Anyone riding Azub?

Its another way for them to control your mind, the bandwidth ploy is just a ruse. Curse them! Curse Them! May they find themselves may they find themselves face down in a benthic vent feasted upon by tube worms!

The video shows how you can convert a tandem Azub into an amphibious unit using 2 surf boars. They put the surfboards on either side of the bike, installing them so they can fold up against the frame when on land. The stick a screw on a long shaft with a large rubber ring at the other end. The install the shaft so that the rubber ring rests against the rear wheel, so when the rear wheel turns, it turns the shaft and propeller. Simple but effective. Should be able to get you from where you are to the Mauritius.

I once worked on a surf clam survey, about as far as I got with marine biology.

Does your ship have a helicopter pad? I had a flight student who flew rescue.

 

Photographers are still cool...if it were not for their eye for lighting, composition and subject matter many things in the world would not be know to people who cannot go beyond their habitats. For a smirk, my mom gave my brothers and I a rock tumbler when we were younger to see what we could turn our few chunks of quartz and shiny river pebbles into.haha, I think she mainly did to keep us out of her hair, but oh well. I think she regretted it when lots of rocks started turning up in the laundry machine making noise.hahaha

 

Its hard to do. i did black and white for a while, and as hard as I tried I couldn't do the burning and dodging thing like Ansel Adams.

 

Yes, photography is quite addictive. I knew at a very young age what I was to be in life. I destroyed every bathroom my mother had by turning them into makeshift darkrooms. Tin foil on the windows cut out most of the light. I had to wait for mom to go to bed and turn off her light before the light leaks around the doors could be quelled. I cut a sheet of plywood which lay over the bath tub with a hole in it so I could run water and wash the prints. The enlarger sat on the toilet. I was in business! Technically as a sixth grader I was poor but the excitement of seeing an image emerge in its watery chemical bed still is clear in my mind all these years later.

Wrapped up in my jubilance , I would burst of my little lab with print in hand dripping fixer to show mom my latest creation. Fixer stains like nothing else. Every thing I wore had fixer stains and the trail on the carpet marked my path to and from.

I picked a college who was one of the rare ones which offered a degree in photography. Skipping the years and the photographers I worked for, I founded my own studio which I ran for 24 years. I had my own color lab and employed 11 people. We did ok. My wife worked with me every day for 19 of those years and we are still married which is a feat in itself.

Digital came along and studio across the country dropped like flies. It was a bitter sweet time. I finally shut it down and walked away from 250k worth of now worthless wet chemistry lab equipment.

Then I got this job 12 years ago. Other than perhaps going to the Moon, it was about as different as it gets. And I was needed. As intelligent as the learned PHD's I serve, they are very myopic in nature but at the same time believe they know more than they do. They didnt know squat about photography and had certainly not been exposed to a professional clicker.

I quickly solved a lot of their problems concerning imaging. Some were grateful and some were not. I had a hard time fitting into the cubical world of University politics. When I had my own business and I saw a problem, I took care of it. But nooooo not in this world. There are many people which I call a"Speed bumps" which stand in the way most of the time. These are in the form of middle managers whose PHD's in geology have not in the least prepared them in the form of people and business management skills they needed.

In fact they just didnt know what to do with me. I didnt have a lofty degree but I came in and solved problems that had been plaguing them for quite a while. Heck to me it was simple stuff if you looked at the problem from my prospective of lighting and texture blah blah blah.. So I solved some problems and in doing so embarrassed some little big men who have been after my *** ever since.

Actually the situation now is much better as I have outlasted quite a few of them. So here I am. I like to say that photographing the 1000 weddings I did during my studio days has prepared me to handle the PHD's.

That is a misleading statement. Actually the cream rises to the top and I get along fabulously with the people on the ship. We are one big family out here and the walls between departments you find on the shore just dont exist.

We have to be self sufficient and be able to solve problems right away. This is the environment I shine. The shore drives me nuts.

I believe what I have described is universal if the entity is large enough. Anyway here I am and If I can help these guys do their jobs a bit better, I am very happy to do so.

We do 12 hour days with no days off for an average of 63 days at sea. I am on an A/B rotation. What that means is two months on the ship and two month duty on the shore. Its the peddle to the metal go go go go from the time we step on the ramp till we hit the dock at the end. They then stuff us in an airplane and endure the never ending flight back to Texas. I am going to try to hang on for another 5 years if my old bod can take it. We will see.

 

Well, as for Photography, I had a similar early photography experience, destroying a closet, along with the entire house when a safe light malfunctioned and caught on fire. when we rebuilt, The family felt it best to include a darkroom in the floor plan, with proper lighting. The Dark room is now a repository for my mother's quilting supplies.

Never went pro in the photo thing. Turned to drugs in stead. I just cooked, didn't use or deal.

So I got a call last week from Laurence, The brilliant and accommodating proprietor of Jersey Bents.

He said the The Bike is almost ready, The Boys in Uherský Brod had a serious and heartfelt emotionally charged dilemma with my choosing the basic Suntour NCX S LO Air front fork. You see, the Suntour came in white, and this was just not right. It was not a good match with the red main frame, and the black bits. White with basic red and black just was not proper. period. plus they mentioned in passing something about not having one in stock. Could I please, for the sake of what is right and balanced in this world, take a black Rock Shox XC 30? Same price?

I said yes, for better or worse.

That was last week. The bike shipped yesterday, should come after the snow storm on Monday. Scott at wheels Cycle Shed in Gales Ferry will do the chain thing and put the front wheel on the Rock Shox. Love the can do attitude of small business!

 

Ive been on fire with photography a long time but, I cant say that I ever burnt down a house. We did have a house burn but we were on vacation at the time and came back to nothing. All we had were the clothes on our backs. Now my mother did burn down the Baptist Church in Llano, Texas. A faulty Christmas decor was to blame. I told mom not to put those 120 volt bulbs in. The popular mechanics instructions I found on the kitchen table next to her creation clearly said 12vdc. "Oh I wont leave it plugged in very long." She said. Many speculated she was paid by the those " evil head sprinklers vs the sinless full-dunk people." I never had the therapy I should have. Nuff said (9 more days till feet dry)

Bill

 

Electric is a huge cause of fires.

Should get the bike on monday, after the storm. great, no place to ride.

9 days left before bike time huh?

 

You will enjoy it alot...and find many reasons to ride even if it is cold.

 

Has anyone had experience with short wheel base on a roller trainer? How wild would that be eh?

 

oh man oh man I wish I could see the video. Im still at sea and our bandwidth just wont allow it. Ill check it out in two weeks. I am very interested.

 

Loks like something you could build using some things you can get at the hardware store. I want to try it. in front of a television set.

 

I believe I have seen an " Indestructibles" video/paper on how to build one. But having said that, they are relatively cheap. Even the good ones are less than 300 usd. Bill C

 

At Last!
At Long Last!

BE HOLD:

After a long journey,
It rests on a pedestal
Befitting is magnificence
The Max


Patience, please.
I'm keeping it in the box until I get it to le it. The Cycle Shed Shop in Gales Ferry where Scott will help assemble it.

 

Be sure to post your maiden voyage when you can.