we:grew:here

we:grew:here, originally uploaded by monkey_pushover_tree.

urban:mirror

urban:mirror , originally uploaded by monkey_pushover_tree.

View On Black

dusk

dusk, originally uploaded by monkey_pushover_tree.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything photo related. I just haven’t had a desire to take photos recently. I struggled to get through a roll of film taking me about 5 months to finish it. I finally did that today. I have no idea what is on it anymore; the other joy of film (no chimping). Still today I took some shots. It still took me a while to get into it, but I eventually I got there again. I don’t think they will be my usual stuff, but they’ll be something. Must take more photos…

Milky Way over Texas

Milky Way over Texas.  I realy need to restart some of my astrophotography.  The above is just amazing.

sixth:sense

Sixth Sense -A demo from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some. This is a pretty awesome idea and does begin to show the blend of technology and human interaction that may be possible.   This is only a few years on from the Microsoft Surface table, which is beginning to turn up in more and more places.  Where will this be in two years from now, let alone the ten that Pattie Maes mentions?

human:interface

Awesome concept of a human machine.

Tranzx Indoor Trainer

So winter is coming and it’s getting wetter and darker outside.  For me this means that the opportunity to ride is slowly closing on me and limited to riding on weekends or on dry nights.  That’s one of the big things when riding the Mendota, it’s an interesting experience when things start getting damp.  Full wet/rain is fine; you know what you are going to expect when start the ride and it cuts through the rain soaked roads fine.  The big problem is when it’s damp and greasy.  Unfortunately that’s what the conditions are heading to at the moment.  When it’s like this it’s easy to fishtail the bike around corners; it’s doesn’t feel great under breaking either and what ever you do, stay away from those lines.  I think this is more down to the Syndey roads that anything else.  It doesn’t rain for long enough for the grease to really clear and that first patch of rain just seems to bring up more grease on the road.  So..what to do that I can keep the riding fitnes up?  I thought a trainer might be in order and Torpedo7 just happened to have one on offer.

Mendota in the trainer; you can see the adjustment clamps

Thanks to Torpedo7’s sale/bargains that come up regularly I picked up the Tranzx Indoor Trainer for $100 including postage.  I’ve thought about getting one of these for a while.  It’s two fold really, the first is a fitness thing and second is just being able to train on my bike and not the gym one.    I was slightly weary about this as one of the reviews came back with “not enough resistance“.  Then again, am I looking for resistance here rather than just full spinning training?  It should give some resistance no?  But for the price, I went ahead and got it and a few days later it turned up.

It arrived in a largish box and weighs around the 10KG mark, so not too heavy and easy to carry home.  It’s well packaged with easy clear instructions, but the whole thing is kind of obvious as to how it you put it together.  The only thing you need to do is change the quick release skewer on the bike with the replacement quick release skewer.  The replacement one is larger and more rounded on each end.  This makes sure that it’s a perfect fit into the trainer ( you don’t want it to fall out of place when you are cycling on it).  After you’ve done the replacement, simply attach the bike in place using the large handle to clamp it down and you’re up and running.  The resistance can be increased by turning the screw that the roller at the back sits on.

Screw adjusted resistance with magnet housing

So how is it?  Well, not too bad.  The first time my tires were a bit flat, so it felt very easy.  Back up at 120PSI and a couple turns on the screw and it’s pretty good.  The frame is solid and you aren’t going to be moving off anywhere that’s for sure.  It’s not overly big so, taking up room is not a concern and the new skewer really does  hold you in place.  The resistance is on the lower end, or at least so I thought.  You can get it to a level that it feels like you are on a long straight road with maybe a slight incline.  This does not seem much at first, but then you spend 30minutes on the thing.  That’ 30minutes of turning and no free wheeling.  There’s a burn that’s for sure.  You can’t let up as soon as you do the rear wheel stops so you can’t freewheel at any time. So you pedal and you get into a rhythm quick quickly.  I guess this is more to do with that it’s you’re bike, so there is no adjustment time.  It’s noisy though.  The mixture of your wheel spinning and the magnet spinning around creates a lot a noise.  Earphones are a must; just listen away to the ipod and it’s good.   And if you need the bike, then a flick of the release handle and you’re back on the bike again.  Easy and really useful.

Secondary computer for distance while on trainer

But how close is it to road speeds.  Well that’s hard to judge.  It’s also hard so say how far you’ve gone.  So I tried to move the CatEye Wireless to the rear wheel instead of the front wheel.  Problem there was that the receiver doesn’t pick up anything, which is a shame.  So, the solution was to get a wired computer from Bike Bug in North Sydney and some velcro dots.  I attached the wired computer to the frame of the trainer and the reader to the rear of the bike.  Once that was up I then had distance and speed measured (usual things to know for service etc).   The speed seems to suggest an average of 33KPH, which does make sense for nice flat roads.  Being able to keep this sustained is even better and should hopefully help in the long run.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with this and as long as I use it often, which is the key, it should work out quite well.

Ben Kweller and Oh Mercy

Saturday 11 Apr – the Metro

The gig started off with Oh Mercy, a band from Melbourne. This is not a band I’d heard of, but like all things I was willing to give them a chance. I’d lost interest in the first 10 minutes. Mediocre is really the best way of describing them…their only saving grace was a song at 30 mins in after the lead singer told the front row to stop talking. You know it’s not good when the front row isn’t listening. Their songs are melodic, just they miss that punch to really drive them home. The song at 30 min in had this punch; if only the rest of the set had this they’d go a bit further. To be fair to them, there solos remind me of a middle career Blur, which isn’t a bad thing just that they didn’t get anywhere beyond this. Otherwise they just looked like a teenage garage band. For the most part, their lead singer let them down. The vocals where lost is the general volume from the other band members; you could hardly hear what they were singing about. In the end I just switched off from listening to them like the rest of the crowd. I have to agree with the review done by thedwarf.com.au, I don’t really fancy their chances either. They did finish by saying that last time they played in Sydney, someone nicked all their gear; maybe someone giving them a hint perhaps?

This really made me a bit worried about the Ben Kweller set that was coming up. Where Oh Mercy really that bad? Was it just that the sound techs just didn’t do their job properly? These thoughts where quashed with the first ten seconds of Ben Kweller coming on. Suddenly there was stage presence, life and obvious fun which has been missed from the previous band. Reinforced by the playing of “Walk on Me” and Boom we were in Ben Kweller goodness. The set consisted of songs from Sha Sha, On My Way, Ben Kweller and the new album Changing Horses. All of these played solidly, got the audience behind them and singing along. Simply awesome to watch, listen and sing along too.

For me, the best part was when Ben played “Family Tree” from the Sha Sha album. This was the first ever Ben Kweller song I heard. I was buying music from a shop called “Fopp“. This doesn’t exist any more, which is more of a shame, as it housed some awesome and different music. Things that the Virgin Mega Store or HMV doesn’t normally stock It was also cheaper too. Thankfully HMV saved it, only if there are now 8 shops in the UK. Still, the Sha Sha album was playing. I can’t remember what else I was buying at the time, but I said I’ll take what’s playing too. Turned out it was the last copy in the shop. The shop assistant wasn’t too happy about it, but that was my win here. It then resided in my car and was a regular in the cd player. Until coming to Australia, I didn’t hear any more Ben Kweller. It was no existent in the UK, no one really listened to it. That’s not what I found out when I got here. So to be able to hear Ben Kweller live, playing the first song of his that I saw was pretty awesome for me. All in all a great show from Ben and just makes me want to see him live again.

terminal:velocity

terminal:velocity, originally uploaded by monkey_pushover_tree.

Sunday, I reached terminal velocity. I became the man that fell to earth at around 125mph. Still thinking of it now gives me a rush.

Before the jump with the harness on. Going for "training"

So how do you describe such a thing. Well, best to start from the when you first turn up at the Skydive the Beach office. I’m been looking forward to the whole thing and wasn’t worried. The office in Wollongong is a small affair, with a tv showing others jumping and some B.A.S.E. Jumpers doing their stuff. Duality by Slipknot was playing in the background, which was cool. I had that track on my ipod, so I was enjoying the whole thing. Some of the others around us were showing the signs of nerves and the watching of people jumping from planes, was making it all seem very real.

You then fill in the forms, the usual stuff; you accept this is dangerous, you can die, that you are not medically incapable etc oh and next of kin details in case something does go wrong. Plus you have to give your weight. This is so they can match you up with the right person. Even with all of this, I didn’t really think anything would go wrong. I guess part of this comes from climbing and trusting the system. That and there was very little I would be able to do about it anyway. So after you fill in all the forms, you get given an pair of over pants to wear and the option of a fleece. Then you’re supposed to go wait outside.

When we got outside there was group coming into land. All very graceful and looking like they were having fun. There was one kid flapping his arms and screaming “I’m flying! I’m flying!”. This all just made me want to do the jump some more. There was also a girl that when she landed, ran off to get sick, but I guess this is not for everyone

A few minutes after this, we were ushered around to the side of the building to get the gear on. You put one foot in each leg loop, then they haul the rest of the harness over your shoulders. Easy as. Then, they tighten up some the straps, double backing everything. This was all just like a full body climbing harness, if anything, it felt a lot more comfortable at this point.

The you meet the people that you are going to be attached to for the fall. In my case, I had Greg aka arnie. Here is what the Sky Dive the Beach people say about him:

“The original terminator, Arnie is our very own bionic man…..well he did have a hip replacement in November 2006, and was jumping again within 3 months! With over 10,000 skydives, Greg is holds an Instructor A rating (the highest instructional rating possible). He started jumping as a naive 22 year old while in San Diego on a navy trip. Greg has achievements aplenty under his belt, including being a gold medal winning world champion, and Australian champion 5 times over, his most recent is a 25 way canopy formation Australian record early in 2007. This father of one has a dream holiday destination…..Santorini.”

our plane, which I only have a 1 way ticket for

I didn’t know this at the time, but it’s not like you get to choose who you jump with. I don’t think it would have made a difference to me either; I was looking forward to doing it and not nervous. They joke around with you any way, I guess this is to make sure that you’re feeling okay and relaxed about the whole thing.

Getting on the Cessna for the jump

Next comes the training…there really isn’t that much of that. You are all kneeling down. You put your head back; arms crossed across your chest and then thrust your hips forward keeping your back arched. Then you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and you can put your arms out.
For landing grab your legs and slide on your bum. Don’t stand up until they say it’s okay to. We run through this twice… it’s simple nothing to it.

Then Greg was back out with a video camera; all of them where. They are talking to you and filming you. Asking how you are feeling how things are going etc. This is a reoccurring thing as they get the photos from the video, or if you are having a dvd made this is what it’s made up off. Then all onto the bus we go; it’s off to Illawarra airport.

The twenty minute ride is kind of quite. There is an air of apprehension. Jokes are made, but you get the feeling that people are getting nervous now. It really didn’t take that long to get to Illawarra. There was also a moment of realisation that it was that airport that we were jumping from. It’s one we pass on the way to climbing at Nowra. For me this seemed all familiar; I knew where we were so it’s all good.

The plane was refueling when we turned up, so there was another wait of five minutes. During this time, the instructors are rechecking the harnesses that you are wearing and putting on the packs. More jokes and video happens. Finally, the plane taxis around the corner. We wait on the grass until its turned around.

It’s a noisy Cessna Caravan 208 in the Jump the Beach livery. The first thing you notice is the very large door opening. That’s going to be the exit at 14000 feet. There is a rusting yellow ladder that is propped up against the door. You clamber up it and the next odd thing appears. You sit backwards, between the legs of a person behind you (your instructor). Eventually everyone climbs in. The plane is noisy; it’s not like anything you go on holiday on. You can here the prop roar as we taxi out to the runway. We had to sit here for a while as a microlight landed. “Bugsquisher, we call them, Bugsquisher” shouted Greg to me.

I’m still all a bit nonchalant about this. I’ve been in planes big and small and we’re just waiting for take off. Finally, the bugsquisher lands and gets out the way. We start the take off; it’s a slow trundle down the run way building up speed. Finally we’re up, no turning back now. I’m looking out the window enjoying the scenery. There is some cloud cover coming in, but most is still visible.

The view from 4500 feet

see, 4500 feet (well almost)

About five minutes in, we look really high up. Things look small, you can see the for miles around. Greg shoves the camera in my face again. “How you feeling now? Still looking forward to this?” Yes and yes are my replies. He then shows me the altimeter. We are only at 4500 feet…we still have another 9500 to go. Things look small at this height anyway, God knows how much smaller they are going to get. Back to making jokes.

It’s all uneventful until the call for 5 minutes goes out. Then people start getting serious. It’s the most serious that I’ve seen the instructors get since we started. Goggles go on. They fit tight against your face. The comfortable harness now gets tightened. Greg had warned me earlier that it would get tighter. It’s really tight and restrictive now and I’m also a lot closer to Greg than I have been since we started this thing. I’m finally hooked up against him.

The three mile light pops on – it’s red. I’m not sure how many others notice it. We are getting really close now. Greg goes through what we are going to do; Swing leg over the seat here, shuffle on knees to the door, head back, arch back, tap tap tap, open arms, smile for camera!

1 mile orange light goes on…The door is slid open. Suddenly it’s cold. The air is rushing in…this all feels very real now. I’m still not really worried though. Green.

The two next to do the door suddenly fall out. They are gone as if they never sat in the plane. Then someone else shuffles next to the door. The have there head up and they are gone… we are shuffling towards the door. Michelle goes. The plane is getting really empty. The guys in front of me move to the door. Greg says, we’re going straight after them. They then disappear from view. I shuffle to the door.

getting ready for the jump; less than five minutes to go.

I look down. “Holy F&*k” goes through my head for the first time in this whole adventure. 14000 feet straight down, looks really high up. I mean much higher than it did when you look out the plan window. Staring at the ground from an open door is something else. That moment lasted a long time in my head. In reality it was a second or two. Head back says Greg…I did that. I was looking up, but I don’t remember what I saw. Maybe the sky, maybe the sun. I also don’t know what was said next. Adrenalin kicked in.

What I do remember is the fall.

Everything that I’d read about this is that you don’t get the stomach leaving your body sensation that you get on roller coaster ride. I did for the briefest of moments. I didn’t feel sick, but the adrenalin was flowing now. Yes at this moment I was scared; a lot scared. A I’m going to die moment goes off in my head. I’m out of control here and I have no idea how to control this. It was like taking a climbing fall but longer. I was waiting to feel the rope and harness bite, someone to catch me. Nothing. That’s was about 2 seconds of freefall.

The noise gets you next. It’s unbelievable just how noisy falling through air is. It’s also warm. Imagine 100 hair dryers hitting your body and you get the picture. I was only wearing a t-shirt, and It was nice and warm. Up to about 3 seconds now.

Then your mouth dries. The air is rushing in; you can’t really scream or cry out anymore. Maybe 5 secs now.

Then you remember to look. I can’t really remember what I saw at this time. It’s all a blur. If anything, it was sensory overload. Nothing I have ever done has been like this before; we’re only 10 seconds in.

the WHOOO HOOO moment during freefall

Tap tap tap on my shoulder. I open my arms. I can now feel the force of wind against my hands. The feeling is awesome. It’s effort to push down now. Like pushing against a wall almost. It’s also getting noisier. Greg is panning the camera up and down. I’m screaming “WHOOOO HOOOO” at the camera. This part is cool and you’re still falling. You forget you are doing 125mph. You don’t know you are doing 125mph either. I can see the earth spinning below me. Of course, we are spinning in relation to it. I’m thinking how do I control the direction (all pointless I know, but hey).

Floating after free fall

A cloud that was below me, now appears in front of me. The earth is still far away. Next it’s violent jolt and the chute opens. It really is quite loud and forceful. Slowing down from 125mph is something else again. I don’t know how long we fell for. Maybe 40 secs, maybe longer.

Now it’s quite, peaceful. I can feel my heart beating; it’s fast. I’ve hit terminal velocity and it was awesome. My senses are returning to me.
I can look around. The ground looks as far as it did when we were at 4500 feet in the plane; still a long way away. I can see others with their chutes open drifting around.

That’s the thing. You really don’t feel like you are falling at this point in time. It’s like you are just static floating in the air. You can see the coast and it looks amazing. The clouds are above you and to the side. Greg hands over the controls of for the chute. I’m now controlling the parachute. I’m told to pull on the right handle, and we turn sharply right.

In control of it all!

There are a couple of times where Greg says look to the left (for the camera) and I look right…obviously, still in the rush. For couple of minutes we do this. Turning left and right. You can see the surfers in wash paddling out. Greg points out the oval and the lighthouse. Everything looks like a model. I can barely see my car.

Greg then takes back the controls. I double check that he has them before I let go. That’s the climber in me, I can hear myself saying have you got me, have you got me?

He says we are going to practice the landing. So that’s what we do. i pull up my legs. It’s harder now with someone strapped onto me. Greg also says that we will be coming in fast as there is little ground wind. The oval is a lot closer now. We do a sharp turn right and you can feel that we are loosing height at this point. “Legs Up”. Another sharp turn to the left and we are heading to the oval.

legs up

Dam we are coming in fast, like really fast. “Legs up higher”; I try but I can’t get them higher… I doesn’t really matter though. We skid on our butts and come to a halt. I’m back on terra firma and have survived the jump. I thank Greg for the jump and shake his hand. More camera stuff; asking how it was… it was AWESOME!

Greg also says that the more you do it, the longer freefall feels. The more you can take in. That’s something that I would like to see again.

I look around at the others who are landed or coming into land. Everyone made it; everyone has that same smile that I have on my face. We all talk about our jumps and how it felt. Everyone says similar things, laughing about the same stuff.

It’s been more that 24 hours since I landed. I’m still buzzing and shaking over this. My mouth goes dry when I think of the sight from 14000 feet to the ground; I want to remember those first 10 seconds more clearly. I want to do it again…I want that rush one more time.

Back on Terra Firma

mojo

rob:on:m, originally uploaded by monkey_pushover_tree.

Climbing mojo once again returned! Okay, so the above climb is not me on it, but I seconded this clean. I also believe that’s the hardest climb I’ve done first go. And it was a dam awesome climb.

So yesterday we went to Dam Cliffs; this is a place I’ve been to many a time and lead all the easy routes before hand. The reason for this was that I knew the routes, they are easy and I can get my head back into climbing. The first one we jumped on was Jug City. Just like it’s name, it has a lot of jug like holds. In fact, if you are not on a jug, then you’re on the wrong hold. Which for me was a good confidence builder. I’ve lead this three times before (maybe?), so it should be nothing new. There was a moment before the first bolt where I was a bit worried, but after that it was easy. I almost climbed past one bolt. Then at the top I was bit anxious, but that lasted for a minute. Got to the top, felt a bit pumped, but all good. Happy was I again for completing a climb.

Next, I lead “fucary ring”. This is a really good climb for beginner climbers. There are bolts every meter so you get used to placing draws and the like, There was this one moment where I stepped up in the wrong place and felt like I was about to barn door, but corrected myself, didn’t allow the panic to set in. All good. I went right at the top, cause I could. Again a good lead.

Feeling good, I decided to top rope the 18. I’d thought I’d done this one before, but in fact it was the one next to it. There is a really tough move at the top. I wanted to top rope this first and see how I got on with it before attempting to lead it. Climbing up to the tough part is easy (as these things normally are), I remember Rob shouting, think how are you going to clip this… Hmm good question, I can’t think how to get passed this move yet. It’s fiddly, with an undercling, to a crimp, then another crimp, move up to the jug. Seems easy, but it’s not. I did the hard move okay, then the next move, the easier one, I just couldn’t sort out. I couldn’t work out what to do with my feet. In the end here I just called take and had a rest. A minute or two later I tried again. This time got it; didn’t fancy leading it though.

I had no regrets no leading it, today was to have fun and go from there. Amy went up and down it and I had another go. This time I got it. The move is still a PITA, but i got it.

Rob then lead the 19, the one above this. The pressure was on him as he’d onsighted everything else on the wall. He had to make this. I took photos, as Amy belayed. Rob, made it with no problems ( a few grunts there and then). The way that the climb is set out, you have to have someone come up the rope behind you (seconding).

So I decided to second the climb. I was feeling good, it looked like fun and the way things were going, I would do okay. The start is a pig though. I didn’t see rob do the start as it’s hidden behind a boulder. It’s a fiddly bouldering mantle move of a small foothold. I gave it shot while Amy spotted me. Stood up and BAM… I hit my head on the bolder (good thing I have a helmet). I’m stuck I cried… looks like my chalk bag got caught. But I freed myself and got up on the boulder. What a pig of a move.. what’s the rest going to be like?

Next is the traverse. This appears scary from the first look. You can see the floor drop away from you. Tops of trees and bushes appear below the rock…but the traverse is on a big ledge with big holds. Awesome view at this point and you start to feel the exposure. Falling here would be into space and could be interesting on how to get back. Then you get to the real part of the climb, the arête. Here it’s overhanging but the holds are big when you get them. Lots of grunting and few quick moves and I make it to the big jugs. Dam fun moves, really good fun in fact. Then I’m at the top. I’m really quite ecstatic. That’s the hardest climb I’ve completed outside as a first go. It’s also a climb I’m pretty sure I could lead.

After this, I lead the 10; it’s easy as, but fun. Then I downclimb it… which is much harder. All the big ledges obscure all that you can see. makes you think a lot about what you are doing. Amy does the same.

We then move over to the other wall. I’m getting tired now, and it’s getting late in the day. James decides that he wants to jump on a 22…great thinks me as I’m not likely to complete that. That climb is occupied, so we do the one next to it. James says it looks easy and does it clean. There appears to be only one hard part. I think I can do it and try on top rope. I have no idea as to what grade the climb is but I give it shot. Yeah, it’s pretty straight forward until the third clip. Then it’s thin and thought provoking. I’m trying to remember where James went. I make a move for break of rock. It’s thing and crap… I try to hold on, then Whoooosh… i’m off. I fall quite a way with the rope stretch and I pull amy off the ground nearer the rock.

This is a good thing. I needed a fall like this. It shows that everything works and it’s all good. The system works etc. I try multiple times and eventually get the move and get to the top. Rob then gives it a go. I watch Rob move though the move that I got suck on. Something clicks to me about it. Rob says I should give it another go… I kinda have a think about it and do it again.

This time I’m at the hard move quickly. I remember that crappy side pull and crimp. This time I find a better left foot hold and stand up on this and find a good right foot. Reach up for the break and get it. Awesome..done the hard move. Jugs to the top. It’s good to end the day on a good climb. I was quite happy to be done there.

Rob wanted to go do the unknown climb left on the other wall. That would mean that he’d onsighted everything there. I’d done that one before and it’s a piece of crap. But, we went to do it. Rob leads it and finds out what a piece of crap it is. Then I second it. Again, a piece of crap. Its not as mossy as it was last time, but still pointless. But it’s another successful climb for me.

Today I hurt lots though…a good hurt, from a good day at the crag.

Climbing mojo has returned…life is once again good.