Topics

1

Travel, Trips, Destinations / Tsoi Lik Lagoon PNG

« on: March 01, 2011, 09:28:13 PM »

I just got back from a weekend trip to a place called Tsoi Lik in New Ireland province, Papua New Guinea. It has some pretty amazing scenery there. We got really good waves too but unfortunately not many pictures of that because my photographer was too busy reading her book, walking on the beach etc... oh well

2

Environment / Copenhagen Diagnosis

« on: April 12, 2010, 06:26:12 AM »

I just found a recently issued report that does a good job of summing up  the current state of climate science. Its the type of report that gves a good scientific overview but is still pretty accessible to the layman.

  The Copenhagen Diagnosis, a year in the making, was released worldwide last month.

The report concluded that several important aspects of climate change are already occurring at the high end, or even beyond, the expectations of just a few years ago.

The report found that global ice sheets are melting at an increased rate; Arctic sea ice is thinning and melting much faster than recently projected, and future sea-level rise is now expected to be much higher than previously forecast.

The report also noted that global warming continues to track early IPCC projections based on greenhouse gas increases. Without significant mitigation, the report concluded that global mean warming could reach as high as 7 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The report found that:

* Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea-level rise at an increasing rate.

* The area of summer sea ice remaining during 2007-2009 was about 40% less than the average projection from the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

* Global sea-level rise may exceed 1 meter by 2100. Without significant mitigation, sea-level rise of several meters is to be expected over the next few centuries.

* If long-term global warming is to be limited to a maximum of 2°Celsius above preindustrial values, average annual per-capita emissions in industrialized nations will have to be reduced by around 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The report concludes that global emissions must peak then decline rapidly within the next five to ten years for the world to have a reasonable chance of avoiding the very worst impacts of climate change.

I still think the last sentence is possible on a technical basis but politically it will be much more difficult to acheive.

You can get the full report as well as the summary and press release at http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.com/default.html

3

Gear Talk / Slippery paddle shaft

« on: April 09, 2010, 05:42:27 PM »

Hey guys,

I just got a new Quikblade slimline paddle (8.2 w). It has great performance and Im super happy with it but one issue. When Im out doing distance padling after a short while Im sweating buckets (its steamy here in the tropics) and it runs down the arm and makes my hand wet. If Im not careful my bottom hand loses grip on the shaft and slips down suddenly. Sometimes up to 6" which really throws me off balance and I've nearly gone in a couple of times.

I was wondering how to deal with this. I dont really want to put wax on my shaft or use an aftermarket grip so I was thinking of getting some very fine grit sandpaper and just rubbing the shaft a bit to create some roughness where I hold it. Has anyone tried this and am I gonna regret it?

4

Environment / Climategate "Scandal" - Just a load of hot air

« on: April 05, 2010, 10:05:00 PM »

A parliamentary review into the leaked emails from the University of East Anglias Climate Research Unit has just been completed. It found no evidence of faked or manipulated data.

Hopefully this is the end of this sorry saga. One would hope (perhaps in vain) that this is the last we hear from the denialists. Even with free access to confidential documents and computer servers all they could do was confirm the validity of the science. But what chance the media pays these findings as much attention as it did the initial leaked emails??

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/01/2862503.htm

What we were looking at specifically was the validity behind the claim of the climate sceptics that the emails which had been leaked - not in their entirety but selectively leaked - did in fact indicate that there had been a manipulation of the data, which in fact threw doubt on the science, and we could find no evidence of that at all," he said.

"And indeed much of the work which Professor [Phil] Jones has done has been replicated using different study methods in the United States, in Japan, in Russia, all of which come up with broadly the same conclusion."

He said Professor Jones - the man at the centre of the row - did not hide data.

5

Environment / The power of constant growth.

« on: March 12, 2010, 06:32:14 PM »

I'd like to share a presentation that has helped form my views with regards to sustainability and resource management. Its by Professor Albert Bartlett who is a physicist from the University of Colorado in the USA.

In his presentation Dr Bartlett makes some observations about the mathematical certainties that come with constant growth. He has a clear, easy to absorb style of imparting information and makes good use of analogies and anecdotes.

Its quite a long piece (10'000 words)  so perhaps best to read when you have a spare hour or so. It is also available as a video or audio file.

Please enjoy and feel free to comment on his ideas.

It is available here: http://globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/461

6

SUP General / SUP on The Daily Show

« on: February 10, 2010, 05:05:07 AM »

I was just watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and they crossed to correspondent Jon Oliver who is in Hawaii covering a political conference. While there he did some SUPing!

It was pretty cool so I thought I'd share it with you, I like the Daily Show 

7

Whitewater and River SUP / NY Times article on river surfing (feat. Corran)

« on: July 10, 2009, 12:24:45 AM »

Saw this pop up on my twitter. NY times has a long piece on the growing sport of river surfing. The journo goes surfing with Corran. Worth a read and I'm sure The Big C can elaborate for us 

Modern river surfing on standing waves evolved on the Eisbach River in Germany in the mid-1970s. Tidal bores have been ridden for years on the Severn in England; in Bordeaux, France; and on the Amazon. New standing waves are being pioneered almost daily in rivers in places like Colorado, and in Ontario and Alberta in Canada.

Corran Addison, an Olympic kayaker and three-time world freestyle kayak champion, was the first to tackle the Habitat wave with a surfboard, in 2002. Mr. Addison’s river-surfing school, Imagine Surfboards, has taught 3,500 students since 2005, and has expanded to include a surf shop and board line. A second Montreal river-surfing school, KSF, has hosted 1,500 students a year since 2003. From fewer than 10 original surfers, Mr. Addison estimates the current participants to number around 500.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/travel/escapes/10Riversurf.html?src=twt&twt=nytimes

8

SUP General / Twitter for Paddlesurfing

« on: May 16, 2009, 04:48:39 AM »

Yep, you've all been hearing about it. Twitter is all over the place now and heres something for SUP on it.

If you already have a twitter account then I have just created a 'twibe'. Its a group where likeminded members of twitter can view a stream of data about Stand Up Paddle from various contributors. As it is social network based the effectiveness of the twibe corresponds with the number of members. So basically join up and invite all your friends and we'll see where this goes! All disciplines welcome including surf, downind.race, flatwater and others

I am not making any money off this venture nor am I doing it on behalf of anyone, just a bit bored at home so thought I'd try it. Have yet to work out all the functions of a twibe but I promise that I will not bombard members with messages or updates.

Here is the link to join: http://www.twibes.com/group/paddlesurf

NB - You must have a twitter account to join this twibe. These are free and you can sign up at http://twitter.com/ 

Lobes