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Alaskan Rover

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Everything posted by Alaskan Rover

  1. As noted in the company's OWN text above, those GTX's ARE more designed for CARVING, than most. At least that what they attempt in their sales blurb...but such blurbs always have to be taken with a grain of salt. Note, though, that these were carving boots designed by the division of a company that identifies itself specifically to carving and alpine-related boarding. It seems these boots might be a good stiff boot to use for Fin's upcoming "soft-boot" carving plate adapters. Too bad Raichle has decided to discontinue them. I guess it is possible that these boots MAY have actually been outsourced by Raichle for cost/manufacturing concerns...noting that all of Raichles other shells are plastic, and Raichle may have simply lost that outsource, or were just not profitable enough to make a go. But there is really NO info on these boots on the net, except for that one little blurb...almost like they never existed. At 95 bucks on limited super-sale...they might be a good value...down from $300. A long time ago Raichle used to make absolutely AWESOME all-leather (including all-leather supple inner-liner!!) climbing boots. My dad gave me his old climbing boots when I was in high school. These were "crafted" in the early 60's and were the best, most comfortable boots I'd ever owned. Even top-level Fabiano's don't match the quality of those old Raichles...I was sad when my feet grew too big for them!! I think the only way to get boots of that same quality is to have Dave Page, the Seattle custom hiking boot make "build' a custom pair. He's still in business.
  2. Ha ha. LOL. Thanks Bobd! I'm not so conceited as to NOT have gotten a kick out of that! (is that right? Double negatives can be pondersome!) Anyway, I got a kick out of your comment. Well done facetiousness is an art form I truly respect!
  3. Yep....she's a very lucky girl...or WOMAN, I should say, as her feat is not in the realm of girls. She's actually spent about half her life aboard sailboats (according to her dad), and is no stranger to the open ocean. I've been offshore sailing for some time now....my boat is a very able and well-equipped Allied Seawind ketch. She's a full keel, famous as the first fiberglass production sailboat to ever circumnavigate. Her offshore design and full keel allow her to heave-to in ANY weather for long periods. She WILL roll-over in huge waves, but she is designed to roll right back upright do to her large heeling moment. The problem is, they don't always come back up with masts INTACT. You often get dismasted in a capsize, due to the incredible forces on the mast as the hull tries to right herself. That is what happened to Abby. A "full keel" boat has a deep, traditional keel below the waterline from bow to stern. These boats are very stable and seakindly in storm conditions, but in contrast to racing boats like Abby's, she is quite slow underway. Abby's boat is quite different. It's what's popularily known as a "sled"...a very beamy hull, with LOTS of aft volume, and almost NO hull below the waterline, except for a small spade rudder and a quite small fin keel. These boats are built for one thing and one thing ONLY: SPEED. Hers is 40 feet long, giving her a hull speed of 8.2 knots or so...but becaause she is a planing hull, she can actually exceed that...probably closer to 12 knots in a good broad reach! Because she is built more for speed than seakindliness, she'll tend to overrun her bow wave and bury her bow...resulting in a nasty broach or worse...a pitch-pole. (end-over-end). Not to say the hull isn't seaworthy...it obviously is and has five water-tight bulkheads..it just exchages some sea-kindly attributes for absolute speed underway. These types of "racing sleds" have been known to capsize with their mast intact, and stay capsized. Abby is lucky her mast broke, as her beamy boat might have stayed capsized do to the force of the mast and sails deep in the water. A scary thought on a boat like hers. She's a STRONG kid, that's for sure!! I've got great admiration for her!!! I don't think this will be the last of her ocean exploits....I'm just glad she's okay!! She was dismasted in 30 foot swells. I've been in 25 foot swells off the continental shelf...and I KNOW that swells ALWAYS seem WAY bigger, at least a third larger than they actually are. Those 30 footers probably looked more like 40 foot swells to her!! The spray would have been blowing off the whitecaps horizontally in those conditions...basically your whole world turns a dark grey. You don't really feel the impact of the waves themselves, because you've already been out there for days and are used to it...but the incessant pounding makes sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time nearly impossible. Basically your sleeping in your oilskins and deck-boots, always ready to go back out on deck and clip in at a moments notice. At sea...your mind memorizes every single creak and groan...and you wake instantly if the wind changes direction or a halyard is beating. In a sea-storm, basically your eating out of cold cans, as it's too rough to cook. I've got a really nice storm galley on the boat, with a sea-swing stove, but rarely do I get a chance to use it when I'm soloing a storm. Your world becomes the weather...and every thought is focused on keeping her stern from being pooped by running seas (large waves crashing over the stern and cockpit is what "pooping" means...sort of an "oh Sh!+" scenario!!!). Your either have your stormsail up or your running bare-poles. And the wind is just making this CRAZY, high-pitched scream through the boat's rigging. It's not a FUN experience and ocean storms last for days, but oddly, I've felt more ALIVE during those storms than at any other point. The oceans, like the mountains, do that to you....they both quicken your spirit, and distill the essence of your soul to its very meat. I'm sure Abby gets the same charge....luchily, I haven't been dismasted yet...knock on wood!! Storms at sea...I LOVE em, and I HATE em! Going out now, as a matter of fact. Winds will be hitting 25-30knots and life is sweet. Dulce Vita!! The Seawind in a williwaw wind: A sudden, strong gust of wind that comes out of nowhere and blows for only a few minutes and settles. The Allied Seawind "stepping lively" in a nice wind: The Allied Seawind's deep offshore hull in contrast to a racing hull . . . .
  4. Please illustrate, if you will, the connection between the sentence "Your presumption that one can only EC in hardboots" and implication that I said ANYTHING about YOU actually practicing EC. Sorry...I missed that part. At least we can partially agree upon something: I'm not a huge fan of EC, either. By vocation, education and avocation, I am a man of science...my particular dual specialization being bacterial analysis and species population dynamics. The realm of science dictates a certain fluidity of thought and by rights, a foundation of logic. The illogic that you so helpfully illustrated above is actually endemic to MOST of your posts regarding me. I realize that gardening does not, by necessity, employ an overabundance of scientific thought (indeed, I love gardening after a day in the lab, as it frees me from a myriad of theory and attendant miasma...and begets a real peace), but crikey, please make use of SOME faculty of logic in posts about me. Case in point: your twice noted example of my correspondance with Valsam. In my first post with Valsam I was assuming that he wasn't really hugging the damn mountain...and was doing a toe-side style , with at least SOME hip rotation and only one-hand down...more akin to that pic of Jasey-Jay going at it hard just below Valsam's post. You seem to think that you can't carve this way toe-side in good soft-boots. You CAN. Maybe not at as high of a rate of speed or with quite as much angulation...as you will have less edge-grip with softies, but the fact is you can carve a good form in partial emulation of that picture...it just tweaks your knees. I know, because I carve in similar fashion, I gravitate to that style because I raced slalom and giant slalom on skis with a very aggresive, very angular and precise stance. So I was telling Valsam BEFORE I saw that awful picture, that he didn't need to drag his hand, but keep his hand just above, like a racer. My second post was after I saw Valsam's pic. I was trying to use tact, telling him he looked all right, because I felt he obviously enjoyed it, and looked like he was enjoying it in that picture, proud of himself, actually. Style-wise and aesthetic-wise...I was horrified by that picture, it looked ridiculous...but I certainly wasn't going to tell him that! He was basically humping the mountain. I mean little hip rotation and what the heck is he doing with BOTH arms down there???? But there is no way I would tell him that. He obviously enjoys both hands down and must be proud of it. Why ruin it? I find it rather offensive that you think that was wholly a hardbooter question just because he was wearing hardboots. It was predominitely a CARVING question. WTF??? I've been carving WELL for years. Like I said, it just tweaks the knees more when you do it at lower angles in softies...I'll probably be feeling it in later years. You seem to follow that same false line of reasoning throughout your posts. As to your premise that I don't know what I am talking about? I've been on the snow in many means for well over three decades, and for whatever reason, I have the body that allows me to STILL board with exuberance and precision for 10, even 12 hours a day. You say you grew up in Louisana for 19 years? When I was 19, I had already been in and around the mountains (climbing with my dad in Switzerland and France when our family lived in Geneva) since I was six. And then working with the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game doing winter population surveys, where it was MY JOB to ascend various Brooks Range and Alaska Range passes and ledges with survey gear!! How much of that have YOU done, besides skinning up various fairly easy ascents from parking lots? I think I picked up a few tricks here and there. Posted by Buell 03 March 2010: "Alaskan, it sounds like you have been around snow for a while and know a good bit, but you might consider hanging out for a bit before starting to give advice to hardbooters." Backed up by: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29852 and, case in point: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=295031#post295031 . . . .As for me being this incredible a$$hol# that you purport, talk to OSECS at TGR...he's a conservative, I'm a liberal environmental activist...if any two people should be at odds, it should be us....but him and his wife just went sailing on my boat two weeks ago, never met him before...and we had a GREAT time. I don't think he'd concur with your slanted point of view. . . . .
  5. Who does the "Boss" in Dilbert remind you of?
  6. buell, I am not sure if the amount of time you spend on me is amusing or entertaining or alarming or downright scary....it is odd. It is like having a lurker in the bushes. Oh, and I just perused your set of examples. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to actually have examples that back-up your sundry claims? For example, what did I tell Valsam that was so wrong? This presumption that you have that one can only EC in hardboots is both false and egalitarian, and yet it obviously provides the groundwork of your opinion. And the other example about Peak 7601? I said in the very first paragraph that the steepness might be derived from the photography and that something wasn't right about it. This comes from my OWN experience in the mountains. Do you even READ what others post before you comment on them? Because there are at least 3 examples above that in which you OBVIOUSLY did not. But I think what is most important, is that you seem to have an inability to let things rest...as if that's part of your psyche. Basically what you are doing is cyber-bullying. I cannot really describe it another way. Between you and Bobdea and Tex, you have basically whipped Photodad2000 so much that he really does not want to utter a peep. Is that good conduct? Is that decorum? I think not. What it truly is is nothing more than schoolyard bullying in an online forum. You try to conjure this personna that you are this benovalent, well-informed presence....well, I think your true personna comes out readily in your interaction with either me or Photodad. That of a spiteful little boy. You've shown that shallow spitefulness time and time again, in this regard. That's the last I'll say on this subject on this thread...but I'm sure you'll go on and on...or even start a completely new thread like you did last time. Really....it's getting old. In answer to your question that you ask on almost every single post: "Why am I here?" Because I like to carve. Need there be another reason?
  7. Anybody have any experience with the Deeluxe GTS boots? They supposedly have various stiffeners throughout the boot. Apparently they are no longer manufactured by Deeluxe, as there is not a peep about them on their website....as a matter of fact, it looks like they only make 3 models of boots now. Here is a sales blurb about them from another site, but I'd rather know from people who've tried 'em. "Features The Deeluxe GTS is a solid performer for the Carver that wants to tear the ass out of it in soft boots. The GTS comes with 2 sets of "flex bars" that are inserted on the inside and outside of the boot to change the cuff flex. The boots are already super supportive in the pow and crud without the bars and if you're headed out on your all mountain board and you want to rip some cord, these boots are hands down the best tool. These boots originally retailed for $300. We have a nice selection of sizes and are offering them for a buck and a quarter. You will not find a better deal on brand new, top of the line, Deeluxe softies." The sales price is pretty good, plus a decent discount on top of that. They look pretty durable. I think 'Deeluxe' is Raichle, Inc...right? I used to ski on Raichles for a while....Flexon something or other. They seemed fairly well-made, but I liked my Lange X-9s for racing and my Lange Mid 5.5s for comfort. Here's the Deeluxe GTS:
  8. Lots of class, buell....calling someone a dips*** for earnestly giving some helpful advice to a fellow person who MAY have been in jeapardy? I wouldn't, of course, send money, but if I had specific info that MIGHT be of help to someone who MAY be in need, it certainly doesn't hurt me to provide it. But I really don't think, based upon your actions here, that you really know ANYTHING about that, do you? You remind me of one of those kids that is always sitting in the back row of class, shooting spitballs at other students. Your second quote above is merely evidence of that lack of depth. Is abrasivenes just part of your nature? You never even answered the question.
  9. The difference, you incredible MORON, is that that ACTUALLY happened to me. I was robbed in Cozumel, stole pretty much EVERYTHING I had, including the receipts to my American Express traveler's checks, my passport, driver's license, everything. Had just enough pesos to buy some peanut butter and agua. An ex-U.S. Liason official lent me enough bus and ferry fare to get to the US Consulate in Merida and gave me a first-name contact at the Consulate. It was at the Consulate that I found out about the Foreign Service program for Americans abroad who are in need and their super-quick Diplomatic pouch money service. It saved me a LOT of grief, as I had no cards, no cash and no ID. Let me ask you a question, Buell...do you have to practice being such an abrasive a**, or does it just come extraordinarily natural?...I'm inclined to think the latter. You are really quite abusive. As to Dilbert, you sort of remind me of that boss...except not quite as smart as him, even.
  10. That happened to me one time, except not at gun-point and the Caribbean instead of London. But the result was the same. They didn't leave me a bean...except worse for me, as they also stole my passport. All I had was a xerox copy of my passport. And some other things with my name on it. With Passport, he is in MUCH better shape than I was. He needs to contact the US Embassy (If he is an American citizen). They have this program for citizens abroad in need. I can't remember what it is called. In my case, they enabled a new passport STAT! and it had a cool "U.S. Foreign Services title on it to boot!!)...only took 3 days. In Pat's case, the US Embassy has a service whereby money can be quickly sent from family or friends via U.S. Diplomatic pouch, thereby saving all the time and jazz of international wire transfers. They do not charge for this service, it is SUPER quick and is an excellent service for citizens in trouble. Having passport is SO much easier!! Using that, he should be able to go to one of his credit company offices and they will be able to get him emergency cash from his card. Good luck. There is a good U.S. Embassy right in London. Hotels will USUALLy let your bill "hang" for a couple days if the situation is explained. Odd...I never found that much street crime in London do to all the facial recognition cameras on almost every street corner.
  11. Never even heard of her before, but she's gorgeous. Miss out on all that good sh** by voluntarily not having TV. But all in all, I don't miss TV a bit!! Snow-caves and cell-phones don't seem to belong in the same conversation. ;)
  12. What pisses me off about things like the iPhone and Android and the like is that most carriers allow these phones to have UNLIMITED internet access. I have friends who have iPhones and they spend inordinate amount of time per day on YouTube...easily half a gig or more per day. At no additional cost for using up this band-width. Yet my Acer Aspire One netbook (subnotebook), using a verizon "air-card" broadband wireless is CAPPED at 5 GB a MONTH !! and until recently, 25 cents per megabyte for any overage (now 5 cents per megabyte). But a megabyte on the internet goes by LIKE THAT!!! What a RIP. Yet, Verizon and ATT don't charge their smart-phone customers any overage AT ALL for using the same internet services. That is totally lob-sided and just not right. That's my pet-peeve.
  13. Cool house features: 1) Small! No more than 900 sq. ft! Houses are like boats...too big and they are just an expensive pain in the gluteus maximus. 2)Soapstone flooring on 1st floor...plumbed with passive heating piping underneath. Kitchen area a foot above main floor...this would have old warehouse wide solid oak planking. 2nd floor would have old-fashioned floor grates to make use of rising heat, and additional sub-floor passive-heat water piping. All sub-floor heating water would be heated by the Finnish soapstone stove. Only very small 12volt h20 pump needed for heating circulation. 3)post and beam framing through out. No nails or through bolts to rust, only wooden pegs. All timbers exposed. All post and beams would be from old warehouses, to keep down virgin timber harvest. REUSE and RECYCLE. 4)siding inside and out would be a combination of old barn siding and old warehouse siding...all rough surface. In the very few places that would have sheetrock...NO sheetrock...only "wetwall" in these places. Most inner wall surfaces would be light-colored rough sheeting and old planking. 5) Windows would be opposed for good cross-flow ventilation. All windows would be air-barrier double-paned. French doors in kitchen and upper-floor master bedroom also double-paned. All windows would have working shutters outside for storm prep. 6) Southern facing portion of roof would have a combination of solar water heating matrix and 1000 watts of solar energy panels. 1000 more watts solar on woodshed roof. Both useless during Alaska winters. 7)3 wind generators...each on 60 foot towers. each one 72 inch diameter swath. The good thing about certain coastal areas in Alaska, especially near a headland...there is almost always wind...this makes up for the lack of solar energy potential in winter, spring and fall. 8)water-actuated ram pump to pump water from fast-moving stream to elevated cistern. All water gravity fed from fairly high cistern (cistern indoors to keep from freezing in winter)...except 12 volt H2O pump to feed H2O thru solar water heater. Small on-demand gas water heater for showers and clean-up at night (maybe). All drinking water sent through a reverse-osmosis h2o filter. 8A) Root cellar with bear-proof door. Smoke-house for smoking salmon and venison. 9)All electrical systems 12 volt...totally "off-grid". All lighting 12 volt, and some hurricane lamps, but LED is better...just uglier. 10) Working front and back porches (screened), with hammocks and "Skychairs" (the best chair on earth!). Both front and rear doors would open into double door alcove to conserve heat in winter. Rear double door alcove would be the mud-room. 11) massive Finnish-style soapstone woodstove that can burn wood or recycled pellets. Most efficient woodstoves in the world. Radiate incredible heat for hours after fire goes out! 12) situated on enough Ak coastal acreage so as to have sustainable, selective timber harvesting only for wood heat. Large southern-facing garden. Greenhouse for starting veggies early, but fairly useless until at least March! 'Raisable' oyster beds for gathering edible oysters and mussels. Floating dock for the sailboat and skiffs, because often 15-22 foot tides in Alaska.
  14. Sometimes when you save to a DVD-R disc using a computer, a simple, non-computer video player won't read the signal, but I usually only have this problem with DVD-RW. Does the disc play fine on your computer's multi-reader? Is it a DVD+R or a DVD+RW disc by any chance? Makes a difference unless your DVD player is less than a year old. What kind of player will your friend be using?
  15. Hah...Pretty cool. A standing wave. If you caught just the right incoming tide of the month, you might be able to catch the Turnagain Arm "Tidal bore", off of Cook Inlet, Ak. It's a 3-6 feet high bore tide....height depending on lunar cycle. It travels about 15 mph, so if you miss it, you might be waiting for a while. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d6pL3YSGTI Kayakers are able to ride it for a short time. Surfers sometimes ride the larger six footers....it would also have to be a relatively no wind situation, to keep down the chop. No wind in Turnagain Arm is pretty darn rare!! Here is a vid of one person who suceeded....this was a rare day of fairly light wind and low chop. Looking for that vid above, I also couldn't happen to miss the video below....about another type of icy surfing and a Darwin Award contender's exploits: . . . . .
  16. There are a multitude of things that we can each do TODAY that can have impact on our future energy use. 1) Driving 55 mph. If we went back to the federally mandated 55 mile/hour speed limits, we would save fuel AND we would save lives at the same time. I can't remember the exact amount, but the average fuel savings for most vehicles is somewhere around 22-25 %. That is a pretty big drop in fuel usage that we can initiate TODAY. We did that once, we can do it again. 2)Decrease our plastics consumption. Re-use or bring your own bags to the store. Petition and contact your Congressman/Senator to initiate a federally-mandated decrease in plastics packaging. Plastics packaging has just gone crazy, lately. I almost need a chain-saw to break through the packaging of even the smallest, most inconsequential product...we need to decrease this trend. Initiate mandated plastics recycling programs. Plastics are essentially derived from petrochemicals...decreasing our plastics use can decrease our oil usage. 3)More mass-transit that actually works. Two examples of cities with a fairly well-run mass transit system are Wash DC Metro subway/elevated line, and the NYC subway system. We can have more such systems in other cities...and we need them. 4)Design houses and buildings that make use of natural wind and ventilation. I have been in well-shaded, old houses in places like Brunswick, Georgia...houses that were designed in the late 1800's to allow cross-flow ventilation. These houses were quite cool and livable...even in Georgia. 5)Ride more bikes. Sure, bike commuting might be difficult in the the heat of August, but other times of the year it can be quite pleasurable and do-able. Ride your bike to the grocery store to pick up small amounts of groceries...put some bike -bags on your bike. Petition Congress to finally open up the Interstate roadway system for bicycle use. These roads have HUGE shoulders that bikes can make use of and not be near passing cars. You would be surprised at the number of people that would like to use these roads for bike-commuting. Imnagine being able to bike on by miles of cars stuck in rush-hour trafic. These are just a FEW examples of things that can be done. The point is the individual CAN make a difference! Our population is, after all, made up of individuals. Each of us has the capacity to do little things that can make a difference. When those little things are added up within a whole population...the difference is palpable. These are things we can do NOW.
  17. Buell partial-quote from a previous post in this thread: "....//....this corporation made, profit driven tragedy." At last we agree upon something...perhaps there is hope for the universe afterall. I do not, however, share your negativity pertaining to a potential for change. I do not think Quantum Mechanics applies to the human system. I believe we are more than little quanta of the species, relegated to our own individual little orbits, unaffected by and unaffecting the system as a whole. I think, indeed, there can be great potential for change when humans agree upon a central premise...especially when that idea is forged in a time of absolute need, and not merely of bland desire. History has shown such many times in the past...and I must believe that we are still capable of collective change. Yes, a society is made up of individuals, but I think more...individuals are a progeny of society; intertwined in that society like threads in a great tapestry. When I said responsibility, I of course didn't mean literal, individual reponsibility. I am fairly astounded at that jump. I meant merely that we, the consumers of oil (myself included, most certainly) as an entity, a collective, must share at least some of the responsibility for the procurement of that oil. And hopefully, because of this tragedy, we can share some of the responsibility for ensuring that it is done more safely in the future. That is not political advocacy. There is nothing political about it. That is merely common sense. As to your question as to 'why am I here?'. I like to carve too, amongst other ways of getting down a mountain. And if Fin's new soft-boot plate adapters will allow me to carve better, to start playing around with lift and cant with the boots I already like, then I intend to most assuredly become a customer of Fin's when they come out in the fall/winter. I said some time ago that: gravity is non-partisan. 'Nuff said.
  18. You both fail to see that the oil-industry is not some wholly independant industry totally outside the realm of commerce. The oil industry depends upon the consumer...and in this case, the consumer is ultimately us. Sure...I blame the oil companies themselves...I also blame present and past administrations for not enforcing regulations that were in place and not instituting new ones where needed. So while immediate blame may rest upon the companies and regulatory agencies themselves...I.E. - drilling deeper and deeper wells with minimal safety options for such depth (whatever 'gas embolism' that destroyed the pipe was a surprise to them, but it shouldn't have been); not enforcing well-head remote shut-offs like they do in the North Sea, etc, etc; I don't think it is quite as simple as that. Society is an aggregate of individuals. The greed shown by the oil industry and many other industries would have no grounding if it were not for our societal approval of the supremacy of profit. As a society, we have oft suffered with an apathy in regards to energy conservation, both on an individual basis and nationwide. 300 million people who think their individual actions have no impact, instead has a HUGE impact. We can not separate ourselves from the Venn Diagram of society on a selective basis. Each one of us is a tacit part of that set...and thus we DO share responsibility.
  19. I was involved in the Exxon Valdez clean-up effort. Specifically I was involved in the sea-otter rehabilitation program through a joint effort of Univ of Alaska-Fairbanks; a bunch of unemployed marine biologists from the then recently defunct MarineLand of California; and Scripps Institute of Oceanography. We all descended upon Valdez like a swarm of various biologists from every endeavor. We had professors with 4 degrees living in their cars during the clean-up, because every hotel-room and spare-bedroom and livingroom floor was booked-up. Didn't matter....we all had one thing on our minds, and that was to try and right a wrong in any way that we could. An endeavor that at times seemed futile. We had tractor-trailers in Valdez that were filling up with the carcasses (no, I'll call them bodies) of dead birds of every species. Before I got involved in the sea-otter program, I was assigned to help with necropsies on the dead birds and otters that were brought in. As a grad student in Wildlife Biology, that's were we went. A sad job...one that I still re-visit from time to time. Luckily, I was soon re-assigned to helping with the live otters that were brought in. Much more rewarding. We had a lot of mother otters that were brought in...often with their young. The juveniles never did well at all with the oil. Their systems were just not strong enough to cope. We all became hopeful, though, when one of the otters had a live-birth...two juveniles that were unaffected by aggregate oil toxicity. There were far more unsuccessful births, though. And these were always hard to see. The first thing a mother otter does when she has a birth is she blows air into their fur to give them both bouyancy and insulation. She does this in the water, on her back with the juvenile on her stomach. For the live births it is cute to watch, but for the others, it is depressing to see a mother in the water futilely blowing air into the fur of a dead juvenile. She'll do this for many minutes, until finally she stops. The thing is, they don't put the dead baby down and move on...they carry it with them, as if they think it'll somehow wake up. And it's not until the mother finally goes to sleep that we can finally take the baby from her. You see, otters aren't too different from people in that regard. The saddest thing is the look the mothers sometimes gave us during these times. They would look right at us, almost questioningly...as if somehow, they knew. During the Valdez spill, I'd gotten to see oil affecting some of the most absolutely gorgeous coastline in the world. I've picked up globs of oil off the beach...it has a stench you wouldn't believe. And the Gulf of Mexico shoreline has the distinct possibility of being MUCH more affected than the Prince William Sound was. There were few tidal estuaries that were affected by the spill. Most was rocky shoreline or beach. Down in the Gulf of Mexico, it's tidal estuaries and intertidal zones. These areas are FAR more fragile than rocky coastline. That's a sad and very important fact. The only thing I can derive, is that crude oil BELONGS in the ground. We try and shift the blame around to various parties. But if you want to know the truth: We are ALL to blame. Everyone of us that fills his/her car with fuel...goes on 3 separate trips instead of consolidating errands into one (I am just as guilty as the next, at this). Drives 75 when we could all be driving 55. Consumes maybe who knows how many kilowatts at home each day when we could be using less energy. Who's to blame? If you look carefully, I think you may see the reflection of the one to blame in your monitor screen....I sure know I do. I can only hope that one day we will learn.
  20. The last time I was in such a compromising position on a full-suspension trail bike, I was shortly afterward enjoying wonderful gourmet 'DirtBurgers'!!........Tasty!!! I think this guy is just initiating his bail-out...hence his left arm out there. Unprotected shins? This guy likes to live dangerously. I used to dress like a motocross racer with plastic guards all around. Great pix!!
  21. I used to tumble rocks when I was a kid. Haven't thought of that in ages!!! I don't even remember what the heck got me into rock-tumbling in the first place...probably saw an ad in the back of Boy's Life magazine or something, because I think my project before that was raising Sea-Monkeys! Anyway, from my rock-tumbling experience I've garnered a few pointers you may find helpful: The tumbler I used was a horizontal rubber-barrel roller tumbler. If I remember correctly, the abrading grit was some sort of black silica. Starting off with coarse and ending with ultra-fine and then polishing powder. Your situation, however, leads to a conundrum: I am not sure what size glass bits you're talking about, but I presume fairly fine. Rock tumbling, as the name implies, basically works via gravity, and is thus dependant upon the weight and mass of the objects to be polished. I may be wrong, but I think in cases of minutia, the closer the size of the grit is to the size of the object, the less successful this abrading action is, unless over great time, (like for the making of ocean sand). Now, you can try to override that grit size/glass size ratio by going to a finer grit, but then its coarse-abrading characteristics are reduced...resulting in the conundrum I was alluding to, for to get rid of the sharp edges on the glass bits you need coarse grit. And round and round the conundrum goes...so to speak. I don't know. Most rock kits come with at least 4 different coarseness' of grit plus polishing powder, so give her a whirl. I have no experience with vibrating polishers, so I am not sure, but something tells me that a tumbler would be a better bet for the glass bits I presume you'd be dealing with (0.5 mm or so??). What size glass bits are we talkin' about, anyway? The intertwining snakes sounds interesting. That's the 'Staff of Asclepius'. Is the guy an apothecary or a doctor?? I would definitely abrade the glass, as any resin, even epoxy resin, will wear-off over time, and you don't want sharp shards exposed, even if they're minute.
  22. I have no idea what the relationship between Alex and Donek was, but it looks like they have certainly patched things up, so I'll stay out of that kaboodle. What I DO know, is that looks like one SWEEET board!!! It doesn't really look like the few kiteboards I've seen yet. Two years ago, I was contemplating buying a rig for the absolutely nutzo wind conditions of Turnagain Arm (Alaska, off of Cook Inlet, just outside of Portage and not far from Girdwood). If you can hack the literally "killing" mud-flats (many have died in that mud), I believe Turnagain Arm would have just crazy conditions for kite-boarding. Unfortunately, the guy I was going to buy the kiteboarding rig from renegged, and the price of new ones were prohibitively expensive...so I never got to try it. WAAHHH!! I've never gotten over my desire to try it, though. The guys in the kiteboarding community seem to have no problem letting people try their gear gratis, and often give impromptu lessons...gracious people. Next Time I am offered, I am DEFINITELY going to give that a go! And if I ever decide to take the "leap" (literally, it seems...UP!!...like 30 feet up, from what I've seen sometimes!!!), I would definitely give that sweet-looking board of yours a try. The thing I like about your board, is that it seems to be using topsheet technology DIRECTLY derived from snowboarding!! TIGHT board!! My wake-boarding days are temporarily over, as I just tweaked my shoulder on a board last week with a bail-out that went awry...so it'll be a couple weeks at least!! My question is: is kite-boarding maybe easier on one's shoulders, at least in the capacity to overstress them like I just did last weekend?? Just by looking at kiteboarding, it looks sorta like it. With a gorgeous-looking carbon-fiber board like that, have you ever thought of getting into the larger wakeboard market??? Give companies like CWB, Liquid Force and of course O'brien some heavy competion? Also, does your board fit a binding like the CWB "Torq" hinge-binding?? Or is it only for your own proprietary set-up? On second thought: Maybe it's just plain better to stay in the kiteboard market....as wakeboarding requires smelly gasoline fuel. I should wean myself off of it, too bad it is so damn FUN...but I only do it when I have access to warm water!! Maybe kiteboarding vs. wakeboarding is akin to snowboarding vs. snowmobiling....or BMXing vs. Motocross. Maybe there is a certain grace in using the power of nature vs. the power of gasoline. Anyway....gorgeous board!! Great website, BTW. Best of luck with your sales!
  23. Great video, Matiu!!! You and Ross are awesome riders! A pleasure to watch. I WOULD have to see such a stoke-ifying video just when summer is about to begin...ha ha. You made me SERIOUSLY contemplate using some of my Alaska Airlines miles and go back up early, just to wind-up the Hatcher Pass season!...or Hood Meadows or Blackcomb or ANYWHERE!!! I don't know if it's you or Ross, but that striped suit at 02:50 or so should be ILLEGAL!! Martin: Nice pavement slalom!! When I started skating, my friends all pretty much went to the "park" (basically a shut-down empty rec center pool where they had plywood tables and 1/4 pipes set-up), but I found my own world just enjoying slalom-style turns on a neighboring street. When I started getting into cones, some of my friends thought that was ultra-gay, but I didn't give a rip and just enjoyed it...even on the cheap, wide-urethane wheeled, Sears-Roebuck plastic GT decks (yeah, I admit it...I was a GT guy!! ha) and homemade decks I rode. I just enjoyed the flow of the turns. To this day, I've never been good at a kick-flip. Turns...be they on snow or pavement, are a physical poetry.
  24. Excellent points, Dingbat! It is always good to get some counter-points...such is the essence of discourse, and discourse is the genesis of change (unfortunately, discourse has sometimes broken down into tribal infighting and been catalytic to war). Perhaps there are no true panaceas. Every engineered 'panacea' turns out to be a pandora's box of associate problems. I think, actually, there IS one true panacea, short of the suggested population decrease, and it is to start living within our ENERGY means. By that I mean that heretofore, as a society, we have lived without thinking of the consequence of our continued thirst for more and more energy. In essence, we are overspending our energy resources, running our energy budget amuck and living our lives as if energy were a credit card that never needed repaying. Well, I think we are slowly beginning to see that indeed the bills actually are starting to come due. The Gulf is just ONE of those bills. There will be more. It seems we are addicted to that 60 hertz hum, and it DOES sing a very inticing song...but isn't it about time we started lessening our addiction, lest we get altogether consumed by it? I've got a sticker on the back of my rover...it says "Live Simply, so that others may simply live." I try to live by that. I'm not always successful, but I try. By the way, Solent Green was one WEIRD movie, even for back in the late sixties when weird movies were the norm.
  25. I am in no way intimating that this is the case with your inlaws, and the legalities vary from state to state, but I'd be slightly wary of them making TOO many "improvements" to your property and home in an unbidden way, if they are there simply under a verbal agreement with no set guidelines nor parameters. Certain states allow that if over a period of time, group B has been shown to be making "out of pocket" improvements to the property of group A, and are not told to cease in the making of said 'out of pocket improvements' in a timely manner and these said improvemnts continue over a period of time, then group B can be shown to be Principle In Part of said property. Now normally, this clause pertains to abandoned property, but NOT always. The vital part of the clause is a lack of notice to cease and desist. There HAVE been incidents in some states whereby parties have actually gained control of property this way and that control was upheld by the Appeals Court as valid. Not to worry in your case, though, as the period of time is usually like seven years or so, and they would need to keep a running tabulation of all receipts, and you would have had to have never said a word about the cessation of their "improvements" during that time. I'm sure none of the above would be the case in your present situation, and I doubt they would have such a sinister plan in mind, nor would they possibly be able to get away with that for the required seven years or whatever...and your state may have already thrown out such clause in the first place. Just something to keep in the back of your mind, though. Sometimes good deeds get rewarded in the most fiendish of ways.
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