Today was a pretty sweet day. After celebrating our 1 year anniversary by dining out in style last night, Elise and I hung by the pool and read our respective books (to completion - happy times) and enjoyed the sunshine. Time managed to fly by as when I checked Elise’s watch it was 3pm and we had been out in the sun for 4 hours chilling by the pool. We both got a little burnt as the sun here is pretty ferocious, even though it is officially winter.

About 5pm I decided to go and check out the surf, as earlier in the day from the balcony of my 10th floor pad I could see some white horses out at sea, as if there was some outer reef working (there aren’t any outer reefs here, but I digress). I took the 6′0 (fish) down to the waterfront, to be greeted by about 30 other guys in the water, a beautiful sunset/moonrise and some sizeable surf (5ft faces on some of the sets). The wind was still a little cross shore creating a bit of a bump on the face, but I still saw some of the local crew getting some decent rides.

I surfed until it was too dark to see the sets coming through and was the last to leave the water. Hopefully tomorrow it will still have some size to it, as it was nice being out there and actually having to paddle over some of the bigger sets and think shit, I am glad I didn’t drop into that one.

Off to make dinner now and take in another chilled evening, Bahia-style!

Not much to this post, this pic was taken by Elise during our game of cards, I had the sudden urge to get involved with the new board, photo-style. Notice the beverage in the right hand, the lady has become a wizard in the kitchen and makes a mean Caipiroska!

Let the games continue, ok I got to go and make the popcorn!

So I have officially decided that the surf in Salvador sucks. After spending a week here I can count the number of decent waves I have got on one hand, that is truly poor. I walked down to the ocean front this afternoon to be greeted by yet another sloppy onshore mess. It had rained really hard last night so the water was full of rubbish too. I didn’t even bother to paddle out, I just turned around and walked back home, crap crap crap.

Hopefully it will pick up a bit over the next few days, otherwise I’m sure I’m gonna get even more pissed off…

So I have been up here in Salvador for about a week now and I think the place might finally be growing on me. To be honest I think I was spoiled in Rio with the waves, the great sunshine and the quality ‘death set’ crew I met in Rio, but anyway…

For the past week the weather has been a mixture of intense rain, crazy humidity and grey skies, interspersed with some nice sunny spells. The surf has been fairly crap, but I have been out 3 times none-the-less (once at Stella Maris and twice at Farrol da Barra).

Yesterday I was out surfing after some pretty heavy rainfall in the morning and the sea reminded me of the time when Sulli and I paddled out at Kuta beach, Bali after a heavy storm. The water was full of floating rubbish, pretty nasty, but not as nasty as when I happened to paddle passed a condom. At that point I was thinking f*ck this, but persevered and got a couple more rides.

I think the turning point in my attitude towards Salvador was tonight. I returned to the same break just before sunset and got a couple of reasonable rides. The sun was setting behind the lighthouse and the water was sparkling and I had one of those surfer moments when you are just out back taking it all in (and wishing I had a camera).

So the verdict is still open on Salvador, hopefully it will be a nice day tomorrow and me and Elise can maybe hit the beach and hopefully get some waves. On another plus point, I hit the shopping centre tonight and managed to pick up 2 new pairs of board shorts for  £25, all good!

More to come…

Hi guys, so I had to upgrade WordPress to the new version and in the process somehow deleted the last few comments, if you wanna try and post them up again I’ll try and approve them.

So here it is folks, the new fish, 6′x20″x2.5″, swallow tail and all good, no name yet, all suggestions welcome:

I arrived safely in Salvador 3 days ago and checked into my apartment and caught up with Elise. All going well so far, took a trip up the coast yesterday to surf at Stella Maris and also been hanging by the pool at the apartment complex. Only bad thing so far is that it is so damn humid, you just sweat all day long, nasty.

More to come…

This morning was my last day in Rio with the surf crew. As usual Chad and I got up about 7ish and headed down to the waterfront to check the surf. The simi boys were out ripping it up and we gave the usual bom dia to Bejamin and the crew. We returned to the house to get our boards and waxed and creamed up and then hit the water. The surf was pretty glassy, but kinda small, resulting in you having to wait a while for a set to come through, but in the end we got a few sweet rides.

I said my goodbyes to the surf crew and headed back to the house to have breakie and pack up my stuff. It was quite sad having to say goodbye to the surf tour guys, I guess when you hang out with people 24/7 you get close to them more quickly than usual. We all swapped contact details and then I got my taxi to Rio airport.

In a few hours I will be in Salvador de Bahia and will be spending a month there and seeing Elise in the first time in over 3 months, I am a little nervous, but at the same time so excited to see what the next 30 days have to offer, if it is half as good as the past 10 days, then I am guaranteed to have a great time. Keep ya ears peeled…

This morning the surf was kinda small but clean. The guys we had met the previous day in the favela were all out front doing their comp simulation. It’s kinda cool that we are now on first name terms with them all and get the odd nod of the head and hello etc. We watched the guys get some sick waves and traded off a few rides with them and then headed in.

In the afternoon Chad and I took the bus into town and walked along the waterfront from Leblon to Arprador and Ipanema, ending up in Copacabana. There was a cool sunset over the beach as we took in a few beers and some food before returning back to Recreio on the bus.

Today me and the boys hit up the beach again, the surf was pretty lame, but we still went out for a paddle around for a few hours. We then hooked up with Maseu, the local acai maker and went to a little beach cafe that he knew. We all dined in the usual Brazilian style and then had a bit of walk along the beach to let the food go down. Early evening Maseu, me and Chad had a little tour of the favela again and got invited into one of the houses and met a whole load of local surfers. After haning out with the guys for a while went then went to a little samba party next to the surf shop and had a few beers, boogied to the live music and generally had a cool time.

Tomorrow is my last day in Rio, it will be weird saying goodbye to everyone, I feel like I have made some good friends here and really got into the swing of things and had a good experience of what the real Rio is like outside of the city itself. It will be interesting to see what Salvador is like compared to Rio.