A quick update from me out in Costa Rica having safely arrived after a days travelling. This video was Take 4, for some reason the end never came up, so the video ends a bit abruptly, but it still covers the basics!

Hello, goeie dag, molo, sawubona from South Africa.

Wow, what exciting times we have ahead here in Cape Town and up the rest of our beautiful coastline. My last blog was from a snowing London, but I am back home and have been stuck into preparing for the two January Ticket to Ride trips and the year ahead.

Whilst you have been going through an extremely long snowy cold period, we have been blessed with countless sunny days and surprisingly good waves for this time of year too! Whilst I am typing Bevan (their experienced trip leader) is at the airport waiting for the first group, who are merely 15 minutes from touchdown in Cape Town for their ten-week road trip experience up to Durban. I am so looking forward to meeting all of them at out braai tonight in the picturesque Kommetjie and then teaching them to surf starting from tomorrow! With so much to do in Cape Town it will be an action-packed ten days including climbing Table Mountain and going to one of the many famous vineyards in Constantia.

The second group, of 18, will be arriving on the 26th to start their trip, many of whom are doing not only the full trip up to Durban but making the most of the opportunity by continuing with us up into Mozambique, just north of South Africa.

So, whilst the group lands safely I need to go and light the fire, prepare the meat, put the beers on ice and get ready to welcome them to my favourite place in the world.

There will be regular blogs on the ins and outs of what is happening on the trips, both written and video, so don't stray too far from this page!

Cheers

Chris

The New Year is always a good time for reflection, and while the UK goes snow mad all our attentions are turned towards warmer parts of the world, who's going away, and who's running the courses. We’ve always focused on our team of people, making sure that we’ve got the right characters on the courses and in the UK, and I’m not one for clichés but we have truly build up a great group of people to move Ticket to Ride forward, which bodes for a very exciting 2010!

After his December in London Chris is now back out in Cape Town and is now chomping at the bit to get stuck in and welcome out the two trips that are starring starting in Cape Town this January; we’re looking forward to developing the South African side, and have got a catalogue of plans for 2010 with him at the helm. He will be ably supported by Bevan, who’s track record speaks for itself (he was our most prolific trip leader throughout 2009 having been involved in every trip we ran in South Africa, a true professional with charisma and knowledge to aide him), and we’re also welcoming Pete Abell to the SA team. Pete runs his own surf school in Cornwall (King Surf), and we first noticed him teaching back in 2005, and were blown away by his energy and enthusiasm. We were working for a different surf school, and no matter how hard we tried his lessons always looked more exciting and entertaining, he’s going to bring a great dynamic to his course, and we’re very excited to have him on the team. There’s also Tim who’s been working tirelessly for the Ticket to Ride Foundation, which is going to play a big part in this years courses and 2010 will be a big year for the Foundation with lots of volunteers lined up, aswell as a variety of fundraising initiatives.

I have just returned from the airport having dropped off Sam who is heading out to Costa Rica to get things ready for the course out there, aswell as enjoy a quick jaunt up to Nicaragua. We really stepped things up with Sam last year, he was trip leader of our biggest South Africa course, and on returning we partnered up with him to start the Ticket to Ride Surf Academy in Perranporth. He’s also had a good taste of the London life and has been involved up here for the past month after his 2 months away in Indonesia. Sam lives the sort of lifestyle a lot of people dream of, and 2010 will see him out in Costa Rica until April when he’ll return to run the Surf Academy for our exciting second season down there, and the year will no doubt end with a couple of months somewhere tropical on the search for perfection, then he’ll do it all over again!

In the UK we’ve got Tom who’s been motoring with us for about 6 months now, he’s been a fantastic worker and has only got 2 weeks left before he heads off to South Africa for 10 weeks to enjoy one of our courses. We’ve also got Jon in who started yesterday, a Newcastle University graduate who’s joined us from up North, and he’ll be with us until April before heading off on the May African Road Trip.

Then of course there’s me and Will, we haven’t got it too bad either! We get to oversee all the clogs, and see our brainchild grow and develop which is always hugely exciting. It’s a big year for us personally aswell, Will’s now a married man, I’m getting married in December, and of course we’ve got a lot of travelling and work to be done!

There’s no doubt that 2010 is going to be a big year, and with all the pieces of the puzzle in the right place we’re very excited to watch it unfold.

Over and Out,

Linley

So, here I am, like a fish out of water sitting in the big smoke. Well that is the theory but it hasn’t really turned out that way, as I’ve fitted in a lot better than I expected!

Arriving in London I must say that I expected the worst. I had to prepare myself for it: three weeks of not seeing the sun once, rain every day and temperatures ranging between -3 and 6 degrees. I bought a jacket before I left, but hadn’t found any long johns yet which people told me were essential. My first taste of London was exactly as expected. I was going over to Lyon, France, for a week and had five hours in Heathrow where it was grey, wet, and cold.

Let’s take it back a few weeks. I am from Cape Town, and have spent the last four years studying my degree at the University there. From Ticket to Ride’s first trip in 2007 I have both helped run trips and run trips in South Africa during my holidays. In November this year I wrote my last exam, finally allowing me to become a part of the Ticket to Ride team full-time. With the exciting prospect of running the full trips next year, heading up to Mozambique and doing the African Road Trips, we decided that doing a stint in London preparing myself for this as well as seeing how it all actually works at the Head Office would be a good idea. Linley and Will (co-founders) often talk about how busy things are on this side, and of course it had to be proven!

So, having had a good time in France I arrived back in Heathrow in the dark this time and a little accustomed to the cold having been in France. I had two days before starting work. Being my first ‘office job’ I was a little nervous that weekend, not really knowing what to expect. I had packed a couple of collar shirts and brought a pair of black shoes in case that was what was expected of me, despite being a surfing company where collars are usually replaced by t-shirts or hoodies. So I managed to negotiate the train line, having bought a ‘travel card’ for the week, and found the office quite easily. I entered the small black door, walked up the stairs and there it was, the office. Three smiling faces greeted me, Linley, Will and Tom. They all looked relaxed in t-shirts (phew) and immediately I was at ease.

The atmosphere in the TTRide head office in Putney is a great one. Such a pleasure for this to be my first job ‘in an office’. It is open plan, with a good work ethic of everyone just getting on with what they are doing, but combined with the perfect space for anyone to voice an opinion at any time and for it to be discussed. This allows for the continual development of TTRide without the need for many official meetings in ‘the room’; any thought or idea can be discussed immediately and implemented, as well as everyone’s opinion being counted.

My jobs have been varied while I have been here, form e-mails to trip expense comparisons to figuring out the website. I have learned a lot already and am really excited about the trips for next year. It will be a busy year, as I will be running the majority of the trips, but when you consider that my job is to travel along South Africa’s beautiful coastline showing people my beloved country and sharing the love of surfing with them it really doesn’t get much better!
Back to London, that first week I was blessed with “the worst weather we’ve had in weeks”, or so they said. I didn’t really believe them that it had been any better as this was what I had expected. Living in a room with a glass roof, as lovely as it is, means that I know when it is raining and exactly how hard! When it really pours it means being woken up with a drumming in my head, even putting my head under the duvet doesn’t help. After this not so lovely welcoming the weather has gradually improved, and the last three days have been full of sunshine and blue skies. What is very different for me though, is that this lovely weather does not really come with and increase in temperature, with the temperature remaining between about 6 and 12 degrees despite the sun! Very nice none the less and the view over the Thames in the morning with the sun shining and blues skies far exceeded my expectations of how a morning in London would look. Having said this I do fear the day the weather turns. It should be frosting every night but I know the last few nights in Twickenham did not drop below 6 degrees! Global warming affecting us? Definitely!

It has been really good catching up with friends in London too, visiting the odd pub, sampling this drink called ‘ale’ (pretty good stuff) which we don’t have in South Africa. The prices have been exorbitant in some areas, such as food and drinks and transport, but not too bad on the whole. The lifestyle in London really hasn’t been too bad, and with cycling to the station as well as walking around a lot I hope I won’t be too unfit when I get home. In fact, although I shouldn’t care to admit it, I think I will miss it a little when I get home, just a little. The next ten days include working in the office, going to a talk at Harrodian school, a TTRide staff party where we will see some good bands, the TTride Preview morning which I am really looking forward to, where we will meet people who are considering coming on one of the trips (all are welcome), as well as the annual Rider Reunion for all the riders who have experienced a TTRide trip which I am greatly looking forward to.

So it’s a busy ten days and then back to summer in Cape Town. With the first trip starting on the 14th January it’s going to be a good year ahead and one I’m looking forward to tremendously.

I wish you a festive and restful season ahead, a merry Christmas and a happy New Year for 2010. I hope to see you out in South Africa in the years to come, if not next year on one of the Trips or in amongst the crowds at the Soccer World Cup.

Chris Bond
Head of African Operations