Get yourself down to the beach to take part in the action or to watch some good surfing action.

You can see their Facebook page here

In doing so, we have been targeted in various ways from our ‘competitors’, those people who feel most threatened by the apparent success of our business. Frustrated as they are with a lack of customers, they choose solely to lay blame on others, not looking to their own failings or lack of re-investment over the years. They have written false reviews on our place, tried to get us kicked out of our surf school, tried to make trouble with the taxi drivers for us, whined and moaned on the forums – all to no avail. Even though we were well aware of their tricks, we carried on, kept our heads down and did what we do best – hospitality for our guests.

Today though, when one person, who after trying to get work with us recently and being helped financially by both Jim and myself in the past, professing always to be a ‘friend’ and peace and love, etc…………then schemed and slithered like a sad, greasy little snake for his ‘boss’ whilst he tried everything he could to cause problems for us, smiled his two-faced grin at me in the Orange store, my resolve disappeared and despite my normal ‘English’ politeness, I gave to to him with both barrels; I won’t repeat what came out, but my God it felt so good to let it go

I am in half a mind not to write this as the place will rapidly become too busy and we’ll miss out perhaps, but on the other hand, having invested a ton in a great coffee machine and other stuff, she and Freddy deserve real success.  They are also running tours up to the coffee producers and doing FREE delivery on food orders in Cabarete; good job Trish (just don’t sell all those yummy bacon egg and cheese bagels i love so much).

On top of that, the surfing has been truly Epic for the last weeks; almost constant swells of 6 to 8 ft in a northerly direction – what could be better?

The reaction to the hotel has been extremely rewarding for us.  It’s so nice to hear people laughing and having a good time, Jim and I are making new friends each day practically as people come and go.  We’ve had to say goodbye to some people who I wish had been able to stay for much longer – so funny and entertaining they’ve been.  There appears to be something special about people named Brian particularly – the two we have had staying here have been so much fun to have around.   Jim’s new camera lens arrived yesterday and he’s barely been able to put it down since.  Shame the rainy start to the day prevented some good surf photography taking place.  Now everyone’s off to go wakeboarding

Jim, my partner had done a great job on marketing the hotel that we have been inundated with inquiries and clients.  We have had some hairy moments and some of the best laughs I can remember in years.

What chance of your first ever paying client turning out to be someone who had to say the least, some emotional issues, turning out to have spent several times in re-hab prior to ending up in the surf camp staying with us?   This person put us through some hoops and tested our patience to the limits, but we made it through and out the other side to enjoy the company of our other guests to the degree that we laughed until we cried a few times with Brian, Sam, Nick and a few others.

There was no time to Blog or report – but looking back on the first 3 weeks, we are extremely proud of our team and the fact that very satisfied customers left us promising to return again in the near future.

I rarely enjoy a morning as much as I did this Sunday AM.

Drew and I left for Encuentro at 6am – I was so sleepy. It was worth it however. After 3 or 4 years of encouraging him to surf (after all, we have the perfect spot on our doorstep) he was never ‘hooked’.

That all changed recently and he cannot get enough of the water. No weekend lie-ins now, if he’s excited about going, it’s worth the effort of taking him and taking pictures.  Encuentro is a beautiful place to sit in the early mornings.  I wonder which other surf spots in the world are so well shaded by the trees?

This afternoon, we take delivery of another big container of furniture, etc. More and more enquiries to deal with each day – it looks like Christmas may already be pretty full!

We are not taking photos now (for publication) until completion as all the items currently being done are the finishing ones and we’d like to keep them under wraps until everything is ready.

Mid-August/September is storm season; the storms form off the coast of Cape Verde and slowly cross the Atlantic towards us in the Dominican Republic. Each one normally ends up passing north or swerving south of the Island. North is good; then we get the benefit of the swell (waves) coming off the edge of the storm – south is not so good as we on the North Coast rarely receive the swell. Luckily, north is more common and we are watching the next one forming in the mid-Atlantic now. The bad news is that the storms block the normally strong trade winds we use to kite. Still, there’s always Spinning to get a bit of a workout and we’ll both be on a bike tonight at 6.30pm