the border of Moazam and SA so it is quite busy. We had take out burgers the night we arrived, and it had been a long day in the car so aftr eating we all crashed. The next morning was HOT! again. we hung out inside till low tide then walked up to the point for a surf. Again this wave can run for more than a Kilometer on its best days (you can see the point in the pictures above) but we didnt see anything like that. We found a little knee high wave that ran for about 25 yards, oh well. No point in whining about things you can't control.

THat night we were supposed to go to the little market in town where a lady Rick new was making us a huge chicken dinner with Stiff Pup (a local dish that is corn meal based) Baked beans and Veggies for 30 rand (around $4 US). But a massive thunderstorm rolled in which meant we had to carry the food home becasue the market was an open air market. It was fine with me becasue we got to sit on the roof of the house and watch one of the most (possibly the most) impressive electrical storms I have ever seen. Lighting flashes were happing nearly constantly (you can see some of them in the pics I took Above, and im quite proud of those pictures) coming from inland and moving out over the Sea. It was a great show, and watching the lightning over the sea reminded me of a storm out over the Lake that i could watch from my parents bedroom, or if im feeling foolish, while longboarding through Gilson park.

The next morning we were supposed to go on a dolphin tracking tour with Rick and Brian, we were supposed to swim with them possibly, but at the very least just seek out a huger pack of bottlenose dolphins, but the wather was still a bit sour so we took a rainy ride back to the border, said our good byes to Rick and Brian and parted ways, loading our gear into the Comby Van which Skellum had done a good job watching, failing to live up to his name in the best of ways!

The End

Mozambique Part 2 (of 3)

Warning: THe following post contains many kick ass pictures and stories




On a sunny day in Mozambique, with calm winds, the weather in December is outragerously hot. I would say the hottest day there saw temps in the high 80s and this is a very heavy and Humid heat by 9:30 am, past about 11am you wanted nothing more than a nice shady tree on top of a hill, where it was breezy, or better yet a nice swim in the Indian Ocean, which was nearly always refreshing and crystal clear. But luckily for us the sun didn't shine all the time we were in Mozambique....

The morning we left, Bevan, my ttride trip leader for the past ten weeks, and someone who has bouts of insanity when choosing a time to wake up each day, wanted to leave at 4am, which is ridiculously early for no real reason. Luckily we didn't wake up until 5:30, and were on the road by 6am for the 4 hour drive up to the border. I was not too sure what to expect, i knew that Mozambique was much less developed than South Africa, and that we were going to scope out a few places for waves along the 80 kilometer strech of coast Bevan wants to walk: from Hell's Gate down to the Border, in search of waves and people. From what i gather now there was a long long brutal civil war in Mozambique which ended around 15 years ago, and you can see how things are developing slowly, but it isw mostly people who live in SA that come up and build a summerhouse, or just want to esacape from urban life and go feral in the bush.

Upon arrival at the border we left the VW combi van in a lot just on the south african side of the border, it was being guarded by a man named Skellem which means "criminal" in English, a bit Ironic considering he was watch our possesions, but not really worrying because the english names Tribal Africans take for themsleves are always a bit odd sounding. In SA ive meet people name: Justice, Innocent, and Godswill. In Mozambique we met a man named, and I'm not making this up: 007, which still makes me laugh a little as I write this.

After leaving the combi we met up with 2 people who bevan knew, South Africans who live an work in Mozam now named Rick, and Brian. BOth were really nice guys who have spent a lot of time living in the bush and touring through game reserves. RIck especially has an incredible amount of knowledge about plants and animals in Mozambique, and presumably SA, so i felt quite lucky to have them along. They were waiting for us in the parking lot we loaded our gear into a truck and a big open air, safari car, which we needed becasue the roads we were on in Mozambique were 100% sand. No paverment anywhere. it had been raining that morning as we approached the border, but the weather cleared up nicely for our drive.

We drove about 4 hours from the border, through a wildlife preserve where we hoped to see elephants but had to settle for hippos and lots of eagles (sarcasic sigh). At one point we drove on the shore of a huge lake called Lake Piti, whose shoreline was covered in reeds, and was surrounded by massive green hills, and around 6:30 pm arrived in Milibangalala, where we camped about 200 meters from the Ocean. We ate a BBQ after pitching our tents and after dinner with the rain falling again we walked a few kilometers down the beach to try and mark some sea turtle nesting areas, a job that Rick does for the WWF (not to be confused with the WWE). WE only managed to see the fresh tracks of a female going returning to the sea after laying her eggs, which was a bit of excitment.

Unfortunatly the surf was quite small the whole time we were in mozambique and I only ended up surfing in 2 places: Bella Russia Point, and Ponta Do Ouro, which was a bit dissapointing but eveything else i saw nearly made up for it.

The 2nd moring was a bit rainy, and we had a lot of distance to cover into territory that not even Rick and Brian had been, to a town called Santa Maria, where we ended up next to Hell's Gate lodge. Hells gate is the narrow pass of water, reminded me of the pass at the end of Captiva Island where the golf course ran next to the beach, except with Crystal clear water. And now i need to go to the beach and stop wasting this sunny day inside (sorry readers) Ill finish the story later tonight or tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures ive added for your viewing pleasures.

Mozambique

Just a heads up that i will be going o Mozambique tomorrow, early morning, and I wont be posting, or even around a computer for the next 6 days.

A day of firsts

Today, I woke up quite early, still feeling sick, to continue shaping my board. After putting a coat of glassing on the deck of the board i found out that two of the girls staying here, Tammy and Kirsti, would be surfing in a contest at Surfers Lane, a spot we surfed a few days ago in fairly big and scary conditions.
This morning the waves were about head high and there was no wind. THe contest was small and relaxed, anyone who wanted to could enter and Nikki, the scottish leader of my TTride trip was talked into entering by Kirsti and Tammy. Both Kirsti and Tammy have fairly high world rankings in surfing so they obviously surf contests all the time, but this was Nikki's first ever. It was a good laugh to watch and Nikki even managed to get a few decent waves. I had kind of wished I had entered myself, i'm sure that i would have made a fool of myself and had fun in the process.

Although my head is still stuffed up and my chest weezes every time I breathe, causing me to cough and giving me trouble catching my breath i managed to get a few waves this morning early and right before lunch. The water was as clear as we have seen it in South Africa, the sun was out and the wind remains placid even as I write this. If i wasnt still feeling sick and tired I would be in the water still instead of writing this, additionally I needed to return to drill the holes in my board for fin boxes and begin sanding the deck and the rails so i can (hopefully) actually surf the thing tomorrow. I am still hopeful that it will ride nice and smooth.

So here is the last first of this entry: I drove the car that Chris, Pete, and I rented home from the beach. In south Africa they drive english style (left side of the road) and the car was a manual transmission, both of which were firsts for me. and you know what; I didnt do to bad. If you don't count the 10 or so stalls i had on the first hill away from the beach, during which we decided that Chris would drive to be main road (much flatter) and I would take over. There was also a hill with a stop sign at the top a few block from the Secret Spot and I stalled there. We laughed and waited for 5 minutes waving cars around us until there was a clear spot and I managed to get the car into gear on the first try and zoomed off like a fucking pro!!

Back at the surf camp even I could smell the transmission, which is saying something because I can't smell or even taset much my head is so blocked up, but the car is still purring like a kitten so it wasn't anything to devastating and it was one of the best things I've done since i have been traveling. A big thanks to Chris and Pete for their help and tutelage.

PS, its not like the thing means much here but I didnt have my drivers liscense with me in the car.

PPS:Sorry that you are reading all of this Dad

ok time to go finish my board!

TTFN

In the words of Billy Corgan: "The End is the Beginning is the End"

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!
THe trip has offically ended which means a new adventure will begin! Today the last few people are leaving: Toby left this morning early, and Steve and Sam are leaving the Secret Spot shortly. Sam is going back down to Jeffery's bay, however, becasue he got a job as a surf Coach down there. SO he will stay a few more months in South Africa.

As for me. I am very excited that the trip is done becasue now I wont have to spend so much time waiting for people to get themselves orgainized, and even more excited to go to Mozambique on Monday. Having a few days to rest will be nice as well becasue I have a bad head and chest cold at the moment so some rest will do me lots of good.
I managed to pass my Surf Instructor exam (yay) which could help me save tons and tons of money on Accomadation and food for the rest of my trip, if I can find a job as a surf instructor at a surf camp, or beach hostel.
Yesterday I started shaping my own surfboard with the help of Mike Smith, the owner of the Secret spot, the surf camp we are staying at hopefully the board will be ready to surf by monday, when we leave, and also hopefully the board doesnt suck because I am going to be surfing on it for the rest of the trip.
Ok, i have been on the computer for over an hour now so I will move on. Now that i am not in such a big group i promise to post more often, and put better info up, including pictures, which I have a huge stockpile of, going all the back to NYC when i stayed with Neliganbot.
OOOOOOOOK
TTFN

The End is near but not here and Things have dragged on

Welllllll....
Im in Ballito at the Secret Spot surf camp. While here I will get to shape myself a surfboard. I already have the size and shape (a 5' 11" fish) picked out. Hopefullly it wil be ready to ride in a week or less, although one of the things I have noticed about SA is that things tend to take a little longer than people say they will. Which makes you take things a little slower and forces you to be patient.
Our Surf instructor COurses have dragged on and on due to poor waether conditions. One day the water was full of jellyfish, and another there was literally a typhoon off the coast. THe wind hs been very strong onshore most days which means we havent seen decent surf very often in durban. Locals keep telling us this is the worst sean they have had for surf in years. Oh Well.
We still need to finish some demonstrations, rescuing someone on a board and surfing in with them, as well as backboarding someone win the surf which is hardest when you are on the backboard playing the victim and at the mercy of the surf with your limbs and head stabalized.
So lots of boring hours to pass the past few weeks.
I have been playing lots of guitar, which I bought in Cape Town, to pass the time. It is a good way to kill time, and something that I was trying to teach myself last year at home and i had hoped to be able to continue whilst traveling so it is good thing to have it.
My back continues to heal and i think i might even get som pretty sweet scars from all this so that is good. ANd i am really looking foreward to next week when I go to Mozambique for a 5 days of hopefully surfing good waves, camping, and fishing. We might even get to help Bevans friend monitor some sea turtle nesting which should be a cool thing to experience.
It feels a bit wierd to be at the end of this group trip. Most people are all thinking about going back to thier lives at home, and for me it feels like the start of a new trip. At the same time ill be seeing most of my family in around a month which means that the time is flying by this year way faster than i would like.

Travelling mostly on my own for the rest of the year is something is am really looking foreward to. Anmd getting on to Bali after mozambique I should be able to find better waves fairly consistently. I am still just as keen to get more experience on bigger, stronger, groundswell. As well as working on turns and sweet ass surfing manuevers.
Ok time to get off the computer
TTFN
talk more soon!

Anstey's: Another quick one

Hey everyone,
This is a quick post to let you all know that my back is healing up nicley so far. We are just a few minutes south of durban now. Here i will buy 2 more surfboards and Shape my own up in Ballito. I have been incredibly busy with Classroom work in preparation for my exam to become a Surf Instructor. We should have another day or two of work then a week off then our exams.

The Ticket To Riude trip is over in like 15 days or so. And to be completly honest I am looking foreward to the end of it. Although im sure i will miss everyone once they leave. After the trip ends 5 of us are going top spend a week in the hopefully empty and perfect waves of Mozambique.
Then its on to Bali for 2 or 3 weeks. During which time i might take a boat trip for a week with a Kiwi that i met here in ANstey's. Which would mean more empty perfect waves (shucks).

I have gotten to do a bit of surfing here and it has been lots of fun, but we were stuck inside when the waves were best which really sucked hairy ass. Oh well! got so much to look foreward to. SOmetimes its just good to be alive i guess.

Ok TTFN

Umtentweni: the story and the photos to back it up

SO here we are.

I havent posted since Jbay and i have a lot of things to talk about, i was in two towns, Chinsta and Coffee Bay, but as usual i will make you all wait a bit longer to here because the story of my first night here takes the cake by far.

The drive from Coffee Bay to Umtentweni was around 7 hours, and up[on arrival my friend Sam and I were ready to take a swim. So after the briefing from our leaders we went for a little bodysurf just behind our hostel, The Spot. The currents were strong, very strong, even though the waves were no more than shoulder high. So we were quickly taken about 300 yards out to sea and pusher down the beach towards a big patch of rocks.

Unable to fight back up against the current with much success, Sam and I decided to swim for the rocks, a hectic place and a bit risky, but we had both begun to worry about the fading light and the strong currents.

We both made it to the first patch of rocks covered in mussel shells and stood up. About 10 seconds later a broken wave washed over us. Despite my efforts to get low, crouching and grabbing the rocks with my hands, the wave picked up my feet and washed me over on my back, pushing me further on the the rocks. I could the stinging pain as my back scraped agains the rocks and shells and knew that i was not gonna get out of this situation without a bit of a thrashing.

Once the wave died down i stood up quickly and saw that Sam had been pushed a bit farther to the right thyan I and was already in the lagoon ahead of me. I made a dash for it over the shells and jumped into the lagoon to swim the final 75 yards or so to the shore.

Once out of the water, and happy have done so relatively safely, i first saw blood on the palms of my hands, then on my elbows. I knew it was bad when Sam looked at my back and said something like uhhhh....maybe we should go find nikki. Trying to make it sound not so bad.

Back at the hostel Nikki immediately began to clean up my back and patch up the cuts, which rinsed every single medkit that we had of all its gauze and band aids. Eventually we decided to go the ER and get it patched up and cleaned properly.

The ER was a crazy experience. It smelled terrible and looked dirty, there was blood on the floor which got cleaned up shortly after we arrived, and many people laying in hospital beds, some bleeding onto their sheets, some just writhing in pain. One man was praying quite loudly as, i assume, his family member was rolled off in a bed.

I was seen fairly quickly and found the nurses and doctors to be friendly and helpful, although they tried to give me a medication that i am allergic to. And i was out of the ER in less than an hour. They gave me medication and i stood there waiting to pay somebody for my medicine and care but i was told to go, without paying more than 3 american dollars so they could create a file for me. Universal Healthcare is alright by me!

All told I estimate that i got about 100 cuts on my legs, hands, elbows, feet, and back. Lucky Sam only got a few minor curs on his arms and chest and a few gashes in his foot. Both of us are on the mend well though and i will hopefully be back in the water in the next 2 or 3 days. Going to the clinic for a follow up tomorrow, i'm sure that wont be free.

Ok folks that is the story photos to back it up. I have some amazing stories about Coffee Bay and Chinsta, two incredibly beautiful places and i promise to put them up in the next week or so but i need to get off the computer now because this is costing me 1rand per minute to type on the Hostel Computer

More JBay Brotha

SO Im in JBay for another full day after this. But tomorrow we are going to Cape St Francis to and if we are lucky Enough we could get a chance to surf a wave called Bruce's Beauties, which is named after Bruce Brown, the director of Endless Summer. It is the perfect wave which they found, in the film and only break a few times a year.
Jbay has been really good for the surf, but the wind in onshore today so i think i will go bodysurf after this, because it will be difficult to get a long ride in with the onshore winds.

2 days ago an autralian couple staying in our hostle was drunk, and i mean piss drunk, by about 10 am when we came in from our morning surf. The Husband was a bit entertaining going around telling everyone how big the waves he used to surf were, and how he woke up one morning and saw a 12 foot crocodile staring him in the face so he said "Fuck off" and the croc turned and walked away. He grabbed the crocodile by the tail and started swinging it around in the air and then slammed it into the ground and it died. But we he quickly turned into a pest becasue he was so drunk, and his wife was in the bar and passed out on a bar stool and cracked her head on the ground and had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Her husband was so drunk he didnt do anything when we told him so we put him to bed and Thomas, the manager of ISland Vibe and a hell of a nice guy, went and picked his wife up from the hospital. By the time they left this morning, i still hadnt seen them in a sober state, and I just felt embarassed for them.

Yesterday I went horseback riding for the first time and it was amazing. Most of the time I operate under ther assumption that you cannot control other living things, be they people or animals, and ity really hit home once I was in the saddle that i was on top of a huge powerful living thing named Ross and had no idea what i was doing.
One of my favorite things about south africa is how laid back of a place it is. I didnt need to sign much paperwork, or even wear a helmet, and i got to gallop down the beach on a horse. The only girl in our group, kat, said that she has never gotten to get a horse full on galluping so it felt pretty cool to get to spring don the beach and over sand dunes after only about an hour of experience with the reigns.

This morning we got to go hang out with a group of township kids at school and that was amazing. We fed them and did some singing and dancing and ran around outside. Although they had a smaller jungle gym than I did at baker school, theirs was much more confortable. At one point i think i had about 10 kids climbing on me and pulling my hair, which they thought was the funniest thing. Unfortuanatly all of the boys knew about pro wrestling and went around hitting each other and shouting the name of theor favporite wrestlers, like Triple H and John Cena. Good old american Culture, top class. Although nearly everyo0ne reading this would probably call me a hypocrite for being cynical about it becasue when i was their age i loved the WWF too. So all in all an amazing experience.

ok ttfn

Jefferysbaai

Hello again!
I am now in Jbay staying at Island Vibe backpackers hostel. I have a few observations about SA in general so far so here they are.

1. The first thing i saw when i got out of the airport was a Lafarge Mining truck.
2. South Africa has tap water that is safe for drinking without filtration.
3. SOuth Africans have some of the best slang and accents of anyone i have met.
4. Ostrich Sausage is delicious.

In Jefferys Bay we stay right on the beach which is amazing. THe town is built up around surfing, particularly a wave called supertubes, that peels perfectly for over a kilometer on its best days, i would LOVE to get a chance to surf it but the lineup is always packed with 50 or more people in the water and you need to know people in the lineup if you want a wave. In the bar of our hostel last night I met a South African who lived in Grand Rapids Michigan for 7 years. We had a good talk about lake surfing, and he offered to introduce me to his boss who is a former pro surfer and a guy with a bit of pull in the Supers line up. But i don't put much stock into promises made in bars.

The waves here are knee high right now but there is a big swell filling in this week, last night we surfed at bit at both kitchen windows and phantoms, which are both less that half a mile from where i sleep. should be big and exciting by thursday or friday, i can wait to get a chance to surf some bigger waves.

TTFN

Plettenbergbaai Post 12

So,
South Africa has pretty much been the shit so far. Things are cheeeeeap down here. Ourt hostle in plettenberg bay is called the Albergo. Literally one minute away from my bed is an amazing pie shop called "the pie shop" where you can get a good chicken or minced beef pie for under 2 dollars, although im not sure that they would fall under the category of "in the zone". But for those health nuts out there about 2 minutes walk farther than the pie shop is a checkers, a SA version of Jewel so pretty much anything you need is right round the corner.
On a sour note, i can't find my cell phoine right now so...yea.

LAstly, before i go to bed. I have lots of pictures and so much more to say than i have on here so far, i just struggle to make the time for a proper post. But i will persevere with this as best i can. Hopefully you all havent lost interest entirely yet.

TTFN

Post 11: South Africa, mouth smackin' ya's

SO Im still doing this thing, even though it has been a while....
I'm in plettenburg bay as of yesterday afternoon, about an 7 hour drive from Cape Town (CT). In CT we had a homestay with a couple named Sean and Lucinda. Lucinda is a US transplant from florida who marriend sean, who is south african. They were both in their 30s and 40s a very nice people, buttheir house was in a very quiet little subburb of CT called Kommetjie. There wasn't much around their house (other than the beach) so it was a bit of a mission to find a computer and as such i haven't been posting. So sorry to all who were waiting for another post, the backpackers hostel in Plet has computers so that should make me a little more actice on here.

For those who don't know I am doing an orgainized trip up the coast of South Africa with a brittish company called Ticket To Ride.
Our group consists of 13 riders and 2 trip leaders. We have one Scottish leader, nikki, and one South African Leader, Bevin.
Of the 13 of us, 12 are brittish (Johnny, Johnty, francis, Camera Steve, Steve the pirate, Jack, Toby, Alex, Pete, Chris, and Katherine) , and 1 is a girl, but all seem to be good people who have stayed fairly enthusiastic about being here together.

In CT we surfed mainly a beach called Muizenburg, which has super mellow waves, awesome for longboarding. It is also in the same bay as Seal Island, which is a huge breeding ground for white sharks, and also the place where they film massive white sharks jumping out of the water to eat seals. But alas we never saw any sharks, even when we out of the water so all limbs are still intact. It is whale season however so we did manage to see over 10 whales, and whle we were surfing a pod of Dolphins and sometimes the occasional seal would come surf with us and jump around us while we sat in the lineup, waiting to catch a wave, pretty amazing.
On the last day in CT a new swell arrived so we tried to surf some new spots, but ended up back at muizenburg and a fierce onshore wind. Oh well. That evening, steve the pirate and I decided to try and paddle out at longbeach around sunset. The waves there were at least a few feet overhead (taller than me standing up), and although i made it out to the lineup I never caught a wave, so that was a little disappointing, but it seemed to impress my instructors and eveyone else that i even made it out to the lineup with the waves so big.

One of the most fun things we did in CT was to play soccer on the beach, and in the street, with Thomas a 28 year old soccer coach, and a few of his students from the township of Masipumhelele. A township in SA is pretty much exactly like the shantytowns where the aliens in the movie Distric 9 live. As thomas explained it to me the townships are both orgainized by the SA govt. and set up unofficially by the hoards of people who move from the country, where they lived off the land but made no money, to the city where they hope to make more money. Their quality of living is pretty poor, and they are pretty much stuck in a shitty situation, surrounded by corruption, uneducated, and unable to find a way out of the townships, but the kids were all really friendly and seemed happy. And Thomas, whose passion in life seems to be soccer seems to serve a much more important role in his community than just a coach: He is about the only person providing activities after the kids get out of school, and keeping them busy keeps them out of trouble, becasue drugs run rampant in all the townships of SA.

Plet is a much smaller place. We stay in the center of town, we will get to do a 215 meter bungee jump (the highest bridge jump in the world. Yesterday we surfed once, immediatly upon our arrival, and now we have 2 days off due to strong onshore winds (which sucks ass). So today we start training for our lifeguard and Instructor Certifications, which means running and paddling. Should be less fun than surfing. But it is a beautiful morning so i am gonna leave it at this for now, and go eat some breakfast.

TTFN

Post 10: Continuation of Post 9

So i tried to do this yesterday. And spent around an hour writing on my phone befroe I pushed the Back Button and, poof, all my writing was gone. But i wanted to write a bit more about Helsinki since I am not so tired anymore. So i will start with another list of key words, followed by a list of key phrases i learned in both finnish and swedish.

Keywords (to accopany above list):
Illegal student Party Place
Karaoke
Dance Dance Revolution
Theater Tour
Black Licorice (yuck)
Tar Liqour


Key Phrases:

Hello=Moi (finnish)
Thank you=kiitos(finnish)
Fuck=Vittu(finnish)
Excuse me Sir, your reindeer shit in my purse= Ursakta, din ren sket I min handvaska (swedish, and some of the letters have two dots above them, idk how to do that on the computer)
And in finnish: Anteeksi, porosi paskoi kasilaukkuuni

I'll add here that I loved trying to read the finnish street signs. They have named may thinks words with a sieres of 3 or 4 k's followed by the same number of U's and T's and i guess its just easy for them but the words don't even look real to me.

So onto the story:

Even though i stayed out late almost every night I actually managed to eat quite a healthy diet in Helsinki, but never better than at Annina's family summer house in espoo(?) out there her parents Christian and Ulla have a beautiful garden from which we ate carrots, potatoes and greanbeans. and they have plum and apple trees (which weren't quite ripe yet but still found some tasty plums) and bushes with berries which they made into some kind of delicious drink by boiling the berries, and stored in their "cellar" which looks like a hobbit home.
The best meal I had was when Christian smoked a Salmon for Me and Annina and Tabby (Annina's friend from Australia who also happened to be staying with Annina for a few days).

First he salted the fish fairly heavily and then but it in a box with a few different kinds of leaves and sticks, their scent was to cook into the fish. the end product was on of the most juicy and delicious pieces of fish I have ever eaten, Christian siad that the trick is to not get the fire so hot so the fish doesn't dry up.

It was actually very touching to have Christan prepare one of his favorite meals for us becasue he hasn't been able to eat, or taste a thing since he bagn chemo treatment in June. The treatmeants have finished but he must give his throat, right where ke held his cell phone, a chance to heal becasue the chemo pasically made a jumbled mess out of his throat.
He had to take his meals by filling a plastic bottle with some liquid mixture that looked like baby food which connected to a small plastic hose that ran through his belly and into his stomach directly. Can you imagine 3 months of that?!

And what was worse he couldn't speak for months before i arrived. But he had just regained the use of his voice a few days before I got there, which was very nice becasue he told me interesting stories while we sat in the sauna together.

One story that Annina told me which actually managed to shed some humorous light on the situation was that since her father had regained his voice, any time that Ulla spoke with him he would complain that his voice hurt and he couldn't speak, but when the Cat would get outside for more than an hour or two Christian would go out and call loudly for her. Which I heard him do as well. I think it is a sign that he is recovering well, he tooke me out on the boat once and also drove in and out of helsinki a few times while I was there. Hopefully the treatment worked.

Ok that is enuff computer time for today.

TTFN

post 9

Date: 9/12
Location: amsterdam.

Key words:
Traditional finnish culture
Swedish theater in helsinki
French cinema in swedish and finnish
Sweet island with war tunnels
Finnish rock
Boat bar
Invisible pizza shops
Spaghetti with tuna sauce
Traditional (means naked) finnish sauna with christian
Homemade juice
Garden
Finnish arthouse cinema.



Story:
As you can see I did many things in finland. Now I am In amsterdam. I got two hours sleep last night plus another 1 or 2 at the airport/on the plane. Been in amsterdam long enough to try smoking pot for the first time. Always wondered what it was like but its illegal in the states so obviously I never tried it. Its an exciting and exhausting feeling all rolled up into one smooth smoking sweet smelling little piece of paper.

I'm going to take a nap or full snooze now. Not sure which.
I have lots of pictures so far good for the blog and facebook (OMG!!!)
TTFN

post 8: cornwall

Date: 9/5/09
Location: car and train in the english countryside

I've decided to make things easy on myself because my fat fingers struggle on these tiny keys. So I will be listing things that sum up our semi-week in polzeath, a summer town on the atlantic coast in cornwall, followed by one short story from the trip.

Keywords:
English countryside
Stonehenge
Iconic airliner trailer
Hurricane swell
Rainstorm
Laser tag
Cornish pastie
Mega shark vs giant octopus
Onshore winds

Key people:
Me
Christian
Ed
George
Octavia
Skatie

Supporting people:
Mark and erin

Story:
Late august in cornwall felt like a crappy day in october in chicago, only greener. Our first full day in the trailer was the only day of favorable winds for surfing. Light offshore/sideshore wind all day. The waves seemed to build a little as the day went on. We surfed from around 830 to 1030am and went in to eat and i got one wonderful overhead wave.   Around noon the rain really picked up and all we could think about was how miserable it would be to get into our wet cold wetsuits. I was laying on a bed undercovers in the van when everyone made the push to get suited up.  And reluctantly i got suited up  

So we got our suits on and made the 3 min walk from the trailer park, across the street, to the beach. After my suit was on all my complaints were over and I was just excited to surf.

The paddle out through the shore was always grueling, on this particular session only the boys made it out back, partially because Skatie and Tia were given some safety advice by a surfer coming out of the water so they didn't paddle out where we (ed christian greg and I) did.

When I finally made it through the waves I was pretty exhausted so I just sat on my board and watched the sets come through.  

The waves at polzeath are a beach break with about 3 or 4 decent peaks out back when it was big.  The waves we rode were gifts sent to us from hurricane bill. The biggest swells were measured at around 10 feet with an 11 second swell period. The biggest faces we estimated at about 15 feet.  Very powerful.  

After resting my arms and watching a few sets I decided it was time to paddle into some peaks. In my limited surfing experience I would say the biggest waves I surfed before this had faces that were no more than 6 feet tall. So this was a big jump in size and I was nervous to the point that, if I had waited any longer to take a wave, I could have easily talked myself out of it.

My first few waves we a combination of humbling and disappointing. Lots of thrashings and underwater tumbling, lots of near missed drops.   Over the course of the 2.5 hour session the weather switched between a steady rain and a torrential downpour making it difficult to see the incoming set waves, which had a tendency to begin crumbling about 50 yards in front of you meaning you had to be on your toes.  

Finally i got a good peak and good position I was swallowed up by whitewater for a moment on as a got to my feet and as i came down the face.  Afterwards Ed and George said the wave face was 3 times as tall I was, not sure if that is true, but if so it would be a wave a good 8 feet bigger than anything I was used to.  I do know that i was scarred shitless on my feet and just as the water cleared from my eyes I saw some guy with a red board right in my line.   So i jumped off my board before the drop was done and tried to swim under the wave.  I basically tumbled and twisted for a few moments before breaking the surface behind the wave.  I had survived and not done any damage to my board or the man and his board in front of me.  But i did wish that i had continued my ride.  Later in the session the sun managed to peak through the clouds and the rain fell to a drizzle, a very beautiful moment in time that helped relax my nerves a little.

Over the next few days the onshore winds howled making the waves choppy, and the water was churned up with sand and seaweed giving it an nice brown color reminiscent of a big northwest day in the fall or spring at home at cliffs.   I got some great rides, not so fearful as I was when i first made those first few drops, but certainly with a sense of respect for the power of waves that size.

On to Finland to see Annina tomorrow!

TTFN

Post 7: Great Days Today, Great Days To Come

Today is a great day! After much turmoil over my RTW ticket (yesterday i thought i might be able to fly to london on sunday given the stipulations of my ticket. The fact is i was a little lazy and relying on the travel agent too much. But when i would read the rules of the ticket I started to fill like i was drowning in lots of the bullshit that I hope to avoid by "getting away.") i think today everything will be finalized and to top that off i am getting out of the effing city and going to the Hamtons (a swanky beach town) until sunday, when i board a flight bound for London. My travel schedual is a little crazy at times, long layovers and serious jet lag lies ahead, but as long as i don't go broke ahead of time I think i am in for one hell of a trip and I hope more that you will all enjoy reading about it.

TTFN

post 6: mobile post

Hello,
I'm in the airport trying my first post from a mobile device. By days end I will be in nyc. Ann arbor was really fun. Too much fun. Means that today will be about recovery. Chris and Jess got married in the finest of fashions. A short but meaninful service, followed by a great reception that was amazing. I could tell there was a great deal of thought put into making the event enjoyable for everyone.

It was a great way to start my trip.

Ok I think that will do for now. Mobile post over

Post 5: Boredom

8/2/09

Location: Moultrie, Georgia

 

            I have a lot of free time here.  And there isn’t much to do.   I am staying in a bed and breakfast about 3 blocks from the pool.   The house is quite beautiful.  It’s defiantly an old plantation house, big and white with a huge wrap around porch It is over 100 years old.  I am sharing a room with my boss, Alik.  He has a king sized bed and I have a plastic inflatable bed that is comfortable, but slowly loses air.   Our room is in the garage/stable house.  It would be a nice place to spend a nice romantic week, but with just the two of us staying here it feels a little awkward.

            I can feel the boredom setting in.  My 2 divers do not arrive until Tuesday, which basically means that I am on vacation.  I have been watching TV all morning, first Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (classic) and The Bad News Bears (remake) on TBS.  What’s worse is that I missed a huge south wind yesterday at home which would have meant a road trip up north for some waves (Frownie Face of Frustration) Oh Well.  

This place (Moultrie) is tiny and surrounded by farms.  Yesterday we went to the Winn Dixie supermarket, I saw all the staples: McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell, on the same road as the supermarket.  Don’t remember seeing a Wendy’s but next to Taco Bell there is a small stand that serves snow cones and funnel cakes, I would love to haven’t had a funnel cake in years, I believe that some folks call them elephant ears, but I sounded good to me when I saw it.  Moultrie is not big enough for Best Buy, but they do have a Radio Shack.  There is a Dominoes Pizza around the corner from our hotel and a CVS and Subway around the corner the other direction. It is sad that these things are the staples of many of our small towns in this country.  You can click on the blue text above to read more factual information about Moultrie. 

The natural landscape is amazing however, there are theses huge trees that have some kind of tiny vines or moss that hang down from its branches.  The air is super humid and it seems to rain every afternoon, which I love and which makes this place vibrantly green.  Even as I write this, the rain has begun to fall.  If there were an ocean, or “great lake” close by it would be a great little place to live because so far that people are very friendly.

 

TTFN-Ta Ta for Now

    -Tigger

Post 4

7/31/09

            Location: Airplane headed south(east) to ATL

 

I don’t really like having sharp Metal Objects in my mouth.  Even if people are trained to do put them there I still don’t like it.  On my most recent trip to the dentist (yesterday) I found out that I need a Root Canal before I fly away.  So I got one scheduled for august 18^th (fun).  My DDS, who I think was completely full of shit, told me that I have a ticking time bomb in my mouth that will eventually hit a nerve (literally) and I will experience “the worst pain known to mankind” (I thought it was childbirth but I bit my tongue when he said that).   So that will be a nice little bonus thing to do before I leave. 

It turns out that my DDS isn’t the only person who is probably full of shit.  When I was in Bloomington I turned on my (the hotel’s) TV and Fox News channel was on.  A Show called Red Eye.  It looked like a round table discussion between 4 “well educated” people, 2 men and 2 women, in their late twenties/early thirties, who can tell the difference?  Not me, no way.  Both of the women had blonde hair and both men had short dark hair and looked fairly similar.   They were sharing their opinions, which is  really what caused me to look at them as being so full of shit.

 One of the men said: “There are more TVs that people In America.   Most houses have 25 remotes, it’s a scourge.”

            The other Man responded: “Yea and most remotes got so many buttons that you don’t even know what they do, I mean you could push some of these buttons and someone 100 miles away could be getting electrocuted, cause I know that’s how I would make remotes.”

            Next one of the Women spoke:  “Yea but I have 7 tv’s and 3 cable boxes cause I know I don’t want to miss (some bullshit show) if one (cable box) goes out.  But you know what there’s less of, guns.  So I like to see some more guns for sure.” 

            Laughter ensued between them all and I imagined that not far from where I was laying some drunken business major was sitting in his room at his frat house laughing and agreeing with every word.  And thus we have the magic of TV, and the problems it can create.  4 people, all of them guided by a notion of perfection created for the sake of advertisement or to help them feel fiscally sound, sitting around on a TV show telling everyone how big of a problem TV is for American Culture, knowing full well that people will continue to watch regardless of what they say.   I Just wish that the lines between people actual opinions and the things they say to entertain TV viewers would not get so blurred.

As for the Gun comments, most people would already know that Fox News is quite a beacon of conservative political thought.  But interestingly enough, the idea of Guns for Everyone was a very liberal idea before the development of much more powerful weapons; guns used to be such a powerful object that to give them to the masses was thought to be a way to surefire revolution, and that was not far from the truth at all.  Now it seems to be a tied to conservative notions of personal security.  I myself do not own a gun, and have never shot anything other than a rusty coffee can (except for when i play laser tag and paintball).   And I have killed thousands, possibly millions, of digital people and Aliens on various videogame consoles.

 

Anyways I am way off topic so let’s transition back to more relevant news.   I will be in Moultrie, Georgia for the next 8 days at the US diving and Speedo JR National diving meet.  It is my last bit of work before I go, and the next few days will hopefully go smoothly.  This meet is the culmination of months of training so I will try and enjoy the experience and I will encourage my divers to do so as well because they have worked hard. 

When I get back home I will begin to furiously organize myself to leave (and take a nice relaxing trip to Canada).  This will involve an awful lot of cleaning.  Both my room and my Car are filthy.  My room is so dirty that my mother called it a “sore spot”, meaning if I don’t clean the hell out of before I leave she will shit a brick.  My Car is technically my Dad’s car and I need to clean it out because I know that he will also be upset with me if I leave a mess back home (or if I don’t turn all of the lights in he house off when I go to bed). 

In the process of cleaning I will probably give away lots of my clothing and things other things that clutter my life up at home, although I won’t be able to give away all the clothing in my closet because most of it belongs to my sister Skatie who might own more clothes and shoes than someone rich and famous who owns lots of clothes.   I think she made a wise choice in transferring to fashion school.

After I clean I will pack my bag for traveling.  Here is the inventory thus far:

1.     Tent

2.     Lightweight sleeping bag

3.     Water filter/iodine tablet for backup

4.     2 canteens

5.     Stove that will burn nearly any fuel (sounds like an advertising slogan)

6.     Cooking hardware

 

I feel like I have covered many necessities, clean water, shelter, food preparation. But I would still like to get my hands on a GPS of some kind and a waterproof camera so I can put some sweet pictures up here. 
As well as a good sharp knife.

The plane is now about to land in Atlanta so I will conclude abruptly.

 

 

TTFN

 

Post 3: Continuing of preparations

7/24/09

Location: Crowne Plaza Bloomington, IN

 

I am in Bloomington, IN for the AAU national diving championships.  This is my first time at this meet and should be a fun and interesting experience.  The meet is much different than most USA diving meets and I am a little nervous being in charge of everyone and so new to the game here, but these thing normally work themselves out, becasue i am lucky enough to have a great group of coaching colleagues and we all seem to help each other out.  Since I last wrote I have been preparing for the trip, obviously.  But I feel like I am very under prepared.  A little over 1 month from now I will be in Europe and at the very beginning of the trip.  And in a time of transition I am sure.  I feel like a privileged Urban creature now and to be honest I don’t really think much of city living.  I have always thought highly of a more quiet life and I think this trip will be a good opportunity to try and take my life in that direction a little more.   At the same time I know I will miss my home while I am gone.

 

 

With regards to the title of the blog, in explanation of the question: Why?  Because, I have been working for about 2 years (although some would say I don’t have “real job”) and have slowly accepted that I can do better at my job by bending to the expectations of others. But I would prefer simple honesty to layers of bullshit and I honestly I think that people need to take responsibility for their own actions and do what feels right to them. Also, I think that peoples’ strongest opinions are often the things that limit their life the most.  The fact is I enjoy acting like a goofy kid.  So if the name of this blog keeps you from being able to enjoy it, your loss.  And I am insincerely sorry that I enjoy acting like a fool.

 

 

Today I was at the gas station, the BP on lake and Green Bay.  Some guy using the other side of my pump was a FOB from Pakistan visiting his son, who I presume lived in Wilmette.  He didn’t know how to use the “American gas pump” (his words) so I gave him a little lesson.  His English was pretty good and he seemed like a nice guy.  I was pretty happy to have met this guy because it was an opportunity to teach such a simple thing that I take for granted.  It was like I got to be a little part of his American welcoming party.  When I am traveling next year I’m sure there will be situations where I will be the guy on the other side of the pump, unable to do a simple thing.  Hopefully I will have earned some brownie points or karma or whatever so that I find people friendly and helpful when I am a visitor in their home.

 

On a side note there hasn’t been a good day of waves on the lake in a long long time and now I am stuck in Bloomington and it sucks.  I cannot wait to be surfing daily, a dream of mine since I first returned from Kauai for the first time.  Ok I think that will do for today.

 

TTFN

Post 2

            Location: Airplane headed west

            Date: June 26^th

 

This entry will be like the first day of class; hopefully the rest of my entries won’t be this boring but these are things that need to be said I suppose. 

 

I will start things off with a short sermon:  I have been called “preachy” before by people that I both love and respect.  I have tried to make myself more conscious of this fact, for the sake of self improvement, but in life sometimes you are who you are, so if any of my words come off that way it is not intentional.  I don’t really believe in any organized religion and I try not to look at things as moral or immoral although I do believe that some actions have consequences both in reality and on our spirits. I am aware that mine is just one of billions of perspectives making it next to meaningless, so if you take offense to what I say just try and keep that in mind, ok.  Please be seated.

 

Most of you know I will be doing a great deal of traveling soon and some folks have asked, and some have demanded, I keep a record of my travels.   I hope that this will help some of you live vicariously through me because I plan on having a hell of a lot of fun.

 

It also may be worth noting that I am following in the footsteps of my siblings who have all done a little writing of this sort, (the blog sort) some of which has been travel oriented.  Although my favorite was my Brother Nick’s first blog which was so honest and open that he decided to stop writing it; and far too quickly, but he set the bar quite high in my mind.

 

When I travel I will be heading the opposite direction that I am now, and I do plan on doing one full lap around the world.   I will first to Amsterdam and Finland, for a long overdue visit to Annina's home, then onto South Africa in the middle of September.  Surfing as much as possible.  That much of my plans I will divulge for now along with a quote from Deadwood, a favorite show of mine (are HBO shows TV shows?), spoken my Al Swearengen: “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear god laugh.” 

 

Back home I feel myself being drawing in tighter to the ongoing and ever changing process that is life in Chicago and I know the longer I remain the harder it will be to break away from it all.  I want to be clear that I don’t feel like I am running from something I don’t like in Chicago; I love it there.  I have a great job and lots of people I love and lots of people who make me feel loved.  A trip like this just seems like something I need to do, and I am starting to feel the clock ticking back towards zero.

 

 

Recently (almost 3 years ago? My brain does not keep a good linear record of time and not surprisingly as I am quite excited to go to Amsterdam.) I have gotten all wrapped up in Surfing.  The single mindedness and wonderfully simple yet physically challenging task of catching and riding waves upright is an activity that gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

 

I get a similar feeling while playing a musical instrument; my mind is filled with the task in front of me allowing muck cluttering my mind to fade away.

Enough of that corny surf magazine nonsense for now.

 

I find myself growing apprehensive as my date of departure (August 23^rd) grows nearer, in less then two months my trip will have begun, and I feel that even though I have been dreaming of a trip like this for almost as long as I started thinking of myself as an adult, I feel unprepared.   For one thing I could be a much more physically healthy person and I have no one to blame for this but myself, my TV, and my Xbox 360 (among other inanimate objects).  For two things I have sacrificed much of the time I could have spent living in a tent to stay closer to the comforts of modern city livin’, and the all important college degree.  I did however manage to complain about it all a whole bunch while I was doing it (college), until I realized how much time and energy I was wasting doing it (Complaining).  I also had the realization that I was creating an identity in reaction to the world around me instead of looking inward at the person I wanted to be.  I am not a whiny person by nature (unless tired and/or hungry) but I was trying to play roles as a means to integrate myself in certain social circles; something I still do today, and consider a very necessary tool for success in this modern age of heavy technological connectivity, but now I try to make a much more earnest effort to be honest with myself in the process.

 

I would like to live a much more healthy life than I do right now.  Moving out of my house for college, like many others I fell into a pretty unhealthy routine of heavy drinking; additionally I have been and continue to be a cigarette smoker in this life.  It’s gross and bad for you I know I have heard the lectures and sermons before.  I’d prefer if people just quietly set a good example for me and accept the fact that good people smoke instead of pointing fingers and outcasting.

 

Having spent the past year and a half out of school back home in Chicago it seems that many graduates, recently entered into the workforce are still on a similar cycle.  I believe it could be called “working for the weekend” and if your lucky as me you are now thinking about Chris Farley dancing around in assless chaps or whatever the fuck he was wearing.

 

Anyways I will leave it at that for now I guess, ending by saying that I will return to my book West of Jesus which has been very good so far. (Thanks Chris)