Today and tomorrow...

Another day spent at Praia Grande, today watched the mens main event and a few rounds of the women. Congrats to all the everyone who made it through, including my buddy here Anne-Cecile, killing her round four heat, nice!!!! 

It was also awesome to see the performances from the super groms, Alexandra Rinder and Sari Ohara.
Alexandra (from Canary Islands) is only 14 years old, and already has a great style and smooth moves, a definite threat for the future. Sari at just 16 years old was busting super big rollos and secured a couple of the highest scores of the day. So sick!

The schedule is for women's round 5 out first thing tomorrow morning. I'll be in the fourth heat against Maylla Venturin (Brazil), Marta Fernandez (Portugal), and Clare McGowan (UK). This is a non-elimination round, so whoever gets first goes straight through to the quarter finals, then the other placings battle it out in the 6th round.
Obviously I will be going for the win in my first heat to put me straight into the quarters ;)
Hopefully some fun waves on the way. The forecast is for swell similar to today but with much better winds, stoked!
I'll be on around 7pm Sydney time...
Check it all out here: http://ibaworldtour.com/live/

Resting up and psyching up!

Spent the day at home yesterday, watching bodyboarding videos and cruising on Facebook. The only exercise I did was 20 minutes of stretching and core exercises. It was nice just to chill and rest up since we have a few big days of competition coming up.
For the first time I actually watched the video of the entire final of me vs Isabela in Puerto Rico last year.

It was actually so exciting to watch it, and got me amped for this event!
I've been getting spoilt with some super tasty dinners from everyone here in the house. Everyone is taking turns to cook each night. Such good vibes here, the Brazilians are super cruisy, except for Eder Luciano who is super crazy, but funny, ha.  Hmmm, fresh cut chicken anyone.....

We watched an amazing sunset at a beautiful little beach the other night. I have to share these pics with you!!

Today I had a good little surf at Praia Grande this morning and watched the contest for a while. Pretty inspiring to watch the big flips from some of the guys. The swell is around 4ft, pretty contestable, light winds. There's a chance I might be surfing my heat tomorrow but , I hear it's more likely I'll be on the day after.
I'm in heat 4 of Round 5, up against Maylla Venturin and two girls from the previous round.

Maylla is an awesome competitor, with really strong rollos and definitely does not hesitate to play games and hassle in the water,  so I'm always very wary of Maylla. In saying that, I have beaten her quite a few times and I'm feeling really good about my surfing, so I'm not too worried ;)

You can watch the event live here on: http://ibaworldtour.com/live/
And regular updates are posted on: http://www.facebook.com/ibaworldtour

The gorgeous Sintra city

Explored Sintra with my buddy Bree Brown, AKA "Keiki Cheese" last night. Sintra is such a cute city!

More training :)

Have spent the past 2 days in Praia Grande. Had two good surfs yesterday, numerous ARS's in the fun lefts ;)  but then today I had two not so good surfs... Just one surprisingly good long barrel on a right!
Enjoyed an amazing sunset over the cliffs last night, and right now we're getting ready for a trip to Sintra to check out the town and go to Church. Looking forward to it!!
More fun photos to share with you....

Exploring Praia Grande

Yep, another day in Praia Grande.
Bree and I took a hike in the heat up the cliffs, searching for the dinsosaur footprint but all we found was a giant pepper shaker haha.

But seriously, the views up there are really stunning! Loved it!

The surf was tiny but I still had a pretty fun surf, tried to catch lots of waves before I got too cold ha. The water is not actually as cold as previous years, so today I swapped my PE cold water board for my old faithful PP board (that I won Puerto Rico with!), definitely my favourite board, it's feeling good!

How cool is this mural painted on the side of my friend's surf/bodyboard school hut!

Beach bums

Spent another lovely day at Praia Grande today.
Not much to say except it was another great day spent at the beach, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 Finally with some free time, I can paint my nails :)

 The amazing house we are staying at. Muito muito muito obrigada to Marta and her family for having us in their beautiful home!! >>>

The highlight today was taking two of our non-bodyboarding local friends Marta and Rita for a bodyboard lesson. Nothing beats seeing the massive smiles on their faces, pure happiness!

Big Beach or Little Beach?

Welcome to Portugal!!

My travelling partners for the Sintra Pro... Me, Bree Brown (Aus), Marta Quintela (Portugal), Roberto Bruno (Brazil) and in front Isabela Sousa (Brazil). Such great people!

It feels so good to be here once again. I think this is maybe the fourth time I've been to this place for the IBA World Tour, and it's feeling more like home every time I come here.

Today we had the perfect day. Starting with a good sleep in (much needed after that massive plane trip), followed by a whole day spent at the beach, OMG I'm in heaven!
We headed to Praia Grande ("Big Beach") first. The contest beach. I was almost dying from the heat, it's about 32 degrees here, way more extreme than the 10-16 degrees weather I've been experiencing at home. Loaded up on suncream haha. Had a pretty fun surf at a left in the contest area. Felt so good to wash the aeroplane cobwebs away. It was great to see Jared Housten in the water, he was shredding as always.
Followed up our surf with a huge salad with the gang at the local Mar Bar cafe.

 Ha, I gotta admit the Mar Bar cafe always brings back crazy memories from the after contest parties we've had there in the past. Kira and Mandy I miss you girls! It feels strange not to have my Aussie sidekicks here with me!


After lunch we headed to Praia Pequeno (Little Beach), for a fun surf in the little wedges. Such a beautiful little beach!

The swell is forecast to get smaller the next few days, then pick up again in time for the contest. Fingers crossed for fun waves for the event. The low tide banks at Praia Grande at the moment are so fun!