Chris Legh

As a sports fan when I was a kid I still remember every single interaction I had with athletes I looked up to. I remember most of those conversations word for word. I think I still have a few basketball player's and surfer's signatures around somewhere. Nearly everyone was extremely nice and took the time to make me feel special and as a result they all were, and many remain, on the metaphorical pedestal I placed them upon. 

Until I met Chris Legh I had never met an athlete I looked up to who put me on the same level as them. We were equals. This wasn't merely because triathletes are far from rockstars and Chris was young; this was a genuine, down-to-earth personality and pride Chris had in sharing triathlon with others.

Stolen from slowtwitch.com. Chris at home in Melbs.

I've only met Chris twice; once after a small race in Melbourne in... I'm guessing 1996- and once at swimming training shortly after, but both times he was happy to answer my many inane triathlon questions, made me feel like I was on the right track, and also made me feel like I had contributed some knowledge to the conversation. I don't think there's much greater feeling of empowerment than teaching an idol something, even if 17 years of hindsight suggests he was probably aware that putting your sunnies in your helmet in transition is faster. 

With that information in his arsenal Chris won several Ironman races, and made it to the pointy end of the race in Kona before melting and inadvertently creating some of the most spectacular vision in endurance sport. He worked with the Gatorade Sport Science Institute to dial in his hydration and came back stronger. Getting through another health issue in 2006 Chris was unable to race Ironman consistently so adapted with the situation and ended up dominating 70.3 racing for years. 

It is this relentless desire to find a new way to do things that has allowed Chris to race professionally for more than 20 years and maintain long relationships with sponsors. Being instrumental in the creation of Ironman Melbourne and still wanting to go long, Chris raced IM Melbs this year, taking an incredible 5th place then backed it up with a great race at Coeur d'Alene and managed to qualify for Hawaii, where he will race his last as a professional this Saturday. 

As an outside observer of his glittering career I have the utmost respect for his ability to adapt, his understanding of the business of triathlon, and what seems like, year-round fitness! However, as an insider to that conversation in 1996 that Chris will most certainly have forgotten, I have the utmost respect for the time he took to make me feel like I could go pro if I wanted to.

What's He Thinking?

Jacobs singing Crowie to sleep?

I love getting a glimpse into the mindset of athletes I respect.  Any little snippet I can get to see how they motivate, how they push harder, or how they prepare fascinates me.  This photo shows me nothing.  In fact, this photo gives me more questions than answers!

On the left is Craig Alexander, 2 time World Ironman champion and one of the best prepared athletes in the triathlon world.  When he rocks up to race you can be sure he's got the whole thing dialled.  He doesn't come unprepared.

On the right is Pete Jacobs, triathlon journey-man.  Not a novice when it comes to long distance racing but he certainly manages to fly under the radar.  In both the 2 years previous to this photo he had made the podium at Kona (I think) so he was close to the win.

This media conference was in the days before the 2012 Hawaiian Ironman, after a few months of Pete Jacobs telling anyone who would listen that he was ready to win.  Had the ever humble Crowie had enough of hearing the talk?  I think a lot of people had written him off as all talk, myself included.

Pete Jacobs ended up dominating everyone who stood in his way that day.  

King out, Carney in

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, finishes up his second, and final, 5 year term this week, and was really the only BoE Governor I've known.  While there was nothing really for me to dislike about him, he did seem to have an easy run before an unprecedented tough period in which he failed to take action and blamed his lack of power.

www.mirror.co.uk

He eventually gained more power- too late to stop a lending squeeze which brought down Northern Rock- and introduced a quarterly Inflation report.  That was useful; if you wanted to highlight how poorly you were doing your job.  My understanding of the BoE's mandate is to keep Interest Rates steady, growth sustainable, and Inflation below 2%.  I don't remember seeing inflation below 2% in the whole time I lived in the UK.

In true British tradition there were some cool quirks that he who leads the 400 year old bank must abide by. Dealing with a twat with a red briefcase is one of them.  Another is writing a letter to that a fore-mentioned twat explaining why Inflation is over 2%.  That letter must have been written so often during Mervyn King's reign that it would have been smart to set up an email template.

Last week Mervyn mentioned that one of his regrets was not being vocal enough about the growing risks in the financial system in the lead up to the lending crisis in 2008.  Hindsight is wonderful.  With a change of powers, the BoE is now the authority when it comes to bank oversight and financial stability.  So his successor, Mark Carney should have no trouble when the next unprecedented financial shock rolls in.

Make a Stand

People make a stand in different ways.  I don't think it matters how it's done, as long as you do it.  In light of Adam Goodes' stand against racism I thought about one of my favourite photos of all time, which is actually on show at Victoria Park at the moment to celebrate 20 years since it was taken.

Photo: Wayne Ludbey for Herald Sun

Decide what you believe in and make a stand.

Procedure

I like standard procedure.  I like systems.  I even like rules.  But I hate the way they're followed.  I hate the way they're written, their intentions, and their condescending disregard for the end user.  In the sections of my life where I sell out, procedure is a huge part of the problem but it's a necessary evil and has created its own solution.  The use of good procedure has allowed for the recruitment of lesser intellect.

Let me explain.  If procedure is a set of rules that, if followed correctly, will result in a desired outcome, then a free-thinking, intelligent human is no longer required.  There are benefits and disadvantages to that. The system will benefit because risk is limited.  However, if the system fails and the human running it does not have the capacity to perform the task manually then there is no hope.  In a corporate world procedure is used well for conveyerbelt roles (like mine!)- and as a result idiots are recruited and process is never improved.

For my personal projects, however, I like to use procedures and systems because to me they are dynamic.  The process is always being tweaked.  I guess you could argue that it's not a procedure if it isn't static but in my black and white mind the result is easier to evaluate when the journey was documented.  It is very rare for me to tweak a procedure before I can evaluate a result of some kind so in a way the process isn't dynamic until the end result is complete; whether that be a success or failure.

In its simplest form a procedure is an estimation of the steps required to reach a particular goal.  I want to fry an egg- I have to heat up a pan, crack and egg into the pan, and let it cook.  The best analysis can come at the end of the process.  The egg stuck to the pan?  I'll tweak the procedure next time by putting oil in before the egg.  The egg was too runny?  I'll cook it for longer.

For my projects the fun (and hard work) comes well before I start performing the steps.  I feel much more comfortable and confident in a pressure situation when I've set in place the system that I think will get me the greatest result.  I think this is borne of my athletic and financial markets past.  Want to run faster?  Train in a particular fashion over a particular period of time.  It has been tried and tested.  Want to buy low, sell high?  Use these statistics/ econometrics/ chart patterns that have worked in the past.  Knowing that these steps will give the highest chance of success takes away a lot of the unknown and that comforts me in the heat of battle.

Analysis of the efficacy of the system used is essential for improvement.  So many variables have the ability to influence end results so these need to be taken into account but by testing, performing and re-testing, systems and procedures will become robust and risks are able to be minimised.  Intuition still has a part but this will be built from experience of tweaking. Failure builds experience and procedure allows you to document that in a controlled environment.

Product Reviews

I have never written a product review.  I'm not going to start today so don't run away yet.  I've written book reviews but they were mostly based on the movie because I didn't want to read the book.  I very occasionally read product reviews when I can't make my own mind up about something but I find most of them are written by people who are paid to do so or in doing the review are rewarded with free shit.  I want to be the latter.

There's this running jacket...  Well, 'not a jacket'- the guy in the store told me- 'more of a running over-piece'.  It's not cool enough to have a running jacket in your catalogue anymore.  You break new ground if you manufacture running over-pieces.  At the risk of upsetting the manufacturer I'll call it what it is.

This running jacket first caught my eye on the internet.  It's made by The North Face, whose products I quite like, and I thought I'd find out more.  When face to face with it in the shop I liked the cut of it and the feel of the fabric.  Some space-age material that keeps you warm but cool, among a host of other oxymoron.  All in all I thought this was a brilliant jacket, the likes of which I have never worn before.  Until I read the price tag...  One hundred and ninety dollars.  For an over-piece.

TBA is French for 'Rip Off'

So now I want to review it.

Send your signatures to:
The North Face
14450 Doolittle Drive
San Leandro, CA, 94577 USA

...or your local MP.

Are You Worth Your Wages?

It's easy to whinge.  In fact, this whole blog is just a big outlet for my whinging.  I complained (a lot) when I got back from London that my wages in Australia are rubbish.  I justify that by considering the financial contribution I bring to the firm I work for and although I'm sick of arguing the point, I'm in favour of a CEO being paid millions if they were good for the company.  It's even easier to argue in favour of a huge bonus for a trader who makes millions for the company.  If a small percentage of their profits equate to $30m then a bonus of $30m is fine by me. 

Curtis Compton/The Associated Press

What about at the other end?  What if it's not so easy to equate your positive impact on a company to your personal income?  Prize money in sport is a difficult debate because it's not always obvious how much the athletes contribute to the sport's income.  Maybe Lakers ticket sales are lower when Kobe Bryant is injured (I dunno why, it's not entertaining to watch a guy take the tough shot when there are 4 others who could take the easy shot if he'd just pass it...) but for other sports/ players it's not that clear cut.

A few years ago the Australian Netballers cracked it over low wages.  This made me understand the whole vicious circle that is the spectator/ media/ sponsorship merry-go-round.  Lift each of them and the cash will flow but none of them will lift without the others.  One Netballer at the time said something like 'we work as hard as AFL players so we should be paid the same'.  Poor girl.  I'm sure she works harder than most AFL players but that's not what gets the cash in.  Having 8,000 people at your game vs 60,000 is the difference between being paid $15k a year and $200k a year.

So all of this was raised again in my little Triathlon world, this week, when the richest prize purse in Triathlon halved it's payout for the 2013 race.  The Hy-Vee in Iowa has dished out between $150k and $200k to the winner over the last few years and when they said we'll only give the winner $100k this year a lot of athletes had a hissy fit.  ONE HUNDRED GRAND!  Shut. Up.  Triathlon is not Golf or Tennis.  It never will be; but when the Ironman World Championships only pays the winner $120k I'd be stoked with the possibility of an extra hundred grand pay day.  In addition to this, Hy-Vee pays all the way down to 30th place.  I don't know too much about Pro prize purses but I'm pretty sure you couldn't rock up to many races around the world expecting any more than $20,000 for the win, nor to be paid past 10th place (if you're lucky). 

Photograph: David Cannon/Getty Images

Triathlon is a stupid sport (even if I do say so myself).  People don't get it.  As a result there is limited mainstream media coverage and not much non-sporting sponsorship.  I could go off on tangents about the marketing of the sport and the need for a reprisal of the Tooheys Blue series of the mid-90's, which would certainly help, but if any Pros got into Triathlon for the money they were kidding themselves.  I think there are about 7 triathletes world wide who make a killing.  The rest get by on what they can and I hope the vast majority remember that they are doing what they love, day in, day out.

People should thank the Hy-Vee Triathlon for putting up the big bucks for as long as they could, and continuing to support "professional" triathletes.

Don't Steal From Me

My early celebration of Notting Hill Carnival, given it's only Friday 8.30am in London, has been abruptly halted with the news that Lance Armstrong will not challenge USADAs ruling that, ummm... What is their ruling?  I've not heard any formal charges they are laying down, and once again I question who they are.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is not a Government Authority but is predominantly tax-payer funded and seems to have some sort of oversight of Olympic, Paralympic and Pan-American sport.  What we do without knee-jerk reactions from U.S. Congress?

Something I must highlight is that I will never speculate on whether Lance Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs.  I wasn't there so I don't know.  Neither were you so don't make it up.  And if you were there I want to know what you have to gain from spilling your guts.  Professional cycling was rife with drugs during the 90's and early 2000's; maybe it still is.  If Lance Armstrong won 7 Tours while on drugs: cool- level playing field, maybe?  If Lance Armstrong won 7 tours clean, against incredible riders who later admitted doping: there's hope to kids that it can be done clean.

Jonathan Vaughters rode professionally from 1994 until 2003 and later admitted to doping.  Last week he wrote a brilliant opinion piece in the New York Times suggesting that all drug cheats were looking for was a level playing field.  It was not necessarily to get ahead but to get along side.  Riccado Ricco aside, maybe...

Whether the amount of drug cheats uncovered in cycling are a result of a drug riddled sport or a governing body serious about testing, I personally find Lance Armstrong an inspiration.  His sharp wit, unnerving charm, and imposing presence are the traits that give me something to aspire to.  I'm not afraid of anyone.  My daily job requires dealing with the angriest, most short tempered, small dick/massive wallet traders in the world.  But if I had to challenge Lance Armstrong I'd wanna have my story straight before I stepped up.  And I like that.  Whether you view it as redemption, glory seeking or anything else, the things he has done for Cancer research and exposure are admirable.

Now I don't know much about charity (despite my girlfriend being the national manager for brand and communications for a great charity in Make-A-Wish!) so I'm not sure if corporate sponsors would go cold on Armstrong after this ruling or what sort of flow on effects that 'kid that nobody likes' in USADA will have but I'm gonna tell you what shits me to no end...

Lance Armstrong retired from professional cycling years ago and was in the process of making overly-comfortable triathletes shiver in their onesies.  Armstrong had not hidden the fact that he wanted to race the Hawaii Ironman either as an age grouper or a pro.  As time went on it turned out that his times were too good for age group.  So he started racing half ironman races as a pro.  And he brought it.  It wasn't as though he was dominating in the ride enough to make up for a poor swim and poor run.  He was busting out credible times for all 3 disciplines- to the degree that he won 1, maybe 2 for memory, 70.3 races in the pro category.  If I were a pro triathlete I would ensure I was not beaten by a new comer, especially someone who brought so much media coverage to the sport.  But at the end of the day these were half ironman races.  Hawaii is a different sport.  Armstrong's first Ironman was supposed to be Nice, France in July this year but when your mates at USADA announced their witch-hunt WTC was obliged to ban him from racing so we'll never know.

WTC's reasons for banning him stem from rules put in place previously and actually enacted last year so this is another argument all together.  Also, I don't think he would have been a feature at Kona but I don't necessarily take inspiration from winners.  Lance Armstrong is a man who works hard at doing things other people say he can't do.  He has the added attraction of pulling them off so Kona was always going to be an incredible spectacle.  Instead, the incredible feats of human endeavour have been quashed by an 'authorative' body acting outside its poorly defined boundaries.

I titled this blog 'Don't Steal From Me' because it was the song I was listening to when I read that Lance Armstrong had given up fighting.  Ironically relentlessness is a quality I attribute to him so I don't think this is the end of great things.  In the meantime, listen to more Barrington Levy and celebrate Notting Hill Carnival this weekend!

If you want to see great things, watch my favourite Lance Armstrong moment of recent years:


If you want to see more great things, get into some Notting Hill Carnival!!

My Hopes for an Ideal World

'They've been fighting for over 2000 years, it can't be much longer now...' I love that quote from Adam Sandler's 'You Dont Mess with the Zohan' in regard to Israeli battles. With Osama supposedly popped, Yugoslavia supposedly settled, and Lybia supposedly freed, the world is getting closer to Utopia. But the evil regime that will never be broken down is that of the WTC, owners of the Ironman brand.

The 'World Championships' for IM and 70.3 (or 'half IM' if you haven't paid your licencing fees) is run by WTC and on the whole they do a good job. But to qualify you have to do one of their races at an extortionate cost. There are a few other organisations who are putting on brilliant events but aren't getting the athletes they deserve because either they're not a qualifier for the worlds or they're not M-Dot branded. I think that's a shame. In Australia WTC's events sell out in under 2 hours (IM Melbourne actually took just 6 minutes to sell out) yet Challenge Cairns, a brilliant Ironman run by a different company has been on sale for months yet is only half full.

While I also want to qualify for the worlds, I have decided not to do any WTC races in Australia and, in fact, only race them overseas when I feel I'm at a standard worthy of qualification. There are so many other races worthy of your entry fees, and at considerably cheaper prices!

Challenge Cape Town was recently postponed, I believe, due to issues about the safety of the course. WTC today offered any athlete registered for Cape Town a spot at any of their remaining Ironman events for 2011. I think that's both a beautiful offer and a brilliant business move. While nobody can deny that WTC have their domination of the sport dialled in, I hope that this offer is the start of a joint effort in opening up the world championship qualifying races to other organisers. Business wise, I think Gaza will be settled quicker. But for the good of the sport, maybe the answer is hiding in a drain with a golden gun.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's All the Financial Markets' Fault

Either I am missing something big or the same painful issue keeps coming up. It’s not the markets that dictate job losses and reduced growth. It’s the political policies. Funnily enough it’s only the Politicians and the uneducated public who blame the markets (who may well be one in the same). My same argument time and time again is that if you add regulation to an efficient market (by definition, not necessarily by practise) you are creating a set of rules for people to exploit, which further skews its inefficiency. This will exacerbate any Political failings when interest rates are applied based on market expectations and economic releases.

Remove all regulations and a free market will help (but not solve) these problems. There are always two sides…

Coulda, shoulda, woulda...

Stolen from Bloomberg:

RIP Amy Winehouse

We all have shit days at work. Some people I know rarely have good ones... I'm sure they don't want to be remembered by their worst days at work, especially if they ever had days as good as this one:

The first time I ever heard of Amy Winehouse:

RIP Amy Winehouse

We all have shit days at work. Some people I know rarely have good ones... I'm sure they don't want to be remembered by their worst days at work, especially if they ever had days as good as this one:

The first time I ever heard of Amy Winehouse:

Causal Link or Just Thug Policing?

Before I start this rant I must clarify that in my opinion being a member of any police force would be a very difficult job, and not one you can ever take a holiday from. There seems to be very little reward, much scrutiny, and impossible conditions created by poor Government support in many jurisdictions and constant cut-backs. Anyone who knows me would also know that I am often in complete disagreement with the way many individual police officers handle matters and this is one of them. I must say that I disagree with the decision handed down today by the Crown Prosecution Service that the police officer who pushed over a protestor that later died will be facing charges of Manslaughter.

At a protest in London in April 2009, Ian Tomlinson was pushed to the ground by PC Simon Harwood. There was footage of this which has been played over and over again by UK news channels throughout the inquest into his death. In the extended version of this footage Mr Tomlinson actually sits up and also walks away after being pushed, although looking shaken. While I see the police officer’s actions as incredibly excessive I don’t see the causal link between a man being pushed over, and the man having a heart attack minutes later. If any reasonable person were to consider the ramifications of pushing someone over, I don’t believe that suffering a cardiac arrest/ death would feature, even with the force exhibited by the police officer.

Watch the video for yourself.

I do believe that PC Simon Harwood should be disciplined for extremely excessive force, maybe assault and most likely removed from the police force but I don't feel Manslaughter is the appropriate charge. If, on the slim chance, he is convicted there will be flow on effects further reducing the effectiveness of police which could only be detrimental to order within society.

Holding police accountable for their actions is a rare sight for the general public; the last inquest I remember was that of Mark Saunders, the Lawyer who was shot and killed by police marksmen after what seems like a series of avoidable mis-communications within police ranks. The inquest was run with the 3 marksmen remaining anonymous and ultimately cleared. From a general public point of view these things look like they’re just swept under the carpet. There are plenty of police actions which could be looked into but I hope this officer facing Manslaughter doesn’t receive unduly harsh penalties as a result of previous unjust acquittals...

Surfing as we Know it is Still Good

The surfing at Bells Beach starts next week so it's time to unleash what, historically, has been my tip for world number one yet has without fail become "who will be world number two" for the 2011 season. As a Victorian the first event of the year in Queensland doesn't count. The original reasons for that opinion have long since faded but when it comes to surfing it takes me a long time to come around. I'm a surfing traditionalist in many ways. In part I used Snapper as a 'pre-season' test to see who is surfing well and who looks both happy with where they are but also is hungry and focused for the win.

In early 2008 I saw such a fire in Bede Durbidge's eyes so I picked him for the world title. I later found out that hunger was valid after he was left without a sponsor at the end of 2007 and re-mortgaged his house to go on tour. He finished 2nd the following year and that is still one of the most inspiring displays of determination I've ever seen in any sport.

In 2009 I was able to set my jealousy of his perfect life aside to stop degrading Joel Parkinson for being the best surfer to never win the world title, and pick him for the win. After a run-away lead in the first half of the year he was the hunted and was eventually taken down by his best friend Mick Fanning in the 2nd last event of the year and finished 2nd overall.

Last year I took a gamble on a relative newcomer, Jordie Smith, because he looked so content with where he was but had a subtle confidence that he wasn't yet at his best. The video he finished up just before the start of the 2010 season was one of the best I've seen. He finished 2010 in second place.

They suggest the definition of insanity is to repeat the same process over and over again yet to expect a different outcome. So from here on, my annual post-Snapper/ pre-Bells surfing world title call is a prediction for 2nd place!

Surfing has changed a lot in the past year. The ranking system has left the surfers more confused than a Japanese seismologist and the surfing magazines busier than a Brisbane mop shop. Despite having read the ASP rulebook a few times I also struggle with what the hell they are trying to do. One change that I am quite excited about, however, is the gentle nudge/ suggestion/ downright sacking of the head judge, Perry Hatchett last year. In my opinion surfing has the ability to be the most progressive sport in the world but that starts with judges rewarding progressive moves. Here is where my contradictions begin... I said earlier I may be a surfing traditionalist. If that is so, why would I want progressive manoeuvres? I'll put this into dot point for you, otherwise tangents are likely:
-The governing body for surfing is lost. They are planning events in places that are not the best waves in the world, so they are usually sloppy and small;
-Traditional competition surfing rewards good wave selection and good use of the wave face. At a bad location there are no good waves and very little face;
-If they are going to 'judge' based on crap waves then they need to allow the surfers free creativity and reward aerial and fakie (excuse the skate terminology, the surfers haven't named it yet...) manoeuvres more so than they have in the past.
Getting rid of Perry Hatchett was the first step in competition surfing being able to judge creative, progressive surfing better.

"If I cross my arms it means you're fired."


So, with that in mind, I feel that the surfer who will benefit most from that change this year is Taj Burrow. He must have been on tour for 14 or so years and has probably racked up more 3rds than anyone in history. I hesitate to suggest that I pick Taj to win the surfing world title in 2011 but in the name of insanity- and tradition- I think he will. I also have to throw in a special mention for Julian Wilson. I love the kid; down to earth, switched on, a sponsor's dream, and he surfs like demon. Very progressive in his moves too. His Sushi Roll (he created it, so he can name it...) is a fine example of why he will be multiple world champion by the time he retires.


This year is the 50th anniversary of the Bells Beach surf comp. This Easter competition out dates the industry itself. The simple idea that this has been going on for 50 years blows me away. The Rip Curl website has some interesting (although all too brief) videos detailing each decade the comp has been running. During the inevitable lay days I'd like to see the following competitions run (in the name of tradition of course):
-1960's comp: where nobody can wear a wetsuit because they weren't invented yet;
-1980's comp: a handicap competition where those with big single fin boards get a points advantage over those with thrusters, to replicate the development of surfboards;
-The MP hide-and-seek comp: to honour one of the best surfers of the 1970's who, it turned out, suffered from drug induced schizophrenia and used to hide in the bushes at Bells;
-a car park doughey comp: if you've ever been to Bells Beach and never chucked a donut in the car park... well... that's not possible.



The waiting period at Bells is magic. If you arrive there early in the morning you can feel an excited energy. It's late autumn, it's cold, it's slightly windy, it's noisy yet strangely peaceful. You can hear the anxious chatter from many people in the darkness and expect that you're on an edge where not even the birds feel comfortable. It seems to me to be a place where even those on the top of their game know they need to up their concentration. And then they pump "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC through the loud speakers and it becomes surfers against nature.


Finally, I'd like to bring a few statistics into the discussion. Bells has been running for 50 years. Since it became a professional competition in 1973, the most wins is 4, shared by Mark Richards and Kelly Slater. The only wildcard to win it (to my knowledge) is Mick Fanning in 2001- but Adam Robertson got to the final last year after progressing all the way through the trials. The first time I remember taking note of this beautiful event was in 1993 when Damien Hardman won it and in watching it every year since, still my favourite year was when Matt Hoy won in 1997 and the Screaming Jets (fellow Novacastrians) flew down to play a celebration gig in the car park.

In the 1992 movie Point Break, the greatest movie OF ALL TIME, the concept of the '50 year storm' is introduced. Apparently this is a once in a lifetime wave, and Bodie is gonna be there. Roach 'ain't gonna see 30'. And we all discover that 'it's not tragic to die doing what you love'. As this is the 50th year of competition surfing at Bells Beach I expect it to be a corker.



The Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach runs from 19th April until 30th April.
http://live.ripcurl.com

Go chuck a doughey in the car park.

You learn something new each day

I've just been informed that most weather forecasting bureaus admit that their forecasting accuracy is reduced by 10% for each day in advance, falling from 98%. The 10% reduction I can understand but the 98% accuracy of tomorrow's weather I would dispute!






Yesterday Yahoo! were suggesting 8 degrees and partly cloudy yet today they suggest 5 and partly cloudy. Unfortunately for them it is currently 4 and overcast. A far cry from the 9 and sunny they guessed on Monday and an even further cry from the 33 and sunny I was hoping for...

So that concludes this tediously useless study. Don't think I'll do that again...

Thanks to Clark I learned something else last week: when an electrical surge goes through an old building with galvanized pipes, it turns all the calcium build ups into hydrocarbon. Thus your drinking water is grot.

Don't say this blog isn't educational.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A.I.

I didn't like Andy Irons much. I thought he was a sore loser, too highly strung and too full of himself. And I wasn't alone in holding that opinion. But nobody would dare deny that he was an incredibly driven athlete and a fantastic surfer. He continued to drive the change in competition surfing that was started by Kelly Slater years before.



I still think that the most intense comp I remember taking notice of was Pipe in 2005(?). The world title had come down to the last event of the season and A.I. beat Slater to win his 3rd world title in a row. I think he also won one of his 4 triple crowns that year too. But it wasn't 3 worlds in a row or 4 triple crowns where Andy inspired, it was in the way he never backed down and whenever he wanted something he did whatever was needed to get it.

Some of the steepest, heaviest waves in the world caused the greatest to sit back and evaluate the situation but it seemed as though Andy was always at the front of the line, hanging to drop into something big. I could count on one hand those talented and loco enough to do that day in- day out. So it's very grounding to see someone so in tune with big risks go down to something as simple as a mosquito borne virus. I looked at Andy as someone almost unbreakable so something like this makes you re-assess mortality. A sombre experience.

Andy Irons Tribute from Brian Bielmann from M. Scott Mortensen on Vimeo.