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