Happy Easter From Sayulita

4th Annual Punta Sayulita Longboard & SUP Classic

It was that time of year again a few weeks ago.  The 4th Annual Punta Sayulita Longboard & SUP Classic was held right down the street from us.  Two days of world class surfing fresh off the heels of the ISA World Championships.  Just a great day on the beach with good friends, big crowds and fantastic talent in the water.  We have been lucky to see 3 of the 4 events over the years and it is always one of our "don't miss" weekends for the year.  Once again, "Mishka" performed on stage as he did 2 years ago when were here for our "Month In Sayulita".  A great time to be here in Sayulita.  Check out the highlight video produced by our friends at The Mango Tree.


4th Annual Punta Sayulita Classic Highlight Video 2013 from Punta Sayulita on Vimeo.

Triumph

A few weeks ago the ISA, International Surfing Association, held it's World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championships in Lima, Peru.  Athletes from around the world competed in a variety of events as much of the SUP world, like me, watched via an online feed on their computers.  Countries from around the globe like Australia, USA, South Africa, Japan, Ireland, Brazil, Canada were all represented.

The event held significant interest for many in Sayulita since most of the team that made the trip from Mexico was made up of Sayulita locals.  World Class competitors and local legends "Tigre", "Pappas", "Fernando" along with local favorites like "Risa"and "Bicho", "Karen", "Vero" and others were there to represent Mexico and Sayulita.

The Team competed individually in their speciality posting great results along the way but at the end of the week the results were added up and the Team medals were given out.   Team Mexico finished the competition with a bronze medal placing them 3rd in the world this year.  Needless to say that the Team was pretty excited and solidified Mexico's place in the SUP/Paddleboard world.  The Team returned to Sayulita at the end of the competition to a hero's welcome.  A couple hundred friends, family and surf enthusiasts turned out in the Plaza to greet the Team as they arrived from the airport.  Pretty exciting stuff for small town Mexico.

It appeared to me that Team Mexico brought a lot of energy, class and enthusiasm to this event and other people seemed to take notice as well.  The ISA event organizers even featured them on site's morning show during the week.  It's one thing to be enthusiastic but to bring home hardware, put up results and spread contagious excitement to an event is another.  Well done Team Mexico! Can't wait until next year and we'll see many of you around town and in the water.

Visiting our local zoo

Photos courtesy of our favorite landlord, Vadja.

Escuela Del Mundo Science Fair Projects

Escuela Del Mundo celebrated their science fair projects two weeks ago. We were invited to arrive at the school at 12:00 to see our children demonstrate their project. The kindergarten, Trace's class, started the activities by celebrating Albert Einstein.

Trace with his Albert Einstein glasses and most recent lost tooth

Trace's twin from the movie "UP", which is one of the reasons we are here in the first place.   For more information on that visit the blog post The Tipping Point

They then demonstrated physics, by showing that they could balance toothpicks and forks. Being kindergarten age the class participated as a whole in the demonstration as the entire student body and parents watched and cheered them on for their demonstrations.

Casa de Ninos presenting their Projects

Next up were the older grades. The children were allowed to choose who they wanted to do their project with, either two or three students per project, and then the group researched what they actually wanted to demonstrate. Alex and her group decided to explain gravity.

Alex demonstrating how gravity works using a parachute

Xochtil and Alex presenting their project

Alex's groups demonstration written out in Spanish and English

Each group was given a table where they sat and explained their project as the parents walked around to each table.  So the children had to explain their projects over and over which they didn't mind.

The tables set up for the children with their projects

Alex at her table

It was cool because they were all so proud of their work and they wanted to talk about it and explain what they learned. Even the other children from other tables walked around to learn about their peers experiments. That is one thing I have noticed and love about this school is the support that all of the students have for each other, regardless of age, grade, gender, or nationality during school and outside of school. It is such a great environment for the children to be a part of.

Trace listening to Alex

Everyone gathered around to learn about how rainbows form

Trace congratulating Alex after her demonstration

The school grounds

Alex's classroom

Trace's classroom

Another shot of Alex's classroom 

The school garden that the children take care of

Nahui

We have driven past Nahui Beach many many times.  We are either taking the back roads to get home, or coming from the fish market and dropping in to one of our favorite surf spots to catch a few, or many, waves, running errands in Bucerias while the kids are in school.  Anyway, we have driven by here many times and always looked and thought it was a beautiful beach.  It is not surf break so we never stopped.  Until our friends, Mark and Brenda, invited to join them their with friends who were in town visiting.  We happily wanted to try something new so off we went.  This beach is beautiful!!  White sand, clear, blue water, gentle waves for the kids to play in.  The mountains in the background and even a live whale jumping show. This was a very different experience from the Sayulita beach.  I felt like I was on vacation.  Thank you Mark and Brenda, Eric and Olivia and your children for a great four hour vacation.

Looking north at Nahui Beach

Beautiful mountains in the background

Baby whale having a grand time 

Mom was not far away having her own fun

She makes a huge splash

I am on the beach not paying attention and I hear all this screaming, like a movie star just pulled up in a yacht.  I look up and the baby whale is slapping its' tail on the water like crazy.  So I quickly grab my camera and start taking pictures when its mom flies out of the water multiple times.  We see whales all the time from our house but these two were so close to the shore.  You can actually see the white water where the waves crash on the beach in the picture of mom jumping.

Happy Alex

Happy Trace


As I was trying to get more pictures from Brenda, she takes lots of good pictures, her backup computer crashed.  I felt horrible!!!  So, I don't have pictures of the group to post.  She is really good about documenting everything through pictures.  That day I was really good at laying on the beach and enjoying the company and my vacation.

Actually I did get a picture of Brenda

And the boys, including Dillon

Turn It Up To "11"

Pretty much what the kids do every Friday afternoon. Sit around and sing songs in Spanish with friends. Not quite as good as getting the original members of KISS back together for another reunion tour but still pretty good.