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Posts tagged ‘winter’

Dec 20

Winter holidays

This autumn has passed unbelievably quickly, it’s holiday season already! It’s crisp, nice and sunny in London, we even got snow a few days ago.

Time flies when you have lots of things to do, and fortunately efforts bear fruit too. One of the recent professional highlights is that the paper I co-wrote a month ago has been accepted to conference proceedings in California. We will travel with my colleague to speak in Usenix SustainIT conference, San Jose, CA, in February 2010. Before the conference I will be busy setting up our project website The Green Switch, where the paper will be made available for the public. The site should be ready in the end of December.

My clipper training 11-12 starts in the end of February 2010, and there’s a lot of paperwork to be done before I will be allowed to step on board. For example a medical report and accident & travel insurance are mandatory for all participants for obvious reasons.

Clipper race 09-10 news: Team Finland has won their third race from South Africa to Australia! The clipper fleet will spend their holidays in Australia, and then carry on racing towards Singapore right after the New Year. Excellent effort guys, enjoy the break!

The photo is taken in Finland, where it gets to -25 C degrees during the winter and windows freeze into beautiful frosty patterns. Sometimes I think people who haven’t experienced a proper winter (and I’m talking about temperatures from -10 to -30 Celsius degrees) have really missed out something very beautiful. Frosty eyelashes, tiny snow particles glittering in the air, amazing brightness of the snowy field/lake on a sunny day, the warmth of the indoors and the melting feel you get after spending hours on the snow, and with some luck – the beauty of the northern lights can be seen below Polar Circle.

Nov 17

Surf the waves

A weekend in Newquay (Cornwall, UK) was a great experience learning the ABC of surfing. Our magnificent team braved the seas and learned the basics of surfing, despite cool weather and pouring rain. The teachers of The Escape Surf School were fantastic, and I’m at awe how enthusiastic and encouraging they were, considering that they usually teach on really high level. The Elite Coach Mike Young actually trains British Junior Surf Team! Our beginners group was in great hands, obviously.

I absolutely loved surfing – or those four seconds I managed to stand up and slide on waves before losing balance and plunging into the sea. The rest of the time I was battling the waves trying to move further away from the shallow, gulping not-so-appetizing water, being washed back after loosing grip, gulping more water… It was encouraging to learn which waves are good to catch and how to catch them. The workout was very efficient too: my arm, shoulder and chest muscles were aching after hours and hours of push-ups on a surf board.

Newquay is a lovely little town, which during summertime gets busy with surfers. Winters are more quiet, but still the surf school was packed with students this November. Kids who grow up there seem to be soaked with surf culture, as there were loads of adorable kids skateboarding around the town. (To tell you the truth, had I kids and lived in Newquay, I’d take the whole family to the sea every month shine or rain.) The training beach was full of beginner groups on Saturday, while on Sunday it was just us eight. (Megan is missing from this group photo.) Perhaps choppy waves and stormy gale winds were a reason for it, as the surf competition was canceled as well.

Speaking of waves, here’s a video of a barrel wave filmed by the BBC in super slow-mo. This kind of wave would be the end of any inexperienced surfer, so one can just look and wonder how awesome it must be riding through the barrel if you know what you’re doing. Meanwhile, I’m doing push-ups at home and striking surf poses just in case there’s opportunity for more this winter.

A big thank you for Sofia for arranging the trip!
Photo: Dmitri

Nov 14

Blue in the face: plunge into wintery seas

I’m re-emerging after busy times with a life-affirming message: it’s winter but life is not over! There’s no time for winter blues, when you can do so many fantastic things outdoors. Coasteering! Surfing!

Weekends in Wales and Cornwall were absolutely fantastic despite rainy weather. What can rain do for you, when you’re spending hours in the sea anyway? Soak you from head to toes? *Tilts head back and laughs manically*
Who’s scared of cold waters when wearing 5mm winter wet suit, wet suit boots, balaclava and a buoyancy vest? Yes it felt cold at first, but the sea was much warmer than air, so actually it was comfortable out there.

A few words about Coasteering from Wikipedia:

Coasteering is a physical activity that encompasses movement along the intertidal zone of a rocky coastline on foot or by swimming, without the aid of boats, surf boards or other craft. It is difficult to define the precise boundaries between, for example, rockpooling and ocean swimming. Coasteering may include all or some of the following:

  • Swimming or Adventure Swimming: in calm water; rough or white water; and/ or tidal currents. Dressing for swimming in the sea (wetsuits, buoyancy aids etc) is an integral part of Coasteering]; even on routes where it is possible to stay dry. A route, or activity, where the group start out with the intention of staying dry – whether through route choice or the use of ropes and harnesses – is not coasteering.
  • Climbing, scrambling, sea level traversing: the very nature of the coastline that is needed for coasteering demands aspects of these activities. Ropes, as security on rock, are not used. Any climbing activity usually takes place above deep water, with safety spotters used where appropriate. There is a similarity to the sport of deep-water soloing, but this would normally be carried out by experienced individuals not wearing equipment suitable for coasteering. Coasteering is never a dry, climbing activity.
  • Jumping and Diving: are often seen as an appealing and exciting part of coasteering. These activities actually make up minimal content of a coasteering session.

A defining factor of coasteering is the opportunity provided by the marine geology for moving in the “impact zone” where water, waves, rocks, gullies, caves etc, come together to provide a very high energy environment.

I’m thinking of going back some weekend and carry on paddling in the wintery sea.