Wave Skiing – Redux

They did it! Faithful readers of this blog will remember my post a while back about the potential for serious fun to be had, on skis in the surf. Well Mike Douglas (Pro Skier) and Dave Kalama (Pro big wave surfer) figured out how to make it work and they headed off to Maui and made it happen. Check out this cool little video of them figuring it out, giving it a go in small surf and getting barreled on hug waves – on skis! Awesome!

Strangest photo ever seen at Nana’s house

Recently I was staying with a friend up in Auckland and we ended up crashing at her grandmother’s house (long story). Lovely lady – but a rather interesting decorating sense. Prominently displayed in the lounge room was this vintage photo of an atomic bomb blast. I enquired why she might have this photo up on the wall and she replied, “well, I just like it.” Fair enough. Drinking milky tea with a nuclear blast beside you, nice way to spend a Sunday...

Looking forward back

Ten years is a long time. A decade gone in an instant. In 1999 I was living in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I had just graduated from art school (The Western Academy of Photography) and I was about to enter a new stage of life. I was finished with school and I was ready to venture into the greater world. At the time I was working with young people through the YMCA, helping to develop young leaders. As an exercise we wrote letters to ourselves to be opened 10 years later.

Today I was going through a bunch of stuff at my folks place and in a long forgotten manila folder I found the letter. I’d forgotten that I’d actually written in, let alone what I might of said. Ripping open the envelope I was filled with a mix of trepidation and curiosity. Fear that I might not have lived up to my expectations and interest to see where my 22 year old headspace was at.

The letter consists of a series of pre-ordained questions – and the answers were sometimes laughable, sometimes prophetic and sometimes dead on – here it is, in all it’s ragged and honest glory:

Name: Scott Kennedy (still true!)
Nickname: Stumpy (in some circles, that’s still me)
My Closest friends are: Renee, Gavin, Jon (Renee was my girlfriend at the time and we still keep in touch, Gavin and Jon are still great friends – even though we are thousands of miles from each other much of the time)
Some cool expressions these days are: “The Shit” “The Bomb” (looking back, I don’t think they were that cool – even at the time)
My favorite teacher ever was: Gary Koroluk (still true)
When I’m not in school, I like to: Climb (still true, though I like lots of other things now.)
My favorite band is: Pearl Jam (still true)
My best memory from 1999 was: Climbing in Utah (it was an awesome trip as I recall – ironically I will be there again in a month)
My favorite movie is: The Empire Strikes Back (still true, honest!)
Favorite book: On The Road – Kerouac (Still true)
Usually, I like to wear: Comfy clothes (more true then ever)
Some important world events I witnessed I the 90’s were: I saw Star Wars Episode 1 on the first day it opened (OK I should be getting points for honesty that I am sharing this. My god – the end of communism, the end of the millennium and so much more and the best I can do is Star Wars – fuck me.)
I dream of being: Climbing / ski bum, mountain guide, photographer (done all those things! And loved them all!)
Though I’ll probably end up a: ski bum (to be honest, it’s over-rated in the long term)
If I could give any advice to the future me, I would say: Remember, have fun! (I still stand beside that)
In 10 years I will be: a Mountain Guide (true – though I don’t do much guiding these days)
And I will have: happiness (you bet!)
The world will have found solutions to: Hunger (sadly not yet)
And a major discovery will be: cure for cancer (nope)
I think the biggest trend will be: Polka music (I believe I was taking the piss – good god I hope I was taking the piss…)
By 2010 I will have traveled to: Everywhere – Thailand, Nepal, France, Asia, Alaska (well I’ve traveled nearly everywhere – though not to Thailand, Nepal or Alaska…)

All and all it was an amusing trip down memory lane – it’s interesting to see what my goals were at the time and how as I’ve grown since then – or not grown in some ways!

Train to be a ski patroller in 5min 27seconds

Fixed Gear Madness

I was watching The Tour today as I’m re-assembling my bike and getting ready to hit the road tomorrow. By The Tour, I of course mean The Tour d’France. Lance Armstrong put in a pretty big effort in the mountains to sneak into second place over all, giving hope to all of us post thrity’s that there is still athletic prowess achievable.

When I was in San Francisco a few days ago my good buddy Sharif let me in on a very cool SF-Subculture that just blew my mind. Fixed Gear biking. When I say fixed gear what I mean is riding a track bike through the city streets. A track bike has no gears, no freewheel (meaning the pedals turn the whole time, you can’t coast) and more importantly NO BRAKES! It’s utter madness and insane fun! So how do you stop? You just stop pedaling and stand strong on the pedals – this throws the bike into a skid and you slow down. If you think about it, a skateboard doesn’t have brakes either. You really have to see it to understand what it’s all about. Have a look at this clip of the SF Fixe crew hanging out in Austin, Texas with Lance Armstrong and ripping up the city streets. Lance is the guy in the white t-shirt who arrives about half way through. Watch him drop everybody at the 3:20 mark and fly down that hill – remember, NO BRAKES! Right - back to packing!



if you can't see th clip, click HERE to go straight to the source

I want one of these!

Not everyone can pedal at 80km/hr, but with this bike you can! I’m sure it’ll never actually get to production availability (especially at a $40,000 price point), but none the less it’s pretty cool. Worth watching just for the crazy German Doc Brown who invented it.



If you can’t see the video click HERE to go straight to the source.

The next adventure

I’ve been pretty tight lip about what my next adventure is – by that I mean what I’m up to after my Canadian bike ride. Well here it is – Burning Man. Burning Man is a HUGE art festival in the Nevada desert. 40,000 people will move into the baron landscape and after a week there will be no trace – in between it will be a festival of self expression, art and freedom. I’ve finally found a decent video clip that shows what it’s all about. Have a look… the festival runs from the end of August for a week – after BM I’m going to… well I’ll save that for the next post… I enjoy stringing you guys along like a bad reality show…

Canada Day

L to R: Mark, Greg, Julia, Dave, Scott, Mike

photo by Grant Johnson

July 1st is Canada Day - Canada’s birthday. It’s a national holiday and a summer highlight for most Canadians. So what happens when you are a Canadian who is living overseas? Well, you have to make your own party and that’s just what we did yesterday. In fine tradition we started the evening off with a game of hockey down at the rink, Canadian born players vs. The World. We had a great game and not really surprisingly we did rather well as a team! Not sure what the final score was, the last I heard was 10-3 after that we stopped counting. In doing our best to keep it Canadian through and through we had a few beers on the bench and the quality of play deteriorated proportional to that. Extra points go to Dave who managed to put together a passable bottle of Molson Canadian Beer. No big deal you say? Well as you can’t get Canadian beer here, Dave got his brother to scan a label from a beer back in Canada, email him the image, print off 24 of them, soak the labels off of 24 Speight’s and then glue the ‘Molson’ labels on. Now that is commitment! After the game we headed into town to a Canada Day party at one of the local pubs – pizza and cheap Crown Royal filled the rest of the evening. Despite the hangover today, it has to go down as one of my better Canada Day’s ever – even if I was 13,000KM from Canada...

Happy Canada Day!

Photo of the day

Queenstown a pretty popular intergalactic tourist destination – people from all over the universe come here in hopes of having a good time and maybe meeting someone special. Unfortunately for this Clone Trooper and Imperial Guard it didn’t go so well, alas they could find no metal bikini clad Princess Leia’s and were left to play Star Wars in the park all by themselves…

This is the end of her world as she knows it – and I feel fine.

This is either a sign of the apocalypse or just the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages. To put it into context, here is some teenager watching the results of American Idol – apparently her horse didn’t come in…

It Might Get Loud

Today I came across two trailers for music documentaries that I really wanted to share. This first one, It Might Get Loud looks awesome – three guitar legends – Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White all talking about their love affair with the electric guitar. I really can’t wait to see this one, it looks brilliant. Next up is One Nine Nine Four – the story of punk rock in the 90’s. Looks really interesting too – I remember the time well. Like so many my hair was died, my wallet was chained to my belt and my trousers were way too big. Looks like a fun retrospective into a cool era. The third is for a film I’ve blogged about before – Hard Core Logo. This uber-classic film is about 15 years old now, but shows no sign of aging. It’s an absolute classic (as will soon be echoed by Hinterlands) and is well worth tracking down – if you can.

Enjoy!

A most enjoyable waste of time

Here in EN-Zed it’s a long weekend – we’re taking Monday off to celebrate the Queens birthday. Ironically this holiday isn’t observed in England, who you’d think would be all up with the times with old Royals. No matter, it’s the sort of day where precious little work gets done – with that in mind I thought I’d share this absolutely brilliant video. I don’t have the foggiest how to describe it with the gravitas for which it deserves – best to just sit back and take it all in…

Music for Friday

I’m stealing this clip from Chris and his Hinterlands Blog – it’s an amazing track that has been on steady repeat since I heard it again today. Cheers for the heads up Chris - check it out!

Photo of the day

The family that body-checks together stays together

I was in a true no-win situation yesterday. Though it's the depth of spring in the birthplace and natural home of ice hockey, here in the southern hemisphere we are just kicking the season off. It’s early days; we are still sorting out the lines, getting our game fitness back and remembering how to zing those slap-shots. I grew up in western Canada where there really was never an option as to whether you play, or at least try to play hockey. I spent the better part of my youth kicking around chilly ice rinks playing more games then I could care to count. Hell, my first job at the age of 13 was teaching younger kids how to play hockey at a summer hockey-school. So 3 or 4 years back I became re-aquatinted with the beautiful game. I hadn’t laced up the skates in a decade but after 10minutes on the ice it all came back. I’ve been playing weekly ever since and loving every minute of it. The year before last my wife Sophie decided to give the game a go. Good on her too, in Australia they don’t play a hell of a lot of hockey – she’d only known the game since hanging around with me. She caught on fast.

Yesterday, I was in a tournament playing on the Queenstown team and I came face to face with every hockey player’s worst nightmare. What do you do when you are playing against your wife and she’s standing between you and the goal? Sophie is playing on the Queenstown ladies team and they wanted to have some stiff competition to get them ready for the nationals at the end of the season so they entered the men’s tournament that my team was in. Yesterday at 2.30pm I faced off against my Mrs. As I was saying it was a no-win situation. If we lose, we lose. If we win by heaps of goals, we were running up the score. If we win by only a goal or two, we were holding back. Don’t get me wrong I’m no misogynist, these girls are some of the best female players in the country, but our team is filled with some great players who’ve been playing hockey for all their lives.

So what happened? Well the fella’s won – by many, many goals. I thought for certain I was on the couch until next season but I was quite surprised and a little inspired by what Soph said to me after the game. I asked her how she thought it went and she said, “Great! We had a great team game and improved every shift out there. We all had heaps of fun and didn’t really care what the final score was.”

I was pretty put in my place by that one. Though my team had a great time at the tournament, when we lost our other match our attitude certainly wasn’t as enlightened as the ladies’ was. Them girls are smart, us fella’s could learn a lot from ‘em.

S.

Let's do this

I’ve been having great fun with my photo of the day project so far. It’s been a great exercise in creativity. There are no excuses, no; “I’ll do it later” it’s now or never. What’s got me really excited about it today is that a good mate of mine from Canada has decided to also start his own version of the project. Chris Marchand and I go way back – circa 2001 I was living in Fernie, BC generally avoiding work and getting some unreal ski days in. Chris was a scribe and shooter for the local weekly rag where he waxed lyrical about town council meetings and playoff hockey. We both had a passion for shooting photos, stringing good words together and skiing deep powder. Since that time Chris has moved back to his ancestral home of Northern Ontario – where in fact I have family roots too. He’s still writing and shooting (none too many ski hills though) for the local paper. He’s also a keen blogger on all things cultural and cool. His blog Hinterlands is part of my daily read and is well worth checking out even if you don’t know where the hell Dryden is (don’t worry nobody knows…)

Be sure to check out his blog and his photo of the day project – he knows his way around a camera… I thought you might be interested in this exchange the two of us had regarding lifestyle, X-Box, photo of the day and pork products….

Chris: I'm stealing this Photo of The Day idea from my dear compadre Scott, who is running a double marathon up and down some big mountains on the south island of New Zealand. I'm worried about him and his increasingly masochistic behavior. Remember, this is a guy who raced his mountain bike across the better part of Africa in 45 degree heat a few months back. Blah, blah crave the mental challenge, blah blah, push myself to the limits, blah blah I do yoga in the sauna, blah meat is for savages... Scott, do you even know what Call of Duty 4 is? Battlestar Galatica? Hmmm? What about pork rinds and cool whip together at last? Life is passing you by, my friend.

Scott:
I guess you just called me out on this one. I’m happy to throw the gauntlet as far as the photo of the day project – it’s an interesting process that is a serious money-where-your-mouth-is creative process reality check. Though I chuckle every time I use the money where your mouth as turn of phrase because I assume that it is a reference to prostitution, but I digress… I see that you’ve posted a photo from last year as your first photo of the day – I’ve gone with the idea that the photo must come from that day – are you up to the challenge?… l look forward to following along with what you come up with.Ok Sega, Dungeons & Dragons, food Homer Simpson fantasizes about. Yes I could wax lyrical about the joys of hardship and the need to realign ourselves with a more primordial archetypal existence where there is more of an emphasis on self awareness rather then the dominate post modern need for self gratification. True I don’t know the joys of adding cool whip to any part of a porker but I think there is room for a balance of both philosopher and pseudo-adolescent. No I don’t have an x-box, but I do have enough DVD’s to open a shop, I have a twitter account and I count Project Runway as my guilty pleasure (I would so turn gay for Tim). Nor am I some 21st century new age metro sexual – I like loud rock, shooting guns and the feeling of splitting a log when you get it in one chop. So what am I on about? Fuck, I’ve got no idea – perhaps I’m just knackered from running two marathons on Saturday. I think I need to lie down in front of the TV watch my Criterion Collection edition of Point Break, drink enough red to forget my legs fucking hurt and meld into the couch like some dehydrated Jabba The Hut. Perhaps you’re onto something…

Chris:
Intially, I was pretty sure that in my case, photo of the day would always have to be archival, though I guess I see the point of your creative endeavor now.Okay, motherlover, I accept your terms. Let's do this.

Scott:
Bring. It. On.

Oprah, KFC and me...

Ok it’s no secret I have a soft spot for KFC. Yes I know the wonderful irony that I am a vegetarian, but on occasion I eat KFC. Long ago I decided to eat the chicken of doom in every country that I visit, or at least every country that has a franchise. Perhaps it all stems from a very funny question a friend asked me years ago, “What do you call a vegetarian that eats chicken?” I thought it was the start of a joke, but it turns out she was honestly curious. I was dumbstruck and had nothing to offer.

I’ve been a veggie for years for a variety of reasons – heath and land-use ethics are the main ones – but another reason is discipline. I like the idea of facing a craving every day and saying no, not because of an ideological subscription, but by a conscious choice I make every day. To me this is a very powerful decision to make - a much harder one than simply saying that, 'I’m not allowed' and turning away. I say no to KFC (most of the time) because I choose not to and for no other reason.

So why am I babbling about KFC today? Well Oprah, yes that Oprah (she’s so entrenched into the cultural zeitgeist that ‘Oprah’ is pre-loaded into the Word spell-check – with Obama, iPod, and Facebook all getting the underline treatment) has decided to give everyone in America a meal at KFC. Go to her website and print out a coupon for a free meal at the grease pit. Apparently it is to promote some sort of healthy meal they are introducing.

What the fuck?

You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that smelling KFC let alone eating it will take tangible amounts of time off your life expectancy. And not only is the most influential woman in America, no, the World saying it’s ok to eat it, she’s giving the shit away? I say again, what the fuck is up with that? I could go on for hours on the inevitable corporate kickbacks and dietary ramifications of such a credible celebrity (sorry does that sound like an oxy-moron to anyone else?) endorsing what is likely the most unhealthy meal on the planet but I’ll save you from that. I guess it’s just another strange turn of events in an already strange world…

I am still waiting for my free Dr. Pepper because Chinese Democracy hit the shelves before China became a democratic nation…

For more on my history with KFC click HERE. For more on celebrities selling out to fast food click HERE.

Urban Poetry

I could wax lyrical about this clip, but there is no need. It’s not often a youtube clip leaves me feeling choked up and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up - and this would have to be the first time an urban trials video was the culprit. It’s simple, stunningly poetic and a witness to unspeakable talent. Sit back and enjoy.



Thanks to ’How to Avoid the Bummer Life’ for the heads up.

The next big thing?

For nearly me entire life I’ve been a skier. The fact that I started sliding down snowy slopes when I was four years old has informed my life nearly every day since. It was the genesis of me getting into the outdoors, which caused me to learn to climb, to take photographs, to write, to meet my friends, even to meet my wife. I owe skiing a lot. Maybe that’s why it’s rarely far from my thoughts. Every time I see a steep hill I wonder what it’d be like with a foot of fresh on it or whether those trees would be spaced enough to rip through at max speed.

Skiing has also lead me to other outdoor sports – mountain biking and surfing come to mind. When I was learning to surf I always thought how it would help my snowboarding (what little I do) and if I was more of a snowboarder how it would help my surfing. I always wished there was a way to more freely translate my skiing skills onto the waves. I thought it was just some sort of wishful thinking and a never achievable goal until just recently.

The other day I was watching some footage of big wave surfing and was struck by how much the face of water looked like a burly mountain face. These guys were towing into these huge waves with jet skis – and then it hit me. What if you combined tow-in surfing with skiing? What if you towed into a big wave with water skis on your feet? You could ski the wave. With advantage of being pulled in you negate the concept of actually having to paddle while on your skis (although stand up paddle boarding has my mind spinning too). I think it would be totally outrageous! I’m so keen to try it.

The question is equipment. Do traditional water skis have the lateral stability to hold up to the rolling surface of the wave? Is it better to mount traditional ski bindings onto water skis and wear modified ski boots. Or perhaps snowboard boots, or maybe the binding that water ski jumpers use. Though the concept seems conceived by a 12 year old I do see actual potential for the idea. Maybe it’s silly, maybe it’s stupid and maybe it might not work at all. Maybe I’ll go over the falls with 70’s era water skis on my feet or not even be able to catch the wave. Whatever the result, I’m so stoked to get the experiment rolling – it just looks like so much fun!

Take this


Add this


And you get this!

the best chair ever.

Sometimes I need something a little extra to put me into the Hawaii mode when I’m writing – that’s when I turn to the Hawaii-Chair! It’s a great ab workout and you can’t not get into the aloha state of mind! Check out this video to see why. I was sold as soon as I read that it could support 300 pounds – just the thought of a person weighing one sixth of a ton jitterbugging their way to fitness, nausea and a chiropractor bill bigger then a Waimea wave was enough for me to haul out the visa and order me one of them things!



Happy Friday everyone!
Scott