Archive for the 'Travel' Category
Here’s a cool site that tracks ocean-going vessels. Take a look at the map and see just how many ships are out there at once. And it doesn’t even track all vessels, rather just the ones that are part of the World Meteorological Organization’s Voluntary Observing Ship program as well as yachts that report their daily progress to YOTREPS.
VOS actually provides us with a lot of important information on ocean weather conditions that we use to track storms and swells, which is nice.
If I could go back and do college all over again, I’d give some serious thought to doing it like Alexandra Cheney. Wheaton College granted her a $25K fellowship to travel to some of the world’s finest surf destinations (Polynesia, Australia, Japan, Costa Rica, Brazil and South Africa). Her mission is to study the intersection of surf culture and environmental stewardship.
"Surfers feel a unique spiritual tie with water, out of which emerges their fight to protect the oceans,” Cheney explained to the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. ”Without surfers as advocates, many coastlines would succumb to the destruction brought on by commercial shipping, underwater demolition and extractive fishing. By examining wave-riding cultures and defining their component traditions and rituals, I seek to explore how surfers feel their connection with the water and how that bond translates into worldwide oceanic preservation.”
I would be so stoked to do a project like this one. The fantasticness of the traveling and surfing aside, it’s a great topic for research - one that is often the focus of my own musings. Really looking forward to seeing what she finds.
Our buddy, Ed, has been on a boat in the Mentawai Islands for the past 10 days, undoubtedly surrounded by incredible waves. Ed demonstrates his broceanography skills par excellence with this little shot of perfection that he chased down somewhere off the beaten path.
It’s no secret that Indonesia is a popular destination for surfers. If you’re planning on traveling to Indo, you should read up on the latest news. Until Indonesia implements a reliable tsunami warning system, the rest of the world is going to have to help them along. Awareness always helps.
This site http://indonesiahelp.blogspot.com/ appears to be doing a decent job of reporting Indonesian tsunami news and includes some information on how to help. The site documents the recent tsunami pretty well and includes maps, timetables, etc. I can’t say whether it’s safe to submit contributions to any of the bank accounts listed on the site.
Here are some more links to learn more about it all.
This site contains lots of maps & models on the earthquake that caused the recent tsunami.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but according to the New Economics Foundation, a self-proclaimed "think and do tank", if you live in the U.S., then you’re one of the most unhappy people on the planet. Grab a tissue and choke back your tears for a minute while I explain.
The NEF recently published a report called the Happy Planet Index (HPI), The HPI attempts to gage the overall happiness of a country by comparing the average life expectancy of its people to the country’s environmental impact on the planet, so countries where people consume very little and live long lives have a higher HPI than countries where people live as long, but consume more. The HPI rankings have Vanuatu (HPI=68.2) as the happiest country on Earth with Colombia coming in second. The U.S. (HPI=28.8) is pretty far down the list, well below most of the countries in Central America, the Middle East and Africa, which are often thought to be the third world. You gotta love it when economists set out to model something like happiness.
It’s worth mentioning the fact that scientists have actually found that animals tend to live longer the less they eat, so the HPI makes a lot of sense. Thus far I haven’t found any mention of this scientific research in the NEF’s report.
The HPI is clearly subjective and doesn’t account for things like oppressive political regimes, war, lack of surfable waves, or anything else that might make people unhappy. So far it has received a lot of constructive criticism from the media. Despite it’s numerous flaws the HPI is an interesting idea to consider and should serve as a solid foundation for further research on the topic. I doubt people will read the HPI rankings and move to Pakistan, but hopefully it puts a bug in people’s ears and makes them think about how much their own sense of happiness depends on their daily level of consumption.
Now, wipe those snot bubbles from your nose and pack your bags because we’ve got a little research project of our own. Someone’s gotta check out the waves in all those happy countries, so we can bring the HPI down to earth.
Anyone who appreciates surfing waves and the internet ought to be a fan of Wikiriders, a European site that combines wiki technology and google maps to create a collaborative, interactive map of surfing information. Similar to Wannasurf, anyone can post a surf spot, surf shop, shaper, etc to the Wikiriders map, which is then edited by a group of moderators that Wikiriders designates. And they say
" We will make sure to have no secret spot revealed."
Huh?
A sandwich with nothing tasty between the bread is not a tasty sandwich. It will be interesting to see how tasty of a wave map Wikiriders can make.
Still, throw ‘em a shaka for bringing the bread.
Surfing is a lot of fun. Catching a wave can put a smile on the face of even the grouchiest of sourpusses. Nine times out of ten, the stoke is what attracts people to surfing. All it takes is one little stoke to convert a regular person into a surfer. That, coupled with the fact that surfing looks really cool, is probably why the number of surfers has increased, and continues to increase, over time.
Let’s face it, the world certainly isn’t getting any bigger these days. On the contrary, globalization kind of makes it seem like the world is getting smaller. It stands to reason that with an increasing population of surfers and a shrinking world, we can expect the waves on this planet to get pretty crowded. And when the waves at home get crowded, surfers will have to start exploring places that are a little more out-of-the-way.
No need to panic because we’ve got the right people on the case. Astronomers believe they’ll soon be able to view images of oceans on planets in other solar systems. Having a wavecam this powerful will definitely be nice because you’ll want to know if there’s actually an ocean on a planet when you’re deciding whether or not to travel there in search of waves. Gotta know before you go, … right?
I know, an intergalactic surfing safari sounds pretty far out, but it might actually be possible several hundred years from now. And when it’s time to paddle out, try not to upset the locals.
The folks at Caracol Films have produced an insiders guide to surfing Morocco. The waves in the trailer look pretty nice as does the local culture.
We’ll try to give you a more in depth review of the film once we scare up a copy.
In the meantime you can learn more about surfing in Morocco at http://www.surfmaroc.co.uk and you can see some clips of Moroccan waves in the video section of http://www.nosurfinbrighton.co.uk.