El Salvador wrap up!

El Salvador, pretty much the best trip I have ever been on, things started out a bit on the rough side, where at one point I was ready to forfeit the entire trip and run home to my comfort zone, but I’m glad now that I didn’t, I would never have experienced such an amazing country, or made the new friends I now have or seen and experienced that things I did.

So in a way now I’m glad that thing went the way they did, travelling alone all the way to El Salvador, was what I needed, before this trip I was terrified to go through international non English airports but now it doesn’t seem half as intimidating as before.

One thing I would change if I could, would be the rain, torrential rain that came down from Friday until Monday evening, causing floods and devastation in La Liebertad, and turned the ocean into a muddy mess with debris everywhere, only delaying the event by one day.

The event ran in contestable clean 3 – 5 foot surf at Punta Roca from day 1 to 5, with sun shine and light winds, the standard of surfing for a masters event was top level with names like Tom Curran, Layne Beachley, Juan Ashton, Heather Clarke and Fabio Gouvier.

Punta Roca is a super fun waves, exactly like they say it’s like Super tubes in J Bay but it runs a bit slower so its super makeable, we got to surf at Punta Roca after the event most days it was super crowded but plenty of waves the local kids didn’t like us surfing out there that much so there was plenty of hustling and just getting plain down burnt if you thought you were on a set, even though you did wait your turn.

So on our earlier day we all decided to surf the point our front of the hotel, also a cobble stone point with super fun right which ran for meters on end, some of the funest waves I’ve surfed in a long time, so Playa Conchalio took up most of our day light free time, surfing till dark watching the raddest sunsets which were more awesome every day.

On Saturday night we ventured into San Salvador which is the capital of El Salvador, we went to a Japanese restaurant called Kamakura, apparently they served the best sushi which had all the boys frothing, even I ate a piece, wasn’t half bad, but I stuck to my Chicken teriyaki.

We were greeted with 2- 2.5 foot small rights for the final day, Team South Africa managed a finalist in all 5 divisions, and ended up with 2 Silver medals, 2 Bronze and a copper medal, as well as the bronze medal over all, great result for a great team, the gold medal went to USA and Brazil took silver, Australia finished 5^th ha ha.

El Salvador is such a unique country, and one thing I learnt is that simplicity is the key to happiness, I wouldn’t say the people of la Liebertad were hard done by the had the basic necessities, T.V and internet as well, but they lived simple and I’ve never seen a happier nation of people living in the conditions they live in, the kids play out in the streets till 8:30 each night, kicking balls, playing with the million of pebbles that litter the beaches, and just always wearing a smile, and to see their stoke for surfing despite their equipment ,was moving.

So with two flight down I’m sitting in Sao Paulo Airport, waiting out the longest layover of my life, thinking back on the past 11 days of my life and how lucky I am to have been afforded these opportunities, thinking of the waves, the people, the new friends I have made and the awesome sunset that the people of El Salvador will see tonight, I really hope I return back to la Liebertad sometime soon, but for now it’s just two more flights and i’m back to reality, and I will have that blog on Shin splints out by next week.

Wade

El Salvador adventures

I got my boards and luggage!!

After 2 days of postponed contest due to the to town of La Liebertad being declared in a state of emergency due to 7 days of heavy tropical rain, which left whole trees , horses and the odd dog floating around the line up, the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships was given the green light today.

Today kicked off with the opening ceremony at Punta Roca , behind the podium, the flag carriers and sand pourers from each of the competing nations each had a turn to walk up onto the stage and empty their containers into the glass tank on the stage, team South Africa's sand came from Warner Beach, my home town which was pretty cool, it was also mixed with sand from Vic Bay. El Salvador and Switzerland poured pebbles into the tank because their beaches don't have sand but pebbles instead.

So team by team the tank filled, the result was awesome (see picture)!

The sun decided to show face today and by noon it had burned away majority of the clouds and we were blessed with a scorcher of a day!

10am saw the first heats hit the water, Punta Roca produced, broken up swell at first but as the day progressed the waves straightened out and there were so great waves on offer, chocolate barrels for everyone.

All the Saffa's that surfed advanced directly into qualifier round 2.

After the event the judges decided it was our turn to surf, Punta Roca was crowded so the Peruvian , Nino insisted that we jump in the van and head "10 minutes" down the coast, 10 minutes i Peruvian is 25 minutes in South African time i'll have you know.

with time not on our side, with sunset just around the corner, Nino took us on a nerve wrecking drive along the windy roads of La Liebertad ( i'm still not quite used to this driving on the other side of the road), we finally arrived at El Zonte , a fun looking right hand cobble stone point break , the tide was a bit high but it was good to get in the water even if it was for only 30 minutes and a mission over 1 million stones in the dark afterwards.

All in all the trip that started off with a couple hiccups , is starting to look like it's going to be great one!!

So here is to the rest of the adventure, oh and don't trust Peruvians when it comes to post contest surfs.

Wade

El Salvador chaos

Well my trip to El Salvador to judge the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships has been anythig but a breeze,firstly my flight from Durban to O.R Thambo get cancelled and i get placed on a later flight which gets delayed so i arrive at O.R Thambo International with barley enough time to check in and bard my connecting flight to Sao Paulo , at the ticket counter there was an issue with my ticket and thanks to the incompetance of the SAA staff I missed my flight and had to spend the evening in Johannesburg, due to missing my connection to Brazil my other connection now would also be missed, so now i have one night to sort out all my other flights before getting on a plane to Brazil, oh did I mention the travel agent i needed to contact was in El Salvador!!

Any way I manage to get it sorted and now have a 16 hour overnight lay over in Sao Paulo , thank goodness SAA has arranged for me to stay in a hotel and not spend the night on the airport floor.

The rest of my flights go smooth and just when I think the worst is over and I have finally reached my destination, only to find out my luggage never made it , great.

So now it's day 2 in El Salvador, really cool place, waves look super fun but its been raining a heap so the water in brown and there are whole trees floating around, had a judges seminar with all the international judges (they come from everywhere, Australia, USA, Hawaii, Peurto Rico, Peru and Brazil), and we checked out the contest site and the tower which is sick!

Hoping my boards and clothes arrive by the start of the event on Monday, because being in a place littered with such good waves and not having a pair of board shorts or your boards is hardly ideal.

Tomorrow we have the parade of nations and the opening function which is always cool and on Monday the events kicks off so here's to hoping the rain stops and my luggage arrives .

Wade

Half marathon madness and the month ahead

So I finished my first half marathon today, the 21.2 km Goss & Balf South Coast Marathon, Starting at Ilfracombe on the KZN South Coast heading further south for a km before turning and heading north back to Amanzimtoti.

Being my first race of that distance I wasn't quite sure how to pace myself but still managed to finish well within my goal time finishing 44th overall in a time of 1hour 36minutes, I was super happy with that time and my performance, the weather was perfect for my first time, over cast and cool, all in all it was a great experience, i'll be back for another one some time soon and hopefully take on the full marathon next year, ask me tomorrow morning and my answer could be very different haha, but at least my shin splints didn't bother me today.

Tomorrow I'm off to New Pier on the Durban Beach Front for the rest of the week to judge the Hurley SA Junior Surfing Championships, Hurley have really put a lot into this event and it's set to be a great week of surfing, junior surfing is super exciting at the moment so i'm looking forward to this week.

Its also going to be interesting to see how the team I have been working with over the last month is going to do, so lots of exciting prospect lie ahead of me this week.

On the conclusion of the Hurley SA Junior Champs i'll have two days to sort my life out before I jet off to El Salvador in Central America, via Sao Paulo Brazil and Lima Peru to represent South Africa on the judging panel at the ISA World Masters Surfing Champs, I googled Punta Roca (pictured above), the break where the event is being held,really cool looking setup with perfect tropical warm rights that reel off down the point for hundred of meters, going to be so sick, i'll for sure be clocking up the hours surfing myself.

Super exciting month ahead for me, with all my lay overs I'll be able to start researching for my blog on shin splints.

I'll keep you all updated, for additional info on my whereabouts you can follow me on twitter @WadeBotha88

Wade Botha

Bss Sport Science ; HONS Exercise Science, UKZN 2010