Good afternoon from sunny Cornwall.

It's been quite a day, leaving the London office last night and heading down to our Cornwall HQ to prepare the ground for Sherborne School who will be joining us for the weekend and a surfari on our very own doorstep. It seems the conditions are going to play ball as well with a small swell, offshore winds and sunshine all weekend. It really doesn't get much better than that and i can't wait to take the guys to some beautiful, out of the way beach breaks. It's one thing leading tours abroad, but when you can show people round your home breaks it's a special feeling. Especially when the waves are pumping and the sun's out!

So it's off to meet the guys in a couple of hours for a quick evening brief to prepare them all for the morning. We have a group of 12 split between boys and staff, some have surfed a little before and others haven't. The plan is going to be long days on the beach split between surf lessons, beach games and pic-nic lunches with the ultimate aim of getting everyone up and riding and returning home stoked and wanting to come back for more.

It's fantastic to have Sherborne back with us, they were the first school to join us in Portugal for a school trip and have been in touch ever since. Seeing schools around the country start to embrace surfing is really positive, it seems that the school surf trip is fast becoming the new version of the classic school ski trip. And why not! Surfing is such a positive sport to get involved in and one that we can practice at home without having to fly miles and miles to the mountains. There are many different points of view on the volumes of people taking to the water these days but from a personal opinion, the more people that get off their backsides and take to the waves the better. There's so much more to surfing than just riding the waves and the image of surfers as lazy bums is one of the past; as a sport it promotes a healthy and active lifestyle, it is a brilliant travelling companion and an excellent way to meet new and interesting people. Surfing has taken me all around the world and i've met some incredible people through it. If we at Ticket to Ride can give people a leg up and help them get into the sport then so much the better. They'll be all the richer for it. Here's hoping the weekend delivers and we have a handful of surf converts by the time sunday afternoon comes round!

Happy surfing,
Tim

We’ve headed up the coast to a small beach called Playa Grande (Big Beach) which is a short walk around from the better know Tamarindo, which was bought to worldwide recognition from Endless Summer II. This is where Will and I finished on our Gap Year all those years ago, so I’ve been boring Kiri with a walk down memory road. Playa Grande was always where we ended up surfing, so it’s great to be staying right on the beach that is famed for it’s long rideable walls, the swell’s picked up today aswell…

The last few days in Santa Teresa continued to impress, we made friends with a great English couple on their honey moon, and headed out together with the local fisherman Douglas (who will lead the fishing charters on the TTRide Costa Rica trip). We do a bit of fishing down in Cornwall and the only fish I have ever caught down there is a Mackrell, and it’s always my fear that all these miles away from Cornwall I’ll spend a good few minutes reeling in the line to find another Mackrell on the line. However this was not the case, Douglas obviously knew the spots, as within 5 minutes of trawling the reel was spinning off. It took about 10 minutes to pull it back in, and I could tell it was big as it pulled the tip of my rod underwater a few times, and almost took me with it! So, no Mackrell on the end of the line, but what looked like the Grand-Daddy of all Mackrel, a Wahoo. My finest catch ever! Also turns out it was sushi night back at Funky Monkey, so a trade of the beasts fillets got 6 of us a free meal, and a couple of beers (that gives an indication of how much there was!)

Anyhow, 4 days left to go so we’re hoping for some more sunshine over here! We’ve got 2 more nights in Tamarindo, and then 2 nights underneath Arenal volcano which should be quite an experience.

We hope all’s well back in the UK, and that everyone had a good Bank Holiday weekend.

All the best,

Linley and Kiri

After a month in Durban, a week in Portugal and then a few days in Morocco it was decided that now would be a good time to take a holiday, why stop when you’re on a roll eh?! So my girlfriend Kiri and I decided that we’d come and spend some time on the Costa Rican coast, at Santa Teresa so that we can get to know it a little bit better before the first TTRide trip runs here.

It’s 7 o’clock in the morning at the moment and already the sun is shining high, the birds singing, and the monkeys dancing through the branches. Even though it’s supposedly wet season we’ve been enjoy a lot of sunshine and for the past few days we’ve been up early and on to the beach first thing as the wind is softer, the waves better, and the heat more enjoyable. We’ve rented a couple of bikes to take us round town, and have enjoyed all the local delicies, soared over the rainforests, dabbled in the local brew and cocktails, and have been treated to 5* luxury at one of the local resorts (Larry and John, we hope you have a great rest of your trip!)

The water is perfectly warm, and there has been plenty of swell. The coastline here is open to all of the Pacific swells with the strongest travelling all the way from low pressure systems off New Zealand, which means that by the time they’ve made it here they’ve had all the time needed to clean up and produce near perfect lines, and even with Costa Rica becoming a more popular destination I haven’t had to surf with any more than 4 others in the line up, so there’s been plenty of waves to be had.

So life is good in Costa Rica, and from the two of us, we hope that things are well wherever you are reading from.

Over and Out…

Linley and Kiri

This morning I decided to get up that bit earlier and hit the local pool, and don’t I feel all the better for it. Alive and ready to take on the day, and what a beautiful day it is.

Linley is 6 hours ahead in sunny Costa Rica giving the place another test run before we head out there in January 2009 with a new group of 10 Riders. Had a good chat with our man George last night. He and I cannot wait to be back out there, I am definitely going to be making the case for being out there a 2 weeks before the start of the trip (15th Jan 2009), this will give me time to settle in, ensure the waves are still bath warm and the perfect shape.

Tim has come back from Cornwall, lots of exciting developments including a rather dodgy beard, I think I will handle all meetings that involve potential Riders coming in with their parents today.

The July trip is looking really exciting as it nears max capacity. We have a queue of our best trip leaders in SA all making their claim to the position of assisting Tim on the trip. We are really lucky to have such a wealth of talented surfers in SA all super keen to be involved in Ticket to Ride wanting to pass their skills and love of surfing onto our Riders, even it does sometimes mean giving the odd pro show where Riders watch in amazement as the likes of Chris Bond effortlessly pull 360 aerials in front of their very eyes or maybe throw 10ft of spray off the back of waves as they show Riders what potential lies in store if they continue to push themselves.

I am looking to give the website a bit of a spring clean over the next few weeks, this will involve working down in Cornwall at our web designers office which is never a bad thing. Looks like my next early morning swim will be courtesy of mother nature,

Have a good day,

W

PS. Thanks to all of you that wrote in to correctly answer that San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica. Jamie Marshall was first in with the answer and is therefore our lucky winner.

Hola

It has all been about more of the same in TTRide land over the last few days. The weather been 'frankly quite wonderful i'd say' meaning there is a summery buzz about the place. Filling trip 1 of the Jan 09 trip with a load of super excited Riders is something we are of course extremely excited about. Our move towards Rider recruitment rather than a hard core out and out sales approach mean we are able to ensure each of our Riders are in the best position to get the absolute maximum out of TTRide Surf Trips.

Ben (TTRide Webwizard) is on track for the official launch of TTRide Costa Rica on Friday. We have decided to limit numbers on this trip to a select 10 Riders for Jan 09 as it will be our maiden trip and we want to get it absoloutely right. The July 09 6 weeker will have space for the usual 20 Riders. Learning Spanish alongside side learning to surf and then teaching English in the local school sets up a fantastic travelling experience.

Linley is off out to Costa Rica on Sat for 2 weeks, I am pretty keen to get out there again soon, Tim lived out there for 2 months during one of his uni summers in 2005. George is planning to settle out there permanently so between us all we have go the place pretty wired. The position of trip leader is still with me and George, however I am ready to fend off any challenges made by the rest of the team which I have no doubt are being carefully thought about.

Other developments have been new TTRide super poster that incorporates everything that we are at Ticket to Ride.

TTRide Summer 08 surf clothing is beginning to over dominate the TTRide HQ, so we need to get that out there.

With this in mind I propose a mini competition to send out one of new TTRide T-shirts to anayone who correctly answers the all too easy question below as I often who is taking the time to read these TTRide updates?

Graduate Rider's? Riders waiting for there trip to come round? Potential Riders? Other travel companies? Friends? Family? or just us???


What is the Capital of Costa Rica?????

Please email answers to info@ttride.co.uk
adding your address.
colour preference (see past blogs for photos)

and I will send the free t-shirt out to the first response with the right answer today.


adios amigos e amigas (spanish classes for me please)

W