Messages

1

Technique / Re: The Concept of "Run"..i.e., Distance per Stroke

« on: September 11, 2020, 03:07:45 PM »

As soon as I see discussions like this my mind goes to swimming, and what PonoBill and singingdog says sounds like perfect advice.  Several years ago with swimming, swimming clinics for triathletes popped up everywhere that basically taught "distance per stroke at all costs".  If you concentrate on distance per stroke, you can make huge gains, but probably at the cost of going slower and destroying your technique. 


You can make your paddling distance per stroke higher by gilding too long, reaching too far forward and pulling out too late, using a paddle that's too long...Also, people with overly long strokes have overly long and slow recoveries, and then take more effort to get the board (or body) going fast again because you're starting from (comparatively) being almost dead in the water.


In swimming, we'd do several trials in a 50-meter pool, trying different stroke rates, and obviously the greater your turnover, the more strokes you took because your glide shortened.  Most people went fastest when their turnover was faster than they thought it should be.  So ugly, choppy strokes were fastest, but that's for 50 meters, and it's exhausting.


Good swimmers almost always take surprisingly fewer strokes than poorer ones while going faster.  A lot of that is due to body position and streamlining.  (They have more effective strokes, but a good 60-year-old masters woman swimmer can beat most 25-year-old male triathletes, and the reason isn't strength of strokes, it's slowing down less between strokes.)  You can't manipulate those paddling, so I guess the equivalent would be working on your balance so you can use a narrower and more efficient board, and keep the board going straight forward with good technique.


So like the others said, technique is everything. 

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Random / Re: I bought the wrong car 30 years ago

« on: August 30, 2020, 09:36:27 PM »

That Aston Martin is beautiful.  Coincidentally, I just saw a new Aston Martin in the boat launch parking lot, and took a picture of it with my dog.  It's interesting to see how the distinctive grill shape is still there nearly 50 years later, although everything else is much different.  It looks OK to me, but it doesn't seem integrated into the rest of the design compared to 1963's.

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Random / Re: Fun With Words

« on: April 07, 2020, 04:03:16 PM »

I'm remembering ignoranus and bozone--very useful.


My favorite from a few years ago was reintarnation--dying and coming back as a hillbilly.

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Random / Re: COVID-19 Data Model Updated Daily

« on: April 06, 2020, 09:54:26 PM »

With the reduction in travel and general @ risk behavior the Net number may be negative.

I can't help but think vehicular deaths are going to be down significantly this year.

On the other hand, I'd assume there will be some additional deaths due to people not going in for or delaying non-virus medical things--tests, preventative stuff...

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Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: December 02, 2019, 03:01:58 PM »

I've been drawing my racks. The front bar a few inches behind the roof peak attached on the outside of the roof rails with welded plates. The same height on the back. Streamlined carbon cross tubes attached with machined stainless plugs--just because. With the streamlined front tube just behind the peak and bulging up to just clear the roof peak, there'd be a minimal aero issue. The back bar would be unfortunately draggy, but that's life. I expect since I'm pretty stuck on foiling that the covered vault would carry all my toys without a rack, but no guarantees I won't change to something silly.

Bill

Make a set for me. If it is going to be a surf truck make it a woody. Dbrand is offering wraps for your cyber truck.

Bob

I hope those broken-window decals come with the woodgrain wrap package.

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Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: December 02, 2019, 01:40:03 PM »

This piece has some info and thoughts for people wondering where the Tesla fits into the truck market (although that's not what the piece is about). Among other things, truck buyers are loyal to trucks but not necessarily thrilled with the particular one they have, a strong majority of trucks are never or almost never used for towing or going off road, and a significant number of truck drivers don't ever use the truck bed.  Also, many aren't overly concerned with mileage or being "green" (but on the other hand, they haven't had good options for high-mileage trucks, either).  Trucks are also overwhelmingly bought by men--I wonder if that will be as true with the Tesla:


https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume?sfns=mo

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Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: November 25, 2019, 10:03:18 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29_QtnMt0X0

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Random / Re: How big is Amazon? How big will it become?

« on: September 18, 2019, 03:17:28 PM »

Stand by, everything is going to get a lot weirder.

Is that directed at me?

9

Random / Re: NOAA Admin + Trump

« on: September 12, 2019, 10:35:43 PM »

Hi Area.... I have lot’s of friends that a Brits. None of them live there anymore...Wonder Why?

Because they felt too much pressure over there to punctuate, spell and capitalize correctly?

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Random / Re: NOAA Admin + Trump

« on: September 11, 2019, 01:02:28 PM »

Trump never won anything, the democrats lost. It's what they seem best at. We really need another party, too bad the Libertarians make the democrats seem like winners--and that they're so fucking nutty.

Occasionally brilliant, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x25eNZSrYgE

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Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: September 06, 2019, 08:52:42 PM »

The Element is an ideal design for a skateboard chassis, which every electric from now on will be. I think that would be the perfect surfmobile if it had waterproof seats, waterproof, rubberized interior, and maximum cubic uninterrupted space. Easy to design, but I don't know if anyone other than me would want one. Hybrids are a dead-end unless you just don't want to build a charging network. At some point, Tesla will probably be motivated to share, but it's such a big moat right now that the stockholders would shoot Musk if he gave it up.

They (the old ones, don't know about the future ones) come close to waterproof.  The interior is unbelievably spacious.  You can fold the two rear seats down flat in about two seconds each, or up against the side walls in about 10 seconds each, or in 30 seconds each you can pop them out of the car entirely.  You can fit 10' long pipes or posts inside diagonally, or a couple bikes upright, because the interior is so high.  Suicide doors make it easy to load bulky things.  Carries some things easily that would have been a struggle in my old Suburban.  Headroom and legroom are great. 


One article I read about them (or actually about a Toyota concept SUV that writer said hadn't learned from Honda's mistakes with the Element) described how the Element has a cult following, and was perfect in many ways, but never sold well.  The author's theory was that Honda marketed the Element to young adventurers, but those never bought them (one reason being young people don't buy a lot of new cars, and many don't go outside (except maybe the types who drive trucks or Jeeps?).  The people who bought them were older, often women, often dog or bicycle owners, often creative types like photographers--people who appreciated their boxy, rugged roominess and accessibility.  But Honda never marketed to those people, so people just didn't find out the Element might have been perfect for them except by chance or word of mouth.  It seemed to make some sense.

I was excited to see the new one coming out, and that it looks so similar to the old.  Would have been nice to have an electric option, but then again mine is still going like new at 150k miles so I'm not shopping yet.

12

Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: September 06, 2019, 03:05:47 PM »

Pono,  i think you misinterpreted me. all my engineering friend drives is electric vehicles and has for years. he loves them. what he meant was you don't buy an electric vehicle for savings, you buy them because once you do, you never want to drive ICE's again.

I know the feeling, I was monumentally pissed to buy a new Diesel truck, but I was stuck. As much as I love racing cars, I'm kind of tickled that I don't need a truck anymore to haul mine--even though this is the very best diesel truck I've ever owned or ridden in. Really amazing. But what I'd really like is the concept version of the Honda Element (The one that you could wash the interior out with a hose and dry it with a leaf blower) but I want it as a 4WD electric with a 200 mile range.

Gregg Leion (covesurfer) is screaming "yes!"

I don't clean mine out with a hose and dry it with a leaf blower, but I do clean it out with a leaf blower.  It works great with the huge openings the suicide doors allow.  I actually got the idea to use a leaf blower instead of a vacuum from Caddyshack.


I just looked up Honda Element concept and found an article about the Element coming out again, but as a hybrid.  It also mentions some other changes (smaller interior, lower clearance) that could move it away from the original Element's utilitarian dream car status.


https://suvbible.com/honda/2020-honda-element/

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Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: September 05, 2019, 03:00:51 PM »

My new Rivian will have 400 miles of range so maybe not an issue for me but Joe Biden announced his Greener new deal and he plans to make EV and public charging a priority.

https://electrek.co/2019/06/04/biden-warren-clean-energy/

"Biden is also aiming to accelerate EV adoption, with a plan to deploy more than 500,000 new public charging stations by 2030. He’s also calling to fully restore the electric vehicle tax credit."

Wow, that's exactly what I was imagining when I said I thought there's a market for vehicles that have a truck bed without the overblown truck styling.  And while the Tesla truck styling may scare away people who don't want to call attention to themselves, I can easily see people who currently have something like a Subaru wagon getting something like the Rivian (truck or SUV) for their next vehicle, with the electric aspect being as much of a  positive (eliminates worry of buying a dinosaur) as the non-overcompensating styling.


I also think a lot of people aren't yet comfortable going electric yet, but at the same time feel that buying another gas one is a step backwards.  Some people love being the first with something, but more don't (especially when it's expensive) and electric cars are still rare enough that many people don't have close friends or relatives who have one. A few more electric vehicle options and some better charging could cause a cascade effect, and most everyone knows that, which could increase the cascade.  So many people seem to be just waiting now.

14

Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: September 05, 2019, 02:20:00 PM »

Rich people have a tendency to think most normal people think like them. I want an e car, most people want an e car. That idea is BS.

As with cell phones, TVs so big you mount them on a wall, home computers, microwave ovens, car stereos, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, electric lights, cars...

15

Random / Re: Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

« on: September 01, 2019, 10:00:36 PM »

PDX....I totally disagree. You like the web so go online and look at boat ramps across the USA.  All Trucks. Look at what people are pulling RV’s with. Your Yugoslav just  isn’t going to cut it. You need to get away from Portland once in awhile. Even Pono has one.....

Ironic that you mention boat ramps.  I live close to one, and have walked through the lot at least daily over the last decade, so a few thousand times over the last several years.  My comments were based in large part on what I've seen there.  Trucks are getting larger with more muscular styling.  Older full-size Fords or Chevys look midsize now.  Plus, almost every newer truck has at least an extended cab, with lots of them having full, four-door cabs.  Not true with older trucks.

And of course people are using trucks to pull RVs and boat trailers.  Passenger cars and smaller SUV's aren't appropriate for that.

I never said trucks weren't popular, which seems to be all that you got out of my comments.  I said they're getting larger with more exaggerated styling, and that I think there's a market for trucks whose designs aren't  focused on size, chrome, and "truck" image.  The trucks of 1990 or 2000 were pulling heavy loads, too, and they look absolutely stripped down and lean compared to their descendants today.  I think plenty of owners of newer trucks today would prefer more options for that type of truck compared to what's been available to them recently.  And, as I said earlier, I think there are plenty of people who wouldn't buy a truck today who might if they could buy something more like the Tesla.