I had this ultimate wave of envy wash over me yesterday. 50-75000 people lined the surf arena at Huntingdon Beach for the US Open of Surfing. I got to see them from my living room in a grey and cloudy and getting dark in Dublin.

In my whole life, I think the only time I got to see a broadcast of a live board sports competition that wasn’t snowboarding was probably when Eurosport used to show the live windsurfing from the Palais d’Omnisports in Paris every December. Indoor windsurfing. Interesting thought. The turbines were pretty damn big but it’s from there that I know the names of Bjorn Dunkerbeck and especially, Robby Naish. The rest of the time I just had to rely on summaries on YOZ type programmes and occasional rebroadcasts on Extreme Sports Television. Pretty depressing really. In 2007 I went to a couple of major kitesurfing competitions and was really there, on the beach, at a PKRA event. This year, I’ll go to the ASP in France because I have wanted to do it for 10 years or more. Go to a real, proper surfing competition.

Via my twitter feed where I follow a couple of surf companies, one  of which is Mick Fanning’s sponsor, Reef, I learned that the US Open of surfing was live on the internet. It must have been the first big year for them to do a major web broadcast like this because they have not shut up about the feedback they are getting. The feedback is positive and justifiably so. It may be because this year I have decent internet access thanks to UPC in Dublin – maybe on 3MB eircom I wouldn’t have enjoye it so much. The picture quality and streaming has been top quality and and the commentary was fantastic. Unlike my impression of most American sports broadcasts (witness the fun and games with American golf for example) it has been remarkably devoid of advertising breaks with a short one between the changeovers.

The surfing was of mixed quality. I would say it wasn’t all that consistent – but then neither were the waves. I’m angling for Kelly Slater to win and I have no idea why. I’ve always liked him in the few interviews I’ve seen him in and you can’t deny his out and out greatness as far as surfing is concerned. I really like Mick Fanning as well; he always seems to be a very considered person when you see him interviewed too. So I’d be happy to see him win as well.

There was a lot of entertainment to be had from the tow-in expression session – pretty much wipeout central. And the women’s competition had some very decent and respectable heats – my god those girls are all so young. And that’s where I feel a certain amount of envy.

We can’t all grow up near Huntingdon Beach or Bondi, or Waimea Bay. I grew up 60 miles from the sea. I don’t think anyone even tried to surf on the beaches in Kerry when I was a child although there is at least one surf school in Banna, and two or three on the Dingle Peninsula now. I’d love to have had the opportunities these girls had. Actually as a child growing up I’d have probably appreciated figure skating even more but that was even harder to get to. I was 15 when I finally got a test of windsurfing and I loved it.

The way I see it, I think that normal broadcast television is dead. I’ve always wanted a demand package whereby I could decide what I was going to get in the way of television but your options for that with cable are somewhat limited and to be blunt, when UPC are trying to sell me premium channels, like, SkySports for example, I just don’t want them because they don’t add anything to my life.

Looking – from my point of view – at how successful the surfing broadcast was for this event – and it was laid on by the event itself rather than by any of the sports broadcasters in the States – I’d have to wonder if that’s the way things are going to go. I know a couple of the sports clubs in the UK have tried to take back control by setting up their own television channels but as I don’t give a toss about football I have no idea about how this might have worked out for the clubs in question.

I would love to see the PKRA do something similar with the kitesurfing. I realise that surfing is a far longer established sport with a much bigger industrial base behind it – I doubt the US Open of Surfing could have come close without the support they got from Hurley, G-Shock and Casio to name just three of their main sponsors. I think Nike 6.0 are there as well.

But I came away from that broadcast wanting two things. 1) I want a Casio G-Z One phone. I really, want one of them. POssibly you’d have to have lost a phone to seawater to understand why but the commentary team had one guy out in the arena on a jetski (that was sponsored by Red Bull) and he had one of those phones with him so they called him up on it. And while he was on the phone to them (which was filmed from another jetski) he dunked it in the sea and it was still working. The call was still open.

I so want one of those. I bet they’re not available on the O2 shop and anyway I’m tied into my bloody iPhone for another year at least. I want that because without the US Open of Surfing, I would NEVER have known it existed.

2) I want the new girls surf movie from Nike 6.0 to reach me. Apparently it’s going to be great. The trailers look pretty hot so the question is will it turn up on the front of Surf Europe like Cancer to Capricorn did, or will I be able to download it or will I have to bribe someone to get it for me in the States.

They mentioned something about a follow up to Blue Crush which was one godawful movie, but nowhere near as bad as the MTV reality show about the girl surfers was.

No, this Nike 6.0 sounds just the ticket.

Finally, I hope I can pick up enough signal to watch the end of the surfing tonight. But I will be in Achill Island so it’s anyone’s guess.

I now have so many websites it’s not funny any more.

As this is the one where I post stuff that doesn’t fit any more, I’m going to wax lyrical about a piece of software called SketchBook. I have two versions of it. 1) the version for the iPhone and 2) a trial version for the proper computer. And I am in love with it.

I was wandering around the ImagineFX forum a while ago when I saw SketchBook Mobile recommended if you wanted to sketch on the go. Well I’d been dragging a sketchbook around along with 12 coloured pencils and doing nothing, so decided I’d have a look at this. It’s magical. I thought it was fantastic. I’m not what you’d call talented with a pencil or anything like this, but today, playing on my phone, I got this. It’s not anything major to write home about, but it’s a starting point for something I do want to do.

It’s drawn on a mobile phone using my fingers. I love the whole idea of it so since I have a graphics tablet, i went looking to see if there was a PC version of it. There is. I have a demo and a whole lot of ideas. So many, in fact, I’m bursting. But I’ll need to finish off the fairy queen above. With the mad hair and all.

I was looking into the idea of doing a 365 sketch thing. I haven’t worked out the practicalities of it all since I currently run 4 blogs and am looking at adding another one or two. Where I think I’m going to get time is open to debate.

It is, however, nice to think about the idea of doing the sketches on the phone every morning when I wake up and pushing the sketching practice that way. My mother thinks I’m mad.

In addition to that, and more tied into the photomanipulation art which I do, (and which you will find here on digitalFX if you haven’t found it yet) is a top secret ebook project which will have a blog thrown at it. I don’t know how I am going to push it yet but on the list of stuff to do tomorrow is the domain name and stuff.

I basically need a workblog so that’s going to be done, and hopefully enable me to organise all this stuff. Eeek.

via mPORA, the most dangerous website on the planet.

More Surfing >>

I’m with the last guy…it’s one of the best wipeouts I have ever seen.

Via Damien Mulley, I happened on this, a bunch of stats about new car sales in Ireland for 2009. It’s been a fascinating drive through data.

For example, 131 people found it within themselves to buy Jaguar X-Types. Wow. And Ford sold 53 more vehicles than Toyota this year which is what you call just about making the turnaround. Last year,  Toyota sold 2,200 more vehicles than Ford.

Last year’s total registrations for passenger cars was around 148,000. This year it was 55,000. If you need to know a second reason for a fall in the tax take, that’s where you’ll look. (the first of course is the stamp duty)

The biggest selling diesel vehicle is the Nissan Qashqai. I have no idea why. The biggest selling petrol vehicle is the Ford Fiesta. I know exactly why. Interestingly, the bigger selling diesel cars were mostly bigger cars; the biggest selling petrol cars were smaller cars bar the Toyota Avensis (third in both categories) and the Focus  (second and fifth respectively).

Silver is the most popular colour. I understand that too. All the better to suffer rear-end collisions with.

Limerick City registered less than half the number of cars that Limerick County registered. Conversely, Waterford City registered more cars than Waterford County. Dublin which registers both the city and the county together registered more than 21000 vehicles; more than one third of the national total.

Interestingly, in 2008, Dublin registered 54668 passenger cars. In 2009, Ireland registered 55,163. There’s a cliff drop of figures.

I need old climbing rope. 30 metres of it. Preferably in a girly kinda colour. If it’s used, all the better.

I want to make one of these for the bathroom.

Hint hint.

This turned up in my podcasts today. When I got bored of the BBC science ones, I started looking to see what I’d gotten from TED lately and skipped over the End of the World is Nigh climate change-decarbonification one and landed on this. I’m fascinated by the whole idea.

I was up terribly early this morning on a hot date with three photographers. No, there’s something wrong with that sentence. It was lacking on the “hot date” front as it was 6am, and we had tripods at the ready. The net result is that I am a bit screwed up today which is regrettable.

So I eventually went back to bed this afternoon for a nap and I’m still kinda tired but I’m considering pizza as an option – it’s nearly dinner time – but in the meantime I’ve come to the conclusion.

I need to re-invent my internet browsing habits. The reasons for that are simple. Most of the sights I frequent frequently (that looks so bad) depress the hell out of me. This is not good.

Exhibit A – The Property Pin. It was entertaining when it launched because the property bubble was still inflating its way into the stratosphere. It is not entertaining now as it is full of Casandras telling me the economy in Ireland is about to implode, is a disaster, is a basket case, is completely messed up, will be wrecking our children’s children’s lives as we try to pay for NAMA. Idiots are recommending we abuse the Constitution to punish the hated Brian Cowen and the deriled Fianna Fail. I don’t have children. I’m already paying nearly 300E more a month to the government for this fiasco than I was 12 months ago. I don’t need to be reminded that the place is in a mess. In truth, the only thread I read with any regularity there lately is the Liam Carroll thread and that’s only because I’ve an interest in what happens in those court cases. For some reason, the news winds up there faster than I can find it on RTE.

Exhibit B – Bad Science Forums. I am sick of reading climate change threads. I find the Meaningless Banter forum quite entertaining although the huge amount of discussion engendered by Derren Brown last night was depressing – I thought they were more rational than to get hooked into the discussion, but it appears not. They point me to blogs which then further depress me – such as the sportsscientist blog which is heavily taken up with discussing Caster Semenya’s unfortunate difficulties at the moment.

Exhibit C – Boards Accommodation and Property. See The Property Pin for why and then add the feeling that some people still have that they are entitled to judge other people’s choices and actions.

Following a certain amount of comments I got for daring to judge people who feel I should be sensible all the time and do what they say I should in the way of buying property I can’t afford because that’s like planning for the future and paying into a pension I’m utterly disillusioned by some attitudes in Ireland. I couldn’t afford a house. If a bank were to give me a 100% mortgage right now I probably could but they won’t and I wouldn’t take it. But this wasn’t true 2 years ago and I don’t see why I should buy someone else’s crappy 2 bedroomed apartment so they can trade up when I never wanted said 2 bedroom crappy apartment in the first place and don’t believe in the trade up mentality.

Sorry. I’ll stop. I’ve a whole other blog post to come on that.

Mostly, I lately read photoshop and design pages. Which is ironic since it’s not something I was notedly talented at when I was younger. They are interesting but hardly entertaining. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a ginormous internet out there with probably more entertaining stuff than The End is (economically) Nigh Repent Ye Who Don’t Behave Economically As We Deem Appropriate (impossible as what is deemed appropriate is often, in the space of 2 years mutually exclusive).

So I’ve decided to read Icanhazcheeseburger.com.

I don’t get cats. Friends have cats. Some of said cats even really look like little Hitlers. Some of them are unbearably cute. Historically, cats have always used their claws to declare their affection for me. But sometime ago, someone sent me one appropriate to a discussion we were having on twitter (easily the best invention of the web right now) and now, when I need a little ickle smile I surreptitiously go to the cats. I’m even able to kittenify web pages which has a fantastic impact on the Irish Times website I must say. Today was particularly useful.

And if the interwebs are getting you down too: Here’s where to go and how to do it. And it’s not impossible to uhem…change the tag it reads in Flickr. But kittens are most effective, particularly if there’s a picture of Declan Ganley on the front page of the Irish Times webste. Just by way of an aside.

Babies aren’t bad either.

Anyway.

The way I see it, the internet is full of depressing stuff, supplied by serious fora and the media – both mainstream and fourth voice – but it is also full of cool stuff which unfortunately I don’t find too easily. Games. Kittenify scripts. Slashdot. Fantastic art.

So I hereby volunteer to look at mainly Deviantart, sites about lighthouses, surfing, kitesurfing and photography for the coming few days. In this way I hope to purge my mind of the concept of NAMA and the thought that despite his promises after the European Elections, we are potentially stuck with Declan Ganley not shutting up again.

I picked this up via a useful twitter feed about lighthouses. I like lighthouses for some reason, possibly related to Five Go to Demon Rock when I was about 9 years old. Anyway.

I don’t like PETA. I think there are times when some of their policies appear to be completely detached from reality.

I do worry that someone would seriously entertain this – someone other than PETA, that is. They want to buy a lighthouse to set up a Fish Empathy Center, apparently. I’m having some trouble believing this to be the case but still..see here.

No, seriously, someone apparently did really say this:

We want to renovate the Grand Haven lights as a memorial to the billions of fish killed annually by sport fishermen, as well as for their flesh (commercial fishing industry),” said Lindsey Rajt, manager of PETA’s campaigns department

I like fish. I particularly like fish as served by Beshoffs Fish and Chips in Howth, Dublin Ireland, and on occasion I will buy scallops on a Sunday morning and fry them for breakfast. That happens on Sunday when I have some spare cash lying around. Scallops are a very special treat.

I have seen some fantastic photographs of Grand Haven Lighthouse. I don’t know if I will ever see the place myself; probably not, particularly if Peta are serving fake fish. This is what I don’t get about PETA. They’ll try to fake it. That, in my view, is cheating.

If you’re anti the eating of fish, then don’t fake it. Just don’t eat fish. And don’t run off with one of the most beautiful lighthouses in the world.

EDIT: Things move fast in Michigan. PETA have lost interest, or something.

Crazy fads hit twitter on occasion. Tonight it is #cutpricefilms.

Words fail me.

From some called Karma Seeking we have this gem:

GalaBingo Royale; From Reigate with Love; The Guy in Accounts Who Loved Me; The Man with the Golden Water Pistol

Argghh