Jacob Wester

Greetings from the island of gods! After a solid 50 hour door to door journey we finally made it Bali on sunday, completely exhausted since we didn’t get much sleep on the trip (especially me, being over 6 foot in tiny Air China seats). After spending a night in Bangkok the last Air Asia flight down to Bali went quick and stepping off the plane felt like being home. This island, no matter how exploited and over-populated, has a special place in my heart and I will revisit it many times through my life. The surf has been pretty small the last two days, so we have spent most of our time sleeping off the jetlag, getting a basetan, and shopping for necessities for our 2 month long journey. Here are some photos from the trip so far:

stepping off our first flight in Beijing.

jets lining up on the Beijing runway. it’s not an overcast day, that’s just smog…

some interesting cloud formations over rain season Bangkok

enjoying the first beer of the trip (and the first one since my knee injury), in Bangkok.

approaching the island of gods over a glassy ocean. below the cliff on the southwest tip of the island is the world famous surf spot Uluwatu.

the view from our hotel room at Fat Yogi bungalows in Kuta. 4 nights here before heading south.

classic bali tourist breakfast. omelette, white toast (super healthy, haha), shitty coffee and a fruit salad.

Sofia going for a morning walk on the infamous Kuta beach. Still pretty mellow in may, this beach turns into a hectic tourist mayhem frenzy during high season…

the spot Halfway Kuta with some nice little sandbar peelers. Great spot for longboarding on a small swell and rising tide, turns into a neck breaking close-out once the swell is over 8 foot.

since Air Chinas surfboard policy is insane (200 USD per board), I decided to treat myself with a new Indo quiver down here. 3 custom made Flanagan surfboards waited for me down here in Bali. Been trying out the little small-wave board on the right, surfs like a dream. Can’t wait for the swell to go up so I can try the rhino chaser on the left!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for some surf photos over the next few days, looks like some solid SW swells are in the forecast, starting tonight!

Jacob

Waiting for our first 12 hour flight to Beijing, en route to Bali!

See y’all in a day or so!

/Jacob & Sofia

So it’s finally time, after 5 years in our apartment north of Stockholm, we sold it 2 weeks ago, and just yesterday we pulled the pin on our new one, which I won’t reveal here until August 1st when we move in. Until that, we’re moving to Indonesia (sticking to traditions)… Taking off tomorrow, so make sure to tune in every now and then for some surf photos!

Enjoy your summer!
Jacob and Sofia

not a bad place to escape to

the bakery

homemade in the realest sense of the word.

fish migration

humps along the road

first dip of 2013

blue wing

summer girl

Jacob

For once, a request fulfilled – instructions for the best breakfast energy smoothie known to man, enjoy!

The ingredients: Feel free to be creative! The only things I always put in my smoothies are 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (the crunchy kind), shredded coconut, honey and soygurt (if you’re OK with dairy, use yoghurt). When it comes to fruits and berries, I usually improvise. For this one I kind of wanted to go crazy with strawberries, since it’s so nice out, so I threw a bunch of frozen strawberries in there, and strawberry/lime juice from the Swedish brand Brämhults. I also added an apple for extra juice to make it more drinkable (the strawberry/lime juice is expensive). There are endless variations on what to put in it, I like bananas, mango, different flavored soygurts, blueberries, etc. Experimenting is the best way to find your favorite!

As far as berry/fruit/juice/soygurt ratios go, it’s all about finding a good balance between too chunky and too watery. I usually make it a bit too thick and then add juice until I’m happy with the consistency.

energy goodness right here.

here’s a before/after shot to get an idea of the proportions.

enjoy! I usually make some scrambled eggs for extra protein, and some coffee just because I’m a coffee addict!

Hope you liked this little “cooking extra” on the blog, if you do, let me know, and I will make more of these for all the food we eat!

8 more days until our flights to Bali, a bit hectic since we have sold our apartment and are in the midst of moving all of our furniture and stuff to my mom’s garage for summer storage. It’s going to feel crazy to be homeless in Indonesia all summer!

Jacob

Hey, hey, hey…long time no blogging!

So what’s been going on? Well, as you can probably imagine, home life with an injured knee is not exactly the most exciting part of a professional skiers career, hence the lack of updates. My typical day right now usually looks something like this:

8am – wake up, breakfast consisting of coffee, soygurt smoothie, and scrambled eggs:

been super into these breakfasts lately. cutting down big time on bread and dairy products, and the smoothie keeps you going for a good while if you make sure to stuff it full with energy-rich foods like peanut butter and shredded coconut.

10am – gym session. 20-30 minutes on the bike, followed by either a rehab leg routine, or an upper body surf workout to get ready for summer swells.

noon – lunch at home, usually leftovers from the night before. been really into making homemade fries lately. not super healthy, but insanely good!

afternoon – driving boxes of stuff from my apartment to my mothers place for summer storage. Sofia and I sold out place just the other day, and we are moving out in 10 days. loads of stuff to take care of in the mean time.

night – movies, tv, couch life. stretching, icing, and relaxing the knee.

The last few days the weather has been beautiful so I’m trying to spend as much time as possible outside. I need to get a good base tan before heading to the equator in a couple days!

this is what the weather has looked like in Sweden over the last couple weeks, and it’s only getting better:

weather forecast for tuesday, summer is coming!

In other news, went and saw the UK band Is Tropical at Debaser in Stockholm last night, fun show, nothing special but always awesome to see good live music;

Debaser medis is one of my favorite concert venues. Small and intimate but still big enough for more famous acts that regularly play here. If you’re in Stockholm, I highly recommend you go see a show.

Now we’re off to go check out some apartments for sale in Stockholm. The goal is to find one that we can be ready to move into when we get back from Indonesia. 12 more days before take-off…

Jacob

Headed out to shoot some photos yesterday as the temperature reached near-summer levels (17°C for a couple hours), and also to just watch and admire the way summer always comes back, even after a long and cold winter like the one we’ve had in Sweden this year. Life is everywhere, from the green shoots on the trees, to the baby lizards hiding in the dry leaves on the ground. Felt good to play with the 7D and 70-200mm 2.8 lens again, I have to take this baby out more often!

bumble bee feasting on a crocus flower

the Mourning Cloak, still groggy from hibernation, getting ready for its final task, lay eggs, then die.

White Wagtail catwalking on the roof.

another common swedish butterfly, the Small Tortoiseshell, looking worn from a long winter.

a Woodpecker looking for food.

one of the most classic (and cliché) signs of spring in Sweden, Anemone hepatica, coloring the forest floor blue.

a female Parrot Crossbill.

unfortunately for this Robin, us humans like putting up transparent sheets of glass in our houses, called “windows”.

this lizard spent the better part of the day on my black hoodie, basking in the sun.

In other news, the knee is getting there, got the word from the MRI that it’s an isolated MCL injury, no meniscus or ACL issues, so hopefully with the proper rehab and rest, I should be good to go surfing in a month. If any of you readers have any tips regarding grade II MCL tears to make the recovery time faster, please give me a shout! Off to Bali in 21 days!

Jacob

Hi everyone! Just had some breakfast back home in mine and Sofia’s place in Stockholm. Always nice to wake up in my own bed after travelling around for a while. Make sure you check out the last Nine Knights edit, of the jib contest! Big ups to Roy for taking first, and of course to Henrik for missing 4 days of practice and then taking second;

So, to summarize Nine Knights 2013 for me – 3 days of some of the most fun spring skiing ever, 3 days of some serious down time with physical therapy. Tweaking my knee on the 3rd day was definitely not part of the plan, but it’s certainly a part of growing old and realizing I’m not as immortal as I thought I were when I was 15. Now I’m 25 and if one thing is for sure, it’s that it’s all going downhill from here!

The original plan today would have been a quick trip to Åre for the 2013 Armada team shoot with Tanner, Henrik, Hornbeck, OC and Stanton but to my great dismay that trip had to be cancelled for me. Instead I am planning to get an MRI scan tonight, then 3 weeks of intense rehab training awaits. If the physios I have been getting treatment from (Thanks Stefan and Jess!!!) are right, I am most likely looking at a grade 1-2 tear on my MCL, but I can’t know for sure until I get my MRIs back on Thursday. Until then, let’s hope I can still follow through with the next plan, which is a 2 month surf trip to Indonesia. Leaving may 17th so the faster I can get my knee together the better. A speedy recovery is of great importance here, and there’s nothing like an epic surf trip for motivation in the gym!

Stay tuned, and make sure to follow the others up in Åre on their blogs; Tanner and Henrik

Jacob

Hi everyone, just decided to get a proper fanpage on Facebook since friend requests were getting a little out of hand as of late. So if you want the ultimate social media hub for everything that’s going on in my skiing life (blog, instagram, twitter), please go and hit LIKE right now; https://www.facebook.com/jacob.wester.1

Last day at the Nine Knights, been sitting in the hotel lobby icing my knee and interneting all day, time to pack my bags and head home tomorrow. 3 weeks of serious rehabbing lay ahead, I’m not going to miss out on any of the surfing this summer!

Jacob