My way

Martis de Sa

2011-01-13T10:24:00.000+10:00

This place is mental. I'll let the photos speak for themselves

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2011-01-13T10:12:00.000+10:00

2011-01-13T09:17:00.000+10:00

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2011-01-13T09:07:00.000+10:00

2011-01-13T09:05:00.000+10:00

Mehico!!

2010-10-16T12:35:00.000+10:00

I was finding it hard to believe my eyes when I got there

Caio's "Corona moment"

First Sunset

Whadda hell can I say about Mexico? It tops all my surf trips to this date as far as surfing itself. I just love those kegs too much.

2010-10-16T12:33:00.000+10:00

Seq by Caio Capela

This dude is a natural at watershots.. first time doing it and he snapped me in a bunch of barrels

2010-10-16T12:29:00.000+10:00

I caught up with my good friend Caio for the trip. We were in a similar vibe.. trying to stay away from the night life and giving surfing all we have. Bungalows Zicatela in Puerto Escondido has got to be the most convenient joint on earth for me.. $12 a night to stay right in front of a hollow right hander breaking over sand. Not to mention the 4 pools, fast internet and best nachos ever! I could be there for years and years..

2010-10-16T12:25:00.000+10:00

Bungalows Zicatela

This is just a random go pro frame from the pool.. but this color looks amazing

Marinero

Marinero seen from Zicatela

2010-10-16T12:21:00.000+10:00

Mexican independence day! we checked it out and met heaps of people. biba el Mehico!!

sizey indeed

SUP comp

The first impression might have been perhaps too exciting for us… After 3 epic days, the banks got kinda funny and it started closing out too much, but La Punta started firing big time. I don’t think that place is meant to get that perfect. That dead straight offshore brushing 8ft walls must’ve been an accident I loved to participate of. Spewing I got no photos of it.. In fact, I wasn’t even meant to surf. I ran to the bathroom holding my belly 11 times on that day, but when I saw those waves it all got swept under the rug.

2010-10-16T12:17:00.000+10:00

After getting Zicatela and La Punta the way we wanted it, we headed down to Barra de la Cruz in a rented car. We used much of our sweet talking to get through 3 army pull overs on our way there. I was kinda glad I didn’t speak Spanish that well.. My only participation would be dropping loose words like “Ronaldinho!!” or “Samba!!” to instigate trivial talk between the soldiers and Caio and get them distracted/captivated so we would move on faster. They were after big loads of coke, we didn’t want them wasting their time with us.

5 people and 5 boards squeezed in for a dawn session!

this so doesn't do it justice.. we had it really good but no cameras when it was pumping, it was impossible for anyone not to be surfing

Caio loose on his fish

Barra de la Cruz is one of those places.. so magical but not that great in pics. I had the longest barrel of my life there.. probably the deepest too, I still don’t quite understand how I got through that section but yeah, not complaining hehe

2010-10-16T12:12:00.000+10:00

mish crew

We made it!!! Coronas for every1

caio commiting

Back in Puerto, it took us less than 24 hours to decide to head to Barra de la Cruz again. The swell dropped the next day, so we went to this waterfall.. fucken mission. It seems that in Mexico the distance is calculated reversely. The first Mexican we asked said the that the waterfall was 10 minutes away. After half an hour driving and no signs of it, we asked a driver that was coming from the opposited direction, he said we were still 40 minutes from it. After another 40 minutes, a kid said it was 1:30 away!! Fuck me dead I thought.. In a group of 12 of us, I was the only one wanting to turn around and go back, but we kept on going for another hour or so to reach an unreal place. Yep, I was wrong lol It was absolutely worth it after all.

2010-10-16T12:06:00.000+10:00

Where u would rather be

Seq by Diogo d'Orey

Diogo is the most passionate water photographer ever! few ppl love what they do as much as he does

2010-10-16T12:00:00.000+10:00

Fooling around.. I got hit by a lip that came outta nowhere as I was doing that! instant karma lol

photo by Diogo d'Orey

Seq by Wila

2010-10-16T11:57:00.001+10:00

Seq by Wila

Photo by Willa

Back to Puerto again, we were hungry for big barrels. A giant swell never came.. I was expecting to face situations I’ve never been in before.. days twice as big as what I’ve ever seen. But in spite of the impressive consistency of the place, it never got huge during my stay. Nevertheless there were a bunch of amazing days. It didn’t drop below 4ft ever and barrels were always there.

2010-10-16T11:51:00.000+10:00

that wave was so sick! photo by Wila

The huge storm by Diogo d'Orey

2010-10-16T11:46:00.000+10:00

replicas

so similar it's almost not even funny!

Me by Caio hehe We didn't have much else to do with a torrential rain outside and the internet connection down so we drew each other on illustrator. The fun was eventually spoiled by an invasion of liquid crap

I’m not sure what to think of that… Was I lucky to be in presence of the biggest storm to ever hit this place? Or was it an unfortunate event? Considering that our hotel room got flooded in shit, the second option appears to be of greater accuracy lol

2010-10-16T11:41:00.000+10:00

Not the type of anger we wanted from nature.

After that huge rain, we had some great waves still, but the water wasn’t exactly clean, and there was an enormous amount of rubbish by the shore left by the force of the rainwater running down Puerto Escondido’s streets.

Caio charging in high shit-density water in our second last day

Adding to that weird phenomenon, the water woke up freezing a few days later. A huge fog above a brown angry ocean spoke to us… The mystical entity genuinely suggested we got on the booze as hard as we could for our last 2 days in heaven. By no means would we ignore the wisdom of the fog. We filled our brains with Tequila and lived a few funny stories at the local club and in Mexico city the next day. After all, we needed something to talk about on the plane.

2010-10-16T10:00:00.000+10:00

After Espirito Santo, I only had a few days before flying to Mexico.. I was lucky to be invited to do this thing for Hurley, easiest job ever! Wish I got paid everyday to walk for a couple of minutes.

Praia do Diabo - Photo by Saramago

Espirito Santo

2010-10-16T09:53:00.000+10:00

Getting loose at the trailer launch

I was well and truly in love with this pool

2010-10-16T09:50:00.000+10:00

No waves, looking for jackass style things to do

SUP

Ule beach

Since there wasn’t much happening in Rio, I went to Espirito Santo for a week with Omar. It’s hard to define exactly what the purpose of the trip was.. but it was sick! Our mate Muleta, from there, knows everyone in town so we were pretty well hooked up with anything a man might desire.

On top of that, there was the launch of the trailer of Muleta’s movie “A Onda da Vida” (worth a check: http://filmeondavida.blogspot.com/ ), which was insane!

Surfwise it was pretty average.. Went stand up paddling one day and surfing at praia do Ule when a swell finally hit, but nothing to froth about. The highlight was probably an endless swim we did in the second day. I don’t think I even knew how to swim before that, but I felt way more ready for Puerto Escondido after it.

More of Rio!

2010-10-14T08:10:00.001+10:00

Plastic Ipanema

Auntie, Grandma and Great Grandma

What a stupid idea to go drink at the waterfall at twilight.. fun times trying to find the way out drunk and in the dark

Mum's work tools

27th Birthday!

2010-08-26T12:14:00.000+10:00

Haha It's my bday! so this is the gay thing I decided to post for it. Picasa came up with this automatic face tagging thing, pretty cool! u can do that with a single click.

Enough advertising lol I shall post here my gratitude to my mum. I can't even start explaining how much she's done for me, it's off chops. Thanks mum! I literally wouldn't be here without u.

I still sound like a kid don't I? It's like I left to Australia when I was 20 and here I am now living like a drop out 21yo lol it rocks in a way.. knowing that I'll be back to my easygoing lifestyle in Aus by January this isn't really a problem, but it's scary to know I wouldn't have anywhere to start if I ever wanted to work here for a while.

For every bridge we build, we burn one.

Ipanema sesh

2010-08-26T11:41:00.000+10:00

2010-08-26T11:19:00.001+10:00

I often fantasize about being 2 people at the same time.. that would come in handy, specially so I could take photos of my own surfing haha
The truth is I have serious trouble getting surfing shots. For the amount of time I surf, I should have heaps more photos.. Anyway, I got lucky, Omar is pretty much a second me! kinda like a brother but without even fighting. It would suck to have all these days I spend in Rio with no commitments at all if he wasn't in town. Not to mention all the stuff to do at night I would never know about in this huge city if he didn't hook me up.
People usually wait too long to say thanks, but I'll leave my appreciation registered here to this mofo. Thanks for being there bro

2010-08-26T11:07:00.000+10:00

2010-08-26T11:06:00.000+10:00

What a fun day

2010-08-26T11:04:00.000+10:00

Nice offshore day in Barra. It did look better than it really was though, definitely.

2010-08-26T11:01:00.000+10:00

Diabo firing

Inside gem in Leblon

Omar after getting a few bombs

yeeow

2010-08-26T10:58:00.000+10:00

Chilling with some of the boys.. bloody iphone camera

So I went back to Rio with a few new stories and a lot to catch up on. My nose was far from healed, the doctor told me to wait 40 days. It was more like 4 days till I was back out there. The chances of hitting my nose on the board are minimal.

Since I wasn't 100% anyway I took the opportunity to sort myself out.. been doing pilates, physio, eating heaps well, even had my teeth whitened haha. But all of it whilst going out pretty much every night and surfing everyday.

It was a good come back with great partying and surfing plus lots of friends to enjoy it with.

Garuti's Party definitely takes the trophy... 50 chicks for 10 guys at his sick penthouse overlooking Leblon and enough free Vodka for a lifetime to be mixed with any fruit under the sun. It's good to be home afterall.

2010-08-26T10:32:00.000+10:00

One more photoshop atrocity, as a transition this time… After that many mild, touristy, surfless pictures, this comes refreshing, bringing back the boysh atmosphere of this blog

Lisbon - Portugal

2010-08-26T10:02:00.000+10:00

The following (and last) day was mild in comparison to it, but I was in a high for some reason. We kept it simple after so many days full of missions. Lunch was casual Temaki, then some shopping, a visit to a castle and a very decent grand finale at the best restaurant in Lisbon. Olivier I’m pretty sure the name is. That was an experience apart… the way they serve is unreal. 3 bottles of wine are kept open at all times so we can vary all we want. They give us 5 entrees for tasting all amazing stuff like octopus carpaccio, crab with guacamole, canapés, etc. I had a beef tartare, a bit too seasoned but all good. After that final meal I felt like eating shit food for a change haha

2010-08-26T09:58:00.001+10:00

Back in Lisbon after 3 days of suffering, I was counting the minutes to have that thing out of my nose. If I knew that he was going to pull it out and tell me to rest with that plaster on, I would’ve done it myself. The pulling out part was the only painful bit of the whole process counting with the punch itself, but it was bearable.

I was pretty much reborn once those tubes were gone. Talking was so easy, breathing was pure, food tasted amazing! The only down was that I was looking like shit, but I learned how to act as an ugly(er) person and got through that day quite happily.

We checked in at a hostel and I finally got to stay in a room alone! What a relief, so many good things happening in one day. It’s funny how they were nothing but reacquired goods/rights/faculties, but getting them back felt just as good as conquering something new due to how crucial they are.

The next day was the best of the whole trip. I woke up and decided I didn't need to wear that stupid plaster on my nose anymore. Looking (almost) normal again, we had breakfast at the hostel and met a group of Italians who told us about a nice beach to go. Fed, we went for a major drive to a castle first then to that beach, on the Atlantic (it was surfable!) and had a fat duck for lunch there.

To top it up, I got to catch up with Rafa. My sister, him and I had a few beers and went to have dinner with our family. How funny is that guy! After laughs and wine all night we went back to the Hostel for a few drinks. I was stoked to make it up to Cecilia and Julia (Calito’s daughters) after 3 days acting like a rotten mummy and unable to speak to them.

We met a chick from Rio as well, she as travelling on her on own and staying at the hostel. After a few caipirinhas we all headed out to Bairro Alto, a place where everyone drinks in the streets in Lisbon, unreal. I met a few of Rafael’s mates, they were all telling me about how shitty that Docks place is and no one goes there and Publish Postthere’s fights all the time and blah blah.. yeah I guess I fucked up, but it didn't take very long till I was laughing at it.

We had a ball, a genuinely well spent night drinking with people I like. We ended up at a club at around 2am. It was all time!

2010-08-26T07:36:00.001+10:00

A great photo of nothing

My sister went shopping for more appropriate clothes for me to go out in Portugal

It took me like 2 hours to eat this with those tubes in my nose. Only motivation is that it tasted even better than it looks.

2010-08-26T07:28:00.000+10:00

haha still learning a thing or 2 on photoshop.. I did it to relieve some frustration

The original shot, pissed off at the hospital toilet holding an ice filled glove and my iphone lol

As warned, I was barred for being on my own. Someone told me about a different joint, called The Docks, so that’s where I headed, in spite of the taxi driver’s efforts to convince me to go to a strip joint.

This place looked pretty wild, it was already 3am and there were about 6 small clubs next to each other going off. I picked one called Hawaii and copped a £20 cover charge. The beer was only £2.50 so I was going hard on it. Only after I was Already smashed I realized that the entry fee was actually a voucher to be consumed there. Oh well, had to drink another 8 beers on top of it.

I had enough and walked out of the club blind, but my toughts were all over the place. I stopped outta front and something in there caught my drunken eye so I tried to get back in. The bouncer said it was 5am lock out. I should’ve known.. I was still hanging around smashed when I saw the door unattended and sneaked in. They told me to get out as I was talking to a chick, I pretended to go but kept crapping on to her. I saw a hand grabbing my arm and prepared myself for a flight out the door, but instead of throwing me, they hit me in the face dry. It didn’t really hurt and I couldn’t even tell what part was hit, but the amount of blood coming out was freaky. I was drinking lots of it, the taste was… so natural. I didn’t get a good visual of the bouncer, I was out in the street on my own bleeding like crazy. It would be an understatement to say that no one gave a crap. I wonder if that happens every night in Portugal. I walked over to the main road and found a few cops after people refused to help. They called an ambulance and I asked a cop to come back with me and find the guy. All I wanted to do is kill, and the cop had a gun so I figured he could be useful. I wasn’t thinking that straight… The bouncer was gone. Another fight broke out as we were looking for him so the cop went to contain it and I hopped on the ambulance.

The bleeding was still at full force, unbelievable. I always wondered what it was like to get punched in the face by someone who wants to cause as much damage as possible. In the Ambulance, all I wanted to know is why the fuck did that bouncer do it. Was it really necessary? The teeth count was sweet, so I figured it was my nose. That’s when the thoughts of deformation begun. I wanted to know what it looked like now, but more than anything, I wanted to kill that fucker.

It didn’t take long till we were in the hospital. I checked in and saw myself on my own in a waiting room being tortured by my killing instinct. After looking at my nose, I was on the ground hitting my own thigh and swearing my lungs out. This went on for an hour. I eventually got up and went to a different room, where 2 guys were coming from the same place, one with a broken nose as well. They called me in not long after that. A Portuguese doctor roughly straightened my nose with his bare hands without much of a warning. It didn’t hurt at all… but I knew that it wasn’t a final solution. My mum arrived once my nose looked more presentable. I waited with her for another 2 hours and went back in to surgery to get more manual nasal remodelling and 2 10cm tubes as thick as my pinky shoved into my nose. I thought they only did it for the operation, but the order was to keep that thing in there for 3 days.

I left the hospital unable to breath with my nose, and what was worse, knowing I wouldn’t for 3 days. I had no idea how hard everything becomes when you exclude this simple faculty. Swallowing means an internal convulsion, your ear threatens exploding every time you do it. Talking is not even worth it. Eating? You’re joking me, starving sounds more attractive.

Julia and Cecilia joined us. I was worried I might really get in the way of the carefully crafted travel plans they had put together. If I was well enough to debate, I would ask them to just leave me in the hospital for a few days.

We were in the car heading north only about 6 hours after the punch. At least the rented car was comfortable enough. I was meant to catch up With Rafa, a dear friend I met in Indonesia 2 years before, but in those conditions I called it off. In fact, I called everything off. We visited 3 cities in 3 days. This means 3 different hotels and a lot of driving. My only criteria were the thickness of the pillows and the speed of the Internet connection in each hotel. It feels like I wasted my chance of checking out Peninche, Coimbra and Guimaraes, but I really didn’t have a choice.

2010-08-26T02:51:00.000+10:00

We hoped on a plane to Lisbon and joined Calito the next day. I didn’t know what to expect except for a twisted Portuguese accent. The hotel was insane, a room covered in mirrors. The first impression was good, plenty of history everywhere we looked, good food, cheap prices and no shortage of females. Adding that everyone spoke perfect Portuguese or English it all seemed so convenient!

We had a bit of a rest and went out for dinner with Calito and some of his friends. I had a rabbit, delicious.

After Dinner, everyone went home and I hung around in Bairro Alto. The place reminded me of Rio.. I was pumped, my last proper time out had been in Spain. In spite of my willingness to have a good time, I found the vibe to be somewhat heavy, especially by the dudes. Everyone told me I would need to go with a girl to get into the local club, but it was hard to meet chicks and not have a guy feeling threatened and cutting in, even if they didn’t know them.

Provence - France

2010-08-26T02:11:00.000+10:00

2010-08-26T02:04:00.000+10:00

2010-08-26T02:00:00.003+10:00

The third day was the best, Soliris and I went to Cassis, a beach filled with French hotties. That place made me realize how much difference a well balance diet makes in the life of a person. The French ladies, even in their fifties or more, are still fit and solid. I saw the oldest faces on the hottest bodies, mind blowing. Considering getting a French wife after this experience lol

I met a group of 4 chicks, but they were a bit too immature. I thought they might be older because they were smoking as we walked past. Wrong. They didn’t even know how to say hi in English, it was truly hard to establish communication. But they were pretty nice, so no obstacle was too much. The talk went for long, although not far due to language limitations. I eventually realized the blue ocean was a better feature than themselves on that beach so I sneaked out for lunch with my sister.

My last full day there was spent pretty much on my own. I declined an invitation to go to some market thing - best decision. Did my physio, a bit of pilates, some writing and had a beer. Good to have a break of the everlasting mission travelling can become.

2010-08-26T01:56:00.002+10:00

They're serious about their food

zhe pool

2010-08-26T01:50:00.000+10:00

Rescued the princess from the castle just like Mario bros hehe

That photo captures well Ira's quick wit. Legend!

zhe fields

2010-08-26T01:43:00.002+10:00

I didn't know trains were that comfortable

Mum and Ira

Provence was the next stop. Everything went wrong on Wednesday morning. First fuck up: I woke up too late. This caused us to arrive at the Dorsey museum too late and into a huge line. We didn’t bother waiting. Back at the hotel, we packed up and headed to the train station, only to find out we misread the timetable and missed the train by one hour. £300 and 1 hour later we were hopping on the fucking train. Quite a comfortable ride actually, things got back on track from there. Ira, Mum’s friend, picked us up from the station at Provence and took us to the cosiest place ever. Surrounded by pristine green fields, the 4 bedroom house is the sanctuary we needed at this stage. Jumping in that pool was the closest thing to surfing I’d done in ages, so I was happy. Ira is awesome by the way, she has a story about everything! Fair enough after seventy something intense years of life.

Provence is a lot Frencher than Paris. No one knows a word in English there. With the great structure we had staying at Ira’s, all we had to worry about was where to eat. As in any country town, the food is off chops, being France, it’s as good as it gets.

With our host’s everlasting positive attitude and remarkable looseness, we all joined her vibe and had a great time. The first day was a quick tour in the city, the second was a tour around the neighbour towns checking out some fields of stuff.

Paris

2010-08-25T11:36:00.001+10:00

Ze Louvre, Paris

2010-08-25T10:42:00.000+10:00

Ferrraaaaaaaariiiiii mucking around at the Italian airport

Moulin Rouge is the best!

Tired and hot, we headed to Paris on Saturday morning. It was a bit of a long trip and we just wanted to chill at the hotel for a bit once there. The first impression was great, what a cool city, it made me wish I was there for a year when I was 15 just to skate around and learn the language.

I was lucky to have my ex-girlfriend Julie to show me around. Our 4 days in Paris went extremely quick. With a native’s company I was able to make the most of it, she was that nice and patient to us! The city is amazing, so much history, yet modern. The highlights couldn’t be other but the Bateaux-Mouche ride, Moulin Rouge, the hilarious French Accent and the food

Every meal was an absolute gastronomical orgy. This is what the whole trip was about: eating the most amazing food in the world. After Spain and Italy, France was still surprising. We went Hotel Costes one night, a fancy joint, and I was worried nothing would ever taste that good again.

Venice - Italy

2010-08-25T10:20:00.001+10:00

This has to be the hottest place on earth. We found a beach in Venice and I dipped myself all in the water, leaving only the head out with a hat on and didn't move till it was time to leave!

Leonardo's Museum, he's the guy that invented pretty much everything!

Venice masks

This actually is a street, it even has a name!

2010-08-25T10:13:00.000+10:00

San Marco

A nigga lost in Venice

2010-08-25T10:10:00.000+10:00

The banging headache I was expecting the next morning never came. We didn’t do much that morning, just packed up and left to Venice. The trip was long and tortuous, nothing even close to too much to handle, but the heat was frying our brains. The closure was one of welcome relief: a boat taxi to cross the river and drop us off right at the hotel. Our Three days in Venice were as well spent as possible. We walked a lot and saw everything we could within the short time available. That city really is amazing. It would make a lot of sense to set up something on water in the old days, before cars and planes, but now it’s something really hard to conceal. However, the place is still in all its glory. I just wish it wasn’t so fucking hot.

My Venice favourites were dinner at a proper Italian joint and a Leonardo DaVinci Museum of gadgets.

Barcelona - Spain

2010-08-25T10:03:00.005+10:00

We still had a night left in Barcelona, it was my chance to go back to that lounge and be the cheap mofo I usually am lol. After one more nice dinner with my mum and sister, I left the camera behind and arranged to meet up with Omar’s girl and 2 of her friends – Carioca girls. I wasn’t really expecting any type of outcome from that encounter. Nevertheless, it was a good icebreaker for me, as I hadn’t met practically anyone in the whole trip before those girls came along. I asked master Google whether I could get drunk while on antibiotics. For my surprise, it’s not a problem.
Vodka was the theme of the night. We didn’t head to the clubs till it was past 12, that’s when I realized that Carpe Diem is just one more club out of about 8, and definitely not the main one. This Opium place seemed to be the shit, but I got barred for being in shorts. So I found myself back at Carpe Diem with them girls – The perfect stage for my grand revenge. I was struggling to get a slight beat happening. Shoulders, head… I’ll never learn how to dance. I was talking shit to the only possible score until the other two Cariocas eventually wanted to bail at around 2am, taking her along. I was stoked, deep inside, all I wanted was to be somewhere I don’t know absolutely anyone. More Vodka, with Red Bull this time. The night didn’t finish till 6am, and it ended at Opium, where I was barred at first. That was pretty insane.. I don’t really remember that much but it rocked!

2010-08-25T09:48:00.000+10:00

Such failure humbled me down considerably, so I was happy to do all that walking the next day. I always knew that Europe is a destination to be increasingly appreciated as I get older, however, I hadn’t realized how early it still is until I saw those steps. Park Guel I think it’s called. We had quite a fun day, but I definitely have a lot to learn about being a tourist and going to places just to look at them.

2010-08-25T09:36:00.002+10:00

dude resorting to something more accessible lol Barcelona has some talented ppl

Things didn’t improve the next day. I was sick as a dog and decided to resource to Antibiotics. My mum managed to talk the Spanish Chemist into selling it without a prescription. I was pumping it on a rhythm of 3 a day so I woke up a bit better on Tuesday. We headed to Barceloneta beach. Pretty ordinary nature-wise… in spite of the somewhat exotic rock bottom fairly visible underneath the virtually motionless Mediterranean Sea, the highlight of the scenario was doubtlessly the exposed boobies presented by an array of smoking hot ladies from all over the globe. I was in heaven, yet, in bad shape and unable to express my admiration. There was a particularly juicy chick sitting not far from me. She had light blond hair, generous bubble bum and a pair of perfect melons adorned with subtle pink nipples. Quite an obvious girl really, but she was just so available, those nipples were, in some frequency, trying to establish communication with an unidentified cognition layer of mine. I stared for so long only to watch her patience slowly melting into the hot artificial sands of Barceloneta beach. The European Diva eventually got up and left with her equally provoking friend.

That type of performance makes me wonder what the fuck I’m doing here… Even my mum stirred me up to approach her. I fell back in the excuse of still feeling sick. It did make me feel better, but as it wasn’t exactly a lie, I felt like shit after the beach. It didn’t matter, I still came out for dinner at a great place called Carpe Diem. The waitress is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen but damn do I hate that Spanish accent. After a more than generous feed, my sister and I hanged around at the club to see what was coming up next. We were surprised with a flash influx of hot people, specifically girls, in a matter of 20 minutes. It was firing by 1PM, and it didn’t look like it was gonna stop. I felt absolutely useles. I was pretty much hating myself and the lame role I was playing. In bed, that night, thoughts of European lesbian bombshells having sex at the Carpe Diem toilets disturbed my sleep. I was there and I failed to satisfy them.

2010-08-25T09:28:00.000+10:00

It wasn’t long till I was on a plane again, this time with my mum and sister. Quite refreshing after flying on my own for 30 hours only a few days before it.

We landed in Barcelona on a hot sunny Sunday. It was possibly the most eventful day in the history of Spain since they bumped into the Americas. Their soccer team somehow made it to the world cup final up against Netherlands and didn’t let the chance slip. I was absolutely aware of the importance of what was going on, but a flu kept me at bay. The fireworks were doing my head in, and the Spanish language had never sounded so annoying. I was in bed by 12.. regretful but relived.

2010-08-25T09:18:00.001+10:00

Prioli and Lepo on stage

So here i am again, Hitting Brazil for the 4th time since moving to Australia. Things are not quite the same this time around.. I arrived with a popped shoulder and some other shit to fix. Impressively, at least my teeth were fine for once! nothing to get done except for a whitening just for vanity. I was lucky to have Omar, Zaza, Ian and almost all my other close friends in town. We ran a muck, as we do.

My family was doing great as well, since the day I was born till now at 27 (today) nobody has ever died!

2010-08-25T09:07:00.000+10:00

My last few weeks in Australia were insane. Everyday felt like a huge farewell. My kidney still hasn't forgiven me. I wasn't exactly sure what my plans were.. a lot of things happened in a short period of time. I was contemplating starting uni there and then, but if I did that when would I get a chance to be free to travel whenever again?

Specially now that I got my Australian passport, a little black book with a chip in it, what a beauty, I just wanna cover it in stamps!

I did the obvious thing to do, although at the time it sounded kinda insane.. left everything I have to my newly arrived mate Felipe and hit the road. The bastard got my car, house and probably chicks by now lol

There's no better place to heal than close to your family.. and they spoil you with extra vigor after you pretty much been away for 7 years. Well at least mine does hehe

I felt like I was going to rehab when leaving that massive hedonistic party behind.. only to find out it never stops no matter where I go.

2010-08-25T08:44:00.000+10:00

2010-08-25T08:38:00.000+10:00

Can't get over this spot.. I would go watch the sunset every day outta front of mine while my arm was shredded.. perhaps hoping for some kind of astrological healing or whatever could help me surf again ASAP

2010-08-25T08:32:00.000+10:00

Getting a couple a few days b4 popping my shoulder

End of a Chapter

2010-05-21T16:07:00.003+10:00

Sometime in early may it all fell apart.. The banks were flawless for ages as u can see in the photos, I was going out at snapper, rainbow and greenmount everyday and there was no shortage of barrels. It felt like nothing could go wrong.. favourite board, warm water, not that crowded, fucken perfect. Dunno how but out of nothing a 2 fotter popped my shoulder out. It was meant to be my wave in it didn't stop growing n next thing I know there was a wide section and the lip must've hit the exact right spot to make the damage. The Pain was unbearable, never thought it would be so bad to pop a shoulder. I walked along the endless bank holding my fallen arm and dragging my board with the legrope. A dude helped me, then another dude and finally 2 off duty lifesavers left their end of shift beer to call me an ambulance. The ambo arrived and they gave me all types of shit.. it took them 4 tries to get my vein and inject morphine. It made me high enough to forget a bit about the pain. After an hour of messing around they tried getting it back in while I inhaled some nitrous thing that knocked me out. It didn't work, so they changed my position and got it. It didn't feel like they quite knew what they were doing but oh well.. at least my arm is still here!

The outcome is a minimum of 6 weeks without surf. Hence so many photos lol surf was still flat out firing everyday for over a week after that. kinda dropped and got colder now which i'm not complaining about.

while not able to surf, I finally had my citizenship ceremony on the 12th. It was wicked! the mayor gave it to me personally yeeow Stoked with that, but now my main challenge is over hehe need a new one.. thinking about what's next.

2010-05-21T15:24:00.000+10:00

Romy n Sarah's babyshower. my sperm was far off the egg hehehe

Hate to see that on my phone while at work..

bludging at the kingy shop

2010-05-21T15:20:00.002+10:00

Lucky bastard is ready to go again.. how the hell can someone save 15g working at a pizzaria for 5 months?

2010-05-21T14:55:00.001+10:00

2010-05-21T14:40:00.001+10:00

Once upon a time, there was a sex wax. Summer def has things not to be missed

2010-05-21T14:37:00.001+10:00

2010-05-21T14:35:00.001+10:00

So I was completely wrong about the season coming to an end. After a bit of a break, april was good and early March was epic. Too bad I dislocated my shoulder on a fucken 2ft wave half way through the fun.

Gonskies

2010-03-29T18:19:00.000+10:00

The were a bunch of epic surfing days here in Coolie land between the first of Feb and mid-late March. One of the best seasons ever, except cause it looks like it's already over after a late start.
I was lucky enough to have been only working around 20 hours a week and having quite a low maintenance girlfriend.

Everything was perfect until the swell dropped around mid March. I wanted to hang out with her a bit more and that's when things came off the shelf.. My view on relationships is that if I am commiting to one person and ditching everyone else, I will ideally spend as much time as possible with her. She works way too much, which is not her fault at all, but it does get in the way of having a healthy and steady thing happening. This generated a few disagreements and the whole thing was cut way shorter than what we both thought.. I did get bummed even though it was my choice.. maybe I should've given it another go.. but I think I was being too nice and it was too late to rebuild the rules. The damage was done.. Spewing.

Back to surfing, scrool down for some action in one of the awesome days we had.

2010-03-29T17:58:00.001+10:00

oh yeah

2010-03-29T17:56:00.000+10:00

2010-03-29T17:55:00.000+10:00

2010-03-29T17:50:00.001+10:00

That dude was dominating

2010-03-29T17:46:00.000+10:00

Paintjob still hanging on the beast!

Para's newborn kid, i'd never seen someone that small! So many of the boys have kids now.. i've fallen behind big time hehe

WCT was fun as usual, free coronas everyday.. I didn't have many shifts so def made the most of it. Some of the boys chilling in the surfclub

With that much media coverage, real time transmition etc I didn't feel it was necessary to take photos of the CT this year. That was the only surfing shot, Jordy hitting it. Pretty sure I took it with my iPhone lol

Yet one more beggining

2010-02-08T22:56:00.001+10:00

Lauren, what a chick.. so now I got a girlfriend and guess what, she's not on facebook lol

Kirra sayin hi

My new board being held by its creator Matty, first custom board in who knows how many years.. this is just the shaped foam before lamination hehe
It's ready now, picked it up today. 5'6" 18 1/2" 2 1/8" quad, can't wait to get it wet. But b4 I can do it I still have to get it a tailpad, a paintjob and a name haha

Oh, one more development before I end this post.. Today I applied for my citizenship here! yeeow

2010-02-08T22:41:00.000+10:00

D-bah sunrise

misty road down to lennox

Jeff at D-bah, he's been crashin here too hehe

Kirra barrel on a small day

The past 7 days have been mayhem. it hasn't dropped to less than 4 foot. There were a few great days at sizey D-bah in the first days of swell, until it got even bigger and Kirra lit up. Lennox, The Pass and Noosa were also firing. As the swell hanged around, something magical happened to the banks at snapper and it's been getting better and better everyday while thesize stays the same. For the past few days it's been a tube fest. There were more quality waves this week than in the last 9 months put together.. I'm exhausted and my eyes r blodshot big time. There were no photos from the Lennox session, but I took a few around here, most of them are still in the camera though.

2010-02-08T22:11:00.000+10:00

This is pretty self explanatory, the future is here lol

The paintjob is still hanging there haha

Kirra for the late

Pool party

2010-02-08T22:03:00.001+10:00

There was this week, prob last week actually, when there were 4 awesome barbecues! the best one has to be this one hehe we got trashed for Bernies 29th at his place. Sick joint too, pool party with heaps of people in the hottest day! Pretty rare to have party photos, but thanks to facebook and tagging, I occasionally get to have some from that other people might take yeeow

CS3

2010-02-08T21:44:00.001+10:00

Been taking computer classes with Tiago schardong. Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign will be next! Sooo freakin hard! Had only 3 classes so far, got so much more to learn.. I'll never really catch up with all he knows after a degree and 10 years of experience, but he's giving me a few key tips.
Thought I would publish some of my drafts hehe hope it's not too long till I can look at them and laugh in disgust cause I will be so much more advanced hehehe

2010-02-08T21:32:00.000+10:00

Not a bad closure for that day up in a friend's place somewhere in Kirra.

Blackrock

2010-02-06T23:51:00.000+10:00

Huge Mexican hat is the go for takin photos the sun

Not a small crew hanging at Blackrock

Tiago and Tchelao, they owe me a photo session lol

Alex Chacon playing above the wave

Damn, that sucked hehe we had such a fun day in Blackrock, but no one else took any shots but me lol I Went out first and stayed for ages after they went in, but was too tired for a second sesh later so went to get the camera in the car.

That day was essential to remove the rust just before the real season kicken in, great fun!

Oh well, the dudes pretty much cook for me every day, I guess they deserve some shots taken lol

2010-02-06T23:38:00.001+10:00

Beach Bum looking good at Sarah's boutique yeeow

The silly season 09-10

2010-02-06T23:35:00.001+10:00

Surf Xcess staff xmas party ar Chan mai thai

Xmas eve at the boys house, punch n fruits.. simple but nice

One of the few things I remember from NYE.. some dude actually made this thing out of a fucken leaf and I watched the whole process. Tripped on it for yonks!

Ok, what can I say about xmas, nye etc this year? it was loose as a moose! Even worse than last year cause I was smarter and didn't drink till I pass out hehe I was actually awake all nite.
Xmas was pretty simple actually, hanged with mates and had a few (oh, and Mum gave me an Iphone!!). NYE was something else, we went to this boaat party thing that took us to straddie, all time! but they wouldn't let me swim, so I gotta say it could've been better. Oddly, the biggest and best days didn't happen to land on the special occasions.
A few trips to Byron, a bunch of random happenings and a few too many hours of work (still never more than 30 lol) combined with the lack of decent waves spun my head big time for the whole month of December and January.
But in a way I kept it simple and didn't try too hard to have fun. Rather than that, I opted to stick with fewer but tighter friends and do things mostly locally.
However, I couldn't leave Byron out of the equation, I went there about 8 times within this period.
In fact, I was totally gonna move there, but because rent is twice as much and jobs pay half what they pay here, I ended up deciding against it. Plus, I don't wanna be a cranky local complaining about the tourists, I rather being one of the tourists/backpackers/daytrippers getting loose and having a good time while it lasts.
Waking up on the beach with a killer hangover and driving up the coast to work is the downside lol but still so worth it.
As January rolled along it all mellowed down gradually.. In fact, I haven't been out for about 3 Saturdays, you'll soon see why

D-bah's Volcom comp

2010-02-06T23:14:00.001+10:00

Emma Allen ready to go

lil ripper

The man behind the Volcom comp

That comp was heaps fun, Emma got second in the chicks division and Alex won the main category, bringing the trophy back to ours, yew!
Emma is ripping, so shit that whenever I'm keen for a session she can't and vice-versa.. But al good, she's worth every bikini lol Beach Bum and her shall remain tight

Alex looks like he'll be giving everyone a hard time this year. After that comp he won yet another one and got a third place and some other as well. He's in the Kirra surf team now side by side with world champ Mick Fanning. And all that while working at fucken Neverland lol dunno how he can do it.. working in clubs suck for surfing, I'm still traumatized from working at The Bedroom hehe

Setting the Collie season

2010-02-06T23:01:00.000+10:00

Alex and Tiago

Tchelao and I chilling at D-bah's back beach in one of the many December dead flat days

Mr Alex Chacon's first wave in a heat after a year without competing

This season in Coolie has been cruisier than ever. With a horrible start in regards to waves, all we could do was to look after ourselves and find ways to have fun.. I ended up taking on Alex to share the unit with me. I didn't know that, but fuck he's gotta be the best roomie ever. Tiago also came back from Bali and moved in to the unit, right across the street from where we used to live last year hehe
They're an unreal crew, we've been havin the best time. It did compromise Beach Bum to an extent for a while, but it clicked in my had that I was gettng slack and everything is back on track now.
It kinda sucks for them cause I pretty much take up the whole living room with all my business junk hehe but they r heaps understanding.
What's also mad about this season is that everyone that used to live at Fred's last year isn't jam packed together anymore but we are still living within a minute from each other.
It's cracked up to be a good one, but until this week I was freaking out about the waves never coming hehe, it feels great to know we had at least 4ft for the past 4 or 5 days now.

Kyle and Virginia's wedding!

2010-02-06T22:38:00.000+10:00

Yep, they did it! so stoked to see that happening hehe they met through me in one of the million barbecues we had during out last GC season, prob around March..

Good on them for tying the knots, they're awesome together. The wedding was all time, best night of the whole year perhaps?

There aren't many photos of the wedding and none of the post party action. I just handed my camera to one of Kyle's blind mates and picked a few from a pretty random bunch of shots haha

Brent Matthews and Dani West

2010-02-06T22:31:00.000+10:00

I had this photographer add Beach Bum on Myspace sometime in October and he came up with a great idea: A modeling competition to find the girl who would be the face of Beach Bum for the upcoming range. It sounded just a little too good to be true, but for my surprised it worked perfectly.

After much hard work choosing a winner, Brent Matthew, Ebany (featured judge) and I picked Dani West.

I came up to the Sunshine coast for the shoot, that was a fun day! he's got a pretty impressive equipment and she has a juicy booty with a kiss tattooed on it.

This is a glimpse of the result.
Great work Brent.

November Ballina sesh

2010-02-06T22:16:00.000+10:00

I pretty much never ever get the chance of having someone taking photos of surfing sessions.. so even when it's crap I'll be the first one out there when someone volunteers for the task. Thats was in Ballina sometime in November, the surf mighta been shit, but it was classifiable as what I call my favourite type of shit condition.

The beast's new look

2010-02-06T22:03:00.001+10:00

Haha that was a while ago.. did I mention anything about what I did to my beast? I believe that one should be free do whatever they like with objects they own, without necessarily following proposed social standards. Instead of a Jim Beam sticker, a good clean and shit hanging off the rear mirror, I thought I would just give my car a random paintjob and consequently a personality hehehe

I was gonna change cars but I don't think I could convince myself to not drive a wagon. anything else is just not good enough, luv my shitbox lol That was a great alternative to spending all my money on a new one.

2009-12-06T11:18:00.000+10:00

Surfers Paradise shining with sunlight amongst a gloomy moment of an overall boiling week.

Alex and the boys checking boulders in one of our missions down south

Waking up hungover and heading to the ocean in towards the rare sight of shipwrecks (Byron) looking uninteresting

Now, this mobile phone camera has been doing my head in.. that last shot is of a xmas ball on my shops ceiling. It's meant to show how clusttered the stock is and how full on the next weeks are shaping up to be. I shouldn't expect a communication device thiner than a butterfly fillet to have the sophistication to capture all that info into an image lol

2009-12-06T11:03:00.001+10:00

That was huge! Rudi and Ben came up with this schoolies 09 T-shirt idea and I sponsored it with Beach Bum. They sold 3,000 of the bloody things, 90% to chicks! What a massive promo, I was stoked with havin my logo on the tees ay. We also did a draw for a bikini and got a heap of subscriptions yeeow
Business apart, damn, schoolies was fun this year ay! Now that Im an old fart I kinda kick back and crack up at some of the stuff the grommies get up to, they're fucken wild hehe
The boys n I had a ball down in byron one of those nights with the odd youngsters n the European travellers that make that town as loose as cicciolinas cnt. Spewin I didnt have a small camera with me.. been missin out on a few gem partyin clicks although it aint my thing anyway.

2009-12-06T10:43:00.000+10:00

Wow I really need to buy a small camera.. been takin fuck all photos lately, pretty much only of "work" stuff.

This is Dani being photographed by Brent Matthews. She won the model comp we put together on myspace and earned a shoot and a bikini.
Below is Safari Blue. My mate's girl, Sarah, opened it a couple of weeks ago. It's a shop specialized in Brazilian bikinis! to make it even better she's selling my gear and the store is just around the corner from mine, behind mcdonalds! awesome stuff.

2009-10-26T09:19:00.000+10:00

My new pad in Coolie, before and after hahaha taking the furniture upstairs wasn't fun.. it really does pay off when it's finished though.

2009-10-26T08:51:00.000+10:00

The Beautiful Girls concert in Neverland about a month ago or longer.. not too full on, pretty much only chicks, free and just around the corner. They should come to Coolangatta more often.

Indo 09!!!

2009-10-10T23:04:00.001+10:00

Finally published!!!!! no stories.. hehe ok, I'll make it real short. Andy n I spent 25 days battling against our booze cravings and tryin to catch a few amongst the biggest crowds I've ever seen in Bali. We had a lot of fun in the process.

2009-10-10T22:58:00.000+10:00

2009-10-10T22:51:00.000+10:00

Got pretty tight with the reef this year.. we were best mates!

2009-10-10T22:47:00.000+10:00

2009-10-10T22:44:00.001+10:00

2009-10-10T22:40:00.001+10:00

2009-10-10T22:36:00.001+10:00