(Editor’s note:  Ever since I began to read up on Nuclear issues in the 1970s, I’ve been both horrified and terrified by the weapons, the primate technology of the power plants, how the fuel is so much more toxic to life after it’s “spent” and of course still have no idea what we’re going to do with it along with all the other waste we’ve created in the process.  And while this piece dates from the turn of the century, I have to think it’s held up.) 



        If ever there was a time to get involved in something far reaching, meaningful and imperative, I have to think that now is the time.  Sure it’s hard to know where to begin.  We as an alleged civilization are imposing so many crimes upon our planet and each other.  But the growing list of nuclear catastrophies, (right up there with watching the planet’s ice melt away) should be a huge wake up call -- the clearest signal yet that nuclear power, however seductive the arguments for may seem, is not in keeping with continued life on this planet.  Even in the seemingly unlikely event we ever figure out what to do with the meltdowns, the ever growing pile of waste products and provide protection from terrorist acts, accidents and natural events, these primitive and unstable technologies are so obviously untenable. 


        I have to think our responsibility is to make our beliefs and intentions known.  To read and learn.  To conserve energy as if it’s production and transmission was poisoning the scene.  As nearly all of it seems to be doing.  So let me appeal to you to read up on the Price-Anderson act if you don’t already know about it.  A search will yield quite a bit and Wikipedia’s discussion is a good start.  If you too find yourself in disbelief what it asserts, write your representatives, your congresspeople, your friends and anyone else you think might consider doing what they can to shape our future decisions on our energy policy.  Even if I remove my emotional bias and offer my appeal from a strictly good business perspective, it’s seems absolutely clear that the subsidies the Nuclear Industry lobbied for are going far to create the false perception of profitability and that they are suppressing investment and research in safer, more appropriate forms of energy. 


       Having the subsidies and protections in Price-Anderson repealed for future projects will go far in leading to fair market competition between the various options.  That’s even before you figure in the multi hundred billion dollar losses resulting from the sort of catastrophes we are watching unfold in Fukushima and Chernobyl.  Losses that in this country, would have for the most part been put on we the taxpayers -- as the Price-Anderson bill provides liability caps to the Nuclear Industry to protect them from having to stand accountable for losses above a shockingly low threshold. 


       Repealing Price-Anderson is a fairly simple strategy that will go far to lead the business community to look to wind, solar, methane, increased efficiency, micro generation, passive designs and the other alternatives with far greater interest and focus.  (And wouldn’t it be nice if we could end all the fossil fuel subsidies while we are at it:)

   

        With respect and gratitude.       


                                                                                      __________________________________________________ _\_

 

      And here you’ll find an archive of a few of my more heartfelt rants:


 








         Then there’s this little screed about the Mono.      


    I had already been running my lines just a couple inches apart to make for finer sheeting sensitivity and line placement.  And I’ve been using roller hooks since Reactor brought them to market as they also promote sheeting sensitivity and go easier on the lines.  So when I saw the Mono, sure I wanted to try them.  But I had no idea they would be such a sweet upgrade and make such a difference.  And what a pleasant surprise to have the board feel looser during hooked in sailing.  I'm not exactly sure why, and we should bounce this around on the forums, but I do have a theory.  That it's the improved efficiency and balance of a rig with perfect line position and no line input along with the single hinge point letting you impart far more rig leading to the board.  


    The Monos do demand that you move them to the perfect balance point.  There’s no faking it.  And no wearing yourself out fighting a rig that you don't even realize is out of balance.  Much more than a quarter an inch off and you are gonna know it by the discernable pull from the direction you need to shift the line toward.  I suppose a draft stable sail is a bit of a prerequisite and I do love the Robechaud battens in my Northwaves.  In my quest for ever more perfect groove out there, I've even taken to measuring the line placement along with the other settings after particularly dialed sessions and keeping them in a book.  From my notes I made a magnetic crib sheet to go on the back door.  Now, assuming that hasn't blown away or if the book is at hand, I can cruise through rigging without pause and hit the water with total confidence that at least my gear is ready.  Yeah, why risk being less than dialed on that all important first run of the day -- as it so often sets the tone for the entire sesh.    


    Sure I was cussing them at the first couple unintentional hook-ins.  And I was prepared to continue hating them since I'd been using swinging lines for twenty-five years and the Monos don’t swing at all.  But those hook-ins were just operator error and by the end of the first day I was all about putting Monos on my other boom too, swing or not.  And it wasn’t much longer before I not only got used to the non-swing action, but started kind of liking the precision of having the line exactly right there when I’m ready to hook in.   I was just needing to cinch the velcro tension on the boom straps a little more (after arriving at perfect placement if you prefer) to keep the lines aimed downward at the preferred angle.  Since that little epiphany, I've been getting in and out with precision and hardly ever suffer the dreaded UHIs I used to get with swinging lines in the jibe. 


    I was also interested to find out the Monos aren’t just for the people who are already running their lines close together.  I had encouraged a couple of my fellow students who were running their lines farther apart to try them, and they both now prefer and use the Mono after much shorter adjustment periods than I had.  These experiences convinced me the only two prerequisites for getting on them are an open mind and a reasonably modern sail that’s rigged to be at all draft stable.  For you junk riggers out there -- read a little DOWNHAUL please.  


    And it might also be worth mentioning the line placements may well be a little asymmetrical.  Variables like the current's relationship to the wind, sailing stance and degree of reach seem to have a noticeable effect.  


    For those that may be concerned that the single point loading might be hard on the boom, I wondered about that a little too.  So I checked with the guys over at Chinook who make my booms.  They're not worried.  They haven't seen any failures from the lines and their carbon tubes point load to eight hundred pounds.  I guess if you've been out trying to stick monstrous one handed forwards or back loops hooked in -- or have an old beater aluminum boom that’s looking a little powdery from too much time in salt water -- hey you might want to stick with the conventional lines.  Maybe even spread them a little more.  But I’m not exactly easy on my stuff and I've been yarking on mine heavily for about four years now, on the southern Oregon coast, with no problem.  


    While this is definitely one for “The top ten things I wish they'd thought of sooner”, the immortal Mr. George Greenough pretty much did.   He was already on to this when I started windsurfing in '84.  Sure his system wasn’t quite this clean, but he totally had it going.  Among all kinds of incredible innovations like those low volume spoon boards, his fins, skinny masts and a one piece carbon boom, the dude had made himself an ultra cool harness hook instead of using lines.  It was a stainless steel hook threaded into a piece of hydraulic tubing threaded to a plate molded into his harness.  The hook went right over the boom and settled into the knobs of the mountain bike tread glued to the inside of the boom.  I’d always wondered about what was up with that, but never got it together to rig something up.  I get it now though.  Mr. Greenough really was so freaking far ahead of his time that we are still trying to catch up.  And my humble thanks to DaKine for doing their part to help us get there.     


    So I have to think you might want to give them a try.  But don't thank me if they change your life.  Thank Kiting since the Mono would seem to be trickle down from what they designed for kite bars before they switched to center lines.  It was all about eliminating harness line input to the bar and certainly was one of those happy accidents.  

 


 

    And on a lighter note, how about “A Kitesurfer’s bill of rights:


   (Another editor’s note:   While this too is from awhile back, it still seems to be holding up as well.)


    I can see how it might seem to the uninitiated that Kitesurfers have no rights.  That they get no respect and that they’re just not feeling the love.

    On Maui, they were quickly relegated to the nastiest little stretch of beach on the North shore -- the end of the line, right next to the wastewater treatment plant.

    Hatteras used to have them half a mile south of “The Canadian Hole”.  No parking lot.  No showers.  Nothing but a sand road and a crowd of other kiters.  But now they have a parking lot.  And you need a permit to park on the sand. 

    Here in Pistol River, the nearest designated kite beach is either forty miles to the south in Crescent City or more than sixty miles to the north at Whiskey Run.  Keep driving young kite star.  There’s way too much militant anti-kiteitude from some of the windsurfers around here to even want to deal with getting some turns out front of the Rock.  (Although that scene seems to have improved lately.)


    It would further seem that right of way rules don’t smile on kiting either.  Being such the maneuverable boat, they are obligated to yield to just about everything except a jet ski.  And when it comes down to it, they are better off yielding to them too.


    Then you have the pragmatic view dictating that kites ride downwind in a mixed use situation to keep a clear downwind window for the Ginsu knives they call strings -- with an extra football field or so to allow for the occasional full yark event when the kite takes control.  Which seems to solve for the safety issue nicely.  But this strategy can be complicated by any number of things.  Like better waves upwind, not having room to land downwind or clueless, even belligerent windsurfers crowding them downwind.  Or of course, when there are riders that think they are so good that any rules wouldn’t apply to them.  These riders will all too often, want to be right up in it and this tends to be the largest source of friction between the windsurfers and the kitesurfers around here anyway.   



    “I totally get how the hardcore skiers felt after snowboarding came along.  Although I bet they would have been double freaking if the those early snowboarders had already been using kites.” 

                                                                                                                                                                                  -max shredroom



    Hopefully, it is some small consolation for kitesurfing that it’s all the buzz these days.  They’re definitely enjoying the lions share of media coverage, contest stoke and sponsorship action.   The massive hang time is quite impressive.  Much respect for all that spray too.  They’ve even got a shot at doing the Olympics.  And as with windsurfing, every once in awhile, you see someone that can actually ride a wave.  But face it.  The rest of us are pretty much just out there mowing the grass and there is plenty of grass out there for us to mow.  So I have to think we should be able to work this out. 


    It might bear mentioning that kiting is gaining a small advantage in the majority rules department.  I’ve overheard statistics that suggest while windsurfing has remained steady at about 350,000 participants worldwide, Kiting has overtaken that number and is rising fast.  So I wonder how much longer some of the more intolerant windsurfing participants can hold sway over “their spots” by saying they were here first?  Yeah, I’m thinking it won’t be too much longer before kiters start getting a little more room out there.  Perhaps even just as soon as the more militant windsurfers wear themselves out manufacturing all that tude.   


    Speaking of militant windsurfers, the Boss does offer a strong analogy when he says that when kiters want to ride with windsurfers, it’s like walking out into the middle of a soccer game and setting up some batting practice.  Now some may find the image a bit extreme, but it helps us understand how he feels.  He’s not the only one either.  There was even a kiter that came through Pistol last summer who offered he wasn’t up at one of the kite beaches because he didn’t like kiting with other kiters.  Yeah, well many of the windsurfers that frequent the local beaches do seem to agree with him on that point.   


     In the way of full disclosure, I really should confess that I was exaggerating the situation here in Pistol River when I suggested the closest kite beach was in California.  For it so happens there’s a new “kite beach” just about a mile downwind from the Rock.  A pack of the local surfers turned kiters were quick to figure out how much fun it is to ride at the new river mouth and there were eight kites in the air the other day.  They’re a great bunch of kids who are mostly looking to do something with all the blown out surf we get around here.  (Except for Brendon, who seems to be all about the air.)  Hey they’ve been nothing but respectful in not usurping the windsurfers from their ancestral windsurfing grounds  -- choosing mostly to ride the open beaches in town and when the tide is high, the river mouth down from the rock.  Seems like it’s the tourists that like to crash the scene and get the dogs barking.  Which gave rise to my theory that it’s not just a safety issue.  Territoriality and perhaps more precisely, insecurity must enter into it large.  And I get the insecurity.  When I’m sailing in mixed company, I don’t even think about jumping for air.  At most, a loop or a skimming nose in, but you know what I mean.  I just pretend it’s all about riding the wave and forget jumping.  And sure it’s hard not to have the somewhat remote risk of getting cut to the bone by the damn strings in the back of one’s mind, (kind of like worrying about getting bitten by a shard I suppose) but that’s not what gets to me.  It’s the being out-jumped and out-sprayed so beyond beyond. 


    If you know me very well, you know I have a great deal of love and respect for Kiting.  I’m a fan and I saw all this coming way back when a performance waterskier named Cory Roeseler started winning the blowout on a kite.  And I was there when the early adopters were getting hammered by C kites on Hatteras.  Got yarked pretty evil myself.  And I’m at peace with the whole program.  Especially since it really is so purely insane watching the hot riders throw down.  And the entry level kiting is certainly more entertaining to watch than beginner windsurfing (though kind of scary sometimes).  So be assured that my bias is fairly minimal.  And that I meant it when I said some of my best friends are Kiters.  It makes sense for nearly all of them too.  And they get that windsurfing makes sense for me.  Except for the odd new initiate that might still try to evangelize me.  (Victor, most recently.)  But I’m always quick to shut that kind of noise right down by handing them a “If it were easy ...” sticker.


    And so what’s our mission here?  Are we going to let the perception that windsurfers and kitesurfers can’t get along prevail?  Two use groups that really do have even more in common than the two major political factions in this country and yet, can’t seem to get along either.  Feels like Groundhog day to me.  I mean haven’t we been here before?  Hang-gliders and Para-sailers?  Rollerbladers and Skateboarders?  Skiers and Snowboarders?  Surfers and Standup paddlers?  Here’s to putting away the petty territoriality and embarrassment while moving forward with respect, keeping it safe and blending into a more peaceful coexistence.  


                            “Mi taku o yasin.” (We are all related.)

                                                               - from the close of a Lakota pipe smoking ceremony



                                                                            __________________________________________________________________\_

 

Notice of strike:



   So it’s on.  




My faith in the electoral process is long dead.  The ironically titled "citizen’s united” seemed to seal it.  At best, we might help sway a local election but anything of larger consequence has clearly been bought off.   The only real power we have left apart from taking to the streets in protest is what we spend our money on.  What beast will you choose to feed?  The airline industry, big pharma, industrialized agriculture, the fossil fuel industry, plastics manufacture, diamond cartels, ....?  It’s nearly all about the money for these people, these corporations.  Are you going to empower them by giving them yours?


And how much plastic do we have in our lives?   Always buying new stuff instead of beating the hell out of the stuff we have?  Still flying around at will?  That’s been my largest crime.  The one thing that is easily the most impressive carbon impact any of us is likely to ever have short of going into space.  And all the driving.  All the stuff.  Big ass stupidly built houses.  What we eat.  I could of course go on and on. 


No one seemed to be listening to Hansen or Carter or Gore but will they now hear a Swedish teenager who has some searing points to make about our reticence to even recognize or mourn what we’ve done, much less start doing anything about reining in our emissions?  And of course, overpopulation drives nearly every problem we have, yet no one seems to want to talk about that either.  


I was not surprised to read that in all fairness, we in the industrialized west need to take a six fold reduction in our standard of living in the name of climate equity.  Well, I for one will do my best.  I’ve been driving far less.  I’ve sworn off air travel.  I’m doing my best to eschew new stuff (as I contend with justifying an exemption for the board I just bought), working to recycle, up cycle, or simply not use it.  Doing my best to ban single use anything in my life, especially if it’s made of fucking plastic.  I try to eat as close to the local ground as I can.  I even grow a few things.  I’ve been sailing local too.  Going more and more plant based with my diet.  Less and less virgin material in my work.  And I’m ever more careful what I spend my money on if I do spend.  I figure the beast you feed should at least be a beast you love.    


So yeah, it’s on.  As described, it’s just a one man strike.  But maybe a little piece of it will die if I’m not feeding it any more.     _________|_