So much going on in the TTRide HQ over the past week, has meant that the TTRide Blog has not really had a look in.

Linley and I had a great trip to Portugal. Not much surf unfortunately but great to catch up with the Portuguesers in the surf camp. They have great life out there, year round surf, beutiful weather, Portugal is definately my favourite European surf destination and for that reason I am backing them in this summer's Euro Champs.

With football in mind, I make no secret that I am pretty uninterested, mainly due to its cult following in England that I cannot understand, particularly when it comes to pub brawlers being reduced to violence and then tears by games that they played no part in other than to jeer at T.V's shouting for a bunch of overpaid millionaires that in reality will play for anyone as long as they get paid enough. Just my point of view that I am well aware (unlike the people described above), matters very little.


Back to TTRide matters, in a bid to save a few pennys, Linley, Lottie and I attempted to show off some of the New TTRide Summer 08 clothing on the beach in Portugal last weekend. This year we have got Girl's fit clothing which look great. I am a big fan of our new green hoodies and white long sleeve t's.

I am uber excited to say that the website text and photos for our new TTRide location are now in the hands of our trusty web designer. This new trip goes on sale on Friday and I am leading it January 09 on its maiden voyage. Had a great meeting with the course director George for this trip today. He and his family have just flown back from this tropical paradise where they live for 6 monthsd straight each year. I wrote a number of blogs whilst researching and finalising this new trip last month, seeing George again brought it all back, and I can't wait to lead a TTRide trip out there with him in January.
(See blogs posted between 4th-14th April for more of a taster).

10 places are available on this trip. It's 6 weeks long, it combines surfing and learning Spanish which our Riders can then use to teach English to the local school kids. For surfing the water is 27 degrees and the waves are super consistent.

Due to a few over excited leaks from the top secret TTRide HQ a few people already are already in the know and 2 places are currently on hold. With this in mind i thought i would leak some more info to our trusty blog readers. Next it will be our Ticket to Ride facebook group that get in on some more early info, and then our TTRide Newsletter will brandish that it is on sale and places are selling faster than you can say 'tim wants to go surfing.'

Places on Ticket to Ride Costa Rica officially go on sale this Friday 16 May ! ! ! ! !
(Whoooops)

Lets chat on Monday

Have a good weekend.

Should be a scorcher!!!

W

Our Summer 2008 clothing range also arrived, we are pretty excited about it, lots of new colours, new designs, and an exclusives girls range. Looking forward to getting it on our website, mainly so that we can have the office back. There are so many boxes in here at the moment.

New Ticket to Ride location is just about ready to go live on the website. It officially goes on sale on 16 May and we are well on track.

Linley and I are to the Portugal Surf Camp tomorrow girlfriends and all, should be a great weekend. Tim is off down to Cornwall for the Bank holiday, summer is in the air.

Happy Days

W

This year I have managed to completely luck out on conditions wherever I have been. Last year it was a different story, with out a doubt I was the rain man, no matter where I was South Africa, Mozambique, or England the rain followed me, this spell also went hand in hand with poor swell and people started to dread my arrival for fear of what conditions I might bring along. This year, however, I am proud to say has been a completely different story. Not only have I got the sunshine on my tail, but this has gone hand in hand with solid swell, off shore winds, and general good times.

I’m out in Morocco at the moment enjoying a short stint on this piece of the North African coast. People have been talking about Morocco for a long period of time and over the past few days I’ve been fortunate enough to find out what all the hype is about.

This piece of coastline is literally littered with surf spots to suit all standards, and I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a good swell in my short window here. The first morning I was up before sunrise and taken to a point known as “Dracula’s” named as the jagged rocks resemble the notorious blood sucker’s teeth…nice! However despite it’s slightly threatening background the waves were near on perfect, coming through at a decent 4 – 6 ft and reeling down the point, with just the two of us out sharing the break it was a perfect introduction to the Moroccan coastline.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of the water sampling a handful of the plethora of breaks within a short drive before ending up at the world famous “Anchor Point”, which despite the slightly more condensed crowds was presenting enough waves to get shared around.

The sun has been shining, waves pumping, and even with the tendency of the wind to crush the waves in the afternoon things could not have been more enjoyable.

It’s off to Essouira tomorrow for a piece of Moorish culture, hopefully with a cheeky wave before departure, and then one more day of noodle arms before hopping on a flight back to the Motherland.

I hope you’ve all had a good weekend whatever adventure you’ve been up to, things are all well from this end.

Over and out…

L

With the UK still freezing under steely grey skies i thought i'd let you all in on just what's been going down with our SA team over the last couple of days.

There's been a big swell working it's way up the Cape and, as you'd expect from such a dedicated group of surfers, our SA team of coaches have been right in the thick of the action. John Henry (full profile: http://www.ttride.co.uk/team/sa.php) sent us the attached photo over this morning following an epic session at the Bomby in Plet.

There'll be plenty more of that in July when we head back over to the Cape for our African Roadtrip. The last few places are still up for grabs so get in touch soon to book your place.

Excitement in the air? More like the early morning swell of freshly baked croissants, the cool draft of an air conditioning system, and the sleepy groans from a few fellow travellers. However despite the fact that I've woken up at 2 15, and it is now 5am, when you're sitting in an airport departure lounge you've always got a buzz of excitement in your step.

These past few weeks, with TTRide, I've been to a handful of destinations, and the best is yet to come. As I sat down with a few friends for supper last night I realised that since the end of February I am travelling abroad every other weekend, until the start of June. There was a month in Durban, an exciting week in Portugal, now I'm about to head off to another hotspot which will hopefully offer a range of reeling point breaks, then it's back to Portugal, before I head over a couple of oceans for a two week holiday with what has been a very patient girlfriend.

What does this make me? A travelling surfer (I wish it were that simple), local tour guide (maybe, but not quite), international man of mystery (unlikely), someone living the dream (let's avoid the cliche's), or maybe just a complete b**tard in my friends eye's (probably). I guess that months of travelling to exotic surf locations around the globe will be perceived differently depending on who you talk to, but all I do know is that it has been an incredibly exciting few months at TTRide, we've just completed 2 trips in South Africa - with high pass rates, happy faces, and lots of new surf coaches in various jobs around Europe; and now we're: preparing for an exciting Summer with an African Road Trip, and a handful of school trips; all set for next years trips with the places filling fast; and getting ready to launch a couple of exciting new ventures before the Summer fever sets in.

With all of this going on, I'm still pinching myself that I'm lucky enough to be sitting in an airport departure lounge waiting to board a plane which will take me to point break central with the forecast's predicting an epic 3 days blessed with sunshine, offshore winds, and lumpy seas.

So is there excitement in the air? Maybe not in this sleepy departure lounge, but on the bigger scale, most definitely.

Over and out...

L