Every step has a ramp on the side, so you CAN ride up and down. How cool is that?! Being a Floridan, we don't have much occasion for stairs like this, but if the rest of the US doesn't do it, they should.
Thursday 24 July 2008
Bicycle Friendly
Earlier today, I was walking around the back of my complex and noticed some new asphalt had been laid. It was on a hill and rather than just laying a ramp that cars would be tempted to drive up, stairs were made. The interesting thing is that this would be a great shortcut through my complex, but the stairs are so large, that I'd break my bike in half if I tried to ride up or down them. But, being a very bike friendly place, I noticed this:
Every step has a ramp on the side, so you CAN ride up and down. How cool is that?! Being a Floridan, we don't have much occasion for stairs like this, but if the rest of the US doesn't do it, they should.
Every step has a ramp on the side, so you CAN ride up and down. How cool is that?! Being a Floridan, we don't have much occasion for stairs like this, but if the rest of the US doesn't do it, they should.
Wednesday 23 July 2008
Shark!!!
While I was in the US, I got to take a dive trip down to Jupiter, Florida. I've dove out of Jupiter before, but never on the charter that I was on. It was a great time and we saw above-average diving for the east coast of Florida. I've uploaded a photoset with a combination of above and under water pictures from my father, mother, and brother.
One of the things I get asked the most about my diving by non-divers is how close you get to sharks when you're under. To help illustrate it, here are a couple of videos from this last trip. I'll say that the sharks were no where near as aggressive as I've seen and are about what we see most of the time.
Galen and I were heads down taking some pictures of reef fish when I stuck my head up and did a 360. I noticed this shark just sort of tracking us curiously. Nothing aggressive and you can see that as soon as we turned and saw him, he headed away. There isn't really any scale, but he's about 5 feet long and about 40 feet away.
This one on the other hand was much, much closer. The dive master noticed a group of three nurse sharks hiding under a ledge (they are one of the few sharks that doesn't have to swim to breath and they like to lie together) and we all crowded round. The first two sharks got away pretty quickly, but we had inadvertently cornered this pregnant female. I'm the body directly on the other side of the shark as the camera pans, so we were pretty close. :)
You can see that even cornered, all the shark wants to do is get away. It does help that the nurse shark is incredibly docile with 27 attacks and no deaths since 1580.
Hopefully this gives everyone an idea of what it's like underwater and convinces some of you that it's worth it to take up diving. Anywhere, anytime, just give me a call.
Tuesday 22 July 2008
In the Trees
For those who were wondering, I did surprise Jill! She claims she knew, but I don't trust her. There was definitely some smiling going on, and she doesn't typically do that if she knows I'm coming.
We had a great week together including her birthday party, some strawberry picking, trips to multiple Apple Stores, and more. One of the best things was actually somewhat accidental. We'd gone out to do some shopping one morning before an interview that Jill was doing. We'd struck out at a couple of stores (although I did go to a HUGE bicycle shop) and we had some time to kill. We didn't feel like eating or going any place special so Jill took us to a public arboretum. It was fantastic! On a hot day, we simply sat among the cool trees and just had some quality time together; something we don't get to do much. I don't really do it very often, but it's always nice when you can relax a bit on vacation.
The trip was too short and I can't wait until she gets here, but it was a great time while I was there.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Surprise!
I've been quiet this last couple of weeks because I had something big plans. Jill's 30th was the last weekend, so I surprised her by flying over to Seattle. We've had a great week so far and on Wednesday, I'm flying down to my parents in Florida to hang out and do some SCUBA diving. If any of you in Florida are reading this, I'd be interested in meeting up. Just ping me via email and we'll see if we can work something out.
Isle of Wight - Part 2
So tomorrow actually means next week and then some. But as promised here are some statistics and graphs from our Isle of Wight trip. As I looked over some of these graphs, I realized that our newer riders did some serious stuff. From day one, the map:
You can see that day one was pretty short relative to the entire trip. But it was a good thing. We go scones, some sight-seeing and an early finish for the new guys. Even knowing that it was short, you can see by the following graph that there wasn't much flat. We climbed 700m and most importantly climbed one monster hill at the end of the day! We even managed a 15 kph average which was a fair bit faster than I had accounted for.
Day two was a fair bit longer, 67.5 km versus 47.2 km, but again our new guys did really well. I can remember that the first couple of times I went out with Rob and Adrian I was totally shattered at the end of 50km. This time, everyone was hauling gear and the hills were higher I think ;)
You can see that we had an even better average speed on the second day and had quite the insane climb to start the morning. But you can see that touching nearly 55 kph coming back down the hill was pretty fun.
This should finish up the Isle of Wight posts, but I think we're planning a three day trip to Wales later this year, so be on the lookout for more insane cycling.
You can see that day one was pretty short relative to the entire trip. But it was a good thing. We go scones, some sight-seeing and an early finish for the new guys. Even knowing that it was short, you can see by the following graph that there wasn't much flat. We climbed 700m and most importantly climbed one monster hill at the end of the day! We even managed a 15 kph average which was a fair bit faster than I had accounted for.
Day two was a fair bit longer, 67.5 km versus 47.2 km, but again our new guys did really well. I can remember that the first couple of times I went out with Rob and Adrian I was totally shattered at the end of 50km. This time, everyone was hauling gear and the hills were higher I think ;)
You can see that we had an even better average speed on the second day and had quite the insane climb to start the morning. But you can see that touching nearly 55 kph coming back down the hill was pretty fun.
This should finish up the Isle of Wight posts, but I think we're planning a three day trip to Wales later this year, so be on the lookout for more insane cycling.
Saturday 5 July 2008
The Isle of Wight
Last weekend was the inaugural 'Lad's Cycling Weekend'. To say it was a blast doesn't really do it justice. It was the most fun I've had since I've been in the UK and that's saying something. I'm late to posting, so I don't want to repeat everything that Rob's written about the weekend. If you haven't already done so, go there and read about it. What I do want to do is show some of my favorite pictures and in the next post show off some of the stats. If you'd rather see the entire photo set click here.
I was really impressed that the ferry we rode over on had a bike shed on it (the yellow bit). You knew that this was going to be a bike friendly island when you saw that.
Every time we stopped we were like a little gang. We'd lay out our bikes and sort of occupy the site. This picture is from our scone stop and you can see what a motley crew we were.
A huge thanks has to go out to Sally for booking one of the most amazing hotels we could have found. The climb back up the cliff the next morning wasn't great, but when you look out your window and see the sea, it's a good thing.
Dinner was an interesting experience. Good seafood all around, and this was the prawn genocide that Sam committed. It was amazing how many he got to start, but then he stacked the carcasses so that they were staring at you. That was just creepy.
One of the things that we didn't realize after the hour long ferry and the day full of riding was that we hadn't really gone that far. Only 40km? Heck that's a 90 minute ride on the road bike.
If I had to choose, I'd say that the length of the days is the hardest thing for me to come to grips with in the UK. This picture was taken at 9.30pm! And it's this light at 5.00am too.
Being a Floridan and near the sea I couldn't resist taking a dip. At some point I should think that the coast of the UK is a bit colder than the coast of Florida.
The next morning, we had a great breakfast that restored our energy and set us up well for a full day of riding
Well for about 10 seconds until we hit the 25% grade!
After about an hour of riding we got to a nice peak at the southern tip of the island. If you blow up the picture you can see the chalk cliffs of Freshwater and Needles at the end. This is probably my second favorite picture of the weekend.
One of the things that I really liked about the island (and that will draw my father) is that they've really kept the rustic feel of the place. One of the biggest things was there are an amazing number of thatched roof houses on the trip. This is just one example, and by no means the most impressive.
This is my favorite picture. As we approached Freshwater and lunch on the second day, we were all really exhausted. It'd been up and down and after the previous day everyone was feeling it. Unfortunately we had to climb a serious hill right before we entered town. At the top everyone stopped and waited for the stragglers and generally had a good look. As we don't really have chalk cliffs, or cliffs at all for that matter in Florida, this was absolutely stunning.
That's it for my favorite photos from my set, but I encourage you to take a look at Rob's post and photo set as well. Part 2 will include cycling stats tomorrow.
I was really impressed that the ferry we rode over on had a bike shed on it (the yellow bit). You knew that this was going to be a bike friendly island when you saw that.
Every time we stopped we were like a little gang. We'd lay out our bikes and sort of occupy the site. This picture is from our scone stop and you can see what a motley crew we were.
A huge thanks has to go out to Sally for booking one of the most amazing hotels we could have found. The climb back up the cliff the next morning wasn't great, but when you look out your window and see the sea, it's a good thing.
Dinner was an interesting experience. Good seafood all around, and this was the prawn genocide that Sam committed. It was amazing how many he got to start, but then he stacked the carcasses so that they were staring at you. That was just creepy.
One of the things that we didn't realize after the hour long ferry and the day full of riding was that we hadn't really gone that far. Only 40km? Heck that's a 90 minute ride on the road bike.
If I had to choose, I'd say that the length of the days is the hardest thing for me to come to grips with in the UK. This picture was taken at 9.30pm! And it's this light at 5.00am too.
Being a Floridan and near the sea I couldn't resist taking a dip. At some point I should think that the coast of the UK is a bit colder than the coast of Florida.
The next morning, we had a great breakfast that restored our energy and set us up well for a full day of riding
Well for about 10 seconds until we hit the 25% grade!
After about an hour of riding we got to a nice peak at the southern tip of the island. If you blow up the picture you can see the chalk cliffs of Freshwater and Needles at the end. This is probably my second favorite picture of the weekend.
One of the things that I really liked about the island (and that will draw my father) is that they've really kept the rustic feel of the place. One of the biggest things was there are an amazing number of thatched roof houses on the trip. This is just one example, and by no means the most impressive.
This is my favorite picture. As we approached Freshwater and lunch on the second day, we were all really exhausted. It'd been up and down and after the previous day everyone was feeling it. Unfortunately we had to climb a serious hill right before we entered town. At the top everyone stopped and waited for the stragglers and generally had a good look. As we don't really have chalk cliffs, or cliffs at all for that matter in Florida, this was absolutely stunning.
That's it for my favorite photos from my set, but I encourage you to take a look at Rob's post and photo set as well. Part 2 will include cycling stats tomorrow.
The London Eye
After a crazy couple of weeks here in the Southampton, I'm finally getting around to posting about a couple of things I've been doing.
Early last month, I had the pleasure of doing a training course in London. Now, I'm not one for doing training much any more, but it was an opportunity to stay in the heart of London, ride the underground and doing a lot of sightseeing. Probably my favorite part though was finally getting to go on the London Eye.
Now I know it's a bit kitschy to go here, but I actually really enjoyed it. I saw things like London Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.
And the tremendous views down the Thames.
For more (similarly mediocre pictures), check out the full set.
Early last month, I had the pleasure of doing a training course in London. Now, I'm not one for doing training much any more, but it was an opportunity to stay in the heart of London, ride the underground and doing a lot of sightseeing. Probably my favorite part though was finally getting to go on the London Eye.
Now I know it's a bit kitschy to go here, but I actually really enjoyed it. I saw things like London Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.
And the tremendous views down the Thames.
For more (similarly mediocre pictures), check out the full set.
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