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It has been a while since we featured some base jumping. For some great video, click here.

Sixteen feet. Sixteen seconds. These two simple numbers can have a wild impact when they show up on Tahiti swell-prediction charts. On Monday 24th July, the whole South Pacific region from Antarctica to Tahiti was showing strong wind fetch heading for the French Polynesian Islands. These were the perfect ingredients to bring the famed Teahupoo reef break really alive a few days later.

Things had been unusually quiet since the beginning of the year. The much-anticipated late April tow-in sessions had never materialized. Some foreign tow-in teams had actually camped over 2 months waiting for one of those epic sessions. Some big classic paddle-in sessions had taken place but nothing worth pulling out the jet ski from the garage.

By Thursday night, the Tahitian reefs were rumbling with a clean SSW deep ocean swell. Waves were starting to wash up into the multi-million dollar beachfront homes close to Taapuna.

The Billabong Adventure Division team, Dylan Longbottom and Laurie Towner were quickly dispatched to pair up with Shane Dorian and local Manoa Drollet. Laird Hamilton teamed up with local charger Raimana Van Bastolaer.
Mark Healey, Peter Mel and Brazilians Patio and Silvio Mancusi made up the foreign contingent. Most of the usual Teahupoo addicts were on stand-by for an amazing day.

For the local crew it was an emotional day. Everybody had only one thing on his mind - our late friend Malik.

Cameramen like Gilles Hucault, Marco, Timothé Pruvost had followed Malik on practically every tow-in session at Teahupoo. Surfers like Manoa Drollet, Raimana, Poto and Arsene had shared some incredible rides and moments with him at Teahupoo. Malik’s girl friend, Kamakea, came out with us with her HD camera to film all the action from the boat of Manoa’s father, Bjarn Drollet. As we set foot in the boat, a lizard not unlike Malik’s dorsal tattoo was sitting in the back next to the engine. Obviously this little gecko wanted to hang out with us today!

It took some courage for Kamakea to get back out into the roaring maxed-out Teahupoo line up, the type of conditions in which Malik would leave his mark, always rising to the occasion.

Something was tragically different without Malik’s physical presence in the line up. Tears were periodically fogging up the eyepieces of some of the most seasoned Teahupoo photographers and cameramen. It was as if the wave itself had actually changed. As if the reef was bending a different way. As if the waves were maybe smaller. People were looking over their shoulders expecting to hear that laugh or see his magnetic smile. His name kept popping up in conversations. But eventually the beauty and the hypnotic power of the wave started to work its magic. See the pictures and read the rest of the article here.

Some of you may know about the huge festival of art, music and mind altering oblivian that happens in the northern Nevada high desert every summer. If you have not heard, I'd like to give you the skinny. 40,000 folks from all corners of the earth come together for an amazing six day fest that includes high art, theme camps and a 80 foot man that burns at the climax of the event. Think Woodstock without the mud, rain, Jefferson Airplane, bad brown acid and almost 40 years in the future. No really, it's nothing like the hippie era of Woodstock. It's RV's, bikes, themed vehicles, super hot days and cold nights, sand storms and an incredible celebration of music, sharing and life!! I have yet to attend but have several friends that go every year and they have nothing but great things to say about the gathering of the tribes. This year's theme is Hope and Fear: The Future. There is plenty of info on the web about this get together but start at the source. "You're here to celebrate. On Saturday night, we'll burn the Man. As the procession starts, the circle forms, and the man ignites, you experience something personal, something new to yourself, something you've never felt before. It's an epiphany, it's primal, it's newborn. And it's completely individual." Click here.

Tow in surfing has been all the rage for the last 10 years or so. Now the kite boarders are getting into the act. But there is alot more at stake when a kiter is over 100 feet in the air.... Check this bonehed move here.

Finian Maynard became sailing's fastest man on water when he broke the 500 metre course record in November 2004 sailing on The Canal or the "French Trench" near Saintes Maries de la Mer in France with an official speed of 46.82 knots. Breaking the record, which had been set by the innovative asymmetric trimaran Yellow Pages in 1993, and bringing it back to windsurfing was not enough for Finian and he continued to chase his dream. In April, the conditions on The Canal were perfect and he broke his own record by nearly two knots recording a speed of 48.70 knots, tantalizingly close to that elusive 50 knot barrier. It took almost two years of preparation from when Finian and the Masters of Speed team began the rebuild of The Canal to make it the perfect venue for speed sailing record attempts and there is little doubt that Finian will be back on the "French Trench" and the 50 knot barrier will tumble. To see some video of his world record, click here.

I am very interested in sailing fast on the water. I once hit 9kts on our Newport 30 but we were out of control on a 40 kt day. When I go windsufing I hit 30 a couple times (guessing). That was very fast. I hope one day I will get a chance to ride on a racing cat or tri and sail a big boat in the high 20's or 30's. That would be cool. Found a website that you can submitt your speed info to. A GPS is important for verification. See how fast other folks are sailing here.

Watch this Moth vid here.

For the vid, click here.

Here is one more to kick off your Saturday. Click here.

You may remember from a previous post that 20 something Liz is sailing a surfing safari around the world. Mexico was very good to her and now she is moving on to other countries. "Managua, Nicaragua is a beautiful spot. There’s coffee and bananas and the temperature’s hot…so take a trip, get on a ship, go sailing away…across the agua, to Nicaragua...” The tune bounced off my lips as we were engulfed in the whiteness of yet another thunderstorm. Rain and more rain pelted the decks of Swell as Shannon and I slid south down Nicaragua’s coast once again. A procession of tropical depressions was marching right over our course. As we approached a remote anchorage that I’d had my heart set on, the rain came down so hard we couldn’t see ten feet off the bow. The sloppy windswell was funneling straight into the cove. After circling in exasperation, we agreed that the place looked miserable and downright dangerous against the lee shore, so we headed back out to sea. We tried again at the next possible stop, San Juan del Sur, but the same conditions prevailed. Fortunately, there was one last option, so we pressed on to make northern Costa Rica’s well-protected Bahia Santa Elena before dark. In the last hours of the passage, the skies cleared and we played a nauseatingly intense game of chess while rolling in the troughs of the leftover seas. We made it into the calm waters of the glorious bay just in time to set the hook before dark.
Read the rest of her log here.

Check out this great sail vid. The Spitfire class out of the UK is fun, excting, and can push you to the limits.

Selecting a cruising boat is one of the most important decisions in preparing for an offshore voyage and often is a pivotal point in the changing of dreams from "Let's take off and go cruising some time", into the reality of "Let's get outfitted and go". Obviously there isn't any single design perfect for everyone; the boat you choose should be safe, comfortable, well built, and ideally capable of fast passages and prove to be a good investment. The process of selecting and purchasing a boat for long distance cruising usually takes a minimum of six to 12 months. First you'll need to research boat types which suit your budget and cruising plans. Be patient, ask questions and learn everything you can and keep an open mind. If your plans are for coastal cruising you'll be able to consider a wider range of boats than those suited for long-distance ocean passages. Secondly you'll need to locate, examine, survey, test sail, complete the purchase transaction and possibly ship or deliver your new boat to a place convenient for outfitting. If you make a poor choice you may be plagued with structural problems, leaks, slow uncomfortable passages, endless repairs and a low resale price. I mention resale price now, because the money used for purchasing a cruising boat often represents a substantial part of many people's life savings. Although sailboats are rarely a "good" investment in strictly monetary terms, you'll want to recoup as much of your original purchase price as possible when it comes time to sell.

Size and Cost
Two of the most important points to remember when selecting a boat are size and cost. The size of boat you select will affect your cruising costs, not only in initial purchase and outfitting, but also in cruising expenses once you're under way. Few people realize that outfitting a stock boat for long distance cruising can easily take 30% to 50% more than the initial purchase price. On a 40' new or used boat, this can mean an additional $20,000 to $50,000 just for essential equipment including additional sails, ground tackle, liferaft, safety gear and tender. This amount excludes optional equipment such as refrigeration, electronics, outboard motors, scuba gear and autopilots. Here is a common scenario: you overspend on the initial purchase of the boat, spend more money on equipment that isn't essential and then run short of funds once you've completed your initial provisioning and have actually started cruising. A better approach, if you're working within a fixed budget, is to spend less on the initial purchase by either purchasing a well-built used boat or a smaller new boat. Purchase the priority equipment first, provision the boat (or set aside $2,000 for it), set aside an average of $700 to $1,800 (for a couple) per month for the period of time you want to cruise. Then see if there is enough money left for the expensive, non-essential but "sure would be nice to have" equipment. From my observations and experience, the majority of boats cruising for a year or longer are sailed by couples, and a boat in the 35' to 45' size range works out best, particularly if they are new to sailing. The cost, time and energy required to maintain a 50' to 60' boat versus a 35' boat once you're "out there" cruising is significantly higher. When I started cruising the South Pacific in 1974 on a Vega 27, there were many cruisers on shoestring budgets, open-ended cruises on boats under 35'. Today we are seeing people cruising faster on larger boats, covering a lot of countries in a shorter time with a planned cruising time frame. It is no longer an open-ended lifestyle choice, but one that most people experience for two to three years before moving on to the next phase of their life. In general, the median length of cruising boats has been increasing steadily. This may correspond with an increase budget of many cruisers due to the strong stock market and economic climate and the development and improvement of sail-handling systems including furling mainsails and electric winches. Read the rest of the article here.

Could you imagine swimming 15 hours a day for 60 - 70 days? I am a swimmer and I can not imagine doing such a thng. There is such a man, his name is Martin Strel. His greatest feat was to swim the Missisipppi River. All 2300 miles of it. He also swam 84 hours in a row and covered over 300 miles in the process. Unbelievable! Check his website and some of his other adventures here.