A new life(Chapter 1):

Long week full of great things and good times. Just got home from Sitka Surf Shop Vancouver store party. Met with some good people and had fun with my good Canadian friends. These Sitka guys came a long way and I am super stoked to see the progress Sitka surf shop and brand is doing since the first day I walked into their old shop on Douglas street. At that time I had just arrived from Brazil with my wife and dog Kirra. We hadn’t thought about Julian yet but sure enough he was coming into this world soon enough. A lot of hard work at the time to find a place to live and start understanding a city that both of us had no idea about. All I knew was that this town had some waves close by in the winter time and in the summer my only option was Tofino, which is 4 hours away from Vic. Pretty crazy or maybe adventurous, but I left my home country to come into a new culture and language that I was and am still learning more everyday about. I left a really good job behind, all my close family and friends to start a new life in a promising country. Surfing is in my blood and until I can’t walk anymore I will still do it. No friends, no house, but a car full of $%%$5~!@,wife a dog and a lot of time on my hands since I had no job but 10 brand new surfboards that I brought with me to surf in Canada or in my next trip somewhere. I stopped at that shop (Sitka) everyday and many others in town to chat with people and see what surf was about. I did not know that I had to drive at least 40 minutes to get some waves but I was about to find out. Did my first surf at Sombrio and the waves were quite fun but the cold, the big trees, wildlife and so on was all new to me. I had a good time in the water saw some surfers but no crowd at all. Over the past 5 to 6 years surfing has being growing a lot and that’s not because of one or two individuals, that’s because the whole industry is growing and growing fast. Some people don’t understand that it is an inevitable thing to happen but others are fine with it as long as respect it is in place. Yeah guys, surfing it is growing and we even have a recent champion from Canada that won a world surf event (Pete Devries). Since that happened lots of people that maybe did not know anything about surfing are aware now of this peaceful sport that has come to stay and make some headlines. I hope you all have a great weekend or day with your family and friends because I will have with mine. Cheers, Chris “Careca” Moutinho.

Ps:This video is from my last trip to Tahiti.I surfed some amazing waves and met some amazing “locals” in and out of the water.

PPs:I talked to a friend about my writing the other day.It does need some editing,but hey, this is ME.