Time for another update. We are currently in Barra da Lagoa, a village on the Island of Santa Catarina next to the city of Floranopolis.We arrived from Paraty on the overnight bus that called in to Sao Paulo. Kind of glad Sao Paulo was just a stop over. The die hard traveler would sample Sao Paulo and say it was great - I however got 'the fear' when i realised it took over an hour of driving at 70-100km/hr through the city to reach the bus terminal. huge doesn't do it justice. We arrived early in the morning and made our way out to the east of the island. We managed somehow to end up in an apartment that while cheap wasn't exactly the ritz either. it did the job though and we set out to explore. the main issue was the weather. it was overcast and fairly cold. i began to realise that driving south for 16 hours or so was always going to make for a change in the temperature. however it soon got it's act together for us so we could wander the beach etc without winter gear on. We hired a long board which was cool. Laura was catching waves all over the place. Seriously impressed to be honest. At this point it became apparent that there weren't too many WCT Professional Surfers in our midst. I found out the competition was now being held south of Santa Catarina in a place called Imbituba, a casual 2 hour drive away. Dooney Tours Ltd was again in hot water. After some discussion the call was made to hire a car and get down there to check out the action. This sounds like an easy decision but I wasn't too keen to be driving the BR 101 from what I had seen from the comfort of my bus seat. (I also heard it has the highest number of fatalities per year of any road on earth?? probably not true) It had to be done however and the next morning we were making arrangements to pick up the car. The guy at the rental place was a total gent and sorted us for the route etc, and even a place to stay should we want it. It was a drive in some of the more stressful conditions I have experienced. We had it sussed though as it was a Sunday night at the end of a bank holiday weekend and we were going to opposite direction to the flow trying to get back to Florianopolis. Those from Dublin will be glad to note you don't really know what a good traffic jam is. The whole drive basically was done with solid traffic backed up going the other way. Not surprising given the state of the road which is beaten to a pulp from the amount of trucks driving on it. Cars coming towards us were swerving as if drunk (maybe they were), in reality they were dodging pot holes the size of lake taupo. We arrived in Imbituba and sifted around looking for a bed. We managed to find an apartment close to the competition site which was pretty sweet. To say it was simple would be being kind but the location sold it, that and Larry our tenant. (see video) At this stage we realised it was Sunday night and next to nothing was open. after finding some food we returned to the luxury of our apartment for a jacuzzi before bed.The next day we headed out early (6:45 am) to watch the surfing. it was not warm and all, freezing in fact and the surf was messy. At this point it became apparent that Laura was seriously humouring me as the conditions were tough going. legend. Anyway we put in a good 6-7 hours of watching surfing, it warmed up though at lunchtime which made things more comfortable. Low point of the day was while observing the town nutter wandering around shouting etc we failed to see the water rushing up the beach. Basically all our kit bar our cameras got a rinse in the sea. gutted. Laura saved the pasta we were eating at the time which i was delighted about. watching surfing works up a big appetite. It was amazing to see the pros going at it though. their speed and turns are unreal. Laura was doing a great job of taking photos etc. also getting my picure taken with Occy was huge. For those who don't know he is one of the greatest surfers of all time. Please hire 'The Occumentary' for further information. Laura wanted to take the camcorder and get her own interview with the surfers - i vetoed that immediately after she told me she was going to ask them what they had to say to their irish fan base, followed by a sign off of 'Kowabunga dude' - no irish sarcasm there at all..Today we again got up bright and early to sunny warm conditions. We viewed a few heats before heading away to get the rental car back. The boys were in great form with Mick Fanning surfing really well. I have loaded up some footage and photos of this all (well I am about to so I hope it works!) so you can see what I mean. Note the photo of him sitting on the beach is him mediating before going out to compete. You may think this is a bit weird but when he stood up to go out the 20 or so people standing around him didn't exist. I have never seen somone so focussed. Since he went on to be crowned world champion for 2007 today after winning the event my hat goes off to him. Mr McCaw and Mr O'Driscoll would do well to take note. Perhaps prior to the haka the All Black's should sit down for some group meditation? I say this as Mick Fanning was clearly the best surfer in the competition and he lived up to his potential and was crowned the best in the world. We are now back in Barra da Lagoa for a couple of days before we embark on another over night bus to Iguazu Falls. The only hitch getting back from the surf competition was a flat tire resulting from driving in to a monster pot hole. In my opinion we got off lightly - The hole was big enough to do a lot more damage. Sorry it's such a long entry but it's been a huge couple of days.