Saturday at Maresias

Here is where Brazil becomes a vision of paradise that is epitomised by beautiful beaches and warm ocean, fresh coconut water and tanned bikini clad beauties.

This coupled with 3 feet of perfect swell and indeed it would be heaven but alas it was more like 1 foot. Still it was a beautiful day and as we trundled down the cobbled main street it was easy to see why Maresias was a Soul Surfers destination of the 70's.

Maressias used to be accessible only by a service road for the petroleum pipes that carry crude oil to the refineries. Now it is a beautiful beach community where the mountains finish at the sea and water is a tepid 26C in summer.

After a few knee high short but fun rides on friends, friends longboard, a swim and a siesta we had the most delicious fish meal and a few beers to wash it down.

All in all it was a pretty perfect day and if you ever get a chance please don't miss out :-)

Sao Paulo

Day three in Sao Paulo, what I wouldn't give for a good wave and a strong Latte, :-) The surf is not far away but with the traffic here it can be anywhere up to two hours to the closest surf beach which is Santos, I'm going to try and get there at least once but I have a busy schedule and right now I am feeling pretty jet lagged.

On Sunday I caught up with my friend Pedro, a Designer with GM here in Brazil and met his family it was a pretty awesome day, its really nice to meet and spend time with locals as you get a little insight into a world that you don't get as a tourist.

well since I wrote the above, I found a place near the hotel that makes a great Latte

I think that was the most enjoyable coffee I've had in a while

Diversity is truly amazing.

Friday at Bells beach

Friday after work I headed down to Bells with a couple of friends, Johan and Arnou, and arranged to meet Rohan and Leroy there. we arrived to find Rohan had lost a fin and finished early but headed out to catch a few waves with leroy. The waves were breaking nicely in the bowl at a clean 3-4ft. My first wave was pretty sweet, a wide wave a bit overhead which broke perfectly down the line. I'm really enjoying riding the wooden fish, it is so fast and fun to ride and perfect for Bells at that size. We all had a really good surf and there were plenty of waves, it was my first session at bells where I made every wave all the way down the line so I was pretty stoked.

I think Johan caught the biggest wave, a wide set wave around 4ft+, I was paddling out as he was taking off and I thought that is going to be awesome!!!!!

As we finished our session and walked up the beach lightning started to flicker overhead and by the time we walked up the stairs the rain had become a torrent, quickly followed by hail and gale force winds, we could hear the guy's still in the water cheering!

Love Bells beach :-)