Australia Trip - Part 3 (Fraser Island & Rockhampton)

I have now spent two nights on Fraser Island. We left the tropics and crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn to arrive here on the island. The first night was cross-dress night. The guys dressed up as girls and vice-versa. It was pretty funny and we headed over to the Dingo Bar to dance until midnight in our crazy outfits. Heh!


Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and we explored it today in a 4WD vehicle. One of the most impressive parts was driving down the wet sandy stretch of "75 Mile Beach" (which is actually only 59 miles long) and stopping to take a short plane ride which took off from and landed on the sandy beach.


The other fun stop was at Lake McKenzie. The sand around the lake is pure white and the water is crystal clear and slightly acidic which makes it a natural skin exfoliant. The water was pretty chilly but a few of us had a fun swim.


Before taking the ferry to Fraser Island, we stayed the night in Rockhampton, the Beef Capitol of Australia and visited the Koorana Crocodile Farm. One of the crocs we visited was "Shaw", a 90 year old croc who killed one of his keepers in the 1940's. We also got a steak dinner with some nice Crocodile Chowder Soup and some Crocodile Kebabs. It didn't taste that bad, though it was a bit chewy.


We are now headed inland to stay at a farm for a night and then further south to the Gold Coast for two nights in Surfer's Paradise.

Australia Animal Watch: Well, I can check off salt-water crocodiles from my list, but I didn't see any of the dingos that live on Fraser Island.

Australia Trip - Part 2 (Whitsunday Islands)

Its me again on the last night of my stay on the Whitsunday Islands. I went sailing today through the islands on a nice boat, the "Ragamuffin", a retired maxi racing yacht that had won two championships in the past and raced all over the world. We stopped for a few hours at Whitehaven Beach. The sand there is made of white silica and it was the whitest beach I have ever been on. The sand was super fine and squeaked when you walk on it. Heh!


After a nice day of sailing I went on a nice hike through the nature preserve on our island at twilight. The woods were full of wallabies, it is interesting to walk through the woods and have the little miniature kangaroos hopping around you on the trail. I was a little worried on the hike because there was hundreds of spider webs with some interesting spiders hanging in them along the side of the trail.


Yesterday was mostly a relaxing day at our resort. We played beach volleyball and I went sailing in the cove in a little two-man cateraman with one of my roommates, Craig, who is from South Africa. He knows how to sail and let me operate the boat for awhile.


Tomorrow morning we leave for Rockhampton where we will stay the night and visit a Crocodile farm.

Australia Animal Watch: I have now seen the Agile Wallaby, an Australian Brush Turkey, and two interesting Birds, the Kookaburra and the Curlew.

Australia Trip - Part 1 (Cairns & Great Barrier Reef)

I have had three busy days in Cairns, Australia. It looks like the great weather has followed me from San Diego, the rain stopped and the skies cleared the day I arrived. Cairns is the major sugar producing area of Australia, surrounded by miles and miles and miles of sugarcane fields.


Today, I went white-water rafting on the Tully River. It took 4 hours with a half-way stop for lunch. I managed to stay on the raft through the rapids except when our river guide, Nick "the Prick" flipped us on purpose. (That's what he wanted to be called. Heh!) One of my favorite parts was standing up in the raft as we went under a waterfall.


Yesterday, I had two scuba dives out in the Great Barrier Reef. It was the most amazing visibility I have ever seen. We rode a huge cateraman out to a floating platform moored on the outer Agincourt Reef. It was quite the operation with scuba diving, snorkeling, an underwater submersible and even helicopter rides from a floating helo-pad. I would have like to try some of the other options but the diving took up all my time. My favorite dive was the first one. We took a smaller boat further out to a spot called "The Point" on Phil's Reef, where we dove down to 60 feet and explored along the edge of the reef. I didn't see any reef sharks. Bummer!


The first day we took in some Aboriginal culture. We watched some spear throwing. It was amazing how far and how accurately they can toss them. We also got to watch and throw some boomerangs ourselves. We also watched some Aboriginal dancing and I was pulled up to give it a try myself at the end. I think I did pretty well. :) We finished with a cable car ride over the top of the rain forest. It was pretty cool.


Tonight is our last night in Cairns. Tomorrow we take the bus down to the Whitsunday Islands for three days. I am going to spend one of the days on a sailboat exploring the islands.

Australia Animal Watch: So far I have seen a Koala Bear and a Bandicoot, but no Kangaroos or Crocs yet.

My new Jeep Wrangler

I just bought a vehicle that I have always wanted, a Jeep Wrangler.


It is a 1997 with only 23,500 miles. I got it for $7,500

Mohawk Chop

My brother, Jordan, gave me a Mohawk haircut.


They like it at work, so I think I will keep it until I leave for my trip to Australia in a couple of weeks.

Karaoke Party

A group of us have been enjoying singing karaoke ever since Dave introduced us to Karaoke Revolutions on his Xbox. It is great fun because the game makes it an entertaining competition among friends. The microphone requires that you sing in the correct pitch to the words of the songs and applies points to how close you are and how long you can maintain it. If you sing badly for too long you get booed off the stage. Heh!

We all suck but we have fun anyway. Here are some pictures from our latest party on Saturday at Louise's house.

Ski Trip to Brian Head, Utah

I went for a week-long ski trip with Christina and her friends to Brian Head with a stop over for the night in Las Vegas on our drive out to Utah. It is a smaller mountain resort but high in altitude with the base at 9,600 feet.


There was a major snow storm the day before we arrived that shut down the mountain but it was perfect conditions for us with very dry powder. We had a lot of fun skiing threw the trees.


We would finish off the ski day relaxing in the Jacuzzi and we spent New Year's Eve in the mountains.

Brian Head on Dwellable

2004 Los Angeles Triathlon

I completed the Los Angeles Triathlon on Sunday. It was a point-to-point triathlon that started at Venice Beach and ended at the Staples Center in Downtown LA.

The triathlon was real fun even though it was blazing hot during the run and I got a bit dehydrated and cramped up bad after the finish. I think I did really well on the swim though. The split times aren't up yet but I think I had to be in the top twenty at least on the swim.


The bike section was really fun. It was twenty miles from Venice Beach to Downtown LA so it was very scenic with the whole road sealed off by the police the entire way. There was long upward grade about 3/4 into it and in the last mile there was a short, but really steep hill to climb. There was also a steep downhill section that was very fast, but what was so bad about that was that you had to go back up it on the run, it was brutal.


The Pros started after all the others so I had hoped to watch them come into the finish after my race was over, but my best view of the Pros was as they sped past me on the run. My wave start time wasn't far enough ahead to watch them finish. There was a helicopter circling over head to film them also. That was pretty Cool!

Long Beach Triathlon Post

Mission Bay Triathlon Post

Justin Surfing in Puerto Escondido, Mexico

My youngest brother, Justin, went on a surf trip to Puerto Escondido, Mexico this month. He got some great pictures taken of him surfing during the great swell.


Here are two shots of him getting barrelled.


YouTube Video of Justin Unsworth's Surf Trip

Costa Rica Pictures

Here are my pics from Costa Rica on Facebook.

The Link:

Costa Rica Pictures on Facebook

Costa Rica Trip - Final Part

The trip up the mountains to see the volcano was very scenic and very different from the dry, dusty pacific coast. I can see why Costa Rica is called the Switzerland of Central America up here.


There were these cool-looking animals that looked like a cross between a raccoon and a possum that would come right up to the car. I think people must feed them.


For our last day we hiked down into this deep ravine that contained a big waterfall and swam in the pools at the bottom. It was real fun. Then we went to some hot springs at a resort and relaxed and rode some of their waterslides.


Too bad the top of the volcano was covered in clouds, it would have been a cool sight to see.

We fly home tomorrow.

Costa Rica Trip - Part 4

Monkeys! I have finally seen monkeys in the wild. We were at the beach when a family of them moved through the trees right above our heads. They were only about 5 feet above us, so close! It was amazing how agile they are in switching from tree to tree using their tail to help them. Sigh! I wish I was a monkey.


I noticed that all the restaurants here in Costa Rica seem to each have their own little contingent of dogs wandering around the tables with the occasional cat thrown in. And there are these birds that like to sit in the middle of the dirt roads on the way home at night from the beach that like to wait and spring up in front of the headlights at the last possible second. I almost have a heart attack every time.


Tamarindo is allot quieter tonight with all the spring breakers heading home this morning. I don't know if that is good or bad. The Papagayo winds finally died down this morning and the temperature and humidity really shot up. I miss them all ready.


Well, today is our last day on the coast. We spent the day down at Playa Negra and had lunch at Pablo Picasso's where the "hamburgers are bigger than your head!". The waves finally got over-head height and my brother Justin was really tearing it up. I had a pretty nightmare session myself. I went over-the-falls on my first wave and almost got hit by a longboard as I was paddling back out. (It barely bounced over my head) And my last wave I surfed right into some rocks sticking up out of the water and wiped out. I could feel the rocks right under my hands in the water.


We are heading inland tomorrow to Costa Rica's still active volcano, Arenal. Hopefully it will spewing some ash while we are there. Other than that we will just check out the hot springs and some waterfalls.

Costa Rica Trip - Part 3

After 2 afternoons at Playa Langosta, with dropping water temperatures, we decided to explore further down the coast. (At Playa Tamarindo, the water temp had dropped into the chilly 60's. Crazy!) The owner of a local surf shop told us the place to go was Playa Avellena.


After driving 15 kilometers of a dusty dirt road we found it, a beautiful sandy beach with 3-4 foot waves and perfect barrels. Right next to it's little parking lot is a small restaurant shack that makes great pizzas and smoothies and a shaded area to relax in comfortable wooden chairs under the shade of palm trees. You have to share the beach though with a huge pig who spends half it's time in the shade of a tree and the other half cooling off in the ocean. (The little restaurant takes it's name from the pig, Lola's)


This is my favorite spot so far and the water temp is much warmer.


The reason I haven't mentioned the food is that the Costa Rican specialty seems to be Arroz con Pollo, Rice with Chicken. Most of the places just serve American-style food, pizza and hamburgers. But, we found a nice little place run by some French ex-pats that serves the best food around here, I think.


So far we have had two great days at Playa Avellena. Tomorrow we might head a little further down the coast to Playa Negra or up the Coast to Playa Grande which is also a sea turtle nesting grounds.

Costa Rica Trip - Part 2

Wow! I thought the waves in front of the hotel were good after three really fun surf sessions on Monday, but yesterday afternoon we went and surfed at Playa Langosta, a ten minute drive down the coast. Those are the best looking waves I have ever seen in real life. I caught a couple of the best waves I have ever ridden. The surf spot is right at the mouth of an estuary which contains crocodiles and a great view of the coastline.


The water has been very cold according to the locals. For me the water has felt the same temperature as a warm summer day in san Diego. The water was several degrees colder at Playa Langosta, a guy near me in the water was shivering with chattering teeth, but I felt fine.


It looks like the boat trip to Witches' Rock is out. The Papagayos, the strong off-shore winds that blow in February and March, turn it into unsurfable mush. (Justin accidentally lost hold of his board during a strong gust and we watched in horror as it bounced down the beach for about fifty yards. No harm done though!) But if all we did was surf Playa Langosta for the rest of the trip, I would still be stoked. We are going back tonight and I am definitely taking my camera.


P.S. This is better than Fiji! No mosquitoes, no no-see-ums, no rain, no 5am wake up calls if you want to surf, no strong current trying to pull you off the point and no sea lice.

Costa Rica Trip - Part 1

It is beautiful here in Costa Rica. Friendly people, great weather! I can see the ocean from this internet cafe. There is a strong offshore wind blowing and we are just waiting for the tide to come in during the afternoon for the waves to get bigger. We have this great hotel room facing the water only 50 yards from the shore.


It was a beautiful drive to Tamarindo and only the last 15 miles were dirt road. The semis rule the road here but I soon got the local knack of passing slow pokes on the one lane highway.


Two of our three bags got left behind in Guatemala, including the board bag with our three surfboards :( but the airline was very nice and drove them the 4 hour drive to our hotel late last nite after they located them. We where so desperate to surf after watching all the cool waves last night without our boards that we went out first thing this morning when the waves were only a foot high. Still with perfect little barrels.


We are going to try and surf Witches Rock later in the week. It is that famous spot in the national park that was filmed so beautifully in Endless Summer II.

San Francisco Trip

I just got back from a road trip up to San Francisco with Jeremy to visit Chelsea at her jewelry-making school. It was a quick trip as we stayed for only two nights before driving back down to San Diego.


Chelsea is living in a cool house right off of Haight Street in the Haight-Ashbury area while she is going to school. We had a great Thai dinner near her place on our first night in town and then went and walked around downtown.


Jeremy's leopard print hair attracted allot of attention as we walked around the city the next day with everyone asking how he got it. After Chelsea's classes, we all went for sushi with a pretty girl from Turkey who is in her class. Her father owns a jewelry store in Ankara and she is in America to study. It was interesting learning about Turkey. I hope to travel there some day.


We had some amazing crepes the morning Jeremy and I left and we had a long drive home with some nice conversations.

San Francisco on Dwellable