Some photo’s!

First round of the Quiksilver Pro:

     

Feeding time:

  Tom, Fraser & Mark

The last week

Sorry for not updating this sooner – my laptop has decided to completely die so it has been a mission trying to get it sorted. Not too many Internet cafe’s where we have been staying either!

Been having an amazing time the past week – surfing at least twice every day and the weather has been incredible. Mark and Fraser arrived on Monday after managing to get lost several times on the way down. Their van is probably 3 times the size of ours so quite a comical site when we are parked up next to each other. We have been camping down at Anglet the past few days but back up at Hossegor now to watch the final of the Quiksilver Pro – the surf has dropped a little but still should be an awesome afternoon. Tom and I were out surfing at Anglet a few days back and the only other surfer was Peterson Rosa (WCT pro) and when we came in Slater headed out for a free surf. Was good times sitting on the beach watching him put on a bit of a show. Managed to get tom some good photos so will post them soon.

A couple of days back we headed down into Spain for the afternoon (San Sebastien & Zarautz). Incredible little places but the waves were average so we headed back up into France for an evening surf at Anglet.

We are all consuming and unhealthy amount of baguettes, camembert and red wine but have not done any partying. Each night we are all so buggered from the day’s surfing that we are in bed at 9pm. Having some shocking sleeps – partly due to Tom’s snoring and partly due to the incredibly lumpy mattress. Haven’t had a hot shower in over 10 days now and only had my first shave yesterday so things are slightly feral. There are cold water showers at each beach though so we aren’t living as complete pigs. Looking forward to a proper bed again though and more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night!

Thinks that’s all for now, but will work on getting some photos posted.

Blair

We missed the ferry…

Tom managed to get the times confused so we ended up with 30 minutes to do a 2 hour trip – was never going to happen when the vans top speed is 90 kmph! We then almost missed the next one as he had left my laptop at our friends place – driving around London getting lost in 30 degree heat was not too much fun. Just as well it was delayed so we ended up being fine. Didn’t arrive until quite late into France so only managed a couple of hours driving until we decided to park up for the night at what looked like a quit spot. For some reason though from 3am onwards there was a continual stream of trucks which pretty much ruined any chance of sleep.

Tom redeemed himself the next day by driving 13 hours straight until we reached Hossegor – was so good to finally get to the beach. Yesterday the first round of the Quiksilver Pro was on in incredible waves so we spent a few hours watching that with a few thousand other people on the beach. Got some great shots but my laptop cord broke so have not been able to charge it for a few days – hopefully tomorrow I will find a new one, then I will post a heap of pics from our travels so far.

The weather has been amazing every day so far – late 20’s and lots of sunshine. Slowly losing the Auckland winter pastiness!

I have been eating way too many baguettes and drinking too many bottles of red wine, but it’s a lot of fun. Mark and Fraser finally got a van sorted so they should arrive later tonight – will be a lot of fun hanging out with them again.

It has been very cosy in Tom’s van – 2 tiny single mattresses just fit side by side in the back so there are a few elbows in the back due to continual snoring.

For those of you who surf – we have had a couple of fun surfs. Yesterday was huge almost everywhere but we found some good overhead waves in Hossegor. Super clean and the water is really warm still – am loving surfing in boardies again.

Think that’s all for now, but will get some photos posted tomorrow.

Blair

Made it in one piece…

Finally in London after a bloody long flight and only 2 hours sleep. Only managed to spill one glass of wine on the floor – some pretty crazy turbulence for a while. Also realised about 25 hours into the flight that I had forgotten to pack my boardshorts, or any shorts for that matter! It is cooking in London today as well – blue skies and super hot.

Is great seeing my sister Tessa again – here is a shot just taken of us:

Tom is about half an hour away so looking forward to checking out his van – suspect it is going to be a very cosy 3 weeks for us on his mattress in the back.

Blair

The packing begins…

Contact info…

Just sorted a loan phone for when I am away, number is:

+44 773 698 0420

Either that or Skype me: blairdods

10 days to go…

…and still I haven’t made any progress in getting sorted for the trip. A million and one things to do but looks like I will do my usual trick and pack a couple of hours before I leave.