kipstar

I have a board and some bindings you are welcome to use if you are flying via Bangkok. Then again, if you are doing that you might as well bring your own, but anyhow, it's there if you need it.

ROTFLOL Anyhow, I think you should just ride together and then try to also walk around stepping at the same time, and both do a really good revenge of the nerds laugh together and generally act a bit goofy. Snowboarding is supposed to be fun, not some sort of fashion runway show. With different pants hats, gloves etc, I am willing to guess unless you have similar bodies, then people won't even think the jackets are exactly the same. So that's why you need the schtick. If you really want to look different, then perhaps a gimmick would help. Like one of you could have a pet parrot on your shoulder, then you would be like 'that's the guy with the blue jacket without the parrot, you want to talk to the guy WITH the parrot'. Of course if you really wanted to look different to even bird watchers, then one of you could have Kea and the other a Kaka, in which case you'd really look very different, as those are two completely different species! (cue revenge of the nerd laugh) It would also help to prolong the health of the parrot, given that non tropical parrots would be more likely to live a long period in the alpine conditions of a ski slope.

In light of the benefits of some direct marketing to find the love of my life, I will not mention to my GF but here's my ad...... Wanted Overweight unfit underpaid labourer consultant currently unemployed with beer belly & acne ridden face living in Bangkok with his mum in a studio apartment seeks extremely hot trampy looking hardbooter snowboard chick aged 25-28 with rocking body and astute understanding of composites and fibreglass lamination. Must be centrefold material, extremely rich and willing to spoil me constantly as well as liking lamb chops. Should be willing to provide nude after snowboarding massages and enjoy the hot tub with body to body action plus also serving cold beers and an assortment of cold cuts as well as indepth conversation of what the Economist tells us we should think about world politics each week. Must be shaved and also deal with ingrown toenails (mine, not hers). Ability to run push pull and cross through turns drills a bonus, but not mandatory. Friendly with animals including cat, dog with rabies and extremely poisonous cobra snakes probably necessary for longterm health. All nationalities considered except Australians or anyone else called Keitha. No Fatties.

Dude, I feel your pain. Sanding keelboats fully sucks; it is so much easier to have a trailerable, and just flip it upside down, so the work of pressure is done by gravity. This was the new boat pulled out of the mould, as you can see doing stuff to it is pretty easy. Mind you, the joy will be out on the water aye!

As has been stated already, NZ is well into the spring season, with only really the north island probably open much longer (sometimes opens until Jan, but really not anything that special most years after about late Oct). To fit into NZ, you won't get by just from flight of the conchords, although that helps to master the monotone don't really open your mouth and use u as the only vowel sound Kiwi accent for all a o i u sounds. Typically in North Island, and this info is VERY out of date now as I haven't lived in NZ a long time, the number of alpine riders is VERY low; there might be a boardercross training program, but probably not, and back when I used to run gates and train in the 90s I believe I was probably the only one getting any form of formal lessons on the Whakapapa side (rockapapa); on the Turoa side (Spewroa) there was a race program mid 90s which is long gone. Pretty much there isn't a race program riding daily like you would see in the USA except for a couple of ski squads and there is a ton of training in the weekends for school age kids; once it gets to college/university age, the numbers of racers getting training like what I saw in Mammoth or Tahoe just isn't there in the north island, as most of the skiers and boarders are from Auckland (Dorkland) and are therefore Aucklanders (JAFAs - just another f&*king aucklander). There's also a distinct lack of racing in NZ in general, but particularly for alpine snowboarding; only a few major events a year and that's about it; no weekly team racing again like you would see stateside. In the south island you might like to try Mt Hutt (shutt); Cardrona; Treble Cone or possibly Remarkables/Coronet Peak for alpine training; in the past the Japanese and koreans used to train a bit down there so there might be something a bit more organised down that way. The best hope is probably a northern hemisphere team training, and you hook into that, as the level of snowboarding racing I think there is likely a bit of a gap now from that to the level of the average Kiwi alpine rider assuming there are many still there; AFAIK not many (if any). (ref. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BBTy2nMRoE) It will depend a lot where you are living. You might need to get ready for some rocks and ice more than what you've seen in the past; particularly riding in the north island, there are some days that it gets very very firm. There are also some absolutely awesome wind packed powder days as well. One more thing, buy a season pass early, makes a big difference at a lot of places. Sadly, I think my slang may be well out of date, otherwise I would be willing to teach you the subtleties of 'I'll smash you' 'I'll fight you for your shirt' 'youse guys' 'youse' 'Shame-o' and other quintessential working class kiwi english. Go back to the States, you'll be scarred for life :-)

IMHO for kiting too little too late; they aren't a dominant force in windsurfing anymore, and so its hard to see them taking on the big guns in kiting right when kiting is about to go into a major price war/spiral downwards as the equipment becomes a lot cheaper. There are so many board and kite companies in China willing to do OEM now for every 2 bit home brand company; same as SUP. It's a bit like the glory days of snowboarding in 1992 - 95 before there was big industry consolidation. Are they also going into SUP? That will be bigger than kiting and windsurfing combined I think.

If this is Nitro as in Nitro Betty, then the first year they came out was the season 1990-91 Northern Hemisphere, and they launched the first year with a range of alpine boards called the EFT (earth freedom tranquility) which were asyms, and a symetrical one as well which might well be the Ameroslalom, I can't remember the name. They were not insert boards, this came the next season. I rode the EFT and still have one at home in NZ somewhere; very nice board. Full of holes now from mounting it so many times! They even had a video that year; somehow there was some connection to Gnu as well I think, possibly through their distributor in USA. Back then many of the alpine and freestyle brands were growing incredibly quickly; the big consolidation occurred after I stopped riding for a while (1998 - 2002) when I started riding again a ton of the board manufacturers seemed to have changed a lot. Nitro also did an asym freestyle board twin tip (the pyro) and a swallow tail; the next really good board they brought out IMHO was the scorpion, which i loved riding.

my bad! Just for knowledge, with the ABS plastic also have problems with the styrene in polyester/vinylester resins? must be a swine to laminate with the plastic if you can't easily clean surfaces; we go through litres of acetone in boat layups/repairs. mo' respect for the board builders aye!

ok, bear in mind that I am coming from a boat buildnig backbground, not a snowboard one, so what i advise should apply, but in boats, the margin for error is a bit different. I would suggest you should first attempt to pry the gap open, and if you can, attempt to clean the surface on the inside with acetone. It will air dry, so you can do this a few hours before. I would personally attempt to get a nail file or similar in there and rough up the surfaces so you get a good bond. I would recommend that you use a flexing epoxy product from westsystem called G-flex, which will give you the best possible flexing repair. Just straight epoxy is not giong to be ideal, but it will probably do the job, it sounds like it is not particularly structural. http://209.20.76.247/ss/g-flex-epoxy/ this is the link off the west system site. I am sure Westmarine or someone can sell to you. If you do use epoxy, then I can suggest you would be well advised to use brown packing tape, and tape up the board, so then any running drops won't adher to your pride and joy. You could consider to use a syringe to squirt the resin in; use gravity so it flows in there. If you clamp, then use moderate pressure, as you need a certain amount of resin to just hold things in place. Resin loves warmth, so yes, do it in a hotter room, but bear in mind the curing time as hotter resin will also cure faster. Make sure the mix is exactly as specified, epoxy needs to be mixed precisely so don't go flicking in extra hardener. After your job is finished, you should wait a day, then flick the board into a drying room or something; ideally you want to hit 60 degrees celcius at 8 hours on west system so the epoxy will postcure, which is a secondary cure which makes it strengthen about another 20%. If you do have to apply resin again, to the same repair, you cannot apply epoxy on top of epoxy without sanding or washing off the amine blush; you can do this by sanding or washing with water and wiping with paper towels. It's pretty simple, I would check out the way we build stuff out of epoxy in boats, and use the same techniques for your board repair. BTW epoxy is pretty toxic, so I suggest: - wear throwaway surgical gloves - mix VERY small amounts as in 20g at a time - you can use the small throw away paper cups or plastic cups for this, with a mixing stick - the syringe and everything else can be thrown after you finish - there is heat created when the epoxy goes 'off' which should be on time as designed with that brand of epoxy; so make sure you are aware of this - if you use a brush, try to use a good one so the bristles dont fall out into your job and ruin it - if you insist on attempting to apply liquid resin onto surfaces that defy gravity, consider using a thickening agent of some sort eg. silica, glue powder, filler, as otherwise it will just run off and make a mess

I have tried it a couple of times, it's too boring to hold my interest :-) I love not racing my boat too, just blasting around. The Antrim 25 is a nice boat; the articulating prod though works better on a boat like that which is a bit heavier; the lighter the boat, the more we sail on apparent wind, so the less need for it to articulate. Also, we just add an extra 1m of length on it, and that's at least as much benefit, maybe more. :-) Those Ultimate 20s and 25s are very nice though; neither class exists in the southern hemisphere but a very nice boat indeed. The Shaw is (excluding crew but with all the sails, engine, gear etc) 340kg/750lb. That's including the keel bulb which makes up 100kg/220lb of that total displacement. Our power comes from a medium size rig (main 19sqm/200sq ft, jib 8sqm/85 sq ft) with a reasonably decent sized kite (53sqm/550sq ft) set on a very long prod. To give you an idea the U20 (which is actually the same length) weighs 1260lbs/572kg. The A25 weighs in at 2000lb+/900kg. Even including 4 crew, the Shaw is running at 660kg total approx, with slightly more sail area downwind and the only dead weight really being the bulb (which is dead until you tip over!). BY comparison, an 18, which is the most high powered unballasted boat of roughly similar size weighs in at around 160kg I think, including the racks. The Shaw if you went full carbon nomex etc maybe you could get it down another 50kg, but that's about it. A sportsboat needs to carry the keel bulb as well, so you are getting quite light already even at 340kg. 505s and 470s are a great little machine. 505 will plane upwind AFAIK (both classes are basically already dead in NZ, but back when I was sailing a moth class in NZ called a starling, these were popular) and man they fly downwind. Its a pity these boats died a bit. Have you seen in the laser class they now have the rooster rig upgrade, which is the oppoosite to the laser radial, instead it is an oversize main about another 1.5sqm; for the 'big boys' taking the laser into Finn painbox territory. It's a testiment to the boat that it sails well with a tiny rig, a moderate rig, the class rig, and not a larger rig too. In light conditions, knowing how to engage the 4th mode as Bethwaite describes it (bow down, stern out, slightly heeled to leeward) seems critical on planing shape boats, otherwise you are dragging a ton of water. My brief experience in lasers is that the level they are well sailed out, the use of kinetics (using every wave, every little ripple, roll tacking, etc etc) and the way in which they are sailed is very very high now. One of my crew represented Thailand in the Sydney olympics in a laser (mid fleet) and its a joy having him sail with us because he uses the same approach in kinetics on my boat; something people from a dinghy background 'get' but keelboat and lead mine sailors (or grader sailors as we describe displacement boats in NZ) don't really get.

The big multi classes in the 80s were HObie 16s, the top guys raced tornados (which I think were not running kites in that period) and there were various other beach cats, but none that popular. Most of the development, because NZers and Aussies love to fiddle with stuff, came out of the skiffs/high performance dinghies - there are the javelin and Cherub for 14-18 years old (single wire), the 12s 14s and Rs which are for adults are a 2 main twin wire boat (the 14 being the least advanced/heaviest in most respects other than the foiling rudders), the 16s and 18s for 3 man. All these plane upwind, and would be an alternative to the olympic classes; the 49er and 29er has been a parasite in some respects on this scene. In particular, the R class which is a NZ only class the same as a 12 but with a sail area restriction is right now probably one of the quickest dinghies around; it is a 2 man kite running foiling twin trap boat which unlike the moth has no rules stopping them from sailing without foils in strong or weak winds. NZ has had a one man single wire dinghy called a 3.7 designed by Bruce Farr for something like 30 years as well. All the 2 man boats and the 18s are box rules, so there wasn't really any restrictions to stop them from going to asym kites. They did this in a major way in the 80s, which was probably the same time/prior to NZ seeing a bunch of asym kite carrying cats. Also, all the skiffies in Auckland sailed out of one club with the cats usually sailed in other places (and keelers somewhere else) this is the foiling R which is lapping the low riders, just like what happened in moths you can see him just sail right past, this is foiling but marginal planing conditions I guess Love sailing, just love it. For me personally, I am steering, and the idea of someone frigging around the bow is not my idea of fast or fun on a sub 25 foot boat. Fully respect a good bowman, but the modern larger boats are ditching poles and sailing on apparent; the only reason IMHO to keep a sym kite is: - historical heavier boats designed for them - cruising boats used for racing which are too heavy to sail with an asym - rating rules which encourage them (e.g. IRC in sub 40 footers) The tactics of sailing one vs. the other downwind is fascinating though - the only type of boats I sailed in the sym kite era were all leadmines, so we would just plow our way downwind digging a bigger and bigger hole in the water. Being able to lift off and go, then hunt puffs all over the course.....it's frigging awesome. What a pity I am so bad at it!

basically this sort of sportboat: - you sail with keelboats and other sportboats (rather than dinghies) so here in Thailand (or in Auckland) that means racing at all/racing 5 days a week year round if you want respectively - it is a 3 or 4 person boat, not a 2 man, so individual crew less critical - it is very easy to sail relative to a dinghy; as in even 3 people who don't know much will make it around the race course ok; as in I'd say it is easier than a laser to sail it (to sail either boat well is hard) - it can be taken cruising for a day; it is easy to sail with the pedal off the floor - it doesn't capsize, and if broaching, it will self right - you can not sail for a few months, and the fitness levels and coordination required aren't anything like a 49er so you can go straight out and have fun - its less physical than a laser also - which means it is a lot less physical than a skiff - cost to campaign one is less than an 18, maybe over 5 years similar to a 49er or a brand new 12 - it is much less fragile than a skiff In short.....its slower and easier/more forgiving to sail than a skiff, and has a ton more space on it plus if you screw up, you don't get wet. Basically, a J105 or J24 or J80, without a cabin (that on these Js are all a bit small to use anyhow) and more speed. This size is close to the minimum you can sail easily in the open sea but all the sheet loads are small. There is a boat called an Open 570 which is just under 20 feet, but it is way slower, a lot of the reason I suspect is upwind it can't get through chop as it is simply too short. Slightly longer and then you need winches and so on so the fun is gone. The asym kites if you listen to J boat were born on the J105 I think in the late 80s in USA. my guess is they introduced it because it was easier to sail with, and simpler, despite possibly being a little slower. In NZ and Aussie, they were born in large numbers maybe in the early/mid 80s when the skiffs got so quick they were constantly outrunning the wind and luff on their sym kites; in addition they used such long poles, that it was a battle to get the thing set and gybed; by running a fixed pole, they solved all these issues, and it enabled them to go from crews of 4, to 3, and then in some cases, 2 on the 18s; on the 12s and the R classes and 16s and cherubs etc the same things happened at roughly the same time as the 18s. In the keelers, NZ's early sportsboats Gorilla Biscuits and some of the Youngs were launched with Sym kites, but quite quickly discovered the same issues off the wind of struggling for height due to the higher speeds they were suddenly doing (20 knots) - so they also went to prods and asyms in about 1988/89? around then. All the southern hemisphere boats that were light enough were quicker with the asyms, not slower, except possibly in a limited sub planing range; however with the big shoulder running kites used now, this has mostly disappeared. Like on a formula windsurfer, area downwind is king, and can be used to get around the issue of not squaring back the pole. A lot of other sportboats have poles you can square back, but that's not our approach; instead of a stubby short pole which can articulate to the sides and sail sub planing mode longer; we go for max extension and sail area with less weight, to plane up earlier. Ditto on mainsheet adjustment; no traveller, just a bridle so we sheet in (not down) and a powerful vang. Ditto on the gooseneck (a stainless pin sticks out the mast on a universal joint, and slots into a hole in the boom). Ditto on the prod (no support, it is carbon and supports itself). Everything simple and skiff style where possible to stay light. As for multis, I am fairly sure they went asym around the same time, and yes, I suspect it was basically the kites got more and more useless as the apparent wind swung forward and increased as the boat speeds shot up; they adjusted the kite shapes from there. Interestingly, we have a seacart 30 here (a very very quick full carbon flies 2 hull tri) and the kite they use looks more like a code zero; it has almost no depth to it at all. Downwind, they are always sheeted in basically, even in very light winds. The cat and the tri in the Amcup recently were both similarly flat kites it seemed, I was even surprised they could carry them at all. Musto skiff or foiler is the kind of thing that will plane upwind. I am pretty sure an RS 100 won't; bearing away a bit to plane, that's not quite the same. The moths are wild....I used to race formula windsurfers (which are very similar in performance to a foiler) which plane up in about 8-9 knots (using a 11sqm); its great fun going so fast in such a small amount of breeze.

yep, I hope so. Great sailing around there. The J130 is a much larger boat and I am not sure if it planes up or just surfs so the loads on the prod must be far greater. Our kite is 52sqm; my 90lb girlfriend can trim it in 20 knots for about an hour no problem. Basically the loads drop a lot when planing as we sail to the kite, not to where we specifically want to go; we raise or drop the kite (or use the reaching kite) to assist us to go in the right direction, but these boats with asym kites, pressure is king, so you do what you can to stay in pressure. The early generation sportsboats used big sails and big keels to keep the boat on its feet. Basically, the southern hemisphere boats like the Viper, Shaw, the Carwadine Stealth designs and a few others tend to use less sail area, smaller keels and a more active crew to keep the boat on its feet. Also, this means the displacement is less, so the hull shapes end up with much less rocker in them - they plane up earlier which is good. But they need to be flat on the planing surface to do so. If you can handle a sym kite on a slower displacement boat, then these sport boats are far easier to sail; it is like you learned to carve in softboats then get onto a hardboot alpine setup. Our target boat speeds approx 6.5 knots upwind and in 10 knots or more we aim to do the windspeed, or at worst, windspeed - 1 knot. Basically around 12-14 knots windspeed is where we start getting serious depth in the gusts; the boat we will often be steering through 20-30 degrees downwind as we run into each gust/wave - the aim is stay planing; take chunks of depth when possible, keep the boat flat. Anything more than 15 I would say we run riot downwind; we have tons of depth and are sitting on 14 knots absolutely effortlessly. Pic attached is in about 18-20 knots; windward leewards; we are sailing at around 160 degrees at a guess, one guy on the leeward side because it is impossible not to plane; boatspeed is around 14-15 knots and we take all the depth we can; typically we are sailing almost the same angles as a sym kite, but doing close to 2X the speed on the similar sized boats, and 1.5X the speed on larger ones. Ah yes, great fun to talk sailing. Do you have a thing called an RS100 yet over there? It is a one man dinghy similar to a laser, with wings and it runs a small kite. Looks like great fun.

well no lead carrying keelboat will plane upwind; this is the quickest/2nd quickest sportboat in NZ (pic attached of the most extreme NZ sportsboat - somewhere around TP52 performance overall, smokes everything including TPs downwind) and it won't plane upwind (huge sail area, 4.5m wide, tiny bulb) - you can read Bethwaite's book on the reasons why; it is to do with centre of lateral area vs. the sail area and righting moment (horsepower) relative to displacement. Basically, the lead on the custard truck is dead weight - on all sportboats the bulb is dead weight because we sail them flat; we need it for when everything goes badly and we tip over in a broach! I am not so familiar with the J24 as it didn't exist in NZ growing up (at that time NZ boat industry was a bit in advance of the J24 and also there were very few imports back then) but there is a OD fleet now and recently a OD fleet of this little painbox called a Platu, which is basically along the lines of a J24 but from 1991 as opposed to the 80s. Massive OD class though; sadly also dead here in Thailand, there are a few of them all rotting. Once the OD is gone, they struggle a bit as they are so small to race with the majority of boats here which tend to be 32 feet or longer. To learn how to race keelers OD though, the J24 its a great boat with huge depth in fleets. But by comparison, this type of boat, is fast out of the box. We plane in 10 knots true downwind; we sail faster and higher than the substantially longer/larger J24, we are a bit more under control in a blow and we can have the mast down and the boat on a trailer ready to drive home very very quick; our rig is under 20kg including all the rigging. For beginners, the asym is dead simple. It's basically what a J24 (IMHO) would look like if you designed it today and made it lifting keel. So you cannot really compare it to 30+ year old designs some of which were truly hard to sail and rather difficult to keep under control (e.g. some of the old quarter tonners in NZ, a very popular class 30 years ago). Kingcrimson - the bow sprit is dead simple. Unlike skiffs (which have a permanent prodder fixed in place) we have a retracting one. Upwind the prod is inside the boat, and comes back to the trailing edge of the keel about. We then send it out downwind, and that is a single line which runs from the back end of the prod to a turning block mounted inside the bow are about 2 feet aft of the bow then back into the cockpit to a cleat. So this extends the prod out. The kite is tied to the tack line which is a 2nd line running to a turning block in the tip of the prod then down the centre of the prod to a cleat. So you can control the tack and prod independently. To hoist, we can get the kite up and set in around 10-15 seconds - we sneak the tack line to a mark that the kite would be to the prod tip if the prod was extended - premarked - that's just past the mast....we then hoist to the mast tip and then we extend the prod which because the tack line is going out and back tacks the tack out with it at double speed (2 purchases). The prod itself is housed in a carbon case which is marginally larger than the prod, so this means the inside of the boat doesn't fill with water. Speedwise, we are pretty tiny, but the one in Newport rates about even with a Melges 24 if you know what that is; a boat 1m longer and a lot more expensive/heavier - in NZ the top Shaw (manic) was a lot quicker than the Alinghi guys in their M24, so they never sailed it again; I am sure overall the M24 and Shaw are similar. That's despite the hiking system used on the M24s which is a bit questionable and a whole lot less comfortable....that weight on these boats....it costs money. You get rid of the weight, you can make the sails smaller, which saves weight, which means you can get rid of lead, which means you can make the structure smaller, which means you can sail with less people etc etc. It's the same as the 18s; they used to be 28 feet wide with massive sails in the grand prix era; all those boats are slow by today's standards compared to the current 18s. That said they look pretty awesome downwind in a blow: www.shaw650.com that's the site where we make them. We basically took an existing design, improvde it slightly and mass produce it. We have a few going to USA in 2011 around Feb actually.

I own and race a Shaw 650 sportsboat, as attached. 6.5m long, sail 3 or 4 people, has a keel, all up weighs 350kg approx (excluding people) and we sail similar speed to a keelboat racer./cruiser leadmine 30-45 feet depending on wind and direction. No cabin. We race with keelboats and multis, we don't sail with dinghies (usually). This is a day we went out and cruised around; nice warm weather around here. THis is my brother's (we build them in NZ also) new boat called Moneyshot

is this the thing that was on entourage when Drama went to do Viking Quest, or something like that/ I'd go to a hentai one ;-) I saw the craziest type event like that in Japan. Full of weirdos. Much like probably people look at us on the mountain, then complain about the trenches ruining the run. 'That anime ruined my marriage'

looks sweet. is it not possible to produce a more budget version using the 4 hole pattern? As long as the system is only fixed at one point, why can't it use a bumper type system similar to the bindings and the thing slides at the back? Also don't get why it needs to have length out the ends beyond the bindings and mounting points....you can engineer that flex in with the overhangs.

while all that carbon is indeed here, previously it was locked up in solid or liquid form, we are belching it all out into the air. There's almost no need for the excesses of the USA car industry other than the car manufacturers struggle to make smaller or even just simply fuel efficient cars profitably, so they lobbied first Clinton, then Bush and presumably now Obama that they need very lax regulation on efficiency, or else they will go bankrupt and everyone will drive Japanese/other brand cars which actually ARE efficient. Your fuel is relatively very cheap; if it was taxed more like Europe then consumers would understand the price signal, and start tending to drive less/use mass transit/buy different vehicles; as is bleating in some documentaries that people watch feel guilty for like 5 min then do nothing (because there's no reason to do anything) is only going to change some people's behaviour. But the party that introduces that change.....oh ho....good luck. Similar to the fastfood industry, soft drink industry, big pharma, tobacco, energy, finance etc etc - looking in from outside, I can't help but feel that in the states because of the political system it seems to allow your politicians to be 'pitched' by lobby group to think that the entire sky will collapse with the slightest regulations many of which work elsewhere in the world. YOu only really have a single political party which on both sides (GOP and Dems) is a wide collection of views with only really significant differences in the emotional religious gun control abortion type stuff; there is not really a particularly pro business side and a pro big government side; to be honest it is hard (from the outside) to comment much on the differences between Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 because rhetoric aside, the political policies aren't much different; there is a huge amount of angst on the detail, but not much massive policy difference. Obama is the first that appears to be a different flavour, although whether he is manning up or flip flopping his way through a bunch of crises he mostly inherited from Clinton/Bush is difficult to say. Regarding environment, the best thing is people world wide are talking about it. But talk isn't quite the same as action. And for the USA this is despite a fairly conscious and rational well educated populace who are aware of the issues far more than the developing world (where low emissions are a result of lifestyle that hasn't yet adapted/advanced enough to require/afford prepackaged mustard-mayonaise, central air heating the home while we are at work, boiling hot water at 75 degrees for a shower which gets mixed with cold water, a 6 litre pick up to go to work and a 20,000sq ft house for a family of 4 + dog). If people have to pay the real cost, then they get smart in a hurry. Governments who choose to protect voters from real costs today by either lack of regulation or lack of enforcement.....make everyone suffer tomorrow. (e.g. the finance sector, S&L crisis, BP's ability to go ahead and ignore safety checks, mad cow, salmonella, crap food in schools etc etc). If i sell coke for 0.01c per litre, and I tax the hell out of water (from the tap and in a bottle) which one will consumers drink? The average carbon footprint of a Chinese citizen despite manufacturing most of the stuff the rest of the world uses is probably still much lower than the average Aussie or American. And the government over there is at least in some areas trying now to fix the problems they have caused; as they develop more the degree and scale of change is going to be massive there and in India as a result of huge populations. Look at the cars they drive; for the most part what we call in Thai 'tin can cars' (translated) because they are so tiny. Often less than 1 litre displacement. People will start changing behaviour when they have to pay for it and are given the real costs of oil vs. gas vs. etc etc.

I studied classical to grade 7 on piano, grade 8 on trombone. I'd say both these gave me the technical appreciation of rhythm, notes, melody etc; so I can say I like what I like but i know why as well. Just like a more competent sports person can dissect why they like one snowboard over another. I am not sure it has given me more taste necessarily; I was influenced by my dad (jazz lover, despised Mozart and various others) so my favourite music even in jazz is partly because when I was young, we listened to Thelonius Monk and Brubeck and Errol Garner and especially Oscar Peterson..... but we didn't listen to say some of the bebop saxophonists. That remains true now. I always enjoyed also being able to play things I liked, then play them again. I guess I was the age when house/Drum and bass became mainstream (1990 - 1996) and so not long after went into DJing; again the music background probably helped but also tended to send me away from the banging tunes a little. I am sure it makes it a little harder to appreciate mainstream crap, simply because it is so obvious. Couple that with my back ground working in TV and hosting MCM/MTV here and I can see right through the manufactured pop stuff. It definitely helps now to appreciate a live performance; I think unless you've played its harder to appreciate just how good some of the greats are; also it tends to remove some respect for cover bands; coming from playing jazz the idea of playing someone else's notes however perfectly isn't so appealing when the songs are so simple; classical the music is so tough it's a bit different. Still think woodwind orchestral instruments are stupid though. Some thing don't change; _) The reason why I stopped playing was mostly because of snowboarding and surfing; don't regret it at all; maybe I will play the piano again in future.

People play rugby well into their 50s and 60s in the presidents leagues etc. The reason why rugby is a young man's game more than am football is simply American football for positions like quarter back relies on skill and not being able to run almost non stop for 80 minutes. Also, for at least the NZ team the progression is make the national team, play for pride, then sell out and play pro rugby for big money and less effort in Europe. As for worldcup. Stoked NZ is the only team to not lose a match. Paul predicts every match correctly! Well done Spain ;-) Best game? Germany Argentina. Maybe. The hits in Am football are harder and more head on; league is somewhere in the middle, and rugby the hits are done with the purpose of controlling after the hit to ideally take the other guy down then stay standing, and thus be able to immediately acquire the ball. But Brett wouldn't be fit enough to hold a place at aged 42 unless super talented, at a national level (the highest level in rugby). Nothing to do with injuries probably. You see plenty of blood in some games, but not many concussions actually. Certainly nothing like rugby league (which is like a halfway sport between the stop start of Am football and flow of rugby.... but seriously tough as it is also no helmets) BTW it's no uncommon for flankers to use the soft padded helmets, but it would be dangerous if some of the team had hard surface helmets and some didn't. In fact, that's my guess why am football has so many knee etc injuries (well other than the size of guys). As for 'we play football' I don't think I met one American in living there a year that actually 'played football' - they all watched football, but it doesn't seem like a game that you can just go and play except as a touch or watered down version. Carvedog as for the rest of your claims: 1) we have Chuck Norris Martial arts guy that a Muay Thai boxer would clean out effortlessly (really good guy though) 3) our guys are way bigger than those little fellas you got. If fat and immobile counts in sport, then yeah, probably. 4) more money in the other sports 5) WHERE ARE THE CHEERLEADERS? Rugby is staunch; there are cheerleaders, but this isn't what people want to watch on TV; they want to watch the game. Live its a bit different, but the big hype that seems to surround American sport doesn't really exist in some other codes; the somewhat odd and slightly feminine trait of running and huggnig after goals in soccer is simply odd; in rugby you don't do that. We see it in boxing and Muay Thai; the big eye up and hype of looking into eachother's eyes; in a full on battle in the ring for muay Thai none of that stuff happens; it's the traditional entry and then a full on f&*king war for 5 rounds. No Don King. No ring girls. And that's partly why there's so much money in sports with the hype and the personalities; USA is the most developed sports media market. And they make what you guys like. Not that I am complaining; some of the cheerleaders need to lay off the cheeseburgers though ;-) Which leaves me totally mistified on baseball; that's like Murder she wrote compared to Amfootball or Basketball. No cheerleaders. Frigging slow. Boring. Very little long term strategy as it is stop start. I played softball and baseball at school......cricket is maybe a better game even if it is still completely mind numbingly dull to watch.

I'm sure it will come back quick ;-) better than a violin; then you get the RSPCA complaining that you are killing cats.

yeah, I have some of his stuff recorded; might have to dig it out. If you like tight, then check our supersax; 5 saxes and a trumpet, incredibly tough arranging but man they fly through it. Trumpet style might be more to your taste. I like Herb Albert a lot too; big full sound rather than just high notes. I too have a plan to rediscover the piano; it's been 25 years since I played at a high level, and 20 years since I stopped on the trombone....ah well like riding a bike (maybe). And it would be wrong to not post a night in tunisia version here

I is sure there is an artificial ski slope in Steynes which is where Ali G him is from innit. You blokes are riding on real snow, artificial snow that is created above freezing, or is it that green bristley stuff? Fin - I don't think the Scots could care less about July 4th; and I am not really thinking the average Englishman considers July 4th to be much; their version of history is nothing like The Patriot nor Braveheart; that's just some Aussie's attempt to cash in on the world's particularly poor abilty to learn history. If you want to see some Pommy hatred, you need to go to Anzac day, where despite the realities of history, basically everything that went wrong in a war that all the soldiers who survived already died from old age are blamed on the English in a 1 day ceremony where ironically the enemy of the battle (the Turkish) is embraced at the actual site of Gallipoli. Kiwis and Aussie make it a national pasttime to complain about the english....ironically it isn't the Maori, Pacific Islanders, Jewish, Chinese etc doing the complaining....it's all the white faces who are formerly European or English with a healthy group of Scots and Irish descent in there too. I blame the rugby world cup results.

that's some serious lung pressure! Aplinbogen, have a great time! It's amazing how much info is online now in youtube; as a former pianist, I can now go and check out for instance how tyler mccoy creates his sound, with it fully deconstructed (note not a trumpeter) explained style wise for instance as then the tune giant steps, explained as one way to improvise as I mean, it is simply fantastic, although different I guess to trumpet which is technique specific note by note; whereas a piano the noise coming out is simple, it's which notes to pick and in what order and how many at a time etc etc. ..... Do some searching, they've even deconstructed famous solos etc etc. It's pretty awesome. King is a great brand for trombones, I presume equally famed for trumpets? As for MF, yes a great showman, it was a bit sad seeing him in 2001? I think it was as he no longer had the ability to stick the super Cs and Gs effortlessly anymore; so he had his line up for 4 trumpets in his band all of whom were sticking some damn high notes non stop. I admired him as he spent a ton of time developing and playing with others and bringing them up with him. At that age he certainly didn't seem to mind sharing the limelight. Some of his arrangements though, just so tight. Bebop buffet was my favourite; chameloen not bad either - that's some high notes from 5 guys side by side. And it wouldn't be right to share some other good big band stuff....loving this straight no chaser version from buddy rich; nice trumpet solo as well. That's damn tight for a big band./ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rm-A6bGhiE

I played trombone for years; jazz etc. Good fun. Practise is key but mouth pieces are personal, maybe you need to go Maynard Ferguson/Allan Vizzutti style (they use/used quite specific shape ones) to hit super C super G etc :-) There's some good stuff on youtube these days, which weren't available before. In school, had dreams of studying music in Texas for a while; with youtube now i know how f&*king sharp these guys are and wouldn'ta thought it. ah bit of a classic for you.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPY3ch8ddG4&feature=related and now some trumpeters for inspiration essay - complete with great dress sense....seen him live twice, in NZ and in Thailand RIP...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1QO3nNs25E if you are playing like this guy, I guess it's in the right direction.... ;-)