Sao Paulo

After a couple weeks at the beach, it was nice to arrive in Sao Paulo. The climate is for sure a bit cooler, around 80degrees when we arrived, and wearing jeans was actually in the cards for the evening! You can feel the enormous concentration of population especially on the metro which is super clean, fast and efficient. They have a sign that proudly claims 3 million passengers served daily in the metro system! The first highlight of the trip was seeing Zeca Pagodinho at the Credicardhall. It was so fun to get to see him again especially at a much nicer place than Brasileirinho where we had seen him in 2007. The band was big with 18+ musicians, and Zeca of course with his cervajinhas throughout the entire show! He even sent a beer back between songs because it wasn't cold enough, and announced it to the crowd!
The next highlight was playing in the roda do choro at Contemporanea on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't planning to play, but Arnaldinho called me into the roda, and I got to play a couple songs with his cavaquinho since I didn't have my instrument. It was unbelievable to get to play with these masters in Sao Paulo city with a pretty good size crowd.

Engenhoca

The one beach I kept hearing about in Itacare that is great for longboarding is Engenhoca. We decided to go with one of the tour companies because the taxi option wasn't that great from town. The great thing with the tour company is that you go in a Sprinter van, so I could take my SUP board inflated inside the van. It was another "20 minute" hike in to the beach from the parking, but this was not very steep, so no problem with the board inflated. The trail goes past a small waterfall, and winds past another small beach called Havaizinho. This is beautiful beach with an added bonus: Ice cold coconut water vendor! When we got down to Engenhoca, the tide was pretty low, and the waves looked great, so I headed out and had an amazing session. It is a beach break, but mellower than the other spots, and not as crowded, so it was for sure worth the travel. We also explored around by foot, and enjoyed the the Atlantic Rain Forest munching on ripe caja and other local fruit. On the way back we regrouped with the tour who were at Itacarezinho and stopped at Cachoeira da Usina to rinse off, swim, and get some beers. There is a restaurant right there at waterfall to get services!

Neblina

The last week here in Itacare has been a blur of dawn patrol sessions and great exploring around the area. Yesterday we hired a Stand Up Canoeist named Neblina. He took us deep into the local river which was a beautiful mix of mangrove bordered islands loaded with palm trees from dende to coconut to açai. There was an incredibly impressive amount of wildlife from fish, birds and crabs lining all the land masses. It was highly enjoyable because Neblina uses just a paddle to propel the 20 foot canoe through some pretty big currents and chop! He took us to his cousin´s restaurant about 3km up river from town. It featured several shaded seeting areas, and a dock out to the clean river for landing canoes and swimming. This area of the river is not accessable by motor boats, keeping it super pristine. She served cacau caiprinhas served inside the fruit! It was such a great combination, and we had been asking everywhere for it in town, and now to find it at a completely remote restaurant was pretty hysterical. When she showed us the caught crabs eating dende seeds, we knew we had to try them.. so good with pimenta! Then the main course arrived which was a wonderful muqueqa also with dende seeds that you chew on, and freshly cut coconut meat, and super fresh fish filets, coconut milk, lime etc, served with salad, farofa, rice and pirao. After lunch Neblina took us through some more mangroves crawling with crabs, palm trees, and vermelha to a private remote waterfall where we swam and enjoyed some amazing granite scenery. When we got back to town after a long 10km paddle, he offered to take us back to the beach where our pausada is, so we wouldn´t have to walk...so sweet! Bandwidth is a bit scarce here, so images are going to be minimal until we get back.

REP

Spending time here in Itacare has been magical.. Our new friends Sylvia and Joel have been taking us to beaches every day, and we have been enjoying some incredible meals as well. The cacau is incredible. We got to sample the roasted seeds, very similar to chocolate in flavor, only darker, with a texture like coffee beans. The pulp is super sweet, creamy tropical flavor which they make juice and sorbet. All kinds of treats like coquettes, and liquor are made with the roasted seeds. We have also been eating a lot of seafood like Muqueca, acarajé and other dendê saturated snacks with a ton of pimenta! We were blessed by the Bahiana after eating her acarajé and tasting her coffee. The SUP surfing has been better than imaginable. The exposed beaches have been super challenging, but the local beach praia da concha is perfect because it is protected by a big jetty. Anyone can go from here making it good for teaching. From there you can paddle out the rivermouth to a huge sand bar that takes swell from any direction, with close to 1km rides on the right tide! You can also paddle to other beach breaks from here. Yesterday I woke up at 5:30am for a sick dawn patrol wearing speedos (surfwear of choice here) and paddled all the way to dendê coast! surfing waist to head high sets and getting cheered by the local fishermen!
REP is the portuguese anacronym for SUP and stands for Remar em Pé

Itacare

Our last night in Olinda we caught our last Serenata! Before we enjoyed a nice meal with a cool gay American couple, Keith and Joe, we had met the previous evening. Beto's sisters insisted on taking us to the airport the next day which is not a drop off like it would be in the US, but they parked and walked us in to the ticket counter, and on to security! We had a long layover in Salvador, and did some shopping, and enjoyed coconut water and self service lunch. Arriving in Ilheus was interesting, and we immediately got a taxi ride to our Pousada in Itacare. The ride was completely lined with Atlantic rain forest on both sides. we stopped for coconut water at a view point and got an impressive view of the beach from the bluff. OMG! This coast is crazy beautiful. Exploring the town, we saw more açaí stands than we could count! heaven! The taxi driver was laughing as Beto and I kept spotting Açaí stands. Also we saw tons of little surf shops, and even a cacao shop with all kinds treats and even the actual cacao fruit which none of us had seen. At the ultra efficient beautiful Pausada we met a very cool Brazilian couple, Silvia e Joe, with a 4 door truck....bonus! now we are exploring the outlying beaches with them searching for the ultimate SUP spot. Itacarazinho is 30km of pristine beach completely undeveloped and backed by Atlantic rainforest. Unreal! The surf was too big to get outside on my SUP. Uma dia de escola! At the pousada www.pousadaabare.com there are cute little monkeys climbing around in the trees!

Olinda's Birthday

The last couple days at Porto de Galinhas were unreal.. The weather was fantastic, the surf was small, but ridable at the mid to high tide. We found pure açai at this amazing stand in the center of the port town. The feel in the town is very mellow beach with great infrastructure including a beautiful terraced walkway with great shopping, açai, dining, surf shops, dive shops, and self service sorbet places. All very clean. The tide is a big factor there because at low tide it is full of tidal pools, all different depths. The pools further out are about 12 feet deep, and totally protected by the outer reefs. The colors are outrageous. The Pausada we stayed at was in an incredible lush garden with a beautiful shaded pool, wireless access, tons of cats and dogs around, Air, and wonderful cafe da Mana! Highly recommended: http://www.pousadaportoverde.com.br/
Returning to Olinda, we got a ride with our favorite taxi driver, Tony, from Olinda. We had to stop on the way for gas, and it was interesting for me because we filled up with Natural Gas. His Fiat SUV takes regular gas, alcool, or natural gas. He converted it from a flex car for R$3000. It is amazing all the options we have here for fuel. We have been seeing a ton of bio diesel, alcool (ethanol) is super popular and a lot cheaper than gas R$1.50/L vs R$2.50 for regular gas. It pretty interesting that Brazil is not in a recession now as well! The prices are approx. the same for consumer goods as they were 2 and 3 years ago!
We had planned to be in Olinda for her Birthday party which was a mini Carnival. We had an absolute blast checking out the blocos including an all women Maracatu bloco. Que Beleza! Later we went out to eat at Ofincina do Sabor, and had another incredible pumpkin stuffed with Portuguese housemade sausage this time. The espresso after the meal is served with Italian porcelain, and also served with it is a nice size cinnamon stick to stir your sugar! In the ultra clean bathrooms, disposable toothbrushes are offered!

Porto Galinhas

After a productive week in Olinda including numerous dental appts, and a lot or fine dining, and visiting friends and family, we have escaped to the beach! This place is outrageously beautiful. Endless reefs and waves, great surf culture and tons of services! Amazing SUP spot, and good kiting as well. 86degrees 24 hours a day. ... Dreamy!

Cachorro Beethoven

It has been raining almost non-stop in Olinda for the past couple days, so we have been doing a lot of eating and catching up on sleep. When it rains here, it pours buckets, but then the sun comes out, and it feels hotter than ever because of the evaporation, plus there isn´t much wind. People are whining because it is not the rainy season. We are making the most of it of course, and enjoying, including getting plenty of sun. This picture was taken at this busy Olinda restaurant Oficina do Sabor. We ordered a stuffed pumpkin which made me think of Barbara Kingsolver´s warted pumpkin in Italy from her book AVM because of the warts. You could have it stuffed with almost anything from Octopus to chicken. We chose the local favorite of Carne do Sol and coconut. It was amazing, and a huge amount of food for R$40 - would easily feed 4 people. When it is written on the menu it will feed 2, you know it is going to a large portion! The salad was absolutely wonderful, the freshest imaginable local veggies including cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, red cabbage and olives. It was also giant. On the table were two house made wonderful marinade condiments one made of roasted garlic in olive oil, and one made of hot peppers in olive oil. We could not get enough of either because they were so yummy.

Prior to this great meal, we hung around the quadra for some beers, and ended up seeing some great Carnival parade music. Keep in mind, it was raining on and off.
For those of you following the Carnival dog story from Rio: http://carnaval.uol.com.br/2009/album/cachorro_na_sapucai_album.jhtm
He was all over the news again today! It turns out that he is a street dog from around the Sambadromo. He is well fed by the local street vendors although he was sleeping on the streets, and his name is Beethoven! It seems that everyone has a thing for him, and after this story broke, one of the news reporters decided to adopt him. Now he not only has a collar, but he lives in a posh Zona Sul apartment in Rio!


The witch in this video was everywhere. We kept running into her including at the Serenata! She would dance around to the beat of the music. Here you can see she was getting in position for the parade.

Olinda "post" Carnival

We arrived on Thursday to Recife. Natalia was very sweet to pick us up at the airport, and take us to get some amazing coconut water and açai on the beach in Recife at a stand in Boa Viagem. It was unbelievably sweet, cold and wonderful especially after over 12 hours of travel...now we really made it! We got caught up on all the latest family drama, which I will spare you all.
Next stop was Nadia´s house in Olinda citade alto. This will be our home for the next couple weeks. Denise the house keeper was here, and she had cooked a wonderful meal including fish, rice, beans and salad. It was very enjoyable, and great to get some local food in our systems. Next we decided to go to the Hiper market to get some supplies including organic coffee, oatmeal, tropical fruits, plain yoghurt, meat and cheese etc. After returning, we had some snacks, and went out and walked around the city with some cold beers, running into friends on the street, and getting coconut water, and some açai and caja sorbet that was so good I was close to crying. The sweet man that was the owner of the sorbet place was really funny. When we inquired about the hours he is open, he said simply every day all day with a huge smile. We laughed because he was so happy about keeping such crazy hours! When we got home and went to bed, there was a little issue with the sheets, so we made a pact that we would get new sheets the next day.
Friday we woke up and it had rained pretty hard during the night, but it was really sunny, clear and gorgeous morning. We had our cafe da manha of oatmeal and fruits, and then went straight to the shopping (mall). We were on a hunt for 100%cotton sheets and new speedos for us. We were completely successful, and very happy to find a nice price R$69 on the sheets, R$17 on the speedos and great matching colors!
Beto´s sister Carmenha had invited us to lunch at her apartment in Recife, so we went there after stopping at Nadia´s. The lunch was an amazing meal of 3 kinds of chicken, rice, beans and a huge fresh salad. Also present for the lunch were Nadia, Allene, and Paulo. We ended up hanging at Carmenha´s really nice apartment all afternoon, I took a nap there while the rest of the family watched Novellas (soap operas) and caught up. Later we stopped at Allene´s nearby apartement for an afternoon coffee with snacks of bread, cheese, cakes etc.
Once we got back to Nadia´s we could hear the Blocos starting up, so we hurried back out to the streets to see what was going on. We ended up getting some cachaça, beer and caldinho at this cute new bar. Caldinho is a really nourishing broth of either beans with a quail egg, or fish broth with a lot of fish meat. After that, we found a pretty large crowd building in the streets, and a bunch of horn players and drummers getting ready to play. We could tell it was a Frevo bloco because of the instrumentation. When they started it was awe inspiring mix of 6 trombones, 5 saxaphones, 1 tuba, 5 surdo drums, 2 snares, and a giant stilt walker. They played a few songs in the square, and we bought some beers from the street vendors. We ran into a friend and we were all dancing in the streets, and enjoying the hot frevo music. When the bloco started marching through the streets, we followed of course and it ended up being a pretty large route through the steep cobblestone streets of Olinda. At one point we had gotton off the main route with this giant crowd of people, and were blocking traffic including a packed city bus. They waited patiently until the end of the song, and then pushed through the crowd. After they had passed, the music started up again. The crowd was screaming: por que parou? - (why did it stop)? It was really funny.
After the frevo was done, we noticed another group of musicians getting warmed up. This one was mostly strings including guitars, violins, cavaquinhos, banjos and singers. They had a large sound system on wheels. They were getting ready to serenata, and I had heard of this, but had not seen it yet, so was very excited. The street vendors made the transition from beer and cachaça at the frevo to whiskey on ice here at the serenata. This was indeed a more chic crowd. The musicians all had matching satin vests, and were all ages from 16 or so to 80. We knew one of the singers, and she was really happy to see us. We ordered some Teachers whiskey on ice. The vendor didn´t have enough change, so he simply poured more whiskey in our glasses. When the music started, it was classic chorinhos - Pixinguinha, Cartola etc, and sounded so good after the frevo. It was already after midnight, and this crowd started marching through the streets with the sound system on wheels being hand pulled on a rope by the leader. A little rain didn´t seem to bother anybody, but it stopped right away anyway. We followed this group around the streets and I was crying because the music was so beautiful and moving. After that we went back for some more caldinhos and beers, and to use the bathroom at the bar. We ran into our good friend Jonahs at the bar, who we hadn´t seen yet and he was telling some great stories while we relaxed with coconut water to re-hydrate, and some caldinhos. By now it was almost 2AM, the streets were busy, and we ended up sitting on a stoop in Olinda and enjoyed a joing with Jonahs while he was making us laugh hysterically, all the while watching people walking through the streets. After that we called it a night, and came home.

Florida stop over

Flew into fort Laurderdale yesterday, and got picked up at the airport by Churienho. Susan was here in Boca to greet us, and we had a great visit with some churrasco and vinho. We were pretty wiped out from the travel, and ended up going to bed pretty early. This morning we got up early, and went to the beach... sunny, warm with a pretty good breeze, a ton of surfers showed up to surf, but it was pretty windy to SUP, so I ended up just relaxing on the beach. Beto and Susan went for a walk, and Churienho hung out with Marezhe. We got a ton of sun which felt amazing after a long winter in OR. When we got back to the house, we had some beers, and barbequed again. Very fun time, and super generous of them to put us up, and entertain for the past day. Now they are giving us a ride to Miami, and we will fly to Rio, then Recife and be Post Carnival. More than stoked! Stay tuned for updates!

Preparing for Carnival

Getting organized and packed for my trip to Brazil.  I will be departing for Fort Lauderdale Tuesday morning the 24th at 6am.  Beto and I hope to get some time at the beach in Florida on Wednesday prior to our international flight on Wednesday night.  We will be staying in Boca Raton with friends of Beto Tuesday night.  Once in Recife Thursday morning we are staying with Nadia, Beto's sister in Olinda right toward the end of Carnival!  Getting very excited.    Check back here for updates.

San Diego county SUP scene:

I spent 6 days checking out San-O and vicinity with John Ashley
http://www.paddlesurf.net he showed me around the areas best spots,
and I got a real taste of the San Diego SUP scene including some awesome
santa ana conditions paired with some moderate NW swell! Day one was a
travel day, I went from the Airport directly to the ULI headquarters.
I wanted to meet Jim Wier there, and check out his setup. He was
super cool, and is the real deal -been surfing forever, and really
knows the surf industry and can tech out on inflatable technology.
He showed me everything I need to know about the
ULI SUP boards, his newest shapes, and traction
including some pretty sick looking camou models, and secret new light weight
technology. Jim directed me to the south end of Mission Beach where I
got my first session on the ULI. The swell was big, and pretty much
breaking on the beach, I was very impressed with how easily it paddled
out through some pretty large white water. It has a soft feeling on the bottom
of the feet which is comfortable, especially for longer sessions. When I
caught my first wave, I was stoked on how the board trimmed and turned
on the wave, it takes a slight adjustment from a regular sandwich
epoxy board, but I felt that it was pretty intuitive. The thruster
fins are small, so it spins out easily if you are not used to it, it
surfs more like a quad fin setup very loose and skatey. The
other surprise was the ULI 3 piece paddle breaks down small, but works
great as a price point travel solution. It is stiff, and relatively
light.

Day 2 was a 6AM pick up with John. We went directly to PB point, and
I was amazed with how clean the surf was with a nice long interval.
We got to meet some other SUP guys in the lineup, and chat a bit about
the sport between sets. It was a dream come true to be out sharing
waves with these guys, and to get some of the longest rides I had
ever experienced. When the crowds got
bigger, we split, and took John's truck up to the next spot, La Jolla
shores. It was packed there with LD surfers, so we basically paddled
around the lineup avoiding them, and headed North to Tabletop peak
passing hundreds of Leopard Sharks that were hanging in the shallow
areas. We paddled past the La Jolla caves up to tabletop, where we
had the peak to ourselves, and caught a bunch of wavelets that were
super fun. After our session we went and had some lunch
in the sun there in La Jolla. After that we went to check out some
of the boards at Stu Kenson's shaping room. It was impressive to see
all the secret shapes, and hear some stories. After that I was spent
and ended up napping in the sun!

Day 3 was a 5AM pick up. We had decided to go to San Onofre that day,
and it being a weekend, we wanted to get an early in at the state
park. When we arrived, it was 6AM, it was barely daylight, and there
were already a ton of surfers getting ready for their session, only a
couple of people on the water, but the parking lot was buzzing with
activity. We headed down to the dog patch, and paddled out and were
the only ones on that peak for a good 20 minutes or so before some
more SUP guys showed up. In that amount of time, we literally caught
probably 15 waves each, all nice size, shoulder high or so. It was
insanely fun because the waves there are so forgiving, the tops break,
and then they re-form allowing you to power through the flat spots,
and then get back in there. When it started getting busy, I
paddled south to Nukes to check out the scene down there, and had a
blast, a bit longer ride, but not as consistent that day.

Day 4 was back to 6AM pick up. We headed up to Del Mar, and checked
out Cardiff Reef. It was getting a little busy by the time we
arrived, but we had a fun session checking out the scene. There were about 12
SUP guys in the lineup there by 8AM, plus about 3 longboard surfers.
It felt crowded because it is a pretty narrow peak. The cool thing
there was the old timer SUP guys, and the younger guys all sharing
waves, and having a great time together. The longboard kids were
impressive, with amazing board skills. One of them was surfing without a
leash, and was so smooth, when he kicked out, he just grabbed the
rail with one hand, and was able to turn around on a dime, and paddle
back out effortlessly. John and I were hanging more inside to
pick out the available waves and got some pretty decent rides.
Once it got a bit more crowded, we paddled down toward the south
to find a killer unoccupied peak to ourselves which we sessioned for
a couple hours. It was a bit more inconsistent, but the crowds were right!

Day 5 was a 9AM pick up. We had decided to go to Sunset Cliffs which
needs an outgoing tide in order to get back out of the water. There
is no beach there, so you have to scale cliffs with your board, or you
can go down a steep winding staircase to get to the launch which is
not doable at high tide. When we got down to the water, it was pretty
crowded at the nearby peaks with LD surfers, and they were not
to stoked on our presence, so we just paddled around them and headed
south to some unoccupied peaks about a mile south of the stairs. The
crowds were right, down there -no nearby access- and the surf was
pumping over head high! We caught a bunch of great waves before the
wind came up, and we ended up paddling back to the launch after a
great session. I caught the wave of the trip during that session, and
it was pretty amusing because I had hesitated in position since it looked
like a closeout when John saw me and shouted "go go GO" I took a quick
couple strokes, and was dropping in, carving turns utilizing my
paddle, and was super stoked. Thanks John! Later we went to get some
local thai food and we drove around IB and Coronado checking stuff out.

Day 6 was a solo mission, and I headed back up to the dog patch for a
dreamy mid-week session. It was bigger that day, and there were about
8 SUP surfers total including one woman who was really fun to surf
with. When the wind came up around 10AM, it was a bit
on-shore about maybe 10-12 mph, all the SUP surfers came in, except me
and one other rider, so we got to have the whole dog patch to
ourselves!

I would definitely recommend John's lessons and tours to anyone interested in getting the
local SUP experience in San-O area. He is very generous with his bank of resources and knowledge.
For sure worth it!