So I was hoping to make another short documentary about my surf trip, similar to the one I did last year, I’ve been getting some pretty good footage so far, which I hopefully will be able to use in the cut.

I spoke to my buddy Chad in Rio this morning (where I will be returning to in just over a week’s time). We both met a local surf crew from the small favela when I was last there and have decided we are going to try and interview the guys and get some of their rides on camera. I am hoping we will get some good footage, as I think it will add a nice little twist to the DVD, we’ll see!

2 days ago I was surfing down at the Farol (as usual) and made my first little Brazilian friend whilst out back. We chatted in broken English/Portuguese for a while and then returned to the beach where we met his (girl)friend or sister or something. She was super-toned, but a little young for me, I guess the both of them were probably in their late teens. All the same, it was cool to chat with them both and also to be forced into conversing in Portuguese. Since I have been in Salvador, Elise has taken care of most of the Portuguese when we have been out and about, so I haven’t really picked up as much as I should have.

Yesterday morning I awoke to a nice sunny morning with litte/no wind and a glassy sea view from my apartment’s balcony. I hit the surf and was greeted by the glassiest and cleanest surf I have had since I’ve been here in Salvador. I surfed for 2 hours and then came back for some lunch.

Although the waves were small, they were peeling and I got some nice rides and was generally stoked with my efforts.

A few days ago, I fancied a change of scene for my surfing and jumped across to the other side of the Farol to surf the little point break that was working just right of the rocks. The waves were pretty small, but clean and it was a very mellow paddle out. In the end I only caught one wave and then paddled in to make the quick walk down to the main Farol beach.

On my way in I managed to step on a sea urchin, which I can tell you, isn’t the most enjoyable experience.  I headed up the rocks and then over to the main beach and surf a little more.  On returning to the apartment I found I had 4 spines stuck in my foot. I spent the next hour trying to get them out with a pair of scissors, tweazers and a few deep breaths. In the end, with a little help from the misses, I was fixed up and ready to enjoy another chilled out evening.

Another quality (well quality by Salvador standards) surf was had this evening with the Farol da Barra crew. There was another reasonable swell on the high and I caught full-on left and right breaking waves until the end of the wave, skipping back over the shoulder and paddling right back out to the lineup for another dose.

There was a pretty mellow older crew tonight, I got involved in a bit of a chat with one Bahian guy, I understood a couple of words, but mainly just nodded my head in agreement and then paddled back to the peak for another ride. I am getting the hang of the fish now, and it performs nicely in the water, although with a little chop on the face of the bigger set waves, it does bounce around a little.

There was another killer sunset, turning the water an amazing colour with the setting sun (wish I had the camera out there to capture that). Hoping for more waves and a chance of an offshore wind would be nice (it’s been onshore every day since I’ve been here).

Off out now for some drinks!

Last night I watched Cidade de Deus (City of God), a Brazilian film about gang life in the favelas of Rio. It was a pretty hard hitting film, really well shot, and followed the events of a true story. It was interesting watching this film whilst being in Brazil, and having been to some of the places that are depicted in the film. Fortunately I haven’t been witness to any of the events that happen in the film during my time in Brazil. Although the film has subtitles and is in Portuguese, I would recommend it to anyone interested in Brazilian gang/favela culture.

The third installment in my DVD producing career was this 25 minute ski and snow boarding DVD that was shot in Whistler, Canada in January 2008. There is an accompanying website with a YouTube version of the DVD.

Inspired by my 2 month trip to Brazil in 2007 I put together another surfing DVD and accompany website to illustrate my travel and surfing experiences.

Following my 4 month, around-the-world surfing trip, I returned to the studio to set to work on WST06: World Surf Tour DVD.

The DVD gives an inside look into what it is like to travel the globe in search of waves and new experiences. 8 hours of footage were edited and condensed down into 50 minutes of DVD viewing. It is estimated that the footage took approximately 2 months to edit from the point it left the camera to the time it hit the DVD.

The DVD was sent out around the world to a select group of people who I met whilst travelling, I’ve have been hearing good reports so far, lets hope that continues.

To follow up the production of the DVD I built an accompanying website to showcase the DVD in a geographical context using a customised version of the Google Maps API. Visitors can select a point on the map and then view a brief explanation of the location and then watch the accompanying video clip.

Onlineweddings allows you to share your images of your special day with everyone all over the world and let them obtain prints at the touch of a button.

The site was built using web standards and accessibility was at the forefront of the development process. An overview of the site’s functionality and technologies are shown below.

• Flexible XHTML/CSS layout
• Accessible site design
• Custom-built CMS to control photographers section of site