One of the Best Days Ever...

19/6/10

819 (local time)

I thought I would start this one early as I woke up before everyone else and have already had a shower, done a bit of washing and then strangely enough made myself a cup of tea. This entry is all about my day yesterday (18/6).

It started off like any other getting down to the centre by 9ish. My lesson started at 9.30 although no one rocked up until 10. I had a really good lesson, I was getting all of my group into the footstraps and harness and a majority of them were planning and water starting.

The lesson finished by 12, and we all headed back to the beach. I was up next for a free sail, but I only had my 4.7 rigged and it definitely wasn’t 4.7 weather. So I rigged my 5.3 and headed out with Andrew.

When I finally made it out the conditions weren’t that bad, nicely powered up on my 5.3. The move I had been trying to crack for the last 3 weeks on and off was called a flaka. Which is a move where you do a Upwind 360 whilst going top speed, for any windsurfer out there, it is quite a difficult move to crack and it is kind of the entry into proper modern freestyle.

There is something special about landing a trick in Dahab because, even though for all the guys I work with a flaka isn’t such a big deal, they make you feel really good about yourself with high 5’s all round.

John Palmer (centre manager) even bought me a beer to congratulate me. In fact all the boys (and girls) were extremely helpful about landing a flaka, they were always there to offer me advice and to push me harder. So not only did I land a flaka soon afterwards I found out that I also got my National Insurance number so I will be able to get paid “woo hoo”!!!

So not only did I land my first flaka and get my national insurance number BUT! The Hawks won... again against Essendon...

Probably the best day ever, now I’m finishing this off now watching the Socceroos against Ghana, the Aussies were doing so well in the first 15 minutes, but then were robbed when Harry Kewel was sent off (honestly no surprise for the Aussies) for one of the most pathetic handballs ever. Not impressed which again proves my theory of why I believe soccer as a whole is one of the most unappealing sports on the face of the planet...

Never mind, tonight is the Saturday Night Party at Club Dahab, so after a couple of beers the Soccer will be forgotten and ill be too busy partying!

So until then! GO THE AUSSIES!

Steve

My First Wakeboarding Experience! COME GET SOME!

12/6/10

1428 (local time)

Hey guys, just another quick update. I thought i’d get in early with all this World Cup going on, its driving my head in! So over it and I’m only 2 days in! Anyway, earlier this week myself and the Birmingham Uni crew who are out this week, thought it would be a good idea to give wakeboarding a go!

Well I managed to get myself filmed whilst doing so and I made a very sketchy movie... so here it is! Enjoy!

I might add as well, that after 3 days of wind, I wasn’t able to sail because I was in so much agony! NOT GOOD!

But will definitely give it another go, when no wind is predicted.

Take care!

Steve xx

Messy Masbat Night!

20/5/2010

2137 (local time)

Alright, this is just an update on how everything is going this week! It was a Tuesday night, which means its Masbat Night, where we get all the guests together and head on into town. John Palmer and myself were the instructors on it this week. So we headed off into town. Ordered some food, rum and beer and we were set for the night! There was this girl that was in the beginner group who was ill be honest a bit cute... But the problem was, was that she was here with her father. So if was going to get ‘chatty’ with the girl I was going to have to ‘pull’ the father first.

So, like I said it was Masbat night! And everything was going well with the father, lots of chat going back and forth. Obviously more and more rum was downed and I think my chat got worse and worse. After eating the food, we kicked on into down and engaged in some pretty intense alcoholic fish bowls drinks. It came to about 1am in the morning, where it was definitely a good time to go home. So myself, the girl and her father jumped in the ute-taxi and we all headed back home.

As soon as I jumped into the taxi, I immediately felt ill... “aww mate, I feel pretty ill” I groaned to the guys. The father replied “just be sick...”  So I lent outside of the taxi, and waited for the storm, and there it came fish & calamari dinner, lots of alcoholic beverages etc... The funny thing was that, the father was also leaning out of the taxi taking photos of me, and because he was at the back he coped a mouthful of my dinner... Lovely! He thought it was hilarious! Lucky, because I thought that I had just blown my chances with this girl...

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my story! Stay tuned for the next one!

By the way, that Sunday day, it was howling 40knots and I took out some speed gear and went 33.6 knots! FULL POWER! And a PB! It was a good week!

Till next time!

Steve

A Day In The Life of Steve Flack

13/5/10

2121 (local time)

Crikey, its been a long time between drinks, I haven’t done a post in a while, my reasoning being that ive been way way way to busy having some of the best 4 weeks of my life to get around to write a blog! So after numerous emails and people nagging me about writing one... here it is... I shall call it:

A Day in The Life of Steve Flack!

Well, on a normal day. I would wake up at 7.45am and have a quick 15 minute session on the computer before John Palmer wanders into my room to give me a lift down to the centre on his motor bike, or if it was windy I would wake up at 6.45am and quickly brush my teeth and boost on down to the centre for a early morning windsurf. Either way, we would be down at the Ganet Sinai for a buffet breakfast at 8.00am. In the early days, my breakfast would entail either a undercooked omelette or 2 fried eggs on each of these I would wipe off the excess grease to prevent it clogging up my clean and crisp arteries. But as of late, I have been indulging in some of the finest Marmite and Peanut Butter known to man. Palmer and myself love the stuff, especially Peanut Butter, so literally 5 pieces of toast EACH in the morning followed by some below average fruit salad, and 2 glasses of cordial orange juice, and to end this delectable (what a word) meal we would wash it down by a cup of tea... Although I wouldn’t call it tea...

We would then make our way to work at 9.00am. Our work day includes teaching 1 lesson a day for 2 hours, and then either free sailing or doing safety stuff. When there is no wind we entertain ourselves by making movies, swimming, rock running or chatting with guests, pretty easy life. All the guests that come out are fantastic.

The day finishes at 6pm.

Depending on what day it is, we have certain activities planned for the guests in the afternoon. For example, every Monday we have welcome drinks with the guests but generally this only goes for an hour and it is normally pretty relaxing and straight after we go to dinner.

Tuesday nights are normally a great laugh, It is Masbat night, where 2 instructors and how many guests we can rally up all head into town which is about 10 minutes away and we have an Egyptian style meal, with Egyptian Rum and Egyptian Beer... Normally the night ends up pretty boozy which means a pretty sore head for the next day. Wednesday night nothing really happens, although lately we have been having a windsurfing movie night down at the centre, which is normally quite good.

Thursday is a non-teaching day and my day off, so if there is wind, John Palmer, Marco and Myself spend the whole day windsurfing or filming each other, or if there is no wind, we just take it really really easy.

Friday is Camel night or Bedouin Night, where 1 instructor takes a bunch of people up into the mountains via camels have a look at a lovely sunset then take the camels further on into the desert where we enjoy a lovely cooked meal by the local Egyptians, normally a couple bottles of rum are brought up and generally the night turns out quite well, normally you get back at around 9ish.

Then it is the almighty Saturday night!! Saturday night are always a good laugh, all of the instructors get pre-lashed up in the late afternoon and then head back to the club at 8.30 and go full power. Each week there is a theme, for example this week it is Olympics with an Egyptian Twist, the week before it was Braveheart with an Egyptian Twist, so you can see the jist. Generally the guests buy you drinks and you lose track of how many you have, until you realise its 4.00 in the morning and you have to wake up at 8am the next morning for work!!

Then its Sunday... Almighty Sunday aka Recovery Day! Sundays involve Palmer and myself hiding in the office with the air conditioner on full blast escaping the heat and the guests... Not all that enjoyable but fun when you look back on the night and see all the photos!

Then the week starts all over again

The past month I’ve had some of the best times of my life, I’m having a ball!

The next update will be up soon! Enjoy the photos!

Lots of love!

Steve

Full Power 4.7 Weather! Look at the colour of the water!

I was knackered!

The colour of the sky was amazing!

One of the Egyptian Lads, Salo! 

Probably the best instructor ever!

Another good instructor shot!

One of the cute russian girls!

Just after filming for our Braboys spoof!

Our Masbat Sign!!

The Initiation!

20/4/09

1700 (local time)

I MADE IT! And its awesome!!!

I’ve been a bit slack with the bloggedity, so I should just clarify for everyone that isn’t involved with the social networking site called ‘facebook’ that I have infact made it to Dahab, Egypt. Lucky I wasn’t a few days late, otherwise I would still be waiting because of this massive ash cloud that has been circling the most of Europe!

At the moment, we have a whole ton of guests that are either stranded in Dahab or have been bussed of to Sharm El Sheik which is about 1.5 hours out from Dahab.

Not only did this happen in my first week working for Club Dahab, but there was also a Bomb Threat put out over the Sinai region which is Dahab and beyond. They have found solid evidence that terrorists are planning an attack on the Israelis that live in the Sinai, so when I had to do one of the excursions with the guests which involved myself and one of the Egyptians (Nasser) riding camels into the desert with guests there was a massive police presence throughout the whole trip!

Police presence isn’t everywhere though, its just quite subtle.

On the other hand, I have had quite a fun week, the boys have taken me out drinking most nights in the past week, and I know! Drinking is bad and I should only do it in moderation, but it was my first week of my first proper season EVER so give me a break!

The biggest night I had out of all of them was... SATURDAY NIGHT! CLUB DAHAB PARTY! Every Saturday night we host a themed party, and last week’s one was ‘Something starting with “T” with a hint of Egyptian. Well, I was very unprepared so as you do when your unprepared you end up wearing a dress and coming as an Transvestite! Pretty standard stuff, as the night went on though, I’m pretty sure I could have come as “tanked”. Anyway, after the Club Dahab video is shown, the boys got me up infront of all the guests, told me to put on a Snorkel and Goggle, where they then poured a pint of a concoction of mixed alcoholic drinks ranging from Rum, Vodka, Beer etc... Might I add, these are all Egyptian alcoholic drinks not the decent stuff we have at home...

I don’t really remember much of the night, which is expected... but the next day wasn’t too good!

I went out sailing, and mid Spock I tripped up a rail and ended up smashing off the nose of my board... AGAIN! BUT, before you get all up in my grill for wrecking another good board, I have already been to work with Akmed and managed to fix it all up, with the other boards so ill be good to go on Thursday (which is meant to be full power windy). SO COME GET SOME!

Anyway, ill be speaking about the boys that i’m working with in the next blog when I have some photo’s. So until then!

Take care guys!

Steve

The Adventures of Lizzie, Lionel and Steve

11/4/10

1800 (local time)

Phew! I’ve had a fantastic 3 days hanging out with Lizzie and Lionel! So I arrived on the 9^th which was a Friday at about 12 Noon London time, I was feeling gross as I had been travelling for about 30+hours without changing, brushing my teeth or putting on deodorant!

I was only waiting in the Arrival room for only about 10minutes until Lizzie spotted me sitting on my gear!

We stacked all my gear on top of Lionel’s Ford Escort Station Wagon/Estate and we boosted off down to Lizzie’s flat! FACT: London is situated in the County of Greater London!

We dumped my gear down, and I pretty much headed straight out so I could organise bank accounts. Finally got all that sorted, I was kinda jet lagged so Lizzie, Lionel and myself had a quiet night playing Monopoly! I got pumped, only passing GO about 6 times, and from those 6 times, got the $200 TAX! It was brutal. Lizzie was dominating the whole time, but made the ROOKIE mistake of buying OLD KENT ROAD and WHITE CHAPEL, then putting Hotels on them and losing out big time. She was definitely the most ‘lucky’ player more like ‘arsey’ as she landed on GO about every time, meaning she scored the big $400. Not impressed as I was battling to pass go, because I would always end up in jail. Obviously I’d get the rubbish banter from Lionel saying that because I’m an Aussie and Aussies are criminals I belong in the jail... Great Joke mate!

Not to worry, the next day we were planning a trip to London, but before we jumped on the tube, we put a couple of bets on for the Grand National, which is a very famous horse race in Britain. Anyway we jumped on the tube and headed to the Thames. We then bought some tickets for 5 Pounds and jumped on a boat that took us down the Thames with a quite comical tour guide. It was quite interesting and informative. We finished the tour, grab some food and then headed into Greenwich where you are able to stand on either side of the meridian line aka East and West Hemisphere. After we did the standard touristy photo shoot of standing either side of the line, but more importantly Lionel and I got chatty to some very cute Brazilian girls ‘Happy Days’.

We finished up there and made our way into a pub to watch the Grand National, I placed 3 bets each of 2 pounds , and I’m pretty sure that on the first hedge they jump over all my horses face planted and stacked it! BOOM there goes 6pounds ($12AUD) Shattered! Not to worry, it was a brutal race but loads of fun!

We finished up in the pub and took the tube back down to Balham. I had a weird party to go to up in Hackney, it was a late night but I crashed when I got back, I was buggered!

That brings us to today, where I packed up my windsurfing gear and just had a quiet one, as tomorrow was the big day!

I was heading to Dahab!!

GET EXCITED!

 Lizzie and Lionel

Lionel and I with the River Thames in the background

The London Eye!

Me and Mr.Big Ben!

Tower Bridge!

The Greenwich Line!

The park on a lovely summer day in London

Lizzie after a huge day walking

The Calling!

8/4/10

2158 (local time)

Well, this is all too familiar! This time last year, I think I was trying to figure out what travelling is all about and it seems as if I still havn’t figured it out. At least this time I am a ‘little’ bit more prepared than I was last year.

I know, I know that I didn’t finished off my ‘blog’ for the last trip, but I don’t really feel as if it were finished, instead I’m continuing where I left off… anyway!

So the plan of attack this time round…

Work out in Egypt, Dahab for around about 8months this all depending on my funds, after I have had enough windsurfing, ill be shooting back to the UK for either a few months or a few days and then ill be travelling around Eastern Europe! Very loose plan! But no one likes a strict travel plan.

To be honest the start of this trip has been a bit of a nightmare, we can start if off at the arrival to the airport, when I go to check in my bags, oh yeah that’s right, I’m now carrying around a MASSIVE 32KG bag that is about 260cm long and 80cm wide, full of Windsurfing Gear! So this will make all my travels far more interesting if they weren’t enough already! Anyway, so the issues start when I go to check in my bags! The lady at the desk informs me that I need a Visa so I can stay in Transit when I go to America for a stop over. What makes matters worse, is that I need to collect all my bags in Los Angeles Airport and re-check them in onto another flight! Hey, do you guys want an interesting fact, Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is one of the biggest airports in the world with (I think) 9 terminals! That should be fun navigating my way through LAX airport with 2 massive bags! HAPPY DAYS!

Anyway, so after Dad and I rushed through a stupid visa whilst Mum minded all my bags! I went to say my good bye’s at the double doors of death! I realized that I lost my boarding pass and my Australian Departure form! What an issue! So I ran off to fill out another form, and get another boarding pass! Then I had to do another episode of the double doors!

So far, this flight has been rubbish! Turbulence for about 2 hours straight, and its not even fun turbulence where it feels like a roller coaster, its just painful, its so annoying that you can’t even sit a beer on your tray without if spilling everywhere! It makes even writing this message painful!

If you haven’t caught my drift yet, im fairly pissed off with how this is all going! I might have a bit of a nap, and maybe wake in more of a happier mood!

Righteo, so I continue this on the finishing bit of my Los Angeles to Heathrow flight, Los Angeles was fairly easy to figure out, and I only had to walk my windsurfing bag for about 15minutes, which isn’t so bad, but was all sorted.

This flight has been going well, ive had a decent 4-5 hour sleep which I was pretty impressed with but I’m pretty sure when I touch down in London ill be feeling jet lagged and de-hydrated which should be great fun!

Anyway before I finish, I would just like to thank everyone again for their support in the last 4 months, its been a bit weird trying to get organized again for going O/S when I’ve only been back a short time. I found it quite hard to relate with everyone when I got back from my last trip so when I got offered the job to teach windsurfing out in Dahab, I had to take it! When else am I going to get this opportunity again, as I don’t have any commitments back at home, no girlfriends, no Uni, no job! It is almost expected that I should go! The hardest bit by far is the goodbyes! Currently ill be thinking that this trip will be going for at least 2 years and saying good bye to people that realize that makes it a bit sad!

Enough of this gooey stuff! London here we come! A quick shout out to Lizzy and Lionel for picking me and all my gear up from the airport, you guys are absolute superstars!

Next time you hear from me guys, ill be comfy in a warm apartment in London! Happy Days!

Till then! Slip, Slop and Slap!

Steve