Long drive home...

Our first trip to Oregon this summer saw a few firsts. First time I've travelled to the Gorge when it was windy and didn't windsurf (at all)... and first time we drove home all the way to SF. On the windsurfing front, I sort of wasn't all that keen because I've got this pesky toe problem (broken) and I really want to get it healed before the boat trip in Indonesia, so that I didn't get to sail wasn't that big of a deal. The reason we drove back is because my Grandmother gave her car to Ana Paula. Also good news for me because it means that I can turn in my chaufeur's license (yes!). The first pic is a sunflower field we drove past on the drive to SF, I think AP really wished she had her good camera gear, unfortunately we just got this quick snapshot.

We stopped in Ashland, OR on the way home to break the trip up and were both charmed by this little town. The Shakespeare festival was in full swing and it was the day before the annual 4th of July parade. It was warm and everyone was smiling and in great spirits. Strongly recommend this stopover to anyone who has a little time to kill. This photo of me was taken in Lithia Park, which is right in the heart of downtown. The creek was ice cold and so it felt great on my foot... here I am soaking my left foot in the water to try to get the swelling in my toe to go down.

North Tower GG Bridge

Got a call from our friend Bruce the other day... 'man, its cranking at the N. Tower... lets hit it!' As usual it didn't take much convincing, though I did have to do a bit of arm twisting to convince AP it was a good idea. Anyway, great sailing spot except that if the wind cuts off, its a difficult swim. This photo is taken w/ a 300mm zoom so there is alot more water between land and where the edge of the photo starts. That small spot in the upper left is me swimming in my gear. I'd say this was about as close to getting swept out the gate as I've ever been (right behind me is the outgoing current). Nice views though.

India Images

I am continually amazed by the quality of the photos that AP takes. I was with her during this entire trip and looking thru the images, its as if she has captured the spirit of the place and people more than what I experienced first hand.

Here is AP at work... http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/72057594121752257/

Got wind?

The windsurfing conditions up here in north bay have been a little dodgy in the early spring with most of the action happening along the coast down in Santa Cruz county... until this week. Check out the surge that hit Crissy Field this week... usually you can count the number of times per year it gets this windy on one hand. Sort of reminds me of sailing in the Gorge, except that the surface conditions when it gets windy here are very different from the Gorge. In the Gorge when it gets super windy, you get these big smooth swells that form in the section of the river with the most current, sometimes even breaking. Here when it gets super windy we get this chop that feels like it almost rattles your dental fillings loose. Thursday when this wind hit I was on my smallest sail and was still getting pushed around pretty good, gusts were in 40s. Friday was more manageable, felt much more in control and the wind seemed pretty consistent, so I spent most of my time sailing on the ocean swells up under the GG bridge. Fun. Saturday I took a long hard look at OB for windsurfing, but it just didn't look fun... lots of close-out type shore pound with very few surfable looking waves, so I decided to do Crissy again... another fun day of nice easy 5.0 sailing with clean ramps for lots of port-side jumping. Today me and AP are heading down to Santa Cruz to hang w/ the Clapp family and I'm also hoping to get at least 2 seshs at Dport (today and tomorrow). If Dport works out it will be a good haul for the weekend... 3 days strong wind bump & jump & 2 days of wave sailing!!

Namaste!

Where do riots breakout when a movie actor passes away of old age? Where do camels and elephants still serve as part of the work force? Where do huge Brahma bulls wander around and hang out side by side w/ people going about their daily routines? Its the same place where the wealthiest of wealthy rub shoulders with people who suffer thru their daily existence, not really sure where their next meal comes from... and in the background to this is the everpresent essence of jasmine. Of course we are talking about India.

Mao knows best

What a great trip... I hit all my biz objectives and AP had a great first trip to China. Wish we could have had a little more time to get off the beaten path as most of the things we did were activities I'd done multiple times already, that said, I think it was a pretty incredible experience for AP and I got a ton of fulfillment from watching her interact in a completely foreign environment.

As they say a photo is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to keep this short... here is the first set of photos, these are all from the Forbidden City in Beijing... photo credit to my favorite photographer, AP... http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/72057594094522808/

Tomorrow we leave for India...

Beijing, China

Ana Paula in Beijing... whooda thunk? Pretty cool. In one day AP took over 230 photos, and that was just Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, and the antique shopping district. It was a long day for sure... 9am to 6pm on our feet the entire time. Today I'm in the office (found a 15 minute slot to post this) all day and AP is off on a day trip to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. We dumped all the photos to the PC last night, so she has plenty of space... she took some great photos yesterday, check back in a few days and we'll upload a bunch.

London Calling!!

Windsor castle. Sometimes the planners of these work meetings pick areas that are easy on the eyes... and as luck would have it, my work meetings in London this week are taking place at a hotel which is situated squarely in front of the famous Windsor Castle. I'm not exactly sure about the historic relevance of this place, except that I know the Queen of England spends most of her summers here. I also know from my morning walk from the hotel to the Starbucks where I'm sitting now, that it is a very big castle. Not that I've gathered much comparative data on castles in general, but it just seems big. This castle just goes on and on. Almost seems more like a walled city than a castle. Took a stroll thru the little village that is situated adjacent to the castle and there are all the typical english shops like Marks and Spencer, Boots Pharmacy, etc., the only problem is that with the exchange rate where it is, prices seems crazy. The latte I'm sipping here set me (Intel) back 2.68 pound, which is almost $5.00!! My 20 minute taxi ride (shorter than the sunset to SFO) was an insane 48 pounds, which is almost $100!

Resource Optimization

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/