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Hemispheres | May 2012

Big Fish, Little Boat Download PDF

An intrepid angler heads to the remote Pacific island of Kiritimati to become one of the first to capture a fearsome ocean predator from a kayak. Repeat: a kayak.

From the deck of a large wooden outrigger with a sputtering motor, I carefully slide my kayak into the Pacific Ocean. Setting yourself adrift at midday, nearly smack on the equator, in a 13-foot-long plastic kayak more than 1,000 feet above the sea floor is, by any reckoning of seamanship, an act of profound foolishness. And yet, having bid my mother ship farewell, here I am, ripening like a hothouse tomato beneath the high-noon sun while trade winds buffet my 56-pound polyethylene tub. There is an island nearby, Kiritimati (or Christmas, a phonetic deduction from Gilbertese, the regional language, which pronounces “ti” as “s”), but even if I made the hour-long paddle to shore, landing would be impossible. A fringe of reef rings Kiritimati, its coral heads protruding like pitchforks through foaming 10-foot surf. Attempting to pass this gauntlet would shred any vessel and its occupants. I try not to consider such a fate as I cast a lure bigger than my foot and wait with trepidation. Whatever swallows this, I presume, is going to be enormous. Continue reading →

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May 2, 2012 by admin

A sleigh ride at sea | May 2, 2012

I have only one regret—having not stayed longer in Kiritimati. Why? Because kayak fishing is crazy addictive, something I quickly learned while on assignment for Hemispheres magazine. It was my first time trying it—well, really, my first time doing any serious fishing at all. But fishing from a kayak for massive tuna, or whatever happens to bite, was an unexpected thrill. I’ve never really understood fishing. It’s too static for my blood. That all changed once I slid into my tiny kayak, with a 50-pound rod, offshore a speck of an island in the

Continue reading →

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April 24, 2012 by admin

Runner’s World | April 2012

The Shoe Believer Download PDF

Long before the barefoot-running craze, Danny Abshire was promoting a better way to run—and building a better shoe to run in. Now his revolutionary Newton shoes have the attention of runners and the competition.

“Okay, gang, follow me!” And with that simple command, Danny Abshire—all five feet, six inches of running-shoe showmanship—takes off through the streets of Boulder, Colorado, with 40 or so runners of all sizes and shapes and PRs following behind. Most of them don’t know each other, or the man they’re trying to keep up with. The only thing they have in common is the shoes on their feet, and for that they can thank this fast-moving salesman.

At first glance, the shoes look like any ordinary trainers, except for the flashy neon color schemes. But those attending this Saturday-morning running clinic soon realize that the Newton— as the shoe is called, and which Abshire first started developing 20 years ago—is nothing like what they’ve previously worn. It weighs about a third less than a conventional running shoe but is not—as Abshire likes to point out—a so-called “minimal” shoe, the kind with the barely there sole. While Newton’s heel-to-toe pitch is more level than that of most name-brand models, what makes this shoe so unorthodox is the plump and springy cushioning in the forefoot. The odd design promotes something Abshire calls “natural running,” which the inventor is about to demonstrate with all the avuncular charm of a young Mel Brooks, the comic he vaguely resembles. Continue reading →

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April 10, 2012 by admin

Newtonian bliss | April 10, 2012

It’s great to get out-of-the-blue assignments. When I got a call from, Runner’s World asking me to profile Danny Abshire, the founder of Newton, who lives in Boulder, my first thought was, huh Out of the blue. I’d never heard of Newton and was a recreational runner at best (once or twice a week, six miles tops). But I love geeking out on new technology, particular disruptive technologies. Newton was just that—a shoe its inventor believed would change the world, or at least the world of runners. I don’t want to insert myself in the Newton Continue reading →

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February 15, 2012 by admin

Skiing | February 2012

Screw the Lifts Download PDF

First Chair? Whatever. With snowkitng, the wind is the lift. Your next run? Just about anywhere you’d like to ski. Better yet, you can pick it up in a day. How does a four-hour powder run sound?

A ferocious blizzard put me in a foul mood yesterday, as I navigated snowy roads and dodged flatland drivers crawling through Utah’s Wasatch Mountains toward Park City. But when I wake up this morning and see the after- math—29 inches in 24 hours—I know I’m in store for a very good day. The late-February sun is already signaling its bluebird intentions through clearing skies. Three world-class mountains beckon within a short drive.

Sure, it’s god-awful President’s Day weekend, and hordes of dawdling boobies will track up the hill before lunchtime. Even so, with more than two feet of fluff, there should be ample to poach if you know where to look. And I do. Yet after receiving a wake- up text from a friend (“the wind is on”), I can’t help pondering the blasphemous alternative: forsaking a powder day for a new sport I am only just beginning to grasp proficiently. Continue reading →

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February 1, 2012 by admin

Kiteboarding | February 2012

Playa Encuentro, Dominican Republic Download PDF

Head a scant three miles downwind of Cabarete’s renowned Kite Beach to ride the uncrowded breaks at one of the Caribbean’s premier surf spots.

Playa Encuentro is a miraculous kite spot I discovered almost by accident. Three years ago, I had arrived in Cabarete, the famed kite mecca of the Dominican Republic, with a spanking-new directional board and no clue how to ride it. A local kite instructor, whose name is Francis Gil and teaches at Laurel Eastman Kiteboarding, had watched me struggle my entire session to stay upwind in waist-high surf.

Cabarete is situated on the verdant North Coast of the Dominican Republic, where easterly trades blow year-round but peak in summer, when blistering thermals convect off the country’s interior mountains, boosting wind speeds by 10-plus knots. The mountains also shield the North Coast from the brunt of hurricanes that, once offshore, deliver world-class swell to Cabarete and neighboring surf spots. Continue reading →

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October 25, 2011 by admin

Air & Space | October/November 2011

Lost in America Download PDF

Airplanes that go missing are often untraceable. Why is effective tracking technology being ignored?

The morning of December 9, 2009, began cool and clear. In Dorrigo, an Australian town about 300 miles north of Sydney, the pilot of a Bell 206L-1 LongRanger helicopter took off on his second flight of the day. The 29-year-old (officials did not release his name) was under contract with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service to aid crews fighting bushfires. Also aboard was Aaron Harber, a 41-year-old park ranger being ferried to Cathedral Rock National Park, where he would help battle a blaze.

At 11:20 a.m., a few minutes after takeoff, the pilot flew into a thick fog. He immediately lost all visual reference points. For a split second he glimpsed a ridgeline and a cluster of trees, then nothing. He knew he was perilously close to the ground—perhaps just 20 feet above it—but had no idea what direction he was traveling in. “This is not good,” he told Harber. “I’m going to try to land.” When the pilot yanked the cyclic to flare the chopper and slow its speed, there was a loud bang, and the LongRanger went into a flat spin. The main rotor snapped and sliced through the cockpit canopy just as the aircraft slammed into the ground. In the impact, Harber’s seatbelt shoulder harness was severed. Continue reading →

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September 1, 2011 by admin

Kiteboarding | September 2011

Surf’s Up, Finally Download PDF

The world’s first kite competition exclusively for wave-riders debuts.

It wasn’t long ago—perhaps 10 years—when the idea of surfing a wave with a kite was ludicrous. Kites pulled like deranged cruise missiles. Depower was laughable. Getting onto a wave was easy; staying on it was another story. The early generations of kites would stall at low speeds. To keep them aloft, riders needed gobs of speed, which made it impossible to stay on the face of a wave unless the surf was insanely huge (the bigger the swell, the faster it travels). The physics to execute classic moves—bottom turns, off-the-lip carves, and getting barreled—simply didn’t compute. Those who claimed to kite waves were really just outrunning them. Meanwhile, surfers scoffed at the lameness of it all.

But as kiting moved from infancy into adolescence, the desire to catch waves fueled innovation. First came bow kites, in 2005, with hybrid-and delta-shaped sails to follow. The advances led to kites that hovered patiently while a rider dawdled in the surf. Today, kiters are not only shredding the world’s legendary breaks, but doing things paddle-and-wait surfers can only dream of: cherry-picking the sweetest waves in a set—or riding them all—on ordinary surfboards, even strapless. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2011 by admin

Kiteboarding | July 2011

I, Kiter Download PDF

Riders convene in the British Virgin Islands for the second annual BVI Kite Jam. Amidst steady wind, world-class waves and boundless flat water, jammers rediscover the kindred bonds that give our sport its soul.

Horseshoe reef, the fourth largest on Earth, meanders for 18 miles around Anegada, an atoll perched at the northern frontier of the British Virgin Islands. The reef encloses an electric blue lagoon fringed with frothy ribbons of surf. its thriving coral heads have trashed hundreds of laden vessels, spilling their cargoes onto Anegada’s pearly beaches. Scavenging these shipwrecks provided islanders with their primary income source for several centuries. now tourism fuels Anegada’s economy. The atoll has long been a far-flung hideout for sailors, who believe the island exudes a quiet energy that lulls visitors into a rhapsodic bliss. Perhaps that is why on a very windy day at Anegada’s cow Wreck Beach there are at least 50 kiteboarders in varying states of repose, loafing in the sand. “It was really weird to see,” Charlie Smith says. “There was a lot of chatting going on and not much kiteboarding.” Continue reading →

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April 24, 2011 by admin

Outside | April 2011

Just Waive Goodbye Download PDF

With so many novice adventurers filing suit when something goes wrong, outfitters are shielding themselves behind increasingly dense liability forms. What does the mumbo jumbo really mean? We asked a crack team of lawyers.

THE TIME HAS COME. You’ve saved up for the adventure of a lifetime, and departure is imminent. But before you can raft the Grand Canyon, heli-ski Alaska’s Chugach Range, or climb Kilimanjaro, you need to get by a pesky gatekeeper: the liability-release waiver. If you’re like most clients, you’ll sign without reading a word. But you should know what you’re getting into. “It’s just like signing a mortgage,” says Tracey Knutson, an Anchorage-based attorney who represents outfitters from Alaska to Antarctica. “This is a binding contract.” More to the point, it’s a binding contract that leaves you powerless. Refuse to sign the waiver and you’ll be sent packing with a refund. If you sign, then get hurt and file suit ? Good luck—judge s toss out about 90 percent of recreation-based lawsuits.

This wasn’t always the case. “I recall many large outfits not using waivers in the early seventies,” says Reb Gregg, a Houston-based attorney who lectures about recreational liability. So how did things get so contentious? To find out, we constructed an abridged sample waiver using language from the contracts of a few leading outfitters, then dug up the lawsuits that prompted the bombproof legalese. The result is a look at 50 years of ski accidents, shark attacks, rafting mishaps, and negligent guides. Read on—then sign at your own risk. Continue reading →

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