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My buddy from Oregon left his wetsuit, booties, and gloves at the casa a few weeks ago... course the team took the opportunity to demo his suit a few times, which I think is fair... but I had a hard time finding a use for the gloves. Around here we really don't use gloves, well most of us don't... anyway, of course when I finally found a use for them I get the email asking me to drop the whole kit into the mail... bummer!!!

Winter Juice

Superbowl was sort of boring, not sure exactly why, but just had a hard time getting into it. Bummed the Seahawks lost though. Maybe it was the beautiful sunny day we had here, felt like we were into the 70's, but I'm sure it was just upper 60's. Or maybe it was the BOOMING surf... today was the Mavs contest down at Half Moon Bay. I checked it out for a little while on web, those guys are truly on a different level... pushing each other into some really crazy spots. OB was serving it up, but it was really for a very elite crew. At this point, I wonder if I'll ever get past the 2xOH threshold out there, hard to imagine, but who knows. These mild temps are supposed to hang around thru the weekend.... and don't forget your better half on Valentines day!!

Brazil - SF - Vegas - Thailand

After getting back from Brazil and taking a quick trip down to Vegas for a product launch, I went to Asia for a work meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

If you haven't been to Bangkok, its a place you really should visit sometime. As far as Asian cities go, its very large and densely populated with some upside and downside. On the upside, there are some truly amazing temples with killer architecture, gigantic Buddhas, and lots of gold and shiny things. Aside from the temples, the next biggest attraction is the shopping. You can find really cool home furnishings, gadgets, mini Buddha statues, textiles, etc. Special mention must be made of the availability of cheap and excellent massage. The one free afternoon I had I got a foot massage (reflexology), followed by a facial, followed by a full on traditional Thai massage (I think the end price was something like $25 for 3 hrs of spa treatment). However, my favorite thing about Thailand has got to be the food... amazing quality, price, freshness...YUM.

Most of the food that is... I came across this cart selling assorted fried and salted treats. Upon closer inspection you'll find that each of these fried and salted critters were once among the living. I have to admit I wasn't up for trying any of these, but I did give the nice lady 20 Baht to take this photo.


The downside of BKK is that it has sort of a seedy underbelly. One thing you'll notice right away is that there is a disproportionately large number of caucasion men who are all in their 40s - 50s all hanging around. During the afternoon, its just them... siting around drinking beers. You might conclude that they are all waiting for their wives who are out shopping or getting a manicure or something. Then you might notice that there is a strange consistency to these men... most are slightly to very overweight, and lots seem to be these sort of 'working class' type guys. The look is unmistakeable... dress socks with white tennis shoes, vacation shirts, cheap bling-bling, etc. Late afternoon it becomes obvious what they are waiting for... the bars all start to fill in with local thai girls. I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion of the sex trade in Thailand, some will argue that its their right to make a living how they choose, others will argue that the presence of so many willing consumers only makes a bad situation worse.

Anyway, besides the prostition, there is traffic, pollution, and its sort of just a crazy, anything-goes sort of place. Like I said, for a few days, it can be alot fo fun... temples, water market, shopping, eating... then use BKK as a jumping off point and get yourself over to the southern coastline.

NE Brazil... Part 2 - Jericoacoara

Leaving Fernando, I think we all were excited about what the second leg of our trip had in store for us. None of us had been to Jeri and from what little we knew, it was going to be a real adventure. After flying from Fernando to Recife to Forteleza, we took a 5 hour ride in a 4x4 thru remote villages and at least an hour of driving on the beach (no road!). For me personally, this drive was very memorable and our driver (Daniel) was great.
We stopped at a roadside stall for Christmas eve dinner and had a fun time eating bbq meats, rice / beans, drinking beers, and chatting w/ whoever walked by. After we got past the last village and started driving on the beach, Daniel stopped so we could all get out and really get a good look at the night stars. I think its great when you can take time to allow yourself to get completely absorbed in the stars. There were a few times on this trip when we allowed ourselves the luxury to just gaze up and drift off into conversation. Something else thats extra cool for us northerners is that the stars seem completely different due to the southern perspective... its like you are seeing a whole new set of stars!

Pulling into Jeri we were all immediately struck by the charm of the place. The streets are all sand, very few cars, great little cafes & restaurants everywhere, and lots of people all enjoying themselves! Our posada was on the outskirts of the village about 15 mins walking or 7 minutes by horse cart, and it was really, really nice. In fact, I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how nice our accomodations were... on top of this, the owners, Marcio and Patricia were extremely gracious, engaging, and loads of fun to hang out with! Can't talk about Marcio and Patricia without mentioning their angel daughter Mika, having her around the posada was really a huge bonus.

Most days we would roll out of bed around 9am or so, take breakfast, hang around the posada (literally hang in our rede), then grab a lift via horse cart down to the beach. At the beach we'd usually setup basecamp at the windsurfing center during the main part of the afternoon, then each evening we'd wander down the beach for a snack, watch capoeira, maybe do a little shopping, or catch sunset from up on the dune. Ultimately though, each evening we found ourselves at the sky bar having caiparoskas and laughs w/ an assortment of characters.

AP made some nice new friends that she met at the windsurfing center, one of which was pals with one of her childhood best friends from Jacarei (Sao Paulo)!! In addition to the new friends, we had some existing friends that also made the trip... our good friend Elrid who lives in Florinopolis, John Shannon who lives in London, and Marcia and Chris who we knew from San Francisco. Rob also did a great job making new friends :o) .

One experience that really stands out when we took 4 motorcycles and a dune buggy out for a day trip. I'll tell you, riding a motorcycle in the soft sand is alot more challenging than you'd think... fortunately, we escaped without any serious wipeouts (though I thought I was going down at least once) and it left me trying to think of a way to get a dirt bike back in SF. The scenery was incredible and at one point we came to a river, where we loaded up the motorcycles and the dune buggy all onto a raft and portaged... with pole power!


Our last night in Jeri was NYE. True to Brazilian tradition, we dressed in all white and had a fun night eating and partying. Just before midnight we climbed to the top of the dune to watch the fireworks and make our toasts, then after we walked down to do the wave hops for good luck in 2006. Noteworthy is the fact that Rob pulled an all-nighter on NYE, in fact, I think he pulled a few all nighters that week... buy him a beer and I'm sure he will have some stories.

Here are my favorite photos out of AP's collection (there are lots)... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72057594051893336/

NE Brazil... Part 1 - Fernando de Noronha

Week 1 for this year's Brazil holiday was Fernando de Noronha. Its a small island about 350 miles off the coast, slightly NE of Recife, which is in the extreme NE of Brazil. AP had been to Fernando several times for its world-class scuba and I had been hearing about these perfect hollow waves, so it seemed like a great destination to satisfy both our cravings. After talking up how great the surfing was going to be, our good friend Rob Born decided to join us.

I'm not exactly sure how the Brazil parks system work, but the way they managed Fernando was very effective. It doesn't feel like one of our national parks, but its obvious that they have put strict limitations on all residential and commercial development and thereby indirectly limited the number of people (no camping allowed). If you aren't registered at one of the guest houses, you are not permitted on the island (registration is right when you get off the plane). The net effect is really great, you feel like you are on an exclusive and crowd-free retreat!

The beaches were amazing... very much pristine and beautiful. Crystal clear water, abundant sea life (turtles, spinner dolfins, fish, etc.), and top rate underwater exploring. With AP as our guide, we signed up with a dive operator that took us on 4 exciting and somewhat challenging dives. I think the diving was really one of the highlights for both AP and I... especially so for AP. She has alot of passion for scuba and I think adding to her excitement was getting to see all her old pals from when she would visit with her friends a few years back. Towards the end of our trip, we were hanging out at one of the local night spots and started to realize that we knew half of the people there (its a small place) and on top of that, the guy fronting the band was the same guy who took us diving earlier in the day!


Few comments on the surf. Before leaving SF we did our homework... it was going to be epic, a guaranteed score... hollow waves, light crowds, warm water, and we were hitting it at the right time of year. AP was going to take footage w/ our new video camera, we called ahead and had custom boards shaped that were waiting for us at the airport (4 in total). Personally, I was psyching myself up to push my limits a bit... ride deep and really commit. As it turns out, the best way I can summarize is that it was the best surf trip I've ever been on where I didn't surf much at all. Basically the waves just didn't happen (knee to waist high). To be fair, we did get 1 day of ok surf... which mostly consisted of these local kids getting slotted all over the place, they were really, really, really good surfers. Were we a little bummed, sure, but there were so many other things happening, it really didn't matter.

So thats pretty much it... I don't know much about the history of the island, we didn't really take any tours... just lots of exploring in our dune buggy, hanging out on beaches, snorkeling, diving, eating, and a little partying.

More pics... 100% credit to AP!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72057594050590953/

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!

Retrospect...

Hard to believe this pic is from exactly one week ago today... we were drinking beers at the beach w/ 75F temps, completely surfed-out.

Today the beach is mess, so lets talk a little more about last week...

There are several shots that AP took that are amazing, and really need an audience. So, we've done some editing on a few shots and pulled together the best of the best. You'll be able to tell that the camera likes the barrel shots... we are calling this our 'greatest hits' collection... some nice waves and a few guys were really killing it (Brian or Ben recognize yourselves or any of your buddies in these?).

Click on the below shot and tell me your opinion... is this guy claiming, or is he just trying to keep his balance? Eitherway, you don't see too many standup barrels like this around here... Enjoy.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/67333365/in/set-1453277/

Back to normal, sort of...

Well, looks like things are headed back to normal around here. Last night heavy condensation coated the car and house as the onshore flow returned, bringing cooler temps. The waves have dropped off completely and it really isn't even surfable. Funny thing is that there were several hearty souls out trying to force one last day of surf. The most telling moment came when AP commented, "hey it looks like Pacifica out there"... in other words, knee-high waves with bunches of surfers catching them and going straight.


The next 6 weeks are going to be crazy, we have trips to Italy, NYC, and Brazil, family is visiting, and a huge product launch at work. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it together...

Thanks OB for a great week of surf!!

One for the record books...

How about these past 5 days? This has got to be the best stretch of weather and surfing conditions for years!! I haven't been around that long, but in my 5 years here, this is by far the best I've ever witnessed. Anyway, lucky enough for Matt, he showed up on the very first day and left the last day. Not that I killed it or anything, but even I managed to score a fewe during this stretch. These pics were taken today by my lovely wife... I suck at surfing, but these photos make it look like I might know a little bit about what I'm doing. Go figure. There is a link below with a few others, mostly of me so if you want to see ripping surfers, you won't find it here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/1417736/

Not bad...

Pretty fun out there this AM... had Gassle and a few pals from OR along. Sort of had to choose if you wanted to sit in the pack on the main peak that was working or hunt and peck in other parts of the beach w/ less crowd. We opted for the later and didn't get REALLY great waves, but got quite a few nice ones and no hassles from drop-ins.


For all the times we complain about surfing here, it only takes a few days like this to make you forget. Here are some pics that AP took...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/1393493/

WTF..?? Offshores!!!!

Check this out... 10mph EAST wind!! Thats offshore... oh yeah, did I mention that its sunny and 74F outside? Get it...

Mulligan

Wasn't Woody Allen the guy who has that quote...'90% of success is just showing up'? I'm sure the quote has some good applications in life, but probably not so much for surfing. Saturday ended up peaking around 13' @ 16 secs, which is a hair smaller than the big day that Joe and Rob killed it on 10/23.

So I showed up and had a pretty successful paddle out.. but from here it gets a little confusing, for some reason I managed to convince myself that I'd get my share of bombs by hanging on the shoulder. The results of my strategy are well documented in the video... anyway, BIG thanks to AP for waking up at 5:15am and driving down w/ me and to Rob for doing his very best (unsuccessfully) to drag me out to the main peak. Nothing left but to take a mulligan on this one and see you guys out there next time.
JT

Friday glide

Hey don't these guys have jobs?!! Nothing like cutting work a little early on a Friday to get in a little surf.




Here's Betto on a nice forehand... we paddled out a little too far north, so didn't manage to get any of the bigger ones, but these were fun.











And finally JT, once again the camera didn't fully capture how much I killed it out there today... somehow in photos I always look like a flailing, stiff, 40 year old... wait a minute, uh never mind.













more pics here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/1346410/

Swell approacheth

10 years ago I used to be into whitewater kayaking up in Oregon. It was a great way to experience the outdoors and have fun w/ good friends. Photo to the left is me on the White Salmon River... must be at least 12 years ago. We started out doing pretty mellow rivers, but it was only a matter of time before we began pushing ourselves into more and more challenging runs. Of course it depends on your skill level, and its not like we were cheating death on a regular basis or anything, but we were running class IV rapids pretty regularly. Anyway, when we would come up on a difficult rapid, usually we'd pull off, scout it, then get back in the boat and run it.


The thing that used to really get to me was the 'butterflies' you get when you are back in your boat, have you spray skirt sealed, helmet on and ready to shove off. While you are sitting there, a measure of how difficult the rapid was, had to do with how many deep breaths you need to take to get your nerve up... one deep breath, ok, two deep breaths, pretty serious, three deep breaths, do I belong here? The pic here is of my buddy Grant (I wasn't on this trip) but clearly the tricky thing here is to make sure you clear the spout enough so you don't get pulled back behind the curtain... looks easier than it is I'm sure. I wonder how many deep breaths he took? Maybe none, who knows.


Fast forward 10 years, completely different sport, but if you have an idea about how swell size and periods work (bouy data), you can see that we have a monster swell approaching for Saturday. This thing should result in 18 - 20 foot faces... Mavericks will be producing 30 foot waves, helicopters will be buzzing the coast, wave-ski and surf-tow crews will be cruising the coastline, etc. The butterflies are back & I may need a few deep breaths before the AM paddle out.

SF Native

Samba is one of the few in the Sunset who can claim to be a SF native. Most who live here in the Sunset are Chinese, followed by Russian, then American transplants. I'm not sure at what point Samba stopped being a cat and started being a member of our family, guess it was probably somewhere between when we picked her up from the shelter and when we got home. When we let her out of her cardboard box, she didn't run and hide under the bed, didn't shake with fear, or anything else that you might expect of a cat going thru relocation... she jumped up on my chair walked up my arm and said hello.

AP thinks Samba likes me more than her, but I'm not so sure. I think it just seems like that because AP is home most of the time with Samba and when I leave for work and come home, she (Samba, not AP) follows me around the house for the rest of the evening. I think Samba and AP get along just fine.