Nasty Christmas Present

Hehe, we are on the way from Manly to the Goldcoast, in 3 days of trip about 7 beaches were visited. The first stop was on a beach calld Blackhead, we set the tent up on the beach and slept until someone came to warn us about the fuckin' rangers.

In the next day we took off and some time was spent at Forsters and Port Maquarie, where the first surf happened on 2 foot rippable right handers. a storm came all of a sudden and we went over to Crescent Head, where we found a Camping site to spend the night.

Waking up in the heat of the tent, we headed to the beach and I finally scored that wave, and it absolutely rocks! There were even some coming all the way from the point in Crescent almost to the beach break, good stuff. Julie had a go in this day, hehe I lended my 6'6" and tried to push her on a couple, but in the very first time it's not that simple. she's got it in her anyway though. Regretfully we headed to Coffs harbour after 2 surfing sessions to get some crappy 1 foot shore dump over there.

With not Many optopns because it was pretty late and the camping receptions were closed, we decided to sleep on the beach in open air, not very wise touch.. I woke up this morning to find my car without the boards on the top. mada facas! hehe, time to renew the quiver.. not the best Christmas Present but a good lesson. David will lend me his 6'0 to help me keeping my sanity up to date. We just arrived in Byron Bay, that's where we are now, trying to find him. Now you can see that not all the time things are so perfect, hehe.
The photos will have to wait a while..
Happy new years 4 all!

The time has come.. Today is my last day in Manly, I'll miss my house and the people I met for sure! I hope to find a beachfront place upthere as well.. There will be a massive farewell barbecue today, wicked!

Fark, I complained so much about being working less than enough to save money that now I'm overloaded! The holidays started this week and I'm working bloody 10 hours a day now! good money.. Nasty farewell to the Diva life though, hehe! I'm only 12 days from going now, yyeeeeewww About the car, I created some affection for it and though 2 people per day are calling I don't know if I still wanna sell it.. it's been going so well! Look at its face, does it look like it wants to be sold?

Chilling in the Diva Christmas Party, with my thoughts elsewhere, as usual! it was pretty fun though, Karaoke and everything.. everybody got smashed! haha

I really don't have a clue what tomorrow is gonna be. But what ever happens the head must be held high.. I'm only 2 fucking weeks away from going to the goldie for good and nothing about nothing is sure yet. Bring it on!

Pelicans in Butterbox yesterday

Is it time to find another job?

Hehe, big time.. I found my Ipod (unbelievable, somebody found it and gave me back!) and the car seems to be good again, but I don't until when.. Yesterday We had a Diva Christmas party in a restaurant right on th beach. Pretty cool! good food, loads of alcohol and friends.. The company rocks. The only problem is that this week I worked only 12 hours! a record! haha, bloody hell.. Now I finished my business course and It's holidays again! I don't know if I should look for work elsewhere.. the time left is so short anyway. There are a few sick photos to post from this hangover powered saturday afternoon and from the party last night.. I will, soon. 

Car swapin'

Ok, the ad is up now I repaired my car yestarday and will sell it ASAP to buy a bigger and better one. But my budget is not as wide as b4.. Anyway, apparently i'll have to change my car, the road is too long and with all the gear inside I can't afford the risk of breaking down.

Up the shit

Fuck it! I lost my Ipod today.. And I also broke my car down! haha, perfect. but I got plans, yep, I definitely got! Anyway, I must get into it now.
Other things are going fairly alrite, I already found a house in Sydney for the guys who are giving me a room up in queensland, kicked ass in the final exams, worked a fair bit.. but the swell is gone again. last week was awesome and now it's like the real summer shit, hot and small. I'd better do something for myself quickly.. I love when everything goes wrong, it's the time to get it in a right new way! But actually it's all good, nothing is ever so bad that can't get any worse.

O fds foi meio falido.. e agora?

Ja ta quase tudo resolvido pra ir pra gold, ate casa la ja ta meio que certo de ter! a unica duvida agora e ir sozinho ou nao.. eh uma decisao foda! Eu passei esse fds meio que sozinho e nao foi tao bom assim quanto eu esperava.. qdo o cara se acostuma a ta com alguem eh uma merda. Se eu for de casal vai ser bom, mas ruim, se eu for sozinho vai ser ruim, mas bom.. vamo ve o que rola! Any sugestions?

Independence Day

The title of the post sounds like I broke up or something, but it's just about this crazy arvo/evening. A huge black rain cloud took over the sky kicking the daylight out with no mercy! Fucking amazing, it was already 8:30pm but the day was still bright when it arrived as suddenly and as quickly as that enourmous Airship in the movie Independence Day. in about 7 minutes it was all dark! Photos by Rodrigo from the micro-varanda nearby the kitchen

Going.. (check out the raindrops)

Going..

Gone

Now everything is set up for me to leave Sydney. Rodrigo, nice brazilian bloke, just came from New Zealand and stood over the backpacker for a couple of weeks until I found him. Now he is living here with me and Kat and soon he'll take over the lease, giving me the bond and assuming the fucking responsabilities of being da man of the place, such as paying bills, rent and making sure everybody else does too. I'm stoked cause he is a surfie, so it's not a waste to have him living in front of the beach, what's the point of being able to check the surf if u don't fucking surf? Anyway, it will be in good handswhen I leave. Photo: Rodrigo and his Swiss girlfriend at the backpacker.

David giving me a free burguer in his last working day at Hungy Jacks just before leaving to New Zealand, hahaha! Crazy bastard.. he dominated the place, even the manager knew how useless he was but still kept him! Keep it up Dave.

The Raglan line up.. Unreal. This shot was taken by Rodrigo in September. That's where David is meant to be now. Soon we'll be both in Burleigh Heads, but I start to play with the idea of going to NZ for a while too!
Maybe next year..

New Toy

 

The swell picked up agressively on monday arvo, hitting strong the south facing beaches. We had a bit in Manly and the points but nothing compared. I had to spend my precious surfing time to get something really important sorted: I got a car!!! It's my third car in Australia, in fact, it's not fully mine, I'm going halves with Julie. After a long time looking for the right one we decided to buy this Ford Laser from Michael, a Polish guy who I've been working with for over a year at Diva. It's pretty respectable looking.. I'll take a photo sometime. Anyway, I ended up not surfing, but deady's, Winki and the Bower were shit, the real action was at Dee Why Point. On Tuesday me and Rodrigo, my new flatmate, surfed Long Reef with bumpy 4 foot.. Nothing special really, but now I got a car! photo: Over rated deadman's on Monday, with 50 people watching and 30 fighting for a drop only wave. 

A goofy footer preserving his well being on monday at deadman's

Almost unbelieveble: a police boat! I'm already pissed off by having to worry about getting pulled over drunk when driving, but now they went too far! Maybe they will demand that surfers register their boars just like cars, haha! scary thought..

We spend this weekend away, in a place called Treachery 3 hours from Manly. On saturday it was alright, sunny afternoon, offshore and uncrowded fun waves, but from 2am to 6 pm there was a non-stop annoying rain on sunday and the waves were gone. Our tent became a fucking pool and the blankets, pillows and cloths were fully wet, hehe. Still, with Caio's Van there it wasn't much of an issue, since we could do our stuff there. This Camping has a hot water shower and shit, so much structure yhat it becomes too easy, haha! The bad thing is that I missed out a classic Narraben day on saturday, according to soem not-that-reliable reports from friends.. hehe, such is life..

The treachery camping site, where bush and sand meet.

The virgin sands of treachery.

Shitty rainy sunday

Saturday night

 

David, Caio, Wolfie and Me. I'll miss these guys a lot when I follow my way up the coast.. This party was just awesome, The actual purpouse was being only Rod's farewell (he's going back to Wales on wednesday) but it ended up being a major pre party booze full of good friends and chicks! 

 

David surrounded 

 

Obviously the house eventually got too small for the number of people, so we all snicked off to the Steyne, hoping not to look too drunk to the bouncers and get denied! 

Down South

 

In spite of the surfing not be that good, this last couple of days were heaps of fun! everything is possible when you have a campervan, so me, Caio, Kylie and David took off to the beaches down south on saturday. We spent some time in Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, got lost a handful of times and finally found our way to Maroubra. The waves were pretty ordinary and there was a sick skatepark right on the beach, but I still prefer the lousiest surfing session than the greatest skateboarding. Also, the last thing I wanted was to get hurt, so I went out to surf alone. Ironically, after one hour and a bit of fun I fucked up my thumb hardcore! It's my second crooked finger in the same hand.. Fark, I should've gone skating.. haha! After an Idyllic rainy sunset and a bit more of skating and even soccer with some french frieds, we headed back to Manly for a big party in my place. Photo: with my crooked fingers after surfing in Maroubra. 

Caio and Kylie

Nico "Frenchman" and David "Mr Hungy Jacks" chilling at the carpark in Maroubra.

"The mouth of the perfecly happy man is filled with beer" hahahaha! On the road at the Back of Caio and kylie's Van, the most comfortable way to travel I ever came across.

Bondi Beach: pretty full for the australian standards..

Sick barrel at south Bondi on Saturday, hahaha, and about 20 people in it.

The reason why I haven't been posting for so long is that simply I have no idea about what's next and everyday (sometimes every hour) everything changes. I almost bought a few different cars lately until I finally found the perfect one. But now I found out that this one is way too dodgy, there's no paperwork, the rego is questionable, its in some random's name.. So i'll probably just let it go and keep looking. The idea is to buy it with Julie and go traveling up the coast with all our stuff (loads) for 3 weeks, so we need a big car. What's funny is that we are both horrible drivers, hahaha! If we do get there alive, I hope the car is in one piece too. Talking of surviving, we�ve been getting heaps of terrorist threats in bloody Manly lately! I don't know what wrong with this farkin world.. not to mention France, which is having a heavy civil war and people are currently not allowed to get out of their houses after 10pm (I saw it on the news this morning). Apparently The African and Arabic people resident in France are protesting against their social exclusion. Julie had a documentary movie project about it just b4 leaving to oz.. hehe, she would've scored big bucks for sure.. I felt a bit guilty for being the reason for her to come, but life has its choices and who knew it would happen anyway? One thing is sure, if those bastards mess with the Steyne, they're messing with me haha, that's why Im still going out, if I havent exploded in Bali this is not where it'll happen ay!
Photo: It may sound ironic, but amongst all the locations I love, Rio is the most secure and peaceful place to be at the moment, as u can see in this Ipanema's gorgeous sunset.

Big Time, Big Choices

 

I finally made my decision. Eventhough I know so well what I want, when it comes to decide how getting there it's not as simple. My initial plan was only to spend 5 months months here and go back to Rio to finish my Psychology degree. With so many new things coming across I ended up bitten by the travelling bug and fell in love with a particular country: Indonesia. Obviously it's just not possible to live there, the money is shit, specially because I don't have any qualification yet. Going from Brazil to Indo is something you do once in a blue moon, if ever, but from here it's just a handful of working days away, not to mention that oz itself absolutely rocks. So I made up my mind: I'm staying here and going over to Rio once a year from 2006 on. To get the resident visa, though, I would have to finish my degree here, but I can't afford the time it takes until you start to make real money with a profession like Psychology, so I had to find a shorcut. I hate kitchens, but this country desperately needs people who cook, and if I get my diploma on it, in two years I'll have my visa and a well paid job. From there, we'll see.. I might go back to Psychology (though I plan to do that only when I finally have some beard on my face) or stay cooking for a few years. Obviously what I really love doing, apart from surfing, is writing, so I'll keep hoping to get a job related to it sometime. I could't, however, stay a single more winter in Sydney, so i'm doing my Chef course on the Goldcoast, where the surfing goes off and the wheather is way warmer. Now I only have a month and a bit around here.. and I'd better make the most of it! 

Queenscliff. This place has been my playground for nearly an year now, it'll be somewhat sad to leave it all behind..

Nada como um Flatmate trampando no Burguer King.. O David ta caindo na sala a mais de um mes, eu acho, mas ate hj eu nao enjoei do bom e velho whopper. nesse dia ele chegou com uns 20 burguers, um pack de queijo e um sacao de calda de sundae, larica maxima!

Can you see the smile on the surfer's face? we 've been having pretty consistent surf lately, like 8 days over 3 foot and even now, after the long swell, there is still something to ride on!

Guerreiro dos nossos, Fernando comempla a dor do parto (ao meio!)

Gerando emprego

 

Interpretar previsoes e uma questao de pessimismo. Ja foi pior, antigamente somava-se 2 dias de atrazo e subtraia-se 2 pes a cada 5. Hj em dia erros menos brutais sao cometidos, mas de certa forma isso torna ainda mais dificil tomar uma decisao, porque sempre ha a possibilidade de eles estarem certos. supostamente o auge do swell seria quarta feira a tarde, entao eu deixei tudo preparado contando com isso, o coastal watch ate que tava indo bem nas ultimas previsoes, mas aquele vento sudeste tava que nem musica de festa do vizinho em terca feira a noite: por mais que vc acreditasse que aquela era a ultima meia hora, permanecia inconvenientemente eterno. Eu desisti de esperar as condicoes acertarem e me adiantei pro bower 12noon, aproveitando pra contribuir um pouco com a comunidade de Manly e gerar um empreguinho moleza: dei $10 por hora prum moleque fazer uns filminhos digitais das pedras com a minha maquina, hehe valeu a pena! Apesar de estar 1 lixo comparado ao dia anterior deu pra brincar.. so a luz que tava 1 lixo e o mar mexido, mas eh o bower, entao tem uma diversao envolvida, necessariamente. Winki pop e deadmans tavam horriveis, com o sudeste castigando, os tubos nao existiam e nao tinha graca.
Hj acabo a moleza! trampo e escola sem break.. mas nao eh tanta tortura assim, na real. A Julie (francesa de Bali 2004) chega aqui de volta amanha meio dia depois de uns 5 meses, e agora? sei la! vamo ve.. pelo menos ja tera uma voluntaria pras imagens da proxima vez! hehehe 

Oi, seriously, whats the deal with that bloody pink stuff covering the building at queenscliff? It hurts my eyes! u can see it from anywhere in Manly now, even from the goddamn bower, on the very opposite side!

My board seems to be pointing at it and wondering the same..

Snap

Cutback

Off the lip

Floater 1

Floater 2