With the internet down in the surf camp, I apologise for not updating you sooner with the latest from out here in Portugal. I have just got back from the airport where I waved goodbye to the Sherborne School. The past week has gone so quickly and there has been plenty of action which I will try and put into one short blog as I wait for St Edwards Oxford to come through the arrivals gate.

With Sherborne School landing in Portugal for their second Ticket to Ride Surf trip, the pressure was certainly on to beat the 2007 trip that Linley ran for Sherborne School last year. It was great to see the same 3 teachers returning this time with a different group of boys and another member of staff. With this in mind is was my aim to ensure that I put my own stamp on this 2008 summer surf trip, and with a bit of luck top last year’s trip.

To break the trip down into a more manageable account I will start with the surf. According to Tiago (Surf Camp owner/local surf legend) the week of surf that we have just enjoyed is the best that he can remember for Portugal in the summer. Alex and Andrea (instructors) put on 7 fantastic surf lessons, pushing the guys into some of the longest waves that I have ever seen ridden by people that are new to surfing. Chatting to the boys as they reluctantly packed their stuff to catch the plane it seems that this trip has more than met their expectation when it comes to what is for some their first real taste of surfing and for all their first opportunity to enjoy surfing abroad.

When the guys aren’t in the water there is never any sign of them wanting to take a break (no matter how late they stayed up chatting to the local girls the night before “so naughty”). If it is not football, its rounders, if not rounders, its touch rugby and if it isn’t touch rugby it is a new ttride trademarked combination of American football/touch rugby. There is not a minute in the day when these guys are not putting 110% into some kind of energetic activity.

This brings me nicely onto to these boy’s eating habits. Unbelievable!!!! It is genuinely not uncommon for these lads to go into a restaurant and order three burgers, 2 ice creams and then maybe trade some sun cream for a slice of pizza. When they have finished all that the hang around ready to be the first to snap up any scraps you might leave on your plate. If the waitress come outs with two more burgers and seems lost, not knowing which table they are meant for, the boys simply claim it, devoir it, say thank you, and then leave in search of the next event.

When it comes to manners, these guys do not disappoint. Everyone they met always felt obliged to come over to me and tell me what a great bunch of boys they were, and for me, this made this trip an absolute pleasure. To have 10 boys all keen to make the most out of the trip, (even if it that meant some stealth bar work, and fair play these lads were committed) made this week fly by without incident.

The last week has been dominated by surf, sun and unlimited amounts of fun and one thing that cannot go without mention is how lucky these boys are to have staff who are just as keen as them to enjoy every last minute of what can only be described as an epic week.

Safe journey home guys,

Can’t wait for next year,


Will

It's been a while since I've been down in the South West in June, you forget how long the days last. We've been fortunate enough that every evening the weather cleared, with the wind dropping and the sun coming out, this coupled with a decent swell, and natural day light stretching to 10pm leads to some pretty good times! Tim's been down here enjoying his last few days of the English Summer before waxing up his 6 10 rhino chaser and heading over to S.A, to tackle some monster Winter swell and take charge of our trips over there. We popped in for a quick one at Harlyn last night (one last team surf)... new swell, quite punchy waves if you picked the right one.

I'm staying down in my caravan over in Polzeath which has turned into a small TTRide Rider commune! I've been renting it out to Frosty (Z-H 1) for the Summer, Nick Holland's two doors down, and Sara Woolf's literally next door. We sorted them all out with jobs at local surf schools, and so they've been down here for the past two weeks waiting for the season to kick off. It's great to see them all becoming such close friends; there's a few more coming down in the next two weeks, so with our Riders growing in numbers and all the t-shirts looking a treat in Carter's I think Polzeath's going to be a fun place to spend the Summer!

The t-shirts arrived on Monday and are now up and available in Carter's, off the back of Will and Lottie's initial idea Nikki's done a fantastic job designing these, fingers crossed they'll go like hot cakes over the next few weeks.

I'm still up with Ben finalising all the details for the new website, the more I go through it the more excited I am about having it completed. There's still a decent bit of work to be done, but we're putting the hours in to make sure that it's ready for the weekend. Kiri's coming down with all her housemates and we're all going to the Jack Johnson concert in Watergate on Saturday night, so I'm pretty keen to have it off my shoulders by then!

Early reports from Will are that Portugal's scorching hot, with some decent waves aswell, so sounds like the Sherborne boys are having a great trip. It's St. Edwards next week, and the conditions looks like they're going to hold for that too, Will's got himself onto a good one there!

School’s out for the Summer, and with it the TTRide team are all over map on various missions and vacations.

Will’s off out in Portugal currently leading our school surf trip for Sherborne school, looking at the forecast the sun’s shining and the weather looks ideal. I had a quick chat with him yesterday, and he seemed highly concerned about ensuring a solid base to his tan before the group arrived, seeing this as the finishing touch to all of his hard preparations!

Tim’s taking a few days off to prior to his lengthy stint in South Africa where as the newly appointed Head of SA Operations, he will be leading both the July and September trips, returning home for Christmas, and then heading back out to lead the January and Mozambique trips. Tim did such a fantastic job with his group at the start of the year, and having him in charge of the adventures fill’s us all with a huge amount of confidence.

I’m currently down in Cornwall with a few tasks under my belt. Firstly we’ve designed the Staff clothing for the well know Carters Bar, Nikki did a great job designing them, and it’s always very exciting seeing newly designed clothes for the first time. We’re also in the process of overhauling the website, as our trips have grown and we have bought out a variety of new adventures over the past few years the website has become a bit full and cluttered (I’m sure you noticed!), so Will has masterminded a new cleaner site which I have the pleasure of adding the finishing touches. Fingers crossed it will be live at the end of the week!

So with all of the boys out and about poor Nikki’s been given the short, but all important, straw of keeping things in line up at HQ. She’s had a great first 3 weeks, and from our perspective we couldn’t be happier. So as long as she can survive the solo stint up in the big smoke she will have capped off an excellent first month in her new position at TTRide.

All the best from us all, and I hope that you are able to enjoy the sunshine wherever you are!

Until next time…

L

Well its now 3 weeks down and I have been left to my own devices in the office while the boys have hit the road carrying out exciting tasks for Ticket to Ride. Linley is down in Cornwall for the next week spreading the gospel, while Will leaves today for Portugal beginning our sold out summer of school trips and Tim has been out hitting the gap shows. I don’t feel sorry for any of them as they are all heading to sunshine, beaches and surf, don’t worry guys I’m just fine here on my own.

Next week is Tim’s final last few days in the office before he heads out to South Africa until Christmas. Does anyone out there feel sorry for him..…no I didn’t think so. Tim will be based out in South Africa running trips and preparing for the next group of lucky riders to head his way. Enough said on that as I am extremely jealous, after spending 3 months out in South Africa with him running Zero to Hero trip two, I cant believe he’s going back out there without me, it just shouldn’t be allowed!

I have joined the company at an exciting time and I’m loving every moment of it, there is a lot going on and with summer coming up its full steam ahead and I’m getting stuck right in. With the reading materials lying around the office being surf mag’s its not a bad place to work at all.

Yesterday a box of football kit arrived in the office for Tim to take out to South Africa for the Cape Town Juventus team. While out in South Africa our riders have had great enjoyment meeting the local boys football team from Masiphumelele township and playing football matches with them on the spectacular setting of long beach in Kommetjie. This year Ticket to Ride have sponsored their football team and we can’t wait to see the team in their new kit this year. Having met a lot of the kids this year and last I wish I could see their faces as they open them. I’m sure they will be ecstatic with excitement as the kit unites them as a team, they will look fantastic!

Closer to home we have some new promotional clothing coming out for this summer which will be sold in Carters bar in Polzeath, Cornwall. Ticket to Ride is joining forces with Carters bar and the design encompasses a day in the life of someone with a very lucky lifestyle, cruising along on a bike with surfboard under their arm heading for the beach……or perhaps Carters! So watch out for them as they will be soon modelled by Carters bar staff and available on sale as hoody’s and t-shirts.

So I’m coming to end of writing my first blog woho, there will be many more to come from me and I hope to see you on the beaches of Cornwall throughout the summer! Bye for now!

Nikki

With Nikki settling in nicely, and July now within touching distance there is an exciting buzz in the ttride HQ.

In fact nearly everyone we speak to seems to be pretty be ecstatic with their situation having either just finished exams or in some cases decided to take well earned time out from what some describe as ‘the grinding routine of everyday life.’

Either way these are exciting times for our potential Riders and I am always the first one to tell people that the whole dilemna of “where to go? and what to??” is in reality one of the best dilemna’s out there.

Tim is all set to jet off out to South Africa and straight into their prime surf season. As head of Ticket to Ride trips to South Africa, Tim is going to be leading our 1 month African Road Trip this July. Looking over the group we have lined up and ready to hit some of South Africa's most famed surfing locations, I am pretty sad not to be on this one.

In fairness I am fairly sorted for my fix of sun, sea and surf as I am off to Portugal in 9 days for 3 weeks. Here I will be running our School Up and Riding Courses. Both the enthusiasm and seemingly unlimited energy of the boys and girls on these courses is incredible, however as long as don't over do it over the next 9 days, I am fairly confident that I can give these whippers a run for their money when it comes to energy.

Looking further ahead to our September Career Break Instructor Course seems to be a forefront of everyone's mind as far Rider recruitment is concerned. We already have a fantastic group lined up for this one with just a few spaces remaining. Having met most of them in person a week or so ago in Ticket to Ride's favourite London watering hole I have no doubt that this career break course will be an epic. The fact that some of the group travelled right across London to get to know their fellow Riders bodes extremely well for a trip where everyone is super keen to really make the most of everything offer and with our man Tim at the helm of this one, this one is predicted to raise the ttride bar even higher. And with high standards in mind I thought I would put up some surf shots of TTRide trip leaders.

Our January 2009 Course to South Africa and Costa are filling up as fast as ever, this must be in part due to the fact that A-level exams are almost over.

The TTRide website makeover is also on track as well as the the new TTRide movie. These two projects have so all in all…

Exciting times…