Day 8
Vacation time and weekends are very special in Italy. Especially without wind, which we are already missing, the burning sun makes the days quite challenging. Often swims in the sea and cooling showers help to survive but still pretty much everybody is hiding in shade. Well you have to slow down to help your heart a bit. Evenings though, are the time when people wake up and gather to feast and later party, almost like in ancient Rome! Mornings after are mellow and the spoken esspressos definitely help in the morning recovery.

Today we drove into the center of town to visit "Surf Paradise" the biggest Wainman Hawaii dealer here in Italy for Rabbit gear. Cavour the owner, gave us the grand tour of his super popular shop and we hung out for about an hour or so admiring the old pictures of Franz Olry on the wall of fame. Bertrand, Niccolo, and Lou, all bought Power Balance bracelets - a trendy holographic colored rubber band item that apparently has a positive electric field for better balance and focus. We will see how well they work ;).  

Back to the beach and we set up the new gear for the locals to see. Next, short naps and some swimming in the Adriatic sea, and on to a grand Italiano Style BBQ at our hosts spot called Club Murano. This place is awesome.  It has air compressors, showers, changing rooms and generally is a deluxe beach facility, which unfortunately you can`t really find on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. At dinner there was a 50 meter table with great food on it and filled around with hungry riders from the local area. We lavishly enjoyed the deliciously prepared banquet consisting of sea-food pasta, grilled shrimp and chocolate creps for dessert.

Next up was the "no wind Jam session". As we were postponing the Italian contests from place to place, and still there was no wind on this last day we had to find out the right and fair way to choose the lucky winners. After our jury meeting and short discussion, the choice was made to run a  race of pumping The Rabbit kites!
The Men division had to pump up The Boss and the women The Smoke from the bag in the kite to the fully inflated kite flipped over on the sand.
After several elimination rounds the finals were held, as the crowd roared like a world cup final to see who would win The Blunt Boards 130 and 135! The winners of this very challenging pumping sprint were Luki Pari of the women, and Massimo Giombetti aka "cobra" for the men, divisions.
Finally the whole crowd went out for a brief party session next door at the Club that played music so loud all through the night that the campers were moving and glasses vibrated off the tables. Rabbits went to sleep at random hours, but still when the night was dark. Tomorrow will put us on the long road in order to reach France after we say goodbye to our great Italian friends, the nation of super nice and smiling Rabbits, who even on windless days live the dream of the surfing paradise. Good life!