After nearly 20 years of research I finally bought a new surfboard - a 9′ Infinity Rad NoseRider. While not exactly a gadget, there is plenty of technology at work here worth mentioning. For starters the Rad NoseRider (heretofore known as the RNR) can be configured as a single fin or [3 fin] cluster. With the cluster setup the two outside fins are larger than the center fin (typically 2 5.5″ side fins and ~3″ center fin). The cluster has more of a short board feel, allowing for hard bottom turns and riding the face in vertical lines.
Cluster Design
The RNR is virtually two boards in one, with a fast trimming and stable front end and a back end that allows the rider* to get into a turns quickly and carve much like you would on a smaller board. The bottom of the RNR is about 2/3 concave and beveled under the rails resulting in suction when you need it. I never fancied myself a nose walking Moondoggie type surfer, but to be able to walk-up on the nose to lengthen the ride and know the board isn’t going to come over top and skull you is nice.
Balance point
I bought and rode the RNR on Sunday while a band played on the beach providing my friend John and I music to surf to. This weekend we have a tropical depression expected to cause swells as high as 8′ on Saturday. That’s more than enough music to my ears.
Bitness went on hiatus this Summer, but only we sort of didn’t intend it to last the entire Summer. Bitness was hacked by some crackers who had nothing better to do than waste our time and piss us off. After tediously extracting all the evil scripts that littered the majority of posts, deleting rouge directories created on our server, changing all passwords (the new universal password is f!tgeek3) we’re back.
For those of you who haven’t completely given up on the Fit Geek, the Summer was a relaxing time filled with sunshine and gadgetry. In the coming days we’ll be writing about a new swim training device, a new surfboard purchased by one of the fit geeks, as well as some golf clubs - yes there is technology at work in surfing and golf worth exploring.
Bitness is back in business, thanks for tuning in…
Man vs. Wild star Bear Grylls is no doubt a surviver. Consumption of live snakes, sheep’s eyeballs, decomposing Zebra, still-warm Yak livers and worse, but a man’s gotta eat! He free-solos cliffs, wrestles wild beasts, drinks from elephant dung… face it, the man survives.
Certainly Bear doesn’t need to risk life and limb by down-climbing a waterfall, eating live snakes or puss-filled grubs - but it does make for entertaining television. Many scoff at these Fear Factor-like antics, but it has viewers peeking through their fingers and muttering ‘that crazy bastard‘ over-and-over. Some critics go as far to say that Bear misinforms his viewers by taking these risks in remote regions.
In many survival circumstances the best advice is to stay put and wait for rescue, but Bear is seemingly being chased in every episode, burning precious calories to sprint down a sand dune or swim a freezing cold lake. Of course sitting around and waiting for rescue would make for pretty ho-hum TV, so Bear turns on the bravado and the charm to keeps us watching as he performs fearless acts of ’survival.’
I can forgive the fact that Bear bends survival tactics for the sake of entertainment. I have a harder time with merchandising the tools he uses for his show. A Bear Grylls ’signature’ knife sells for $700. If you have $700 to spend, get a satellite phone and $40 Buck knife.
Maybe this is just Bear ’surviving’ in the real world - and he’s got a right - but hopefully fans are smarter than that (and smart enough to not drink from elephant dung).
Life takes hold and just zips by. I turned 40 on the 11th and realize I’m starting to slip. Can someone please tell me what the hell The Hills is and who these plastic people are? I don’t know anything on regular radio anymore - it’s all classic rock for this old man.
Work is busy, always is, but I’ve also been running, Spring yard work, playing with the kids and a new guitar I got from the family for making it to 40 in one piece. I even started taking lessons - finally after 20 years of teaching myself everything the wrong way.
Following my neighbor’s sage advice - do everything to get the house ready for Memorial Day and then no more projects until after Labor Day should leave me some time to write a bit more regularly in the coming months.
Expect to learn more about a new lifestyle clothing company for fit geeks like me, gadget reviews and general musings about all things geeky and fitness related.
When the Nike+ system came out a few years ago I had a hard time buying one for myself since I had just purchased my second Garmin Forerunner. But clever me, I magnanimously bought one for my wife, also a runner, for our 10th anniversary.
I like to run with music, but early-on Nike announced the Nike Speed+ which allows you to use the Nike+ system without the iPod and simply displays your run data. Expected sometime in April, the SportsBand will be available. This slimmed-down model has a rocker/runner look but also a practicality in it’s construction using materials that will hold-up well to sweat and grime.
The same Nike+ sensor in your shoe relays pace, distance, time and calories burned to the easy-to-read LCD on the SportsBand. A detachable USB built into the band’s face can store up to 16 hours of run data and be attached to your computer to upload data to Nike+.
For a company as secretive as Apple, it has to be frustrating for Apple that the Cindy Brady of the Web, the US Patent Office, makes it fairly simple to find and view patent filings online.
AppleInsider did a little digging and revealed Apple’s patent filings to develop a digital lifestyle fitness companion. Plans include four distinct components that comprise the system, ‘including an iTunes-like software application, hardware-based heart rate and physiological sensors, a rewards tracker, and a component to facilitate synchronous group activities.’
The system asks a series of lifestyle questions; what your fitness goals are, personal and family health history (HIPAA are you listening?). Once the data is collected a fitness regimen specific to the user is created. There are plans for one or more integrated physiological sensors. These could be built-into headphones or in a ’sling’ which may not only read heart rate, but hold the iPod/iPhone during a workout.
There are a number of interesting screen shots on the AppleInsider Web site; a fitness model demonstrating proper technique, a tick list of exercises for a particular workout and others.
With Spring around the corner and very little winter training under my Fuel Belt (I run some maintenance miles but I’m not a fan of the treadmill), it’s time to think about getting back into running shape.
As a long time Runner’s World reader, I’ve read numerous articles on training and performance that assume I know details about my pace (what my 5K race pace is, pace for a tempo run, easy run, etc). I run very few races a year and they vary from 5K to 10 miles. For a 5K I can turn-it-on and feel wiped-out, for a 10 miler I seem to always hold back (to ensure I can make the distance!) and finish regretting I didn’t go out harder.
In order to pace myself for each race I need to know how to train properly; when/how to run intervals, when to go easy or when to simply rest. McMillan Running offers a great calculator that lets the user enter a recent race time for popular running distances and calculate optimal training information.
Now when I read Runner’s World I can actually apply real numbers to the articles that refer to tempo runs, steady/long/easy/recovery pace and hopefully achieve real results!
It’s been a while since we’ve written a survival post. To be honest, it’s been a while since we’ve written any post, but that’s the price we pay when working for the man.
Survival situations are essentially wort-case scenarios. How you play them out is often times a matter of life and death. A site called Worst-Case Scenarios provides step-by-step, how-to’s for everything from fighting off a shark to landing a plane.
So you thought bopping a shark on the nose was your best bet? Wrong - quickly and repeatedly jab it in the gills or eyes - use your dismembered leg if you have to, but man keep fighting! If you find yourself in a position where you need to land a plane, the first step is to “…push, pull, carry, or drag the pilot out of the pilot’s seat.”*
A Cardinal Rule in survival situations is to not panic. The more prepared you are, the less likely it is that you’ll panic in one of those worst-case scenarios. That includes jumping 5 stories from a building into a dumpster or how to wrestle free from an alligator.
* Please note that the pilot should already be incapacitated.
Every once in a while, we all get an itchy asshole. It’s nature, don’t deny it. Usually the yen to satisfy this itch is at work. We pretend to shift in our chairs to get comfortable, when really we’re just stealthily trying to rub-out that itch.
What if I were to tell you there is a chair disguised as exercise apparatus, but in reality is specifically designed to scratch or otherwise rub you in all the right ways (ladies, some additional assembly might be required)? Behold…
September 23rd, 2008
Boarding
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Survival situations are essentially wort-case scenarios. How you play them out is often times a matter of life and death. A site called