7th May 2010
What a wild weeks it's been. We left Rio on Tuesday arvo for Buzios, the crew consisting of Kingy, Lilly, Yeray Martinez and me. After almost missing the bus we eventually got on and were on our way to Buzios, a Plett like town 2 hours north of Rio.
What greeted on us on arrival was a vast contrast between beautiful beaches and town, and 1 foot slop. I think this is the Brazil I was expecting. As if the sight of the waves didn't make us sick enough, Kingy and I have spent the last few days in bed or somewhere near the toilet, stomach bug from hell! Poor Damian was far worse off than me and spent Tuesday night in the bathroom, throwing up out both ends for almost 4 hours.
Come Thursday arvo we had both had enough and Rodrigo, our new friend who owns the house we're staying in marched us off to the local hospital. Much to Damians dismay we were injected and placed on IV drips, insane! The photos are a good laugh.
Just aswell we went because today we both ended up surfing.
I started in RD4 in this event, one RD behind the top 16. The level of surfing in these tiny waves is something I have never witnessed before. These local guys shred, it's almost annoying how good they are.
I started the heat well with a 6.5 but was in 2nd for the entire heat after that, until with 40 seconds left, Gugu Barcellos who was in 3rd, got a nice set wave, pushing me into 3rd needing a 5 something. I saw a wave coming out the back and scrambled into position for it, knowing that if I didn't pull it together on this one I was gone. I did a nice clean roll out of the bowl, whipped a quick spin before rolling off the closeout to score a 6.25. I had won the heat, Pumped. What made it even sweeter was that I narrowley avoided a RD5 heat consisting of Tamega and Uri Valadao.
I'm now going up against Diego Cabrera, Luis Villar and Hermano Castro tommorow. This win today definitly gave me the confidence boost I needed and also taught me a lot about competing in small waves - cleanliness really is next to Godliness. The more projection and clean your execution is the better. A sloppy ARS is nothing compared to a clean spin followed by a big roll.
You can follow all the heats tommorow at www.ibabuzios.com. I'm looking forward to a big day of competing. Hope you can join me!
Thanks again for all your support back home, it's what gets me over the line sometimes!
Jerry
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