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!