SUP (Cinema Part 2)

 End of the line - a hot but comfortable five miles out...

... a bit of effort with reward...

... big sky water summit of the ridge - a photogenic spot

All down river from there...

... all a few days back - lots of wildlife - flocks of merganser and wood ducks, deer, osprey, squirrel, crows, swifts, water snakes, hawks, turkey vultures, two beaver kits that sat along the river bank barkin' at Zman while photographing them - and somethin' black and unidentified that ran across ahead of the trail on the hike in...

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First became aware of Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) during a 2010 trip out to California's Huntington and Malibu beaches...

... watchin' this guy right here from the deck of Huntington Beach pier - he was rippin' on that thing, too. Thought that was pretty interesting - he was the only guy in the surf riding one...

Next day we were up the coast at Malibu's Surfrider Beach - saw a few more boards. Many of the folks were out beyond the breaks paddlin' around in the open ocean - most long distance. Forward thinking as usual - immediately the light bulb went on - "Boy, those things look like they'd be a lot of fun on long flatwater stretches of river or lakes back in PA - and a good workout ta' boot!"

A week later got back to PA and immediately looked in to where ya' purchase and what would be a good board for the river. No inflatable boards back then. The few we found were all soft top/ hard foam boards for paddling ocean waves. A bit sketchy for our intent ("Bet those hard foam boards ding pretty easy") - no big rocks or shallow rocky bottoms (usually) at the coastline shore breaks . One company, Surftech, made a 12'-1" soft top/hard foam board advertised as designed by big wave surfer and at the time the sports premiere practitioner, Laird Hamilton (would like to know what he got paid per board for havin' his name on 'em) and shaped by master craftsman Ron House. Can't beat that duo, we guessed. On top of that, REI peddled the brand and would ship 'em direct to store for pickup. Conveniently, they'd recently opened a store in SWPA. We called the store direct to place an order and spent probably twenty minutes on the phone with a sales person trying to explain what we were talking about. Luckily they had an item number on their website so was eventually able to communicate with the guy. Can't fault him, though. Not one person to whom we had tried to describe the activity had a clue as to what we were talking about ("What the f*k are you doin' now?... a surfboard ya' paddle on the river??!). Got some unusual looks.

As suspected, the foam boards (eventually picked up a second) did ding (dent) a bit easily so we took it easy on 'em, limiting their use to forgiving stretches of river. After a few seasons, and as the activity became more popular, inflatable boards - synthetic elastomer coated tight stitched polyester fabric similar to a rubber raft -  more suitable for river "running" and distance touring became available. That's all we use on the river nowadays - they take a pretty good beating. The foam boards are still the preference for the lake - they're pretty fast.

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Again back in 2010 - we visited a usual paddling spot to shoot a bit of photography and video footage to test out a then recent GoPro camera and several camera mounts. The footage wasn't bad so we edited together a short for fun:

SUP (2010)

Run time 7min (approx.)

A couple DSLR images we probably posted previously herein:

Fightin' for the Seabees

Got a call from a good client - "Hey, we're involved with design and constructing a new memorial to the Navy Seabees. Callin' around to a few consultants to see if you guys can help out. One condition - it's all donation work in support of the project. No compensation involved, but as a thank you major contributors will get their name permanently etched on a brick in the memorial wall honoring the former fighting men. Thought about it for a minute. Not a hard decision - and our regional VP and direct supervisor (and overall good guy, Jack) was a former Seabee ta' boot. "You bet, count us in - although, we want the name of our VP, Jack, on the brick". For our contribution we subsequently scheduled a crew, equipment and field engineer for a day for some preliminary site evaluation.

Never mentioned a word about it to Jack. After completion of the project, during his next visit in town took 'em up there for a surprise visit. He got a bit misty, especially when he saw his eponymous memorial brick. Those were fondly remembered and often quoted times for Jack. No tales of daring combat, but some interesting seat-of-your-pants engineering and construction.

A week or two later get a call from the big cheese corporate CEO himself. He lays into me - "How can you be out there doing work for free?!... that office isn't making any money as it is!! (after a big monthly deduction for corporate overhead)... Now we're liable for anything that goes wrong!!!... what the f*k are you thinking??!!... and this is the same guy who was gloating during his address to our group at the last regional managers conference over personally taking a group of clients on a $32K hunting trip to Texas. Let him rage on, the whole time thinkin' "f*k you too - it took guys bein' buried all across the Pacific to get that memorial built - I only had to piss off one a**hole CEO".

"Thanks for the call - nice talkin' to ya' again, Howell." 

He got over it. Was a decent guy actually - got to pay himself big bucks to chew people out. Probably made five successive similar calls immediately after slamming the phone in my ear.

Internet image - Navy Seabee Memorial, North Tonawanda, NY. That's a pretty cool vintage cable-tool bulldozer. Note the metal sculptured Seabee logo right of the photo. Brick wall to the rear. Think those brick pavers may be etched in memoriam as well - may be wrong (been a while)

Honoring all the fighting men and gals this day

Solo (Cinema Part 1)

 Back in 2004 we had a brilliant idea to publish a few completed film and video productions for internet viewing. Question was, how to go about it? We had a few bucks, creative wherewithal, but was a bit lacking technically with regard to the "cybernetics" involved for such an endeavor. At the time there was no existing on-line video streaming service providers available (the folks over at then unknown YouTube and Vimeo were concurrently hard at work with similar venture, albeit much larger scale, technologically and financially). Depending upon the success of our small start-up, we envisioned an even broader scope, providing outlet for like-minded photographers/filmmakers with a connection to the wild and conservation (other than just a cliff to jump off of or blowing the ass off the last remaining grizzly roaming the range).

We were eventually assisted by a brilliant guy named Jeff Walters who set us up a web site with video streaming capability (powered by Adobe Flash Player and third-party server capacity). The site went on-line in 2005, preceding aforementioned YouTube and Vimeo by a few months (at least that's the first time we were aware of them). Their emergence tossed our business plan out the window, so ever after we've been at it for the usual fun. We managed the site (producing our own content) since then. Nothing that we'd personally call brilliant, but we always received a favorable response. Out favorite comments were from folks who said that they liked to view our stuff while "f*k'n off at work".

Just recently we decided to disband the website. This was mainly in response to Adobe disabling Flash Player support at the end of 2020. We also had since moved on to other endeavors. We hadn't really added any new content since around 2012, and hadn't picked up a motion picture (aka: video) camera since around 2010, concentrating on still photography. The web site had been lingering. The old format video content, while still fun to view, had additionally become aged and definitely not up to current standards. Time to move on. 

Since then we've had a few folks inquire as to the availability of MP4 or DVD-format copies of certain videos. That's not a problem as we have all the content stored (DVD-format) on a DVD disc printer hard drive. To simplify, we used some recent free time to convert the videos from DVD to MP4-format for upload to computer hard drive. We subsequently opened a YouTube account for uploading for private viewing access. We'll occasionally link to one herein. 

In tribute to Strongman Matt, our inaugural upload is Solo (2004):

Solo (2004)

Run Time: 33min (approx.)

(Note: There's a bit long leader - video starts about 20 seconds in)

Sorry - no drops over 100ft waterfalls (although there is a drop over 2ft 'Killer Falls' therein). We remember when an "extreme" maneuver was to surf a Class III rapid while spinning your paddle over your head. Gotta' love progress. It's still some fun viewing the scenic lower Yough River and rapids below Ohiopyle SP.

We recall that filming occurred over three days spread over a week in July. We only had the single week available, so we had to take what we got. We had a few later short pick-up days for some needed B-Roll content. Water level ranged between 2.8ft to 3.2ft OPG* - Class III. We had hoped for water level between 4ft to 6ft - Class IV (best for open boating the lower Yough, our opinion), but that didn't happen. First day we had forgotten our primary light carbon-nylon paddles, having to resort to our plastic back up paddles we always carried. We had to keep using them the rest of the shoot for continuity sake. 

The subject was never to highlight the prowess of the individual, rather, the solitary wilderness experience. Lots of fun as we were on the river no later than 5am each day to beat the eventual commercial rafting flotillas. That worked out well other than day two when the guided fleet caught up to us shortly past 'Swimmers Rapid'. It was a bit of a chore positioning framing to exclude six crew rafts and guide paddled kayaks that would pop out of nowhere. We did get some unexpected and interesting footage of river hero Jeff Snyder stand-up paddling his inflatable kayak through 'Bottle of Wine' rapid, years before inflatable SUP's were even considered.

A bit more information can be found in this previous post - Lower Yough River (click to view)

*OPG - Ohiopyle Gauge

Two Wrongs

Johnny Utah: “Yea - I got my Knee folded back about 90º the wrong way.” 

Bodhi: “That’s why you never went pro?”

Johnny Utah: “Two years of surgery - missed my window. Went to law school instead.”

Bodhi: “Law school? You’re a Lawyer?! Well, life’s not over yet man, you’re surfin’.”

                                                                                                    - 'Point Break (1991)

 "Knowledge is conventionally considered to be of two kinds: subjective and objective, knowing what and knowing how, having and being. The 'what' type is objective knowledge that you can acquire and have. It's the analytical knowledge of science, of facts that can be measured, calculated and tested, and so is almost the only knowledge taught in schools... The other kind of knowledge is "how", knowledge of being, of body, mind and soul that you can only discover for and in yourself."

                                                                                      - 'The Tao' (Mark Forstater - 2001)

Creating an authoritarian "coalition" to promote and encourage throngs of migrant city folks to overuse and disrupt long established traditional climbing areas, many natural rattlesnake habitat, makes about as much sense to us as establishing an authoritarian government entity "to protect wildlife and their natural habitats" that subsequently installs a 24/7/365 hissing, vibrating gas well directly enclosed by natural rattlesnake habitat. Not long thereafter, and to present, there is not a snake to be seen. And that was probably the largest concentration of rattlers we've encountered here within our beloved ridge tops. Climbed there for over twenty years - would occasionally step over rattlers. They didn't bother us - we didn't bother them.

Bodhi: They only live to get radical, they don't have any real understanding of the sea, so they'll never get the spiritual side of it."

SWPA Yellow Phase Timber Rattler

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather , he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else... From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands"

                                                                                                                    - St. Paul the Apostle

Our sermon for today

A Day At The Races

Some drag racing action from last fall -  Nostalgia Days at Keystone Raceway. Files and files of images as usual. Arbitrarily picked a bunch:

Keystone Raceway 

'69(?) Dodge Dart Swinger. A buddy had one - 340 six pack, 4-speed. That was a light and fast, torqued-up car. Was oftentimes hesitant to get in the passenger seat with 'em. Never if he was pissed off at his girlfriend

'40 era Willys gasser

'55 Chevy

'69 - '71(?) Plymouth Barracuda

Our favorite shot from the day - '66(?) Nova/'70(?) Impala

The same Nova bouncin' out of the start

A big wheelie for this '66(?) Corvette

'67 - '69 Mustang haulin' ass

'69 - '71 Camaro Z28

Another '69 - '71 Camaro

'68 - '71 Chevy Chevelle(s)

Ford Falcon heating up the slicks

A fast bike out of the hole

GTO and Mustang off the line

Very nice '67(?) Chevelle - had one

'69 - '70(?) Camaro

'77 - '78(?) Camaro burn out

A big wheelie from this '69-'70(?) Camaro

Ditto this '69-'71 Nova

'70 Chevelle SS - had a '71

Must have been a lot of Chevies out at the track that day - didn't notice until we went thru the shots - probably 80% of the images

Fun In Vegas With Strongman Matt

"Hey - Check this out!" 

Early Saturday morning after a late night flight into the city. Follow Matt into the garage and am immediately rollin' the grapes over his newly purchased Porsche. Don't recall the model. It's a beauty - red, black leather interior. He's pointin' features and spoutin' specifications a mile a minute.

"C'mon - I'll take ya' for a ride!"

Five minutes later we're exiting Rt. 215 onto I-95 North. It's highway cruising speed for a few miles to the Lee Canyon Road exit. The car rides and handles like a dream. Beyond that the highway is an arrow straight open track for the next twelve miles to Indian Springs. He throttles it. Even from 60mph that things got plenty of impressive torque. We're immediately pullin' a few G's and firmly planted in the passenger seat.

Big sky highway I-95 north of Vegas

Love the speed, but have always been a nervous passenger. A few seconds and I'm glancin' over at the speedometer - 125mph and accelerating fast. The right foot is instinctively feelin' around the passenger side floor board for a brake pedal.

"WOW! Impressive... OK! I love it! - you can slow this f*k'n thing down now!!"

Matt out at Las Vegas Speedway running a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570 Twin Turbo through its paces. He was big into Formula 1 racing. We still prefer old time muscle car drag racing. But, occasionally catch ourselves checkin' out the latest F1 action on the tube.

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Best restaurant in Vegas, our opinion - New York Pizza & Pasta over on South Jones Boulevard. Best pizza west of the Big Apple.

"Hey Matt - how ya' doin'?"

Jimmy, the owner and chief pizza maker, walks over along with a buddy he was chattin' with. Matt knows 'em and introduces both.

'This is Jimmy and Frank"

Jimmy engages in some small talk for a minute or two, takes our order, then heads back to oven duty. Matt invites Frank to have a seat and some pizza.

"Maybe one slice - I gotta' run" 

Frank grabs a seat at our table. Between more small talk I'm thinkin' Frank looks a bit familiar behind his glasses but I can't place him. Older fella'. Reminds me of somebody. A bit of his conversation with Matt is directed toward film and television. Comes across as a producer or somethin'. The pizza arrives. Frank eats one slice then gotta' run. He gets up, bids farewell, waves goodbye to Jimmy, tosses a twenty on the table and is out the door.

"Did you recognize that guy?" says Matt."That was the guy in the movie 'Goodfellas' that gets murdered and hung up in the meat truck!"

(Internet Image)

Actor Frank Sivero - 'Frankie Carbone' in 'Goodfellas'

Never failed to meet some interesting characters runnin' around the city with Matt. He knew about everybody in town.

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Never did any roped climbing out around Vegas. Only would travel out for a week at a time and never bothered to ship any gear out. If so, would have only settled for multi-pitch routes. Seems (to us) like a waste to climb single pitch with all the big routes about. Nothin' new for us in the short stuff - can do that back in PA. Always got in a bit of bouldering and a lot of (sometimes scary) long route 3rd and 4th class scrambling. 

Tons of fun and you can move fast and put in some miles and altitude.

Hangin' out on the summit and return trail from 'Turtlehead Peak' (in background lower image). An easy hike located out at 'Red Rock Canyon'.

Was always a lot of fun with that guy.

Ten Mile Day

 Five miles out...

(Sarah Zagorce image)

Five miles back...

... won't be long