bakebrain.net

Talking Surf Wipeouts

beholder — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:49:13 +0000

There are tons of crazy wipeout videos out there and I guess pretty much every surfer with internet connection (bad joke I know…) has watched at least some of those. Many are somewhat borderline entertaining when mashing up evil wipeouts with aggressive songs – and there are even trophies like the ‘Wipeout of the Year Award‘ and so on. I was often wondering though what those pro surfers think/do/feel when they suffer those insane big wave wipeouts – so I was looking through a tons of videos and sorted out the ones where there is some interesting talking of the pros going on. Let’s talk pipe first!

Banzai Pipeline is probably the most known and feared wave in the world – even people without any interest in surfing must have come across a picture on some magazine cover at some stage. Pipeline is located on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. It is so spectacular because the wave breaks very close to the beach over a super shallow reef – good for spectators, bad for surfers making mistakes… So let’s hear from the experts – the Pipeline Posse – what the story is when surfing one of the deadliest waves in the world:

Let#s move on with a short clip of the session “Talkin’ Pipe” starring surf heroes and Pipeline legends Gerry Lopez and Jock Sutherland. The event took place at the Patagonia surf shop in Cardiff, California. This is the part about wipeouts – including some valuable tips if the worst case scenario happens. Amazing stuff – make sure to check out the whole series!

Alright – let’s make a shift back form the surf legends to a current pro: Mark Healy – characterized as “driven but humble, reckless but smart” on his Quicksilver profile page. Healy is one of the most fearless big wave surfers and apparently a really nice guy – check the videos on his profile page – they are really cool – spearfishing with sharks and so on… So let’s hear what Mark Healy has to tell us about one of his bad wipeouts at Pipe:

And because Healy is such a nice guy to listen to – let’s just continue and listen to his comments and thoughts of his big splash at another world famous shallow reef break: Tahiti’s Teahupo’o:

A lot of luck for Mark Healy – but as he said – if it really happens, it is up to god to decide if you survive or if you get smashed like a bug on the windshield on some razor sharp reef. Usually the bad accidents happen at those shallow reef breaks, but one of the most tragic deahts in surf history occurred in much deeper water: Mark Fu‘s tragic wipeout at Mavericks, a wave located off Half Moon Bay in California. It seems that Fu’s leash may have been caught underwater and prevented him to get back to the surface.

Some more comments on less tragic Maverick’s wipeouts:

Another mean wipeout is the deep dive from Eric Akiskalian on Sharks Park, a spot offshore Santa Barbara County. Maximun creepy.

Alright – that should be it for now. I have piled up another 5 to 10 wipeouts videos, but I actually have another ‘surf post series idea’ in mind, so check back and happy surf!

Blogging is so much pain!

beholder — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:55:09 +0000

No idea why, but right now it seems time for a little little update…..haven’t even checked the date of the last post – must have been ages ago…. guess I have been to two surf sessions in the meantime – in Brandon Bay, Ireland and on Fuerteventura, Spain. I still suck though ;-)

Xmas is over, 2010 is coming and we will see what is going to happen! I have the feeling that it will be a promising year :)

This time I really try to blog a little more…. #blablabla #bollox

Anyhow…..happy new year already ;-)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Powers of 3

beholder — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:23:49 +0000

Huuh. I highly encourage you guys to have a look at “The Power of 3″. Amazing Surf Video from Ireland. Here is the Trailer – watch the whole Video on their site! Thx to @phollo!

UPDATE: ok, they removed the teaser – you can now watch the full video right here – is messing up the template a bit but oh whatever :|

Hello from the Android World!

beholder — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:18:08 +0000

This is just a testpost – using PostBot for Android on my G1. There is another App doing the same but I gave PostBot a first try now. Ok… let’s click on submit!

Frohes Neues!

beholder — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:11:39 +0000

Ohne viele Worte, aber mit nem Evergreen – bin ich gestern wieder drüber gestolpert! Happy 2009!

Sidi Ali, Surfen und Rock Pool Jumping

beholder — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:51:31 +0000

Gefühlte 10 Jahre nach meinem Marokko Trip finde ich jetzt auch mal kurz Zeit ein klein wenig darüber zu bloggen. Ziel war in Marokko zu surfen – das funktioniert theoretisch ganz gut, wenn man sich in einem Surfcamp einquartiert. Das ganze nennt sich Endo und hat auch noch Ableger auf den Maledieven, Südafrika und sei neuestem auch Irland. Es fällt gerade relatich schwer hier nen guten Einstieg zu finden…Leute waren echt cool, Wetter war auch geil, so gegen Ende fehlten ein wenig die Wellen, aber das war mir als Anfänger eh relativ egal. Ich habs auch ziemlich ruhig angehen lassen…. sollte ja schließlich auch sowas wie Urlaub sein…naja, das mit der Erholing war so ne Sache – mit 60% Schnarcher im 5 Bett Zimmer plus den typischen Surf-Schmerzen (Schulter, Rippe etc.) wars mit der Nachtruhe eher spärlich bestellt…aber da muss man halt durch! Das ganze hat übrigen in Tamraght stattgefunden – so ne halbe Stunde nördlich von Agadir. Agadir selber iss eigentlich beim besten Willen nicht der Reise wert – ausser dem Souk, der echt Spaß gemacht hat! Ne Promenade am Strand inklusive der zahlreichen Touri- Bunker – die sollte ich ja später noch kennen lernen…….

In unserem Ort selber ging Null Komma Null. Das hat aber auch keineswegs interessiert, da das Camp selber mit ner supercoolen Dachterasse und netten Leuten alles rausgerissen hat.

Typischer Tagesablauf:

Aufstehen
Frühstück
Chillen auf der Dachterasse
Surfen
Abschmieren auf der Dachterasse
Abendessen
Früh pennen gehen

Ganz nach meinem Geschmack – die Mittagssession hab ich mal schön immer ausfallen gelassen…. man muss es ja nicht übertreben… ;-)

Das Kaff weiter ist in der Surf Szene wohl bekannter: Tagazoute. Dort hab ich mir aufm kleinen Markt ne Sidi Ali Mütze gezockt. Sidi Ali ist der Name des Wassers, das man dort kaufen kann.

Sidi Ali Logo

Danach hatte ich meinen Name weg: Sidi Ali! Interessanterweise haben mich selbt Marokkaner auf einmal nicht mehr für nen Finnen, sondern für einen der Ihren gehalten…

Ohne Kappe: Finland! Deutsch!

Mit Kappe: Maroc???????

Noch schnell die Zusammenfassung:

Ich bin echt scheisse im surfen
Meine Rippe tut mir 2 Wochen später immer noch weh…
Marokko iss fies staubig
Im November iss echt noch geiles Wetter am Start
Flieg NICHT mit Aer Lingus nach Marokko

Warum eigentlich nicht? Ich wollte samstags zurückfliegen. Bin dann irgendwann am Flugi, eingecheckt und am Gate. Da erreicht mich ne SMS von Aer Lingus. Der Flieger musste in Lissabon landen weils ein technischen Problem gibt. Man wolle es dort beheben und dann weiter nach Agadir fliegen und uns abholen. Hmmm ok. Doof nur dass 2 Stunden später oder so noch ne SMS kam: Flug gestrichen. Bitte an Aer Lingus Rep wenden. Super. Nach ner Weile irgendwann kam dann das Announcement, dass man jetzt in ein Hotel gebracht werde – Aer Lingus bezahlt. In dem Moment dachte ich mir schon dass ich ins Camp zurück fahren sollte – schließlich iss samstags ja Cocktailabend angesagt! Doch ich wusste nicht wann der Flug am nächsten Tag gehen sollte. Nunja, erstmal zurück nach Agadir City und dann im “Royal Atlas” abgestiegen. 5 Sterne Bunker…Haha…eigentlich wars schon geil… Riesen Zimmer und sogar noch relativ stilvoll eingerichtet. Dummerweise waren die Gäste leider alles Pausch-Spinner. Aber die haben den kompletten Flieger da einquartiert… Nunja, ich hab mich dann noch mitn paar Iren zusammengetan und da noch was gegessen. Da ich relativ müde war hab ich auch abends and der Bar nicht lange ausgehalten. Morgens nachm fetten Frühstück bin ich dann noch volltouritechnisch am Pool gesimselt… Feist!

Irgendwann relativ spät gings dann wider zum Flugi: 14.30 neue Abflugzeit. Daraus wurde dann erstmal 17.30 oder sowas. Dann endlich im Flieger. Pilot meinte: Ja sorry, Klimaanlage im Eimer – keine Ersatzteile – jetzt alles easy. Cool. Dumm nur dass so nach 90 MInuten Flug erneut ne Durchsage kam: Yo sorry, Klima wieder im Eimer – wir müssen am nächsten Flugi landen – wie der Zufall es so will war das wider Lissabon. Schöner Mist. Da gelandet und im fiesen Transitbereich abgeklebt. Dann konnten sie das Ding auch nicht reparieren und Aer Lingus hat dann ne Maschine aus London geordert die dann nach Lissabon geflogen kam um uns nach Dublin zu schippern. Geil dass ich dann supercool am Montag um 6 morgens da ankam. Klasse!

Nunja, jetzt hab ich grad keine Lust mehr auf bloggen – und auch keine Lust die Tippfehler zu checken – mach ich morgen, denn ich wollte ja sowieso nochn alle Videos uppen – vom Rock Pool Jumping im Paradise Valley. Coole Tour! Ein paar sind auf youtrube jetzt:

Achja, Bilder hab ich keine gemacht, aber schaut mal bei Martin!

So jetzt noch schnell ein paar Vids:

Eliza macht DEN Monsterjump!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fearless Rainer ganz cool!

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Und Phillip – mit dem letzten Byte auf der Memory Card!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ich uppe alle Videos noch als zip in Top Quali! (morgen…)

Marc Johnson

beholder — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:51:23 +0000

Just stumbled upon this clip on youtube – the 411 Pro File of Skateboarder Marc Johnson from 1997. I always was “some sort of a fan” of Marc Johnson – not that I am too deep into skateboarding, but I do watch skatevideos from time to time – with the fantastic side effect that it works even better than lastfm… ;-)

So watching this clips was so weird because it felt old and new at the same time. Old because it has this look&feel of really old skate videos (what?) and new because it’s fresh from 1997 – stop, that’s 11 years ago! (haeh?). Whatever – Marc Johnson was and is the man! (Read also this interview)

411 Pro File 1997:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Epic some of his “newer” footage – from famous Yeah Right:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And finally Part 3 from Fully Flared:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kraftwerk in Dublin

beholder — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:52:58 +0000

Yesterday was the big day! Finally. But lets start from scratch. Jonas bought our Kraftwerk tickets a while ago – it was one of those “you have to buy the tickets Monday morning at 30 seconds past nine” in order to get one. Especially this time – they limited the amount of ticket to 4999. But Jonas managed and bought them. For all non Dubliners – this kind of stuff is usually sold out within 2 minutes once the tickets are available online… In fact I read that it wasn’t sold out immediately – it would have been though if I decided not to buy them right away…crystal clear Murphy’s law style…

So far so good. Especially because all this sounded almost too good to be true – it did btw… It was supposed to be more a Festival kind of thing – bands and DJ’s the whole day, peaking into Kraftwerk’s only show in western Europe this year. And then the location: Luggala Estate in County Wicklow:

Not too bad for such a special occasion, right? But then the downer: a long email from Ticketmaster found it’s way through Jonas to my inbox earlier this week saying that they had to move the gig to a new location:

Pod Concerts regret to announce that due to extreme weather conditions
causing the river at Lough Dan to burst its banks on the Luggala
Estate, Co. Wicklow today, the Kraftwerk concert, scheduled for the
13th September will now be held in the grounds of Royal Hospital
Kilmainham, Dublin…

Buuuuh! The typical shit weather in Ireland once again killed it! Feck! So well I decided to go anyways – they offered to refund the tickets. Once there at the Kilmainham Hospital thingy I was pretty disappointed. Very nice “grounds” but then they set up a huge tent there – so the charme of the surrounding area was totally killed. The HUGE queue to get a drink also didn’t make me feel too optimistic. I was pretty late so I could only enjoy 10 minutes of Soulwax before Kraftwerk… but I did not really care about the support acts anyways…

Eventually Kraftwerk started to “play” and I was pretty much immediately enthusiastic. Cool visuals – you can also watch them on Kraftwerks‘ site and the 4 guys behind their equipment – lined up – it was just right. Good sound as well. Towards the end they set up the well known robots to let them “play” the track “The Robots” – it was great. I actually wanted to achieve two things: listen to “Tour de France” and to see the robots in action! Both worked out and despite all the disappointments it was a great night!!!! I took some shaky videos with my camera – check it out!

1. The Opening: Man Machine

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Taschenrechner / Tour de France

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Vitamin

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Computerlove

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5. Radioactivity

Click here to view the embedded video.

6. The Robots

Click here to view the embedded video.

At that stage my memory card was full and I realized again how much more I would fancy a cool video camera instead of using my Powershot for such stuff…

Back from San Francsico off to Greece…

beholder — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:04:47 +0000

Souns like holidays but it’s actually work…Came back yesterday and the jetlag is as cool as it can get… Therefore I just point you over to Jonas – he nicely summarized his (and somehow mine - besides meeting with Eric…) achievements!

Going to Greece on Wednesday – work related conference… I guess I feel like going on vacation after that..

Oh yes almost forgot – there is a video of the Google Dance around – check it out – it covers most of the party! We had a great time!

Click here to view the embedded video.

WordPress, Theme and all these pains…

beholder — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:39:31 +0000

Oh well I don’t know if I really like this theme… do I still like WordPress actually? Good question – it sometimes feels so repetitive to get everything back to normal once you just update it….. maybe I should try something else – just for a change…. on the other hand: it works (somehow) and I do not want to tune this one to the bone anyways… I just hope to explode into action and just do it at some stage and either fix everything or just start all over with something completely different! We will see…