730am – Got Kakked on for being late this morning. Flip, wasn’t my fault, bummed.

8am – some 20min into our ride we came across an Orka, Whale and a Sun Fish within 300m of each other. Surprised we saw that much. The conditions were terrible. Cold and Raining! The cold rain on my goggles kept misting them up and couldn’t see a thing. Hit a low point with emotions of the Cansa visit yesterday and getting kakked on for the wrong reasons. Had to bite my tongue and appreciate how go I got it, and toughen the f... up.

7am - Went for a surf at nahoon with good mate Steve Woods to make the most of our rest day in East London. Surf was kak due to a strong rip. To add insult fell on the rocks getting out and dinged my board. Not happy!

10am – Much needed sleep, loving the Garden Court double bed and thick curtains.

1230pm – 2 freeze land milkshakes, best in the world

1pm – Hung out with the Manson and Keet clan. Last time I was here I raced the southern Shamaal with Bev so shared some good laughs. Their swimming school is growing and great to see...

7am - If I thought the sea was in a good mood yesterday well. Today we were getting pampered. Super clean running the whole day. Never forgot or broke anything at the launch, moving up in the world.

630am Had a mare this morning, couldn’t find my GPS and dropped my phone in the water (working after a day in the sun). Need to stop making stupid mistakes in preparations for riding.

I ahve been taking picture along the way but for some reason the photo uploader on www.barrylewin.co.za is not working. Dave the IT doods is on the problem and hope it will be sorted soon.

If you do want to check out the photos here is a link to the ones I have put on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=426701&id=740590248&saved#!/album.php?id=7...

630am - Much later start than before. Weather looked good and the team really needed some sleep so we pushed out a little later. Packed my bags for the next 3 weeks and all the riding gear. Going to miss home and Peace Cottage. Just one night back was awesome.

4am - After the admin of yesterday spirits were quite down last night and could see on Rusty’s face the stress and worry when I woke to see him wide awake contemplating the task for the day.

630am - Arrive at breakfast to find a upbeat team considering the wind outside was almost shaking the hotel. Everyone was super amped to take on the challenge of some rough sea condition. Talk is cheap so time for action.

8am - Made our way out of the protection of the Richards Bay harbour on route to Durban. Just outside the mouth of the harbour Mark Addison stopped to take his water sample for the marine research he is doing. When we got going Jason’s waverunner wouldn’t start. His external fuel bladder was leaking and the motor was cutting out due to the petro...

4am – Another early start, getting used to them and only hit snooze once.

530am – Almost lost my phone. Put it down when pulling the wetsuit up and forgot it. Lucky to find it in the road some half hour later using some car lights. Admin when your mind is on riding not cool.

6am - Delayed launch with Mark missing some of his testing kit. At least I am not the only one.
730am - Hit the water for day 3

4am - Hit the snooze on my phone alarm for the first time

415am - Finally got up, didn’t sleep well, got chowed 6 love my mozzy’s

6am - On the water for the first ride of the trip.

730am - Sat in traffic for 55min to drive 20km heading into Durban, with world cup just around the corner the city is under contrition. Ecited to get out the chaos of the city and the road less travelled over the next 3 weeks.

Well the day has come. Time to head off on the adventure of a lifetime. I am going to be documenting the trip for many reasons mostly to be able to look back in 50 years and see what I got up to and how crazy we all were.

I am going to be writing a blog each evening which will be a basic diary entry and I would write it in my own diary. Hope it gives you some insight into what we will be going through on this trip. Good and the bad. So please check back for daily updates.

Thanks for the well wishes and message. Every single one makes me realise how much suppo...

Press Release - Writen by Game Plan Media, Photos by Anthony Grote

Durban – A stella evening of paddling ended on a high with Matt Bouman and Michelle Eder taking home the overall Varsity College Marine Surfski Series title, whilst youngster Terry McDougall walking away with the inaugural Varsity College SA Schools Surfski Championship.

I love playing with technology and Garmin are raging on this front. After the weekends racing I uploaded my data from my Garmin Edge 705 up onto Garmin Connect website.

Check out the my race here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29310324

The first lap is frantic and you can see the averge is higher than the rest with trying to get a good spot on the bunch. I had a solid lap...

On Friday afternoon I hit the drive down to Plett for the second race of the weekend. I was so stoked to find OFF THE HOEK open. I restaurant owned by a close mate open for a decent graze before crashing really hard. Lucky the race in Plett only starts at 2pm so some extra recovery did some good on the coach.

Conditions were way calmer than previous years and the lookout mouth was not out to bite you on the ass on each lap. The course was exciting like normal with 5 laps of the bay including upwind, downwind, cross wind and waves in the mouth all in one.

I am finally home after the Easter weekend of surfski madness in the Easter Cape.

Thanks to Dennis Walthew for sending me these shot of lifesaving nationals!

Super proud of my yellow and blue clolours of Marine even if the skull cap is a bit corny!