I'm just about to start my second week of performing on my 2010 tour of New Zealand. The first week was filled with 9 schools from Auckland to Taupo with stops in Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua. If you've never been here before it's like seeing the world in Technicolor. Every color explodes and it makes most other countries seem rather dull and lifeless. The reason for this is the massive amount of rain they get here. Thus it's unusual (at least for this time of year) to have a nice sunny day without any clouds.

We've been traveling to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Jump Rope for Heart in New Zealand. Every school we go to gets a 30 minute or so demo and then an hour long workshop with 20 or so students learning how to jump. It's been fantastic and we've met a lot of really neat students.

Speaking of which, it's time to head out to our first school of the day. Have a great week and we'll be traveling from Napier to Wellington this week. Cheers!

We just completed the first day of the video shoot and it was amazing. I can't wait for you to see the video we captured. It was quite interesting working out an entire sequence backlit that flowed from one type of jumping to another. We finished out the night jumping in a thin pool of water and got soaked! Some very amazing pictures and video. I only ate half a sandwich all day because of how busy we were. We're about to head out for day 2 and it's probably going to be just as busy, but it will be very interesting as we shoot with dry ice. I've got to run to get ready.

Right now the World Jump Rope Championships are taking place in England. Over the last couple of days I've been watching on and off the live feed that they have online (isn't the internet amazing) and I have to say, I see the same issue happening this tournament that has been going on as long as I can remember. Everyone is missing.

I guess it would be a bit presumptuous to say everyone, considering that I haven't been glued to the feed, but whenever I'm watching, there's a ton of mistakes. A couple of the routines started out with a 5-10 second error, not good. My thoughts for anyone who wants to win, don't miss! The reason my team always did good at the tournament was that we rarely made mistakes in competition. The goal was to come up with a routine that was difficult and unique, but it was something that we could make every time. Granted, sometimes things happen and you have to make the best of it, but the fact that I haven't seen a single routine yet without a mistake is not boding well for those there. Actually, it might bode really well for the one team that doesn't miss, because they'll probably win.

Just because you go to the Worlds doesn't mean you have to show off every single hard thing you know how to do. Camps and workshops are where you do that, competition is about doing what it takes to win, even if that means doing something easier than you're capable of. It's not about ego, it's about learning to do what it takes, sometimes you have to get a bit older to realize the importance of this. Looking back now, I am finally able to appreciate when Mr. B (my coach) told us to take something out because we just couldn't nail it consistently enough. Maybe wisdom does come with age.

Just so you know, I'm not against making mistakes, as they are the best way to learn and if you never make any...you're not trying anything hard. I'm talking about when you compete, do hard stuff, but make sure you can do it every time.

My final day in Nairobi was spent packing, running some errands and sitting at the airport. Right before I headed out to catch my flight, the owner of the guest house I stayed at decided to take me out to eat with his kids. We stopped at a pizza place since his kids had only eaten pizza twice in their lives and they really wanted to have it again. I couldn't help but laugh thinking of the practical impossibility of finding any kid in the US who would have only had pizza twice. We parted ways at the Nakumatt and I took a cab to the airport, where I immediately went to the bathroom and proceeded to puke my guts out. Ah yes, the foreign pizza did me in. 3 weeks eating local food and no problems, I have a pizza, and it all goes to pot. I ended up spending the entire flight to Amsterdam visiting the can every 30 minutes to vacate my stomach, it was quite a long flight.

Anyway, that was quite the rabbit trail there, because I wanted to make an observation I had while sitting in the waiting area of the airport in Nairobi. Once you get to your gate at the airport, you have to pass through security again and then you're pretty much locked in to a small waiting area until your flight boards. I picked the furthest corner from everyone, due to my general feeling that I probably smelled like vomit, and waited. About 10 minutes after I sat down, a really tall guy decked out in a diamond studded watch, warm-ups and massive headphones sat down right in front of me. After a minute of sitting there, he stood up and started kicking a soccer ball around. It was quite obvious that the guy wasn't much of a soccer player, but he had just finished watching the World Cup in South Africa and was in the spirit of things and had his ball. He had 2 hanger-ons with him and they proceeded to kick the ball around the waiting area, rather oblivious to everyone else there. Let me correct that, oblivous to all common-sense courtesy. Due to his lack of control, the ball was bouncing into people, hitting the wall rather loudly and, my personal favorite, banging into the glass wall that separated us from the unsecure area. One of the security people asked him to not kick the ball into the glass as it wasn't shatter proof...he didn't care and just kept right at it.

Sitting there watching all this, all I could think was, what a jerk. It's no wonder people think so poorly of Americans, we act like the rules don't apply to us. After watching this poor display of athleticism, some American girl ran up to the guy and begged for a picture with him. He agreed and when she got up next to him, she barely came up to his waist. The guy with her, shook his hand, said congratulations and they took off, giggling and looking back at him over their shoulders. It turns out, the guy is an NBA basketball player. I don't know his name, what team he plays for or anything, but still...what a jerk. I don't care how fantastic you think you are, or how much money you make, don't be an idiot. It's people like that that really gives the rest of us such a bad name in the world. Hopefully he grows up someday, though the way most professional athletes go, the odds are not in his favor.

I just got back from 3 amazing weeks in Kenya. As a quick overview, I was invited to help judge and teach at the first ever East Africa Jump Rope Tournament. To sum it up, it was an awesome experience. I spent time working with quite a few disadvantaged (as we would call them in the PC countries) kids, though if you asked them, they're just kids. It was incredible to watch them work harder, and longer, than almost any kid I've worked with...plus they did it without shoes on half the time. Seriously, these kids did not stop. We would spend 8-10 hours teaching, then after dinner, they would be right back at it, working on skills, coming up with new stuff and challenging us with ideas they came up with. The latter arrangement led to a few long evenings where they would come up with some crazy trick in their head, but weren't quite at the ability level yet to try...but they wanted to see me, or one of the other guys/gals, do it. Always up for a challenge, I would give it a go. However, there are moments in life that really remind you that you're not 15 anymore and I had one. In fact, I had a few.

Every night, and right here...I would really love to say I marched or floated, man I would even take pranced for an adjective, but I must say that I lumbered, to bed. I would half-heartedly shower then collapse onto my twin mattress. The next morning, the kids were right back at it ready to learn. Ahhhh, youth has it's advantages. I have learned that we all have a choice in the way we approach everything. I was tired and my legs hurt, but there was no way I was going to mope around and give these kids a bad experience. If you knew what you were looking for, every instructor felt the same, but we were there to teach these kids how to jump, and so we did. Hour after hour, we worked and we taught and those kids ate it up. The way they would work and learn was such an inspiration, especially when we headed to Nairobi and visited one of the groups in Kibera. I'll give some more details on our time there in a different post, but suffice it to say, the conditions were bad, but the kids still jumped.

Outside of all the jumping we did, I also had some great opportunities to see what makes Kenya a standout country. Beatiful scenery, amazing wildlife, and Nakumatt. We had a running joke that we would visit every one in Nairobi, and we almost did. Nakumatt is like Wal-mart, just...different. Depending on which one you visited, it was a simple grocery store, or it had a movie theater and became a 4 story mall, yet it was still Nakumatt. We spent much time there as they were the place with the internet cafe and restaurant with a tv (for watching the World Cup of course...can't miss that while in Africa).

I had a great trip and am now frantically getting ready for all that is going to happen in the next 4 weeks. Over the next couple weeks I will be posting a few articles on some stuff I experienced over there, as well as some updates on the biggest video project I've ever undertaken. It will be epic.

I leave today for a 3 week trip to Kenya! I will be performing and teaching over there and am really excited about the opportunity. I'm sure there will be quite a few stories and insights to share when I get back. Until then, have a great summer!

Not too long ago I was performing at an elementary school (actually I do this all the time, but...you get the picture). After I finished up and was packing away my stuff, one kid ran up to me and said, "I wish you were my dad!" I was quite flattered and said, "I'm sure your dad is pretty cool already" when he looked at me and said something I don't think I will ever forget..."No he's not, he calls me an 'a'". At that, he turned and ran off, for which I was quite glad since I really didn't know what to say.

After thinking about it during my drive to the next school I was performing at, I still couldn't think of anything I would say to that kid, but I sure could come up with a list of things I would say to his dad. Is it any wonder that we see more and more kids lose the ability to respect people? That they talk trash more than ever and see nothing wrong with it? It all starts at home. Treat your kids with some respect, don't call them names, teach by example. I've had quite a few experiences where I wanted to slap some parent up side the head.

A few weeks ago I was at a campground and some dad was yelling at his kid something along the lines of "if you don't shut your trap right now I'm going to slap you up one side of this car and down the other". The mom hurried out and hushed her husband, not here, people are watching. Why does it matter if people are watching. If you're going to be a jerk to your kids, why does it matter where you do it? If you treat them like trash, is it any wonder they grow up acting like it?

Just one of those many observations that I've had touring the world.

Happy Purim (a week late)! Last week I performed at the annual Jewish celebration of Purim (one show was at a Synagogue, the other was at a community center). It was a really fun and interesting day for me since this was the first time I had performed for this particular celebration. The background for the celebration is the story of Esther in the bible and how she saved the Jewish people from annihilation by the hand of Haman. It's a fantastic historical story and you should read it if you haven't done so before.

Anyway, at the festival everyone dresses (almost like it's Halloween) and it's a very festive atmosphere. The thing that really stood out to me was that unlike costumes that you normally see, like witches and monsters, etc. There were a ton of kids dressed up like doctors, pilots and other professional jobs. Have you ever wondered that Jewish people, as a whole, make up a large percentage of these high end jobs even though they are only a small percentage of the total population? Alicia and I talked about this on our drive between the shows and we couldn't help but note the difference between the role models that Jewish families place in front of their kids and the rest of our society.

We need to change the role models that we present to our kids. We can't expect our kids to really achieve their potential if the only people they have to look up to are actors (with their extremely dysfunctional lives, marriages, drug problems, etc.), musicians (many with the same issues), and athletes. Now don't misunderstand me, there are some very good examples in each of these categories that would make great role models, but generally speaking, they aren't the type of people that exude proper behaviors that successful people need to emulate. Why not, instead, let your kids look up to someone like Warren Buffett or Winston Churchill. Or maybe we should promote careers that will require our kids to aspire to something truly great, like a pilot or a doctor.

You may agree with me or not, but you can't argue with success, Jewish families obviously know something that many of us in this country have lost and instead of criticizing them and demonizing their success, why don't we try and emulate them since they have a long track record of coming out on top.

Every once in a while a newspaper will show up and do an article on me. Most of the time they're local papers and I rarely get a copy unless I stay close by. However, with the internet it is sometimes possible to find the articles and I just came across one from December when I was in Spokane, WA. You can read the whole article by Clicking Here. The article itself was on a local jump rope club in the Spokane Area, but they did mention me because I performed at one school that was involved with the club. Below are the relevant segments from the article.

Seven-time world champion jump-roper Peter Nestler performed Friday at Balboa Elementary in North Spokane to help that school's jump-rope club keep up momentum.

He told the captivated grade-school audience that he started jump-roping in 1987, when he was in second grade. By the end of third grade, he was a world champion.

Practice and work hard, Nestler said, and "you can do anything you want."

"That was cool," said Jake Healy, a fourth-grader and a member of Balboa's club. Healy says he likes to jump-rope because "it's fun. ... I mostly do it for my muscles and the activity."

I just spent 5,000 miles flying round trip to eat some pancakes at Pancake Pantry in Nashville. Before you pack your bags and head to the airport to follow my stellar example, I need to point out that this wasn't planned. Don't get me wrong, if ever there was a breakfast place deserving of hours of flying, it just might be Pancake Pantry, the food was stellar, but I am a bit too frugal to make that kind of trip.

I was scheduled to do a show in Kentucky last night. I caught a midnight flight out of San Francisco, connected in Cincinnati and ended up in Nashville around 9AM. I met up with a friend of mine at PP, sat around talking for a bit, had a most excellent breakfast then got ready to head out. I had checked directions before my trip on g**gle and he punched it up on his iphone to double check that I was going to the right place. The drive time was consistent with what they had told me on the phone so I headed out. Right before I got to my destination, I called the organiser and told her where I was. She paused for a moment and said, "you're on the other side of Kentucky". I stopped the car, and asked if she was kidding...no. Now I'm in trouble. It turns out that g**gle sent me to the wrong part of Kentucky and now I'm 4 hours from where I'm supposed to be and the show is supposed to start in 1.5 hours.

Obviously I was sunk with no hope of getting there in time. We tried to work out an alternative for later that night or today, but nothing would work. We decided that it would be best to reschedule for next year. LAME!! I am so embarrassed and feel terrible for all the kids that were coming out on a Saturday night to see the show would be left with a hastily thrown together alternative. Sometimes depending exclusively on technology will come back to bite you, yesterday was that day for me. Thanks g**gle.

I ended up driving back to Nashville, slept and caught a 5:50 flight back to San Fran. All I have from this trip is a lesson learned about directions, and a really good, albeit the most expensive breakfast (thanks to a rental car and flight) I've ever had. However, all is not lost, there were 2 interesting things that happened/I noticed while gone.

1. When I got off the plane in Cincinnati, the pilot was standing there adiosing the passengers when he looked at me and said, "Peter?" I looked at him and thought, man he looks familiar. "I'm on your newsletter, I'm one of the coaches from a team near here." Suddenly it clicked, I had met him in North Carolina at a camp and had seen him at a few different events over the years. We talked for a minute before I headed off for my connection. What a small world we live in.
2. The line for Pancake Pantry is longer than the security line at the airport. Yes it's true, there is a line that takes longer than the TSA. PP is one of the most popular joints I've ever been to, I believe that the average wait is over an hour, which I can attest to. The food is good and you should check it out if you're ever in the area, unless you've got the spare dough to make a trip across the country for a great meal. Deep down, maybe that was the real reason for my trip all along.

Every once in a while Alicia or I will overhear a comment after a show as we're tearing down. The other day we performed at an all Kindergarten school in Kansas. As we were packing, Alicia heard one little boy tell another, "He stole all my moves, now what am I going to do?" I guess I somehow destroyed his evil plan to take over the world through jump rope. Normally I feel that students walk away inspired, but for this little guy...I'll let you be the judge.

Ok, so I was driving between schools about 2 weeks ago. We were out in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. During a lull in the conversation with Alicia, I looked up and I saw something that honestly shocked me...camels...and zebras. And not just one or two, there was a herd of camels...and zebras out there grazing...in Kansas. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Alicia and I are planning on going to Africa next summer to teach some jump rope and I was really excited about possibly seeing a zebra while there, but my first viewing was in Kansas. Oh well, it just goes to show that if you travel a lot and keep your eyes open, you never know what you're going to see. No matter where you live, take a drive sometime and keep your eyes open, you might see something new!