The first day of summer is just around the corner… and I can’t wait. We have new bikinis and boyshorts available now at the little shop at Quan Li (and all the shops when I get back from London!) that are just bursting with fruit flavour. Tangy, sweet, juicy and ripe. Ah, can you tell I’ve been craving a little summer?

These sets include both bikini bottoms and boyshorts (one of Cierra’s requests!!)… and they are just yummy. You can buy all five colours or turn to your left in the shop and buy them separately.

Another new thing is that these bikinis are on the shirt/pants layer, so no more fighting with your tattoo layers. Yay. Tasty. Summer is here.

Quan Li. It’s no secret that my first and favourite surf spot is Quan Li. I came to this beach in my first few days and fell in love with it and the people here. So several weeks ago, when Seb offered me the opportunity to take over the island (he’s crazy busy in RL), I said “yes” immediately. We just confirmed the transfer last night and Namiko Surf Co. can now really call Quan Li “home”.

Call me sentimental, but Quan Li is not just a great surf spot (which it is), it is the place to meet your friends, to check your IMs, to relax, to become a Master Fisherman, to have a super-long fireside chat, or a super late random drum and mini-gun party… like I’ve said, I’ve practically lived there since day one. I picked a *few* photos from my albums… and amazingly enough there are tons more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/namikosurf/tags/quanli/

So, Quan Li is my home away from home, and it can be your home too (yeah, actually you can set Quan Li as your Home Location if you are in the “Namiko Surf Co.” group). Respect the beach, love the beach, take care of this beach. And thank you to Seb, Pixie and Heather for creating and developing this island for us.

Whaahoo. I’m back from Fiji and back into SL! On the way, I discovered the location of my Venice Beach shop in RL. Yeah, we had gorgeous beaches, perfectly warm water, and nice hot sun (I got myself a pretty wicked tan)… really, nothing to complain about except one thing irked me the whole time. One of the world-class surf spots, Cloudbreak, located at Tavarua Island is blocked off from the public. You have to pay (300 FJ per night, minimum 7 nights — yeah, about $1,300 USD — we said, ‘no way’) to stay at the “Tavarua Resort” in order to surf the waves at Tavarua. This bothers me to NO end. Surfing should be free. You can’t charge admission to Mother Nature. It was ironic (and somewhat sweet) that Tavarua was flat for the time we were there, and the free spots like Sigatoka (Fiji’s only beach break) were awesome.

Now that I’m back, first things first, a couple more guys have recently joined the Namiko’s team riders: Aries Ashton and Gerran Voss.

Aries, a surfer from Sydney, Australia, has just opened up shop at Chi — designing clothes and surfboards under the label “Designs by Aries”.

Gerran, from New Jersey in RL, is one of the most recognized and respected surfers around SL, seen double-backflipping on his board everywhere from Quan Li to TWC. Welcome to the team, guys!

In other news, you may have heard, team riders, Malcolm and Emme are getting hitched soon… as I write this, Seano (the best man) is throwing Mal some insane bachelor party. I *did* ask for incriminating photos to post here for you all… but I was obviously unsuccessful. Emme’s bachelorette is tomorrow night. Gratz to you both!