Sometimes you’ve just got to sit back and enjoy what you’ve been given. Sitting out here in South Africa, preparing for the next group of riders to arrive, I can’t help but feel a little guilty for all that has come my way over the last couple of weeks. But then time is what you make of it, and free time out in South Africa is easily spent!

Since the last group of riders returned to the UK at the beginning of August I have been spending my time on the road visiting some of our South African friends and getting to know the coast a little better. It speaks volumes that, for all the time I have spent in South Africa over the past 3 years, every day has yielded something new and something exciting. There is so much variety on this coastline in terms of waves and people that it’s hard to sit still, and this being peak swell season, there are so many waves just waiting to be explored. I’ve surfed empty beaches, pumping points, peeling river mouths and the odd heart-stopping thumping reef (just for good measure). I’ve visited townships and been warmly received, I’ve made several new good friends and found some great new places to explore when the September crew come out on Sunday this week. It’s come round so quickly!

I’m in Cape Town now and it’s good to be back. Easter and the Timoney’s are fantastic hosts and make you feel right at home. Waking up every morning and looking across the white sands of Noordhoek beach to the Sentinel always helps as well!

With Cape Town being the staging area for all our trips up the coast, there’s lots to arrange and lots of people to go and see keeping life busy and interesting. As everyone involved in our trips is a surfer at heart, most of these meetings take place within a stone’s throw of the waves meaning a quick surf forms an integral part of proceedings. It’s great to see the beach playing such an important part in the lifestyle out here, it brings out a really positive side in the people and creates such a friendly and welcoming environment. I’m looking forward to getting the next group out here and introducing them to the South African way of life. As seems to be the case with all our riders, once they arrive they’ll never want to leave!

I hope that all is well at home in the U.K. As summer draws to a close there, spring is upon us down here and the days are warm while the final winter swells still crash through - there’ll be plenty of waves to choose from over the coming months!

Stay tuned for more blogs, the group arrive on Sunday and the menu for the welcoming Braii is already finalised with the Monday confirmed as a full surf day.

To all those about to come out, I’ll see you at the airport bright and early on Sunday morning. I look forward to meeting you all, safe journeys out here and enjoy the last days in the U.K!

There's always an excitement about returning back into the fray after a couple of weeks out and about. As well as enjoying the annual post A-Level result buzz we’re also steaming ahead with Earthwave 2008 with our Rider reunion this coming Sunday. It’s going to be a great event with both the Animal Surf Academy and Surfs Up! involved in this years event it promises to be bigger and better than last years, and as long as the weather plays ball we’ve got a great shot at getting the record.

It’s then up to Carters Bar for some post event celebrations, our new video launch, and our Riders reunion/welcoming party… it’s going to be a busy day! Both Will and myself are at a school friends wedding the night before aswell, this weekend is looking all time!

I’ve made it safely back having completed the Lands End to John O Groats bike ride, which was probably the 2 most challenging weeks of my life, but it’s certainly a great way of making a Single Malt taste sweet. It took us 13 days of solid cycling, with the daily distances ranging from 65 to 99 miles, and speeds anywhere from 3mph on some of the steeper climbs and up to 50mph when taking on the descents; a long time in the saddle, but the daily fry ups get you through and you certainly have no trouble getting to sleep at the end of the day!

Initial figures look like I managed to raise £710 for the TTRide Foundation which I am very happy with, and I’m hoping to take this past £1000 with a few cheques coming in retrospect. Now we’ve just got to makes plans for the next adventure, it’s Will’s turn next…

Linley

Having just landed from a week of Kitesurfing in Tarifa (Europe's Kitesurfing Mecca) it has taken me pretty much the entire day to get even close to getting back into the routine of the TTRide HQ.

Before ranting on about all the latest in the TTRide news, let me take a line out of my long overdue blog entry to say that if you love wind, flying big kites whilst hurtling accross a wind whipped sea and enjoy the fine line between an adrenalin thrill and life reflecting amounts of fear; kitesurfing just might be your calling.

To say it is better than surfing would be going a little far however compared to the every other watersport that I have tried nothing comes close. Tarifa, Spain (15km from the Morocco) is about as cool as they come as well.

Back in the TTRide HQ it has been all about Nikki's supreme multi tasking capabilities. Having only been in the TTRide HQ for just under 3 months (even though her TTRide routes go back over 2 and half years) she has managed to take care of absolutely everything to do with Ticket to Ride and even managed to sort out our new TTRide calendar to help raise money for the TTRide Foundation.

With A-level Results out of the way, the number of Ticket to Ride brochure requests have gone through the roof. So much so that we have invested in a 'franking machine' (if you don't know what this is, then just take my slightly easily pleased word for it that it is pretty swish).

Our first Career Break Specific trip to South Africa is fast approaching with booking closing over the phone on friday and final commitments having to be in by the close of play on monday. As we always say, we are super excited to be running a trip aimed specifically at career breakers as we think that recruiting Riders onto specific trips to suit their different stages in life is definately the way to go and as far as numbers go we are over the moon to be running this trip at max capacity.

Our Jan 09 TTRide South Africa instructor course has as many places on hold as there are confirmed Riders meaning that this trip is extremely oversubscribed. With this in mind it remains our top priority to closely manage our Rider recruitment to ensure the right group sizes and the best group dynamic whilst also paying close attention to our positive impact on local areas that have us to stay.

Our 4x4 Mozambique trip is now confirmed with enough people already signed on to the trip to give it the green light which is great news and our season2season packages that we offer in conjunction with ski/snowboard specialists Natives.co.uk are turning out to be a no brainer for people wanting to combine 2 extreme sport seasons in 1 year.

Tim doing a fantastic job as a head of TTRide South Africa, even if he seems to be spending almost 100% racing the endlessly perfect waves of Jeffreys Bay. No doubt he calls it operational research. Good on him!!!!

With all this in mind, it is our all new TTRide Costa Rica adventure that combines surfing with learning to speak spanish that is at last beginning to steel some of South Africa's limelight. It is of little surprise that after 3 years of marketing and nearly 100 smiling return Riders that our trips to South Africa are the most popular with potential Riders.

From our point of view TTRide Costa Rica has been carefully developed to go alongside South Africa to cater for aspiring surfers with different travel aspirations and in my (extremely biassed opinion, because I am running this trip) TTRide Costa Rica is one of the most exciting developments to the Ticket to Ride travel itinerary for 2009.

Our Rider reunion is now under 2 weeks away which is pretty exciting especially as it is being combined with this years stab at smashing the world record for the most surfers riding the same wave at the same time. We are also going to be showing the full length 40 min TTRIde documentary in Carters that evening. I saw it for the first time today and could not be happier with the way it documents what TTRide South Africa is all about. I cant wait to see the reaction of the Riders on the trip. I am pretty sure they are going to love it.

So there you have it , it is all up in the air at ticket to ride at the moment,

Just the way we like it!!

W

Well I am sure you can understand why I have no sympathy for Tim from the
opening line of his last blog "Hello from lonely j bay" well let me start my
blog again

Hello from the lonely Ticket to Ride HQ in London!! Yes I am in the offices
on my own this week while all the boys are spread across the globe once
again. It has been a packed week for me though, organising, designing,
marketing and chatting on the phone...to riders of course! Tim is still out in
South Africa after finishing the July trip which was a huge success, I have
spoken to Some of the July Riders on the phone and I think the general
consensus is that they do not want to be back in the UK! Yes South Africa
does have that effect on you! Tim is having a short break cramming in as
much surfing, sleeping, eating, sleeping and erm surfing that he can in till
the next group heads out for our Zero to Hero September trip, I have already
arranged for a few of the Riders to smuggle me out with them there are many
uses for a surfboard bag!

Will is out in Tenerife Kite surfing at the moment, he thought he would try
something a little different from surfing so lets hope he doesn't come back
with his leg in a cast! And the final cast member of TTrides HQ, Linley.
Linley is on a crazy 4 man mission as they take part in the LEJOG Challenge,
cycling from lands end to John o'groats. They set off at the weekend in an
array of lycra and spirits high. I can only imagine what parts would be
hurting after a cycle like that, I can say that confidently after seeing the
shape of his saddle before he set off! But I take my hat off to the boys as
it is all done in the aid of charity. They are raising money for various
charities including the Ticket to Ride Foundation, our new charity which
sponsors and supports various projects in the South African communities. I
have had regular updates as they move up the country, they seem to be making
good progress but I think the constant downpour of rain that is following
them is disheartening and doesn't make for the most comfortable of rides.
I'm sure the sun will come out for them as they enter my homeland…or on the
other hand we are talking about Scotland so perhaps not, lets keep our
fingers crossed for them!

There are some exciting events coming up in the Ticket to Ride calendar. On
the 7th September we will be running the event Earth Wave on Polzeath beach
in North Cornwall. Earth wave is a record-breaking attempt to see if we can
get the most amount of people standing on one wave at the same time. Loads
of fun and all proceeds go to charity so come and get involved! We then have
an after party where we are launching our new Video which followed our 2008
Zero to Hero groups up the coast of South Africa. It arrived in the office
this week so I was the lucky one to get the first viewing. I was completely
absorbed in it and became quite emotional as I was taken back to my
experiences in South Africa along with many others, a great watch and a fantastic insight into our
south African trips!

We are also bringing out a Ticket to Ride 20009 charity calendar which
features surfing photography and photos from the communities within the town
ships in South Africa. All proceeds go to the Ticket to Ride Foundation, so
some of the kids featured in this calendar will benefit from the sales. The
Photographer featured in the calendar is none other than yours truly so I
have posted a sneak preview of one of the images. So something for a good
cause to add to your Christmas gift list.

So over and out from me. I’m heading down to Cornwall this weekend so fingers
crossed its my turn for some good waves!!

The last 3 weeks have absolutely flown by and how fitting that I am writing this blog at 35000 ft as I fly home with our Summer 08 School Up and Riding courses in Portugal finished.

As I said in my last entry, Sherborne School as in 2007 were an absolute pleasure.


For St Edwards Oxford, this was their first Ticket to Ride experience and judging by what can only be described as an emotional goodbye, they had an unforgettable experience.
The sun shone, the surf definitely didn’t disappoint and as a group they were full of character, enthusiastic, uncomplicated and just a really fun bunch, to spend time with. Driving back from the airport on Sunday night without the usual banter coming from the back of the minibus was a strange feeling!!

The relationship between the ttride group and our Portuguese surf camp is developing nicely. Working with the guys at the camp could not be easier, we love staying there and they love the groups we bring over.

Whenever I go travelling I always enjoy taking the time to pay attention to the way things get done in different countries. The Portuguese way is up there as one of my favourites, out of all European countries they have got to be up there as one of the most relaxed. One of the best things about the Portuguese people is that they never seem to be too busy or in too much of a rush to stop and say hello. This should not be compared to the English custom of a quick “Hello”, the South African “ Howzit” or the aussie “alright mate.” The Portuguese will without fail stop what they are doing, shake your hand and happily spend the next 5 minutes to however long chatting away before continuing with their day which never seems to stray far away from a gloriously slow pace of life. The Portuguese are all about siestas, fine wine, fresh fish, sunny weather, doing things tomorrow and good waves that form perfectly over amazing beaches filled with beautiful people. What more could you ever ask for???

I have said it before, and I will say it again, the Portuguese know how to live and if they didn’t all smoke so much whilst sipping their espresso’s as a way of cutting down on the number of siesta’s they have, there is little doubt in my mind that the average in life expectancy in Portugal would break into three figures.

Looking back over the last paragraph I fear I might have digressed. This must be put down to the fact that I am sandwiched in between screaming children with parents that would prefer to look around the plane to check if we all think their kids are as dreamy as they do. Of course not, pal!! Don’t get me wrong I love kids, but on planes, the sound of one screaming, the other clicking their seat belt, and the one directly in front with his head wedged between the seat dribbling onto the very keys I am tapping away on, is a little testing.

In fact these little rascals have made me lose my train of thought completely, so to sum up, I have had a rip roaring 3 weeks living the kind of lifestyle that we set Ticket to Ride up for in order to enjoy. I have really enjoyed getting to know each group, the students have been fantastic and they should feel incredibly lucky to have the kind teachers to take them surfing.

So enough said, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to call the last 3 weeks work, thanks to everyone who has been involved in making these trips so memorable.

I can’t wait for my next adventure. For Tim that moment is right now because our African Road trip is underway. Looking forward to getting the updates.


W