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Messages - PonoBill

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23581
SUP General / Re: Getting an exemption to the pfd law for SUPs
« on: November 01, 2009, 08:52:16 PM »
Not a great approach, and some factual errors. Kayakers are required to wear PFD's, SUPer's don't have to wear them in the surf zone.

Back when this was first happening there were a few threads concerning the PFD issue. As I recall, the consensus was that the ruling could best be reversed or amended by contacting the  Commandant of the Coast Guard who had issued the original memo. There was not a tremendous amount of support for doing that, and as far as I know that has still not been tried.

I suggest that we:
Poll again to see what kind of support for this initiative there is.
Draft a letter and try the simple route first. Having the Commandant rescind or modify the initial memo is the simplest approach.

23582
SUP General / Re: big foot stand up paddler??????
« on: November 01, 2009, 08:39:02 PM »
He (or she) looks like I felt on the morning after Halloween. Hood River closes downtown and does a big "Trick or Treat" event, with all the merchants closing to pass out candy to the kids. A few put together Haunted Houses, but mostly it's just walking around socializing while the kids go a little nuts. We had two of my grandsons here, along with my daughter and son-in-law. Lots of fun. And one of our friends showed up in response to a somewhat offhand invitation. Somehow in the resulting evening we polished off a lot of wine, and quite a bit of beer, along with a couple of hefty scotches for grandad.

I went for a paddle this afternoon to drive the crusty feelings out of my bod. Beautiful day.

23583
SUP General / Re: How Many SUPers?
« on: October 31, 2009, 08:10:15 AM »
Given the worldwide distribution of interest, and the ability to do SUP anywhere, not just concentrated at surf breaks, seeing the number of people increase at all is a big sign. There are certain to be hotspots, but I see dozens of SUPs here in Hood River (which isn't all that significant since HR is Maui-East) and regular numbers of SUP on the Willamette and Columbia rivers.

I expect the midwest to suddenly have a lot of occasional SUP paddlers. It should be kind of like canoes and kayaks. A lot of people will have one in the boathouse that they take out and play with every so often.

Given that there are 50,000 cities in the USA, seeing a local increase is potentially a big deal. If SUP had a real trade organization we might get information on board sales growth. As it is, the big dogs--Naish and Starboard--could tell us, but that's important competitive information. Svein might, Michi probably won't.

23584
Random / Re: The death of print?
« on: October 30, 2009, 10:30:24 PM »
I'm an early adopter for most stuff, I've already broken three e-book devices, most recently stepped on my kindle in a hotel room in Boston after the CCBC. I also have a very big library of print books, but I don't buy many anymore. e-books are just too handy. But the future isn't translating books from paper to print. It's translating the experience to deeper degrees of interaction.

Three trends:

Everyone can create today, as a few zillion youtube videos attest. Better tools to eliminate the tedium of editing. Geocoding and immediate transmission of photos and video, easy voiceover--all contained in a single device. Face recognition software, much better indexing and search. All feed the pool of content and enable people to source mashed-together content that is (or has the potential to be) authoritative.  the iPhone Gs is already kind of there--video recorder, camera, audio, automatic transmission to the web, podcasting, voice recording, editing, music, and it's a kindle.

Anyone can publish today. the most highly valued venues are free. Millions of blogs. Millions of people learning to be journalists of a sort. Of course Paretos rule still applies, but the 20 percent that has value is a big number when the eighty percent goes past a billion. It's more like 2 percent, but that doesn't matter.

Everyone has a access to everything.

Couple that to new models of paying for advertising--all automated, all based on value instead of some guess at impressions or other phony valuation--and you have a much bigger revolution than moving ink and paper to a screen.

I'm working on a book on advanced marketing that I wanted to have published on paper, but the deeper I got into it the more I realized how much I would cripple the content if I stuck with that notion, so instead it will be an e-book, but not one that can be read on kindle. Embedded tools for readers to try, lots of web content, video, audio, animation, charts with live links to data, as well as print.

Kindles are great, even better if you have an iPhone so you can pick up your book when you don't have your kindle handy. I'm in Hood River for the next few days and left my new Kindle in Portland. I finished reading the latest Michael Connelley book on my iPhone. But that's not the future of publishing.



23585
Gear Talk / Re: what type of booties?
« on: October 30, 2009, 09:50:55 PM »
Waxing pads is magic. I let the sun melt the wax into the pad and then you don't have to do it again for weeks.

23586
Gear Talk / Re: What type of Gloves?
« on: October 30, 2009, 06:21:06 AM »
I have a pair of Dakine mitts that are at least ten years old, maybe more. They are tough. I tend to wrap my hand some funny way on the booms that wears the skin off on the upper inside of the slot between thumb and forefinger. With most gloves that section wears out in no time, but the dakines are line new.

23587
Gear Talk / Re: Dry Suit or wetsuit
« on: October 30, 2009, 06:17:28 AM »
I prefer my Koketat drysuit for cold weather. Perhaps they've improved the fabric, mine is so breathable that I have to layer under it. When I wear street clothes I come out dry and ready to do whatever's up next.

On the downside, they are clumsy when you're getting up or back on the baor from a fall, they are definitely kooky, expensive, and the gasket presses on your neck. But there's nothing warmer.

23588
Downwind and Racing / Re: Square Tail or Pin Tail on Race/Downwind Boards
« on: October 29, 2009, 02:06:20 PM »
has any one tried both the F14 and Maliko 14? Curious on which one they like better. I can't decide which way to go. From what i've read the 3 that interest me are a Foote 12-6 and 14' and the F14. Is there a place where i could demo them on Maui. I live on the Big Island and there is no place here I can do that.
Thanks
John

Hey John,

You are more than welcome to take out my Foote 14.  This is the pin tail.  Same offer, of course, to you JonathanC.   Just let us know when you guys are here and we can arrange it.  We had two fun Maliko downwinders this week, even though the forecast was for light winds.  I am sure you guys will get to try everything you want while you are over.  Yeaaah!


Wow, Randy you change boards more frequently than I change underwear. Oh, wait, that's not all that frequently. Anyway, when did you get a pintail?

23589
SUP General / Re: shame
« on: October 29, 2009, 02:03:54 PM »
first post????     man 128 posts and still no respect around here...... what the hell does it ?

I've got a couple thousand and no respect, but I'm channeling Rodney Dangerfield

23590
Downwind and Racing / Re: Square Tail or Pin Tail on Race/Downwind Boards
« on: October 29, 2009, 12:56:05 AM »
has any one tried both the F14 and Maliko 14? Curious on which one they like better. I can't decide which way to go. From what i've read the 3 that interest me are a Foote 12-6 and 14' and the F14. Is there a place where i could demo them on Maui. I live on the Big Island and there is no place here I can do that.
Thanks
John

You'll just have to hook up with folks to do it, no one has these boards in stock that I know of, but there's quite a few around. We did test (not much of a test really) two F14's, a Foote Maliko 14 and Gumby, which is an older Maliko 12. All the Foote boards are custom made whereas there is a production hollow F14. But we also tested Chan's custom F14 in the board test mentioned above.

That's a really tough choice. They all rock. I suspect you can get a Foote quicker. Last I heard Mark is booked pretty solid. If I were going to buy a board right now it would probably be a Foote Maliko14 in grande size. I was very comfortable on Randy's M14 and it was absurdly fast. The fact that I already have two F18s has a lot to do with that answer though.

Choices, Choices.

23591
SUP General / Re: SUP Guinness World Records
« on: October 28, 2009, 08:34:40 PM »
Honestly, compared to the old days at Malibu, it wasn't much. I remember seeing a poster of Malibu post-gidget with hundreds of people on a single wave--all going straight.

23592
Downwind and Racing / Re: Square Tail or Pin Tail on Race/Downwind Boards
« on: October 28, 2009, 10:02:04 AM »
the pintail on a Foote is new--I hadn't noticed that before. If you look at the boards in last year's downwinder test on Ke Nalu you'll see the prior Malikos had an unusual squash tail that looked a lot like the tail Jimmy Lewis is using on his new boards. I'll ask Bill why he changed but getting information out of him is like opening Macadamia nuts.

Here's a link tot he review
http://www.kenalu.com/2009/03/13/2009-stand-up-paddle-race-distance-and-downwinder-board-showcase-part-2/

I vaguely remember a video we shot of the Foote Maliko 14 in the pool at Ponohouse that shows off the odd rake, but I don't know where it is--it's not in Part 1 of the test.

23593
Gear Talk / Re: Good repairs- Maui ?
« on: October 28, 2009, 12:09:01 AM »
Ding King, no question. top notch work. While you're there take a tour around and look at all the stuff they do. It's one of my favorite places in Maui. Great folks, and amazing talent in that building. It's where all the F-series racing boards are made.

Here's an article on the place from Ke Nalu. You're in for a treat. http://www.kenalu.com/2008/08/03/the-ding-king-on-maui/

23594
Gear Talk / Re: what type of booties?
« on: October 28, 2009, 12:03:33 AM »
Hell no!!! I'll never wax again!   8) Still on a Bootie hunt though...at least 7mm.. I'd rather thicker!


Might as well go dry if you're going to go that far. I'd use drysocks with some nice fluffy wool socks inside. Or maybe a pair of heated socks like some folks use for skiing. I wore big fluffy wool socks in my drysuit yesterday, with 2 mil short booties for protection for the suit. Toasty warm.

23595
Downwind and Racing / Re: Square Tail or Pin Tail on Race/Downwind Boards
« on: October 27, 2009, 11:59:37 PM »
there's a thread about this somewhere, I asked this question about a year or so ago. I'm still not satisfied with the answers I got and I'm tempted to fabricate some sort of funky test. I suspect that there's a big tradeoff  that has a lot to do with the kind of motor you are. A square tail enables straighter rails. That should do good things for friction. But it probably also generates eddies when the flow separates, and that would add drag. Pintails apparently keep the flow attached right to the end, but they require substantial curve to the rails.

I suspect that a big guy with a lot of muscle could get more out of a squaretail board while a smaller person with a better power to weight ratio might get more out of a pin. If for no other reason that a wider tail can pack in more floatation and keep the board faltter in the water.

The fly in all this ointment is the Bill Foote Maliko 14 boards, which look like they are raked in the water and go like stink.

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