Friday, April 27, 2012

7 X 7 Spring Windsurfing


My artsy-video-making friends use the 7 x 7 format (7 clips of 7 seconds each) as an exercise in quick editing. You'd be surprised at how well they can tell a story with 49 seconds of smartly edited footage. I'm not sure if that's what I'm doing here, but this is 7 X 7 from yesterday's windsurfing session. The soundtrack is titled, 'Como te Extrano." It means 'how I miss you', which is how we feel after the long winter off the water. Those first few sessions of the season are pure magic.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

inflatables... a great solution for the urban paddler

     Here's a look at the new Naish line of inflatables.  A lot of companies are making these blow-up boards, and with several years of advancements now behind us, the technology is getting really good.  For recreational paddlers, they are pretty close in performance to rigid boards.  And they're a lot easier to store in your Bucktown studio... check it out...


Thursday, April 5, 2012

boat or surfboard?

     As SUP progresses, we're seeing a few more companies bring naval architects into the board design process with some very interesting results.  You see, SUP has mostly evolved out of surfing, so typically the guys designing boards are surfboard designers.  When you're talking about a SUP for surf, that makes perfect sense.  However, with flat water racing, cruising and endurance & adventure paddling also exploding in popularity, boards designed specifically for those applications are needed too.  This is where naval architects, or boat designers, can provide really powerful input.  These guys have been focusing on creating fast, non-planing hulls their entire careers and a lot of what they know can be applied to SUP boards.  Check out this video showing a pretty revolutionary new shape...
   

I haven't had a chance to try one of these yet, but when I do I'll report back on how it paddles.  If anyone else beats me to it, send me a report and I'll post it.