The place where I was staying was amazing! At first, I stayed in Las Brisas, the seed hotel for the event. It was an amazing labyrinth of small villages Estrellas, Mar, Montanas. To get to your room, restaurant, beach, swimming pool or reception you had to take a shuttle through the jungle of wild pink, red or yellow flowers and birds of various sizes and colors.

The place where I was staying was amazing! At first, I stayed in Las Brisas, the seed hotel for the event. It was an amazing labyrinth of small villages Estrellas, Mar, Montanas. To get to your room, restaurant, beach, swimming pool or reception you had to take a shuttle through the jungle of wild pink, red or yellow flowers and birds of various sizes and colors.

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Po dolgem premisleku sem le izbrala desko, za katero upam, da mi bo sluzila, kot mora. Omislila sem si celo Wave-finderja, zepno knjizico, kjer so oznaceni in opisani vsi spoti (al pa vsaj vecina) v Avstraliji, ceprav bi blo morda pametno se najprej naucit srfat, sele nato pa odkrivat nove spote, nove valove, nove... Kukrkol, samo se vreme pocakam in lahko se zapodim v ocean! Po treh dneh dezja, vetra in res bednega vremena je le prislo sonce in z njim valovi (no, valovi so bli ze prej, sam...). Vsa neucakana se zapodim s svojo novo desko v vodo, tam pa... KATASTROFA!!! Tok bednega srfrja pa se ne! Sej mi je kr mau nerodn priznat, ampak jz tud vn nism prsla! Pa valovi se mi sploh niso zdel tko grozni al pa kej ekstremno veliki. Sicer niso bli najbolj urejeni, prhajal so mal kle, mal tm, en mau vecji, spet kksn mau manjsi, ampak to, kar sm jz tm izvajala, ni blo podobno nicemur, kaj sele srfanju! Pedlam na vso moc, vsaka druga pena me vrze dol z deske, na dilo se kobacam kt en ostarel kit, desko nekajkrat dobim v glavo, lis se mi zapleta okrog nog, o tem, da sm se skor utopila pa raje ne bi, sploh ker za to ni bilo cist nobene potrebe, saj sem scasoma ugotovila, da mi voda seze itak samo do ramen... Ko sem mela vsega poln kufr, sm se samo obrnila in odpedlala nazaj na obalo. Seveda sm pustila, da me je tok odnesel kaksnih 50m nizje, saj sem se zelela izogniti pogledom in verjetno tudi kaksnemu aplavzu s strani prenekaterih opazovalcev, ki so z obale obcudovali mojstrovine tistih ta pravih srfarjev, meni pa se verjetno smejali... S tako sklonjeno glavo kot danes nisem se nikdar hodila... (se mi je skor vrat zaskocu, he he). V upanju na boljsi jutri vas lepo pozdravljam!

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Koncno sem priletela na cilj – Surfers pradise, Gold Coast, Avstralija. Za mano je tudi ze prvo cofotanje v Pacifiku, z desko seveda, ceprav smo ze dva dni brez valov (ja ja, tud na najboljsih koncih se zgodi, da ni svela, he he).  Tu je trenutno zima – ceprav je julij, je v bistvu december. In tak december naravnost obozujem!! Cez dan se ozracje segreje do 25 stopinj, zjutraj in zvecer pa je nekoliko sveze, a zadosca ze pulover. Temu primerna je tudi temperatura vode – tisti bolj zmrznjeni imamo 3/2 neopren, cez dan pa smo tudi mi v shortsih in lycri. Morski psi? Kockaste meduze? Pravjo, da jih ni in jz jim slepo verjamem. Naj bi bila vzdolz obale mreza, ki bi tem bitjem preprecevala dostop do ljudi, poleg tega pa obalo ves cas preletava helikopter, ki naj bi imel vse pod kontrolo. Plazo v tem obdobju tako obcasno zaprejo le zaradi sezonske selitve kitov (po moje z juga na sever, nisem pa prepricana) in takrat ti ne preostane drugega, kot da obsedis na obali in te rib(ic)e opazujes na njihovem potovanju (sami kiti sicer niso nevarni, ceprou te verjetno kap trofne, ce kej tacga mem prplava, problem so morski psi, ki jim sledijo). Guzva? Lokalci? Ko ni valov, tud teh ni, he he. Mislim pa, da guzvo delajo vecinoma turisti, ki pa jih je v tem casu manj, tako da mislim, da vecje panike ne bi smelo biti in bi tudi mi, t.i. »advanced beginners« morali priti do svojih valov. Preden pa se resno lotim surfanja, je (skoraj) nujno, da si kupim desko. Tako ze dva dni skacem po stacunah, v upanju, da mi prava pride deska le pride pod roke. Morda jutri, saj sem danes odkrila trgovino s celim kupom novih in rabljenih desk. Se mi zdi, da jih je celo prevec, da bi bila odlocitev lahka, he he. Cene so razlicne – od 500 ali raje 600 avstralskih dolarjev (krat cca.140 za slovenske tolarje) za nove, pa od $100 za rabljene. So pa prav na Gold Coastu doma deske Stuart, ki naj bi bile med boljsimi v Avstraliji, in baje lahko narocis surf po meri, kaksna je pa cena, pa se nisem preverila... Nc, toliko z danes. Ce bo kdo kej mem hodu, nej se pa le oglasi, bom vesela vsake »domace« druzbe! Lep pozdrav do prihodnjic! Lana

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Mario stopped the car on the top of a hill, put the music down to let us enjoy the view of a perfect loooong barrel after a barrel. A picture of a paradise. Crystal blue with white foam, big red-orange ball sending yellow waves to the lip of every wave, shining all the way to the grey sand and green palm trees. Pure 10.

Probably surfers would describe the wave more picturesque with more words, but this time even they were lost for worst. A moment of hypnotic admiration was gone and Mario started the car to get us down to the site. We were supposed to park the car at the parking (football playground actually), pay for it and got on the truck, but as I knew Pablo who was working that morning and as Taj was competing in the first heat, we managed to get to the site with our car. Ok, yes, Taj (yes, competitors had to pay for the entrance too, silly I know, but this is the way Mexicans are doing their business) and photographer Steve still had to pay few pesos to get in. Thanks guys and there we were running to the Judges tower with Astrid. Making sure hot coffee, cold water and some food was always available for people working over there, sweeping the floor, doing some English-Spanish translation, calming down all the fights and people on the verge of their breakdown, persuading Ana Luisa that we need her on the team (PR people are at all times important!), making sure no one comes and bothers workers, checking people coming in, helping beach marshal, writing results on a board, making a list of VIP, Staff and media people, welcoming at the entrance to the site… well, this is what my work was at the site most of the days. Sometimes it was fun, cause I could watch surfers riding their best wave, sometimes all I could do was hear announcers talking about the best air or longest tube. Despite the heat, hard work (don't think this is easy, sitting at the entrance, smiling to everyone when u have to go to pie for the last four hours!), lack of at least two hours of sleep, I had fantastic time meeting cool people and listening to their life stories. ASP staff are really intelligent people, hard workers, doing their job as if this was their one time chance to prove they are right for it. RC people were the same, well most of them… if u want the event like that to go smoothly, u need more a team of people u can rely on. And these guys knew what they were doing and why they are doing it. They always had a piece of advice for me. It seamed such a small deal to them, just another event, just another job to be done… put a smile on your face, Kaya… it was nice to work in a environment like that, multicultural and positive energy regardless of all the tricky business we were into. Boys, professional surfers, are all super nice and they don't behave like a damn movie star. Maybe it was just Mexico, maybe because no one knew who they were, maybe there was not much surfing fans at the site or maybe it just seemed like it, but they all talked to me and everyone like a human being, said hello and even made some jokes about where I'm from. Sorry guys, Slovenia does exist, Kaya Papaya is not lying to u. Even the top of the cream surfers didn't look away when they passed girls working at the entrance. They are guys who eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner as we all do, have a beer or margarita now and then, carry their own boards and take the stairs if the elevator is packed. Some of them are quite serious and like to talk about huge world problems, others just want to have fun and explore life and culture of a place they have surfed (party every day of the week…). U can even have a small talk with Kelly, just don't ask him to take a picture of u and him together, amazing blue eyes look better inside of a tube. Sure they are professional surfers and surfing is still their job, they still have to go through all procedure of taking pictures for sponsors, remaining their good reputation among the fans, but.. come on, they are normal guys…ok. Cute, hot guys with even more gorgeous girlfriend or a wife waiting for them at home if she is not traveling around with them, u can't even get jealous at them. They are not so posh and snobbish as we think they are. But girls forget about them. It takes more than great body and love for surfing to win their heart. Ok, now, I got to go - am being a babysitter, promise to write more about chats and drinks with all those interesting people…

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Rip Curl Pro. Though surfing is supposed to be more a lifestyle than a sport, ASP tour has big sport events all over the world, sponsored by different companies like Rip Curl. But this event was not like all the other events. RC Search is a campaign seeking the best surf possible in the most remote regions around the world.

The famed lefthander of St Leu in Reunion Island last year was the first location of The Search on ASP tour. This year RC decided to place the event somewhere in Mexico. The location remained known as "La Jolla" - Jewel, a secret spot somewhere in Huatulco bay. After having millions of problems to get things done for the contest, making sure the deal is not just an empty promise, some things were actually being taken care of. We picked boys at the airport, made sure that they got their car that they made reservation for (which was easily said than done – the second day Huatulco's car rental announced they are running out of big cars, vans and jeeps, so Mick Fanning had to squeeze into a yellow golf, and yeah… his mum was left with a convertible. Who would wish more at hot summer night at 10 pm after hours and hours at the airport's or airplane's air-conditioned rooms?... stories about cars don't end here… Fred Patacchia's car broke down or run out of battery and they got stuck on the site for hours) and a room in a hotel they were supposed to stay for the whole contest. That was another disaster. I know people from the Hotel Association were working hard on this project, but just imagine being Perry Hatchett, head judge, arriving at the airport, two girls (yeap, Kaya Papaya was there) that didn't even know who he is gave him just few information about the town, without any direction… it was funny listening to his story later, knowing that it was partly my fault. But he made it. He rented a car, found his hotel (there was no reservation on his name, though), followed the road to the even site and has never got lost! Oh, yeah, the other judge, Wade Sharpe. He had to sleep on the floor of one of the staff's room in the seed hotel. Such a shame treating judges like that. Even though I was working for the RC, I must admit the whole contest was a freaking mess. There was not a day or a moment that something went wrong. Building castles in the sky, transforming deserted beach with a palapa and one restaurant just one week before the contest into a surf contest site…No sign of a judges tower, competitors area,… Maybe it was just unorganized, not coherent, well-ordered or maybe we were just too lucky with the waves. Well, I love Mexico and Mexicans, but I know that working with them is not an easy job. It takes more than hundred mañanas to get things done. Luckily people from states and Aussies were willing to help with their equipment and knowledge. Picture having a contest somewhere where there is no electricity, water… A contest with wireless internet, mobile phone network, stage for announcers with sound of a good quality, webcast on line all the time, music, fax machine… Where u have to serve cold water or hot coffee at any moment. Andy, Arnaud, Damo and Angie were working their ass out all the time. Not just them. Everyone working on the site, backstage or in media center. 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night for two weeks, that was the basic rule if we wanted to make an Indian village into a Californian little town. Fortunately waves were amazing so the contest last just for 4 days, without the waiting period and ancillary events. Waves were killing. No fast sections in the wave meaning that you can race the wave for as long as you want. "Best wave I've surfed in past few years" was the most common remark from the surfers. Even the locals. So we were damn lucky. Blessed by the Mother Nature. For sure surfers have sexy body, but it's more than just that. Their eyes are shining like a diamonds (most of them have bright blue eyes). When you see them ripping, charging, coming out of an unmakeable tube, you can't help falling in love with them. They are like ballerinas dancing on a wave, being married to the ocean. Nature lovers and down-to-earth boys, who don't freak out if there are no toilets on the beach, if they have to leave their car and climb on a truck to take them to the event site. All they care are the waves. They soon forgot about the problems with renting a car, getting a hotel room and even about a curvy road that they had to drive to get them to the spot. They were rewarded every time they got to the end of the road. The view of a perfect left waves was… The first morning of the contest I didn't get a ride to the site with RC people, because I was 10 minutes late (that means I came to reception at 6:15 not 6). All I could do was beg Taj to take me and my friend Astrid with his car down there. It was one of the moments u can't forget. Tuesday, just a day after the biggest waves, 7 am, sun was rising, spreading his rays on the whole bay. Mario stopped the car on the top of a hill, put the music down to let us enjoy the view of a perfect loooong barrel after a barrel. A picture of a paradise. Crystal blue with white foam, big red-orange ball sending yellow waves to the lip of every wave, shining all the way to the grey sand and green palm trees. Pure 10. .... story continues

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