I’m big into listening to my ipod while I paddle or do various un-extreme water sports, so I like to keep an eye out for new products along these lines. One that just recently caught my eye is the Freestyleaudio Fusion Amp Waterproof MP3 Player which is apparently quite suitable for all sorts of water sports. Whether you are into surfing, wakeboarding, paddling, maybe even snorkeling, he Freestyle is waterproof and submersible up to 10 feet. It also can withstand decent levels of shock ( no word on awe, however) and is quite lightweight, weighing in at only 35 grams. It’s NOT a hard drive player, however, so you’ll have to be selective about what you choose to put on it. It comes with a built-in flash memory of 256MB or 512MB and runs $119.95.
USA Today on San Diego
San Diego – I’ve only been there twice. Once when I was 8 years-old on a family vacation to see Shamu at Sea World and the only memorable moment of the entire trip was my crying at the bottom of a speed boat when my father let me 6 year-old brother take control of the steering. I thought I was going to die that day in San Diego. The second time was several years later and I had taken a quick day trip down from LA to visit a friend at Pendleton who’d just returned from Iraq. We noshed on Thai food and talked about war and he stopped me from jay walking (apparently they shell out tickets for illegal pedestrian crossing), but again nothing too stellar. Is it safe to say I have to go back for a real look at the city? Absolutely.
USA Today recently featured San Diego in one of their destination guides and I decided to give it a read. From the sound of things the Gaslamp Quarter is getting a facelift. They’re changing the chilled out surfer scene to velvet ropes and a more upscale sort of destination for those that desire cocktail culture. With new boutique hotels and clubs that require the approval of a bouncer to get in, I suppose they are trying to bring the sophistication while remaining more relaxed than cities like LA and NYC. I’m really not going to go on about this particular read. Quite honestly hearing velvet rope so many times didn’t turn me on to want to book a ticket that way anytime soon. On the flipside those who do wish to see this new San Diego sooner than later should take a look at this story.
If there are any San Diego natives reading I’d love to hear your comments or just tell us some of your favorite places to go if you don’t mind a tourist or two showing up.
GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of December 10
Ready for another week in review at Gadling? If you missed some of this week’s goodies I won’t keep you waiting a minute longer. Just sit back, chill out and catch up.
5. Driving a Piece of East German History:
In this fine piece, David Luna points us to a tour company called Trabi Safari. The tours are pretty much “do-it-yourself” style, but what’s cool about driving the Trabant around Berlin to Dresden is that the car is a work of art meaning it rides more like a riding lawn mower. What’s cooler than any of that is David Luna being the newest member of the Gadling team. Go over, take a read and send David some love.
4. Traveling with Co-Workers: An Obsession with Steak Tartare:
For those who don’t already know I’m on the road traveling for work and an enormous portion of my time is spent with my one and only co-worker. To keep it short and sweet things ain’t so sweet… They are rather tart or is that tartare, as in steak tartare. I don’t want to hear anymore about steak tartare. Please.
3. No Surf in Cleveland? Sure, There is!:
Here is a plug from Iva that caught me completely off-guard, but then again I don’t surf. Cleveland (yes, Cleveland, Ohio) appears to be a rather gnarly place to hang ten. Don’t listen to me though read what Iva has to say along with the NY Times where the article was originally found.
2. Getting Out of Quicksand:
While it is not too common that you’ll run across quicksand in your travels should you stumble, trip, fall and start sinking away to your untimely death you may wish to know a little something-something on how to escape. Again, it isn’t very likely, but check out some of Erik’s own quicksand musings and then read the tips.
1. Hot Icelandic Blondes?:
Stop the stereotyping people! Not every Icelandic woman is blonde and not all of them are hot and according to Neil who found this awesome culture read in the Iceland Review the author of the piece is both, but still she is annoyed with the stereotype. Hey I OVERstand. Whether it is good or bad, stereotyping isn’t the right thing to do. We’re all different! Now, off my soap box I go and on you go to read the piece.
Worldhum on Endless Summer
Even though I’ve never met him face to face (we did do a podcast a ways back, however) Worldhum‘s Jim Benning and I share a few things in common. First, we both write travel blogs. Worldhum, which Jim writes with Mike Yessis and a host of other top travel scribes, is IMHO, one of the best travel sites out there. Another thing we share is a Southern California upbringing. And more than that, it seems, a very beach-oriented Southern California upbringing.
Now, it’s hard to describe exactly what that means. To me, being a wee lad in So Cal in the late 70s and early 80s didn’t seem very special. But now that I look back on it, I know that it was. I lived in a sleepy, sandy beach town near Newport Beach, a middle class place where surfing and being on the water was a way of life. So was skateboarding. I spent a gazillion hours perfecting my kick turns on So Cal sidewalks, and another gazillion learning how to carve sweet turns on the face of a wave on my Boogie Board. Those times are now almost mythical to me, brimming with innocence, glimmering with fresh sunshine, a time of absolute childish joy. It is often difficult to describe to people in New York City what it was like growing up in Southern, California.
But sometimes when I try ,I tell them to take a look at a movie that was made back in the 60s called Endless Summer. The film celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and according to Worldhum’s Benning, it’s popularity lives on, Benning calls it one of the greatest wanderlust-inducing documentaries ever made. And he’s right. And while the movie chronicled a small group of surfer’s quest to find the best waves on the globe, I still think of it as a California film, because the surfer’s sensibilities are all So Cal.
In this nicely done piece from Worldhum, Benning talks at some length about the impact of the best surf film ever made, and why it remains both an excellent bit of filmmaking and a relevant cultural artifact for our fast-paced times.
Bend to Baja
We’ve tried to give props to the good folks at Stellar Magazine when at all possible because we love the stuff they do. The online travel/adventure/sports magazine is a killer way to tune out from a day’s toil and immerse yourself, albeit virtually, in the outdoors.
But Stellar does more than publish great Web content, they have also done some epic publishing projects like The Powder Road, a book and accompanying multimedia Web site that rocks hard.
Now comes a new addition to the Stellar oeuvre ,a book about surfing the Pacific Coast called Bend to Baja .As the title suggests, a group of intrepid surfers, some well-known, makes a wave-based journey from Oregon to Baja, California (MUCH more on Baja coming shortly, as I literally returned last night from a week of paddling there). The Web site here has a lot of info about the book and the surfers who participated as well as a few nice excerpts for your printing/reading enjoyment. So take a minute kick back and take a look at this new book. And if you’ve got a surfer friend, maybe think of Bend to Baja as a nice Christma….um, Holiday, gift.