arrogantj's picture

Cr@p We've Been Told Part 2


I've been pondering the windsurfing world post Windsurfing Mag and have come to the conclusion that if it didn't die on its own, it would have been "put down". That's not a comment on the editorial staff and what they were doing. It's not even a comment on the transition from physical to digital content. Rather that windsurfing itself has changed.

Tdinosaurhere's an old proverb that says, "When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails." Its corollary is, "When a camel drinks water, he doesn't use a straw"

No, wait, that's another article I'm working on. How about this: "When you see someone holding a hammer, you aren't expecting this."

Let's take a look at some windsurfing pics. When you see each of these, you have a reasonably good idea of what is happening in the picture.

wave sailing

"Oh, that's someone sailing down a wave."

wave jump

"A jump! Wow, that's really high."

Dacron Jumps the Shark

That 80s ShowFor years, that was enough. In fact, windsurfing was considered quite photogenic and the marketing world used classic windsurfing stock images quite often. According to Madison Avenue, we still are using classic Dacron sails.

Things began to come unglued when Jaws was conquered. We saw plenty of pics. That wave certainly is big. Really big. But what the pics could never show and you never realized until you saw a video/movie of it was it wasn't just the size of the wave but the speed. It didn't jack up like a lazy South Carolina musher but like a dozen freight trains at full throttle going downhill pulling a hundred coal cars and maybe a caboose. (I like to lay my similes on thick and heavy). Once you start watching video of windsurfing at Jaws you realize how much of it is in slow-mo so you can actually comprehend what's going on. Coincidentally, at about the same time, windsurfing freestyle burst on the scene - something else that is difficult to "picture" (pun intended) without a video.

This is the issue with depicting windsurfing's cutting edge. It's complexity can't be captured by an image or even a series of images. Below are some images which are screen captures from videos. Clicking on the image will open the video in a new window so you can see what really is happening.

You think it's going to be a nice little wave jump off that maybe five foot face and then... Wait, what? How many did he just do? Rider: Steven Van Broeckhoven

P Koster
Is it going to be a cutback or floater on that wave? Rider: Philip Köster

That's a ... I dunno

How about this move, ah, couple of moves, wait, what was all that? Rider: Steven Van Broeckhoven

Sometimes a picture is worth 100,000,000,000 words
Hubble Ultra Deep Field

We must admit that every once in a while, there is a pic so complete video is not required. But it's the topic for someone else's blog.

This is the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field Image. Each dot of light is a galaxy averaging 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars each. Full size (18mb 6200x6200)

--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.

Dear Windsurfatlanta.org Part 29

Commuting to Van PughLook at all the cars headed to Van Pugh!

The latest nastygram in our mailbag:

Dear windsurfatlanta.org,
In case you hadn't noticed it, you are the web site of the Atlanta Boardsailing Club. For some reason that perhaps only your therapist can understand, you insist on posting pics and vids of remote spots of the world while making disparaging comments about your own home. We don't want to say that you are basically pooping in your own home, but you are. Even puppies know better than that.
How about a little more focus on what a wonderful place Atlanta is.
Sincerely, A concerned Atlanta citizen

Dear Concerned Citizen,

No wires, no strings, no cgi. Just air.

High above Pozo
Philip Köster (G-44) at the PWA Pozo Gran Canaria 2011. Click pic for full-size version. We recommend the original video, too.


Windsurfing is sometimes considered the flightless bird of the [fill in the blank]surfing world. Philip Köster and the other new school wave sailors demonstrate otherwise. The surf is barely visible at the bottom of the frame. Can you imagine being in one of those upper-floor apartment windows and seeing a windsurfer at eye-level?

Source: Youtube: PWA Pozo 2011 We recommend the 720p version if your device supports it.

Welcome to the Atlanta Boardsailing Club in Exile

Another Exile
A fellow exile: we're hoping that the Chinese aren't the source of our troubles, too.

Update Sat 12:18 pm Freakin' hamsters know their google fu (translated: know how to search the internet). As of now, all browsers seem to be working. Email me if you find otherwise.

Update Sat 12:11 pm Log ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer seem to be working but Safari and Google Chrome don't. Our crack team of hamsters is on the job.

This is our temporary home that I've cobbled up in the last 24 hours or so. It's a complete download of our site that I smuggled out rolled up in an old coffee can. It's been installed on a virtual machine in a top secret location. You can log in and do all things you usually do.

Pages