Messages

22546

SUP General / Re: Fell on sea urchin, any advise ?

« on: May 28, 2010, 08:50:54 AM »

Surprised that nobody posted the old method of peeing on it.

Could be because it's on his butt. Don't know about you, but I don't have the talent to pee on my own butt. I guess he could ask a friend for help. 

From what I understand, Randy could do that.

22547

SUP General / Re: Fell on sea urchin, any advise ?

« on: May 28, 2010, 12:09:18 AM »

I have my fair share of urchin spines. The docs on Maui say clean them and leave them alone. I brought a nice supply back to Hood River in my right foot. Gone now. The black stuff you're seeing isn't dye, it's spines. I'm sure the spines have a nice supply of bacteria on them when they go into your skin, but some vinegar, a bit of pee (generally sterile as it comes from the container) a good washing, and ignoring them seems to be effective. Cutting and digging at them only seems to make things worse.

For revenge, collect a nice bunch and eat them. Or go to a sushi bar and order Uni. With a nice quail egg yolk and a couple of cups of saki.

22548

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 27, 2010, 10:05:58 AM »

For those keeping score, $46,000 is barely a living wage. My view of money is totally skewed. I remember making $800 a month a feeling rich, I remember making $25,000 a year and being poor, but that had more to do with my habit of finding women I couldn't get along with and giving them half of everything I owned.

The credit crunch can be simply explained as the obvious result of letting people who can't afford to buy stuff, buy stuff. The notion of a middle class consumer base is old news. Doesn't really exist anymore except for buying cheap trinkets from Walmart. What wage is required to buy a $300K house?  With the current trend in higher wage taxation I'd guess it will soon realistically be $150K or more. If you applied the old formulas it's $118K today.

22549

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 27, 2010, 08:45:52 AM »

Fine post time, though we've wandered so far from the topic (maybe) that I can't see it from here.

I don't see an opportunity for change here. One reason is that we have a government that responds to the whim of the people. The idea was that it would serve the WILL of the people. Polls don't often reflect will. And I don't see an administration in our future that cares about any of this.

Republicans are too distracted being republican. I don't know how conservatism became peopled with such a bunch of interfering clowns chasing votes from people who let flag burning get their skivvies in a knot, but they are. And democrats...well, they're democrats. All of them view democracy as an opportunity to hold power by giving the treasury to the mob. There's a good reason to distrust government. When it gets big enough to cope with big problems it becomes so unmanageable that it can't. It's amazing that Obamacare passed, they were so busy trying to fill positions with people who could pass both Obamas unrealistic prerequisites and the absurd vetting process that only professional pols who had never done a lick of real work could pass. Ever had to pay back taxes? You're out. Ever had someone work for you that might have been an illegal--out. Anyone looking for change has to wonder how it could happen with the bunch of retreads that rule Washington. Same bodies, different titles.

I'm depressing myself. Time to go paddle.

22550

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 27, 2010, 08:21:03 AM »

…Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert….

China is forecast to overtake the US in production in this decade.  This won’t be the first time.  In the early 1800’s China was the economic global leader.   It is hard not to wonder if at that point they didn’t consider their intellectual and innovative superiority as a means of continued strength.

….My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair! 

That too. Everything dies, or at least cycles. Read two fine history books recently, one about when China discovered America and another about chinese technology. I don't remember the name of either, but both were fascinating. The only reason we consider anything to be stable is that we don't live long.

22551

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 26, 2010, 09:07:57 PM »

Strand,

Well put, and all strong arguments.  Let me ask you, though, do you currently see the sophisticated, high value jobs filling in the void that is being left by the loss of bolt turning work in any kind of equivalent numbers?

I can answer that. No. and what would make that different? Certainly not policy, unless we decided to declare some kind of unilateral war.

We are a relatively small, very rich country with a lot of freedom to innovate and a lot of resources. We're not going to compete on labor cost. Sorry, can't be done. We're not going to compete on manufacturing talent--engineers that know how to put Tab A into slot B are easy to grow in quantity if you have enough bodies. We do have a broad set of advantages, and we still are the world's largest manufacturer. Just not of pots and pans, or tires, or cars.

Seriously, if the aim is to drag along every poorly educated, unambitious, entitled, lazy, non-worker then we'll loose our advantage. The future will be more of a meritocracy than anyone can stomach today--that's my prediction. The US can thrive and be relevant as a powerhouse for innovation, but as general manufactory, with all our byzantine laws, and our environmental controls, our work force that expects to be pampered and paid like Greek government workers, our tort law, class action, slip and fall, discriminated against, sexually harassed, politically correctified (had to toss in a little Georgism) business environment ensures that won't happen.

'm reading "The Promise", the story of President Obamas first 100 days in office. Normally I'd blow through a book like this in a day, but it's taking me forever because I can only get through so much at a time. I have no idea whether Barrack Obama is the right man for the job, but I have a pretty good idea that doing a good job as president is almost impossible. What a clusterfuck. Read it.

22552

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 26, 2010, 08:46:50 PM »

I dug the iron shrew, and was really hoping for too much... (admittedly)

Tim

Me too. I hate to say it, but Hillary has some of the same qualities. I'd blow my brains out if I was married to her, and I'm glad she's not president, but she's pretty damned good as sec state. I sure wouldn't want to cross her.

22553

Technique / Re: surfing vs SUP

« on: May 26, 2010, 10:57:02 AM »

You young guys seem to have a lot of trepidation. I'm 63, started SUP surfing at about 59 or so. I started seriously longboarding a few years before that when I toasted my rotator cuffs and couldn't windsurf for awhile.

To answer your questions:
1. If you start SUP surfing you should understand that you won't stop with little waves and just "saying you did it". You might get away with that with Crack, but SUP is way more addictive.

2. Yes, you're not too young, you'll be fine, just have your Mom sign the waiver.

3. SUP has a different learning curve, but it's easier to catch small waves with a SUP.

22554

Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: where to sup in Olympia,Washington

« on: May 25, 2010, 11:43:52 PM »

Olympia is on the water--you have all of puget sound at your disposal. Well, I guess it's technically not the sound, but it's all hooked together. Lots of water. No surf unless you make the trek to the coast. As far a rental stuff goes, no idea. I think you might need an Uli.

It's a longish haul to the Gorge, but a lot of Seattleites make it, and Olympia is a lot closer. Lots of rental stuff here, and there's the Columbia Gorge for Downwinders.

22555

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 25, 2010, 11:39:32 PM »

I don't think anyone planned this shift, I think it happened. I expect that given the mediocre nature of education in the US and the relative population sizes that the advantages the US had will erode over time. We will remain a formidable manufacturing and technology player, but we graduate far too few scientists and engineers to remain dominant in technology.

22556

SUP General / Re: Made in the USA... Do you even care?

« on: May 25, 2010, 09:50:25 PM »

If it were only that simple. Tariffs initiate counter tariffs. Movement of production to the most efficient producer is fundamental macroeconomics. Not even Adam Smith (who was really talking mostly about market efficiency), just math. The world is going to change. We won't like the outcome--no one ever likes change. But I'm old enough to remember where we all thought this was heading. Playing out the fundamental conflict between East and West in the marketplace with resources and money beats the heck out of nuking each other.

Incidentally, short of going to war, Margret didn't have a choice. The lease was up.

22557

Events / Re: Portland Ross Island Race part deux

« on: May 25, 2010, 01:22:46 PM »

That's one reason I told Bob he should also do a sprint race after the distance race. Unfortunately I think it was too cold Saturday for people to want to get back into the water. Even with all kinds of interesting boards around and people more than willing to let other racers try them, just about no one paddled around after the race was over. Everyone beat feet to lunch. Me included.

Mexican Chicken Soup at Chez Jose. Instantly warm.

22558

Events / Re: Kalama Kamp was Awesome!

« on: May 25, 2010, 01:19:25 PM »

Dave is talking about doing one-day race clinics around the US. That will make a lot of people a lot faster. Hey, wait, that might be a bad thing.

22559

Gear Talk / Re: 10-year-old needs a board.

« on: May 25, 2010, 01:17:04 PM »

Anything. An old windsurfer will work for someone that size. Look for an old rotomolded aitken or just about anything in the 9-11 foot range.

22560

Technique / Re: Towing SUP behind RIB

« on: May 25, 2010, 01:14:27 PM »

The Starboard 12'6" and 12'2" often have a leash plug under the nose for towing. I've towed both behind my Adventure Island sailing trimarans, which probably hit a max speed of fifteen MPH in a beam reach. No problems with pearling or tracking. I've even done it with my 240 pound buddy sleeping on the board.

If you wanted to do it without adding a plug, I'd run a line from the rear leash plug under the tail and do a clove hitch on the nose with the bitter end of the line leading out  under the center of the board to your tow boat.

If you want to do belt and suspenders, I'd tow the board backwards with the fin over the transom in the boat. You could have the board way off to one side and still not feel it.