Wisdom

'You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.' - Henry David Thoreau

Studentsville

The students are arriving for the BUSA competition this weekend. Fistral was a zoo at 8am! It's about 2ft and pretty weak, but looks quite fun anyway. Good luck to all of you girls surfing this weekend, it's amazing to see so many girls in the water here at this time of year!

Explorer Girls

Check this out - looks like a great way to make some travel friends. There are already loads of Aussies and Americans on there, so jump on to get free VIP membership. Ideal for travelling SurfGirls!

'Explorergirls.com Connects Women World-Wide Travelling For Adventure and Sport

Free VIP Membership - Explorer Media is giving away 1000 free VIP memberships to their newest website, ExplorerGirls.com, an online community for women traveling for adventure and sport.

ExplorerGirls.com is a social networking site combining both travel and sport. It connects like-minded women for friendship and travel. Members get the opportunity to create a personal page with their own profile, travel blogs and interactive world map, while VIP members can upload unlimited photos, chat online and arrange house-swapping!'

SurfGirl Blog Rated Excellent!

We got a 9.3 'excellent' rating for the SurfGirl blog from Blogged.com and we're on the front page of their watersports directory! Pretty cool, we think. There's more to come from the SurfGirl blog!

Dominican Republic over!

It's all over! We flew back yesterday from palm trees and sunshine to coldness and…well, there is sunshine at least. And good clean waves!

A beautiful place, good waves, warm water and such friendly people. We'd all agree that it's not a classic surfing destination because the waves aren't consistent enough to surf, surf, surf all day every day, but if you want to sunbathe, explore, kitesurf and enjoy a cheap sunny destination, it's ideal. That's the roundup, if you want more you'll have to check out SurfGirl.

Thanks to Hooked Cabarete, a perfect place to stay next to the beach at Encuentro - check them out.

Dominican Republic Day 13

Phew it's a hot one today!!

Pictured is El Barco, my favourite wave here. It's down the coast from Encuentro (about and hour and a half over more potholes than you can count) which is a pain, but it's surfing heaven. Barco means boat - there's a shipwreck just outside of the peak. There are two peaks with lefts and right breaking over pretty shallow reef in the clearest blue water. The water's as warm as the air, I'm not sure what temp it is but it's perfect. We surfed here a few days ago. It rained and the local boys spooked the girls with shark tales (well, seven surfer girls crowding your slice of paradise, can't blame them) and they got out. Then we had to climb back up the muddy ravine and jungle path, and some spongers nicked the girls' flipflops! So it wasn't all good, but it was worth it. 2-3ft waves but so much fun.

Lots of other waves and fun, I'm off to get ready to go out to a traditional Dominican restaurant tonight. Only one full day left!

Dominican Republic Day 11

Today and yesterday have been really fun. The weather has been really nice and there is still plenty of waves. We went down the coast yesterday to a beach break, myself, Tassy, Robyn and Kath went in for some waves. After the surf at the beachy we went back to Eceuntro for a little session. The waves were so much fun when we first got in, the waves were about head high and cleanish. Today the waves have dropped a bit but Eceuntro is still breaking so we had a surf in the morning for about an hour. It wasnt as good as yesterday due to the crowds and lack of power in the waves but we are all still having loads of fun!!!

love gwen

Dominican Republic Day 8

Email problems mean a shortage of updates, sorry, but here's a couple to show you how hard we're working!

Surfed a nice hollow beachie today, got some water shots. Heading down the coast tomorrow to Playa Grande for more beach action.

Dominican Republic Day 7

Clean and solid this morning! We promise more updates today! Should be a good day for shooting down at Encuentro.