Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Area 10

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 271
31
Random / Re: A difficult read: 'Unraveling of America' in Rolling Stone
« on: August 20, 2020, 02:47:42 PM »
So, Steve Bannon is a crook? Who'd have thunk it? :)

I wonder if the Trump supporters who were fleeced over this wall scheme see the link with Trump, or maybe they never knew who Bannon was anyway?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53853297

I dunno about the unravelling of America, but today's news events look like the unravelling of an administration to me. Surely even Trump supporters will realise when their president and his friends are ripping them off directly?

32
Gear Talk / Re: Looking for SUPs for a couple of lightweights
« on: August 20, 2020, 01:22:18 PM »
The recommendations here seem to ve based on the assumption thst you want surf SUPs. But your OP said that you want them mainly for distance paddling. If you are thinking mainly about covering some mikes then it would be better to consider linger boards than mentioned here. Maybe in the 10ft range. 28.5-30" wide is a good starting place for reasonably  athletic lightweight beginners, for a board that llength. How about a Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control 10’6″x28.75″x4.3″ (150L)? You'd happily rack.upma lot of distance miles on that but it is surfable too, when yiu start out, and it is light, durable and very well-made. Thousands of people have started their SUP journey on one of those, including me, about 13 years ago.

33
Random / Re: A difficult read: 'Unraveling of America' in Rolling Stone
« on: August 20, 2020, 04:06:01 AM »
Hilarious- a US President calls for a boycott of a US firm, based in Akron, that employs thousands of US citizens.

You couldn't make this stuff up. Oh well, I'll buy Michelin anyway: Trump says that a load of his supporters work at Goodyear, and I wouldn't feel safe on the road using tyres made by people that dumb.

The Chinese government must be falling about laughing.

34
Gear Talk / Re: Seeking feedback before getting a new board
« on: August 20, 2020, 03:19:55 AM »
Yeah. 25-26" wide is the sweet spot for most keen amateurs who aren't in the first flush of youth But it depends on the board. The 14x24.5 SIC RS I have is very stable for its width because it has a wide tail and a flat bottom. For pure flat water I'd think that most average-sized middle-aged person would be fine on it as long as they were intermediate level or above and reasonably fit. But if that same board has a pintail and a concave bottom it would be unusable for me. (I also have a 14x26 RS which I use for choppy windy conditions in the sea.)

 27" is indeed heading towards touring board dimensions, if your water is very flat and windless. Hard boards are a lot mote stable than the inflatable you are used to.

Maybe once you have narrowed down your options you could ask about a particular board. Then we could advise you about how stable it is. There's a lot of bravado about stability, so some people will tell you that any fool can stand on a 21" wide board no problem, and that its just a matter of practuce. This is absolute balls. If you are a young kid, maybe. But balance decreases quite steeply with age, so by the time you are well past the age of 40, Anything less than 23" becomes horrible to paddle for most people, and not fast AT ALL. So if you choose a wide-tailed, flat or concave-bottom design, you'll.probably be very haopy somewhere within the 24-26" wide range unless you are physically exceptional, and where within that range you go will be chosen according to your confidence in your own balance capabilities. If after a year you find that the board is too stable for you, you can then move down a size. Certainly, the SIC 14x24.5 is plenty stable for me in flat water and I'm just a typical wobbly middle-aged geezer. So some of these designs are more stable than you'd  think.

35
Gear Talk / Re: Seeking feedback before getting a new board
« on: August 19, 2020, 07:36:54 PM »
It's not all about speed... flat watwr boards are faster in dkat water fir sure, but not by much, if your comparison is something like the SIC RS. But a lot of the fastest flat watsr boards are very tippy, and that ruins the paddling pleasure for me because it is hard to work on timing and technique if your legs are wobbly and you think you might take a dip at any moment.

So, before you get caught up.in the razzmatazz of e.g. a 18" wide needle-nose unlimited board, you need to be clear about what you want from.your paddlimg. SUP is slow, no matter what bosrd you are on. And some of us get a much more satisfying all-body workout if we have a relatively stable platform to.work on. I have gone too narrow before, and it turned paddling into.a chore.

These elite racing boards usually take a bit of working up.to. Try and demo some if you can, to find out what kind of feel you enjoy, and how good your balance is.

36
Foil SUP / Re: Learning to foil SUP - Riding waves
« on: August 19, 2020, 12:44:26 PM »
Updating this. I calculated my time on the foil a couple of weeks ago and realized that I’m getting maybe 60 seconds a week. A couple of ideas other than moving to the beach.

1. Boat time, but I really don’t want to get in a boat with anyone during the pandemic and my wife can’t drive one lol.

2. (And the winner) Wing foil. So I am coming to the dark(er) side. I have a 5m swing on the way and hopefully will up my flight time. I can’t see how this won’t make waves more doable and shorten my learning curve. Even if I never learn to properly gybe and just blow down wind I’ll get foil time. Who knows, I might even like it. (Though I have a general dislike of wind.) I’m willing to try.

For the record, this feels like the most European thing I’ve ever done. If I start wearing long toed white shoes, skinny jeans, and a fanny pack, someone take me out will ya? But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Hopefully and hour of flight time will now be a session rather than a year lol.
I am European and I can assure you that neither me nor anyone I know would wear those clothes. And FYI in the UK "fanny" means vagina. It is US citizens who wear vagina packs, not Europeans.

37
Gear Talk / Re: Seeking feedback before getting a new board
« on: August 19, 2020, 04:10:23 AM »
Yes, there can be substantial.differences in the durability of the boards. Carbon doesn't make a board more durable, so its not of any significance if durability is what you want. Many brands' base construction (often a wood sandwuch) might be more durable than their carbon models. A thing that is definitely worth paying for in terms of durabiliry is a full PVC sandwich construction IMO. Boards thst come out of the Kinetic factoey in Vietnam (eg. 2020 SICs, Jimmy Lewis, Infinity etc) tend to be built like thst and be very light and durable compared to the competition. But some other brands produce cheap durable boards too (I have Gong boards thst are wood sandwich + carbon-kevlar, or full PVC sandwich which are both tough and cheap)  but there is usually a penalty in terms of weight. So it depends how much that matters to you.

38
I have a 2020 SIC RS 14x24.5. It is easy speed, and very stable for its width. It is also useful that it is full PVC sandwich, and has all the trimmings like bungees, race handle etc.

I'm suspect that a dedicated flat water racer with good balance could find a narrower or more dedicated flat water board. But I find myself faster on more stable boards, so the RS 24.5 is perfect for me. Its just a shame thst the deckpad gets grubby so quickly.

Perfect, thanks for that. Its seems like both the SIC RS (14x24.5) and Starboard Sprint (14x24) have good primary and secondary stability. I'll be mostly on flatwater so perhaps that gives a slight edge to the Starboard?
Yes, possibly. I won't buy Starboard  race boards these days though because in my opinion they are too badly made for the price. The graphics are also too gaudy for me - if I am spending a small.fortune then I want my board to be made to last and to look classy, not like it was drawn by a 5 year old with some leftover crayons

But these are highly personal opinions. Many people don't intend to keep their boards for long, and aren't at all bothered by looks or the finer points of construction, and orefer more extrovert graphics.

39
Gear Talk / Re: Seeking feedback before getting a new board
« on: August 18, 2020, 06:53:38 PM »
Hard board 14 for sure, but I'd go 26" wide first off just to be sure the step down from 30" isn't too much. Unless of course you paddle 90% pf the time in less than 10knots wind and very flat water that doesn't move much, and are quite athletic: then you could go 24 or 25.

Maybe start off with an all-waters race board. There are many ones to consider, eg. Starboard All Star, SIC RS, Naish Maliko, Sunova All-Waters etc
 
Or you couid even go straight to flatvwatwr specific bosrds like the Naish Javelin, Stsrbosrd Sprint etc if you are really feeling the need for speed. IMO theall-waters boards usually give a nicer paddling experience, but this may just be my idiosyncrasy
 

40
Random / Re: A difficult read: 'Unraveling of America' in Rolling Stone
« on: August 18, 2020, 10:47:59 AM »
Interesting thoughts. But European countries are not becoming more socialistic, but less.

I think we assume that democracy is the end point of a process. But perhaps it is just an experiment that does not endure. The most powerful economy in the world within the next election cycle will be a dictatorship by a group of people. They will form alliances with other de facto dictatorships more easily than with the waning and divided democracies.

Democracies are failing to take action to stop climate change anyway, so soon mass migration and war provoked by climate change will challenge democratic balances. States of emergency will be declared, and war footings put in place. Trump will be long dead, but the fact that there was a small window of opportunity where the US could have led the world to a safer place, but Trump blew it all up instead, could change the course of human history forever. Who would have thought that one reality TV star could cause such worldwide chaos?

41
I have a 2020 SIC RS 14x24.5. It is easy speed, and very stable for its width. It is also useful that it is full PVC sandwich, and has all the trimmings like bungees, race handle etc.

I'm suspect that a dedicated flat water racer with good balance could find a narrower or more dedicated flat water board. But I find myself faster on more stable boards, so the RS 24.5 is perfect for me. Its just a shame thst the deckpad gets grubby so quickly.

42
Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: I got GONG'd
« on: August 17, 2020, 03:38:38 PM »
10,  We have a cultured a self-destructive gene since the late ' 60s that has metastasized to the point the general types of people who support Trump are seemingly prepared to shot their neighbors   ...openly discussing revolution (more guns than people here) and, clearly themselves in the foot, to make sure the 'their values' are not shared with Blacks, Browns and any 'others'.  (that may be their only differing base value I can see...)

There was a fellow who took a filet knife to us in Rolling Stone.  It's a long, but sobering read.  I'll post it in the general catagory also.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

Jim
Great article. What is remarkable is how soon China will overtake the US as the world's largest economy. With the influence of the US in the world greatly weakened by Trump, and the US divided amongst itself, this could be a painful time very soon as the US wanes economically and culturally.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/largest-global-economies-1992-2008-2024/

43
I suspect you are better off with concaves than convexes because the fastest board is the narrowest one you can stand on, largely for technique reasons, and convexes add surface area (and therefore stability) in a narrow form.

But we are still.learming. 10 years ago as SUP racing was in its infancy, this wouid not have been thought possibke: 17.1kph.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDteLNvIdm3/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

44
Random / Re: A difficult read: 'Unraveling of America' in Rolling Stone
« on: August 17, 2020, 11:20:34 AM »
A fascinating article with some mind-boggling statistics. Thanks for sharing.

45
Gear Talk / Re: Let's Talk Paddles..Shafts and Handles
« on: August 17, 2020, 05:20:16 AM »
I have many oval shaft paddles and they all assemble with hot glue, so I have no idea what your point is there.

I know what your point is  ;D
Rather than addressing the point, you have tried to distract. You have been learning lessons from your hero, Donald Trump. Will you be voting for him again in November?

There are many reasons to buy Ke Nalu paddles, and they were pioneers in using hot glue to assemble paddles. However virtually everyone I know now uses hot glue, regardless of what brand paddle they have, and some brands have embraced this in new and helpful ways (eg. the 45 degree angle cut that Quickblade use at the joint between blade and shaft). I own both round shaft and oval shaft paddles and assemble them all with hot glue, and swap parts between paddles, even sometimes across brands.

It is a shame that Ke Nalu don't make oval shafts. If they did, and if they made smaller blades, and didn't use winglets, I might still own one.

But I understand the link between Ke Nalu and your own business, so I suppose you are always going to recommend them, no matter what. Again, that is very Trumpian.


Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 271

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal