El Trucho on the roadtrip to Portugal

My name is Trucho and I am a car. I am also known as Zucho. Oh, many names during my lifetime and I forgot many of them. I am 36 years old and I come originally from Germany. At that time the Germans did a great job and still today I can drive a long way like theres no tomorrow. Actually I just went on a trip which took me almost two months and 9000 km. I really wanted to learn surf and see the beautiful breaks, beaches, bitches and boobs from Portugal. :) Here is my story.

The point in Santa Catalina

I must admit “surfing is like nothing else”. Wave after wave, none are the same. It brings you to the edge of all emotions, depending on the day, it sucks, it pulls, till you are drained, but it fills you up with all of that again, even better and more. "Surfing is being local yet still searching.” Surfing draws many parallels with life itself. In the swarm of the “maybe generation” of our time and in my life, something I never learned really good, making decisions, is unforgiving while in the surf. You have to make up your mind, will you go, or wont you, but second thoughts and decisions rarely bear good and end up in a wipeout.

Surfing up the Costa Rican coast..

In Montezuma an old hippie said to me.. "This is the place all hippies come to die." He gave me a book and said "You will find lyrics for your next song in this book!" One can get easily caught up in this beautiful stretch of palm trees and surf breaks, papaya and mango infested grounds, good rum, warm water and 'da rastaman' lifestyle. :) Here are a few picks from the surf spots in Costa Rica..       The spots..in and around..Montezuma..and Santa Teresa..

The Galapagos Islands

The only important thing to say about the Galapagos is, that I have found a place on earth were I became one with it, only in these few weeks. I got so energetically attached to the plants, the animals and the people, that I had a nervous breakdown when I left. This place is amazing and it is around the top on the list of the best places I have ever visited in my life.

Surfing the coast from Peru up to Ecuador

In life you have to be what you actually are. Also for me this doesn't work out always and people start to live lives they are not. This couple of weeks when I made these pics where awesome, living the surfer lifestyle with a fellow surfer from California, Tom. Well, I met Tom in Cusco, Peru, in the mountains. He was surfing the coast from Chile up to Ecuador and hitting the Galapagos Islands. So, after I had enough snow and hail in the Andes I joined him. I had weeks of some surf, many wipeouts, I almost drowned once (seriously, no joke), we made loads of partying, had beers with the mates, respect for the Ocean, and more party, party, and met lifetime friends. :)

The AWP back in Portugal

I surf because…

… it's how my heart tells my to live.

I used this phrase from the Billabong advertisement because it’s an accurate description of this sport and lifestyle. This year on our Portugal Surf Trip we changed to Shortboards, began to catch the first better waves, had a couple of the worst wipeouts ever and on our adventure we were accompanied by our windsurf guru Kahuna Kiki, Irina, and in the other car Tamara and Trevoro.
This year we accomplished our surf trip to Portugal in our usual style, which includes a ton of suicidal wipeouts, waves from 2 to 4 meters, two broken boards in the first two days, with car burglaries and a robbery at the beach, lost luggage, bumps in the car door, purchase of a new board which in the end was broken in transport by AirFrance. Also, we were almost late for all planes, including that we missed the only plane for which we came on time and waited at the gate for 4 hours, the plane from Paris to Zagreb. The mystery remains. And it seems that a 100 people boarded the plane beside us and we did not even notice.
Yet despite all these situations, the important moments in the water remain, those breathtaking moments, the energy, the flow of the ocean, all the wonderful things that breathe and live in it and beyond. Because of that this is the king of all sports.

Breathtaking moments (Surfing in Portugal)

I’m thinking of a sentence a good friend of mine once said to me. "Life is not measured in breaths and exhales, but in moments that are breathtaking." Now, this can be literally understood as this is a sport that can literally take your breath away for a certain time when the masses of water crush you. However, after it lets you out again, everything starts again from the beginning. Yet here I am talking about different "breathtaking" moments. If you take this sport, which to me represents a long-forgotten childhood dream, which requires physical effort of each atom of your body, which meets human fatigue, joy and adrenaline, and combine it with the lifestyle that is associated with this sport, develop all this which I mentioned into a philosophy and with it add to it the warm-hearted people of Portugal and its scenery, you get a paradise on earth, peace, incredible sense of belonging and moments that are truly breathtaking, only that this feeling lasts forever.