Home stretch...

Sitting here by the pool of our posada its hard to imagine a place I'd rather be. We are on our last full day of Jericoacoara, and have a big day / night ahead of us. We'll probably head down to the windsurfing area in about 20 mins, hit the water / waves for a few hours, have lunch, then maybe wander around the village a bit for some souvenir shopping, happy hour, etc. Later on we have a big bbq / party here at our posada, then down to the beach for fireworks and the big fiesta. Unfortunately, we have an early departure tomorrow morning at 6:30am (ouch), which gives us two clear options... option 1 = party all night, option 2 = back home by 1:30am for 5 hrs of sleep. I think AP and I are on option 2, Mario-Betto-Rob (all the same person) will probably be on option 1. Tomorrow we travel by 4x4 along the beach and then thru small villages to Forteleza, then to Sao Paulo, then SF. AP and I will stay in SP for a day to visit w/ the Prado familia, and Rob is going to head straight back... so Rob will arrive on Jan 2 in SF and I'll be back on Jan 3. We have a ton to be thankful for this year and look forward to having a great 2006 w/all our great family and friends.

Update from afar... Fernando de Noronha (Brazil)

First few days in Fernando have been very nice, not much happening on the wave front, but we had tons of other fun things to do, including a great scuba trip, hikes to remote beaches, snorkeling, little partying / dancing, eating out, etc.

Today the swell finally bumped up and we had shoulder / head high little barrels on offer down at the local. We both got a few, then I made a bit of a tactical error by dropping in on the one guy that you probably should steer clear of. I'll save the rest of this story for when we get a better connection, trust me though, you will be entertained.

Two more days of great surf ahead of us... keep checking back and we'll update again.

Countdown is on...

Its that time of year... sun, killer food (churrasco), cold beer, beautiful beaches, hammocks (rede), and great waves... where else but BRAZIL! This year two destinations... Fernando de Noronha and Jericocoara.

Unfortunately right now all I can think about is my list... sunblock, first aid kit, cameras, power adaptors, PC cables, white clothes for new years eve, vitamins, duct tape, surf wax, extra leashes, hat, shorts, flip flops, sunglasses, iPOD & speaker, blah, blah, blah. One thing I won't be bringing is my down jacket.

Hopefully we are going to do some posting from the road, we'll see how it works out.

Short vid from Sunday

Here's some footage from Sunday, most of the really big ones didn't hold up so the rides are on the medium sized waves mostly...December 11th, 2005.

Tough Love

Big, clean, gentle off-shores... pretty much perfect I'd say. Saturday started out in the 1.5xOH then hit 2xOH by lunchtime and just got bigger from there. Somewhere around 11am I think I hit my big wave threshold. Hard to say for sure how I know when I've hit my size limit, but somewhere around 2xOH I start surfing 'defensively' instead of 'offensively'. Another indicator is that I start thinking about how the hell I'm going to get in. At the local you'd think its no problem, sand bottom, right? Well, strictly speaking, I guess that's right... but speaking from first hand experience, you can really get stuffed if you don't pick your exit time wisely. AP shot these pics on Sunday AM at the south end, so these are after the swell had completely filled in. There were around 15-20 guys out just going for it... some got glory, some got a heaping spoonful of tough love. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/1567239/

From the streets of outer sunset to the cafes of Milan

Pronto!! Last week made a departure from the mild Norcal winter weather to make a biz trip over to Europe. Normally when I make these trips I hit multiple cities and customers to get more of a cross section of what is happening in the European market... this time we were 100% focused on a single customer in Italy so we just went straight to Milan.

If you haven't been to Milan I'd definitely say it is worth the trip from a tourist perspective. Didn't get much time to kick around, but between the Duomo (pictured), the charm of the older sections of downtown, and the swankiness of the fashion district, its an interesting experience.

I think this is my 3rd or 4th trip to Milan on business and my favorite part of visiting is getting to interact w/ the Italians. What an interesting bunch. First of all, the best thing about Italians (IMHO) is their true appreciation for the good things in life... specifically, great food, fantastic wine, and perfect coffee. Its not just the wealthy upper class either, the appreciation of food and drink seems to span the economic classes. The other thing I always notice when go to Italy is that it seems like every Italian has a sense of personal style that can range from a barely noticeable fashion accessory to full on branded clothes from the latest designer, hair, shoes, etc. Very cool country and great people... ciao!