Category: Uncategorized

It’s hard not to feel the pain of being indoors, immobile and glued to a computer when you see some killer sequences of Olympic classes racing at Hyeres. Click here to watch the video, which features windsurfing (boring, boring,boring…), 470s (hubba-hunna…) and then Lasers (say no more…) in decent breeze. Lots of planing, all set to a miserable techno-Euro soundtrack that is so annoying I recommend you: A) supply your own music; AND B)check to make sure that all the guns in your house are locked up…

“Man, this would look great on film, set to “Ride Of The Valkyries”…”

Courtesy of the fact-hounds at Snopes comes a funny and eye-opening video that demonstrates once and for all that fishing can be so very, very easy, particularly on the rivers of Brazil. Click here to watch it. And then go here if you want the Snopian scoop on just what the hell is going on. (Plus, here’s another clip of the same phenomenon on the Missouri River, which proves that Brazilian fish have better aim…) It’s a strange, strange world…

Flying Fish: “Hey, Assh*le! This is hard enough without you speeding up at the last second…”

The web crawlers at Snopes also came up with these pics of excess in the desert defined: an indoor ski hill built on the sands of Dubai. You never thought you’d hear the words “Ski Dubai,” but life is surprising. Still, there’s got to be something better they could be spending all our SUV gas money on…

“Hey, Boss. The CIA is on the phone and they seem to think we’re building a uranium centrifuge…”

“Tell that idiot Bush that we’re building a ski mountain, and that if he doesn’t believe us we really WILL build a uranium centrifuge…”

“Heh-heh. Flying this polar bear in also cost an obscene number of petrodollars…”

“Sigh. We can build it but we can’t make them wear skis…”

“Now that’s the alpine look we were after. And it only cost twice what it would take to move our entire population to Switzerland…”

Some people are simply different from the rest of us. One of them is a Welshman named Lewis Gordon Pugh. His aim is to swim in all five of the world’s oceans. And, yep, that includes the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, both of which Pugh has already knocked off. Pugh doesn’t lard up, or use any special techniques to survive in the freezing water. He just pulls on his speedo, and a cap, pulls down his goggles, and jumps in. Last week he pulled off a 12km swim across Nelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth (which knocks off the Indian Ocean), and you can read all about it on Explorer’s Web. But his most impressive swims so far have been his Arctic Ocean swim and his Antarctic swim. His Arctic swim was at 80 degrees North, making it the most northerly swim ever, ar at least the most northerly swim by a white man keeping track (you have to wonder whether any Eskimos, Inuits, drunk Russians or clumsy explorers might have been there first…). His Antarctic swim took place over a kilometer in zero degree water. It took him just over 18 minutes, which makes you wonder what the hypothermia experts would have to say. I’m just shaking my head, both in awe and bemusement…

“Uh-oh. I think there’s gonna be shrinkage…”
(Photo: Terje Eggum, Scanpix – for exclusive use of ExplorersWeb (uh-oh, “exlusive”? Guess I better add) and The Wetass Chronicles, courtesy of Lewis’ team)

Every once in a while I stumble across a website that is a little eccentric, a littly funky, and a lot of fun. So say hell to Olosurfer.com. Not really sure who Olosurfer is, or what he is about. But I do know that with Olosurfer, size matters. A lot. Check out his slide show here. And have a seat in his multiplex cinema here. Here’s just one of the vids on tap (which wins hands down the Wetass award for hip soundtrack music, even if Olosurfer’s hockey helmet is decidedly unhip…). Olosurfer. I just like saying it…

“I’m not compensating! I swear…”

No, I’m not taking another break. Just want to say that after (generally) updating TWC in the morning hours I am switching to (generally) updating it in the late afternoon. Do this matter? No. Do you care? Probably not. Just thought I’d mention it…

“This way I can really sleep in…”

Today, we come in praise of the venerable International 470. If you think that the design is too old, or too tired, or too anything, then check out this excellent tribute vid. Sure looks like fun…

“How many other classes would be out in this…?”

Teton Gravity Research has come up with yet another wet and wild video. BTW, the response on the video to “that’s a tush hurter” is a shout of…”prison love!” Those wacky kayakers and their lingo. And while you are it, check out this clip of the week, starring a skier and a tree. Wonder if that was on purpose…

“Heh-heh. Missed it that time…”

It’s hootin’ down there at KWRW. Check it out…





(Photos 1,2,3–Sharon Green; Photos: 4,5–Thierry Martinez)