Tuesday, August 18, 2009

To the victor go the spoils!


Last spring when Catapult and I were visiting our good friends Chris and Heather in the UK, a little wager was put between Chris and Catapult as to who would do a forward loop first. They each put 20 quid on the bet, and I tossed in an additional 20 to bring the pot to a healthy 60 quid.

Now Chris had been trying a few on the previous Maui trip in October '08, and tried a few more on that UK trip when we had a nice day of sailing on the NE coast of England. (gotta tell ya - sailing with castles in the background is pretty damn cool!) I was thinking that Chris had the upper hand, but Catapult just posted this video.





Well, that settles it. Catapult gets the 60 quid. Congrats Aaron!!

12 comments:

Heatherpea said...

Haha! Chris will be GUTTED, but well done aaron... now chris is gonna have to do it for pride and country!

Catapulting Aaron said...

woo! I tried a couple in Maui last year in between intentional catapult photoshoots. I've gotta learn it on Starboard too before October!

David said...

With the sailing you get in the bay area, that shouldn't be a problem! Way cool and congrats again! (and to think I was going to use the money to buy myself a new fin...damn!)

Brian S said...

Help me out guys. I've never (intentionally) done a forward, but I can always see the horizon in this "loop". How can you tell this is a forward???

Catapulting Aaron said...

Brian,

I think it's more of a spin loop, which is somewhat part of the progression.

That said, the wide angle lense is a big reason why the horizon is visible through the whole rotation. When the horizon flexes the opposite direction, you would normally be seeing only sky behind me.

Doing a forward more end-over-end involves a lot of air and slightly different technique in terms of where you position the mast when you sheet in.

Brian S said...

Aaron et al.,
After I posted, I realized it might have sounded critical - not meant so. I was trying to visualize the move, and I thought that the camera should see sky or water at some point in the rotation. Looking at the video, pseudo stop-frame, I still can't visualize it.

Catapulting Aaron said...

I'm not taking offense at all. Most loops don't actually leave someone entirely inverted. The rotation is usually around a tilted axis around some point in the board, not a horizontal axis of the sailor flipping straight over the sail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPCn83G1w3I

You can see that the rider here is never inverted, when the boom is facing the sky in my turn, the wide angle lens keeps the horizon in the frame.

Does that make sense?

Brian S said...

Sorry, don't want to clog the blog here, but when the mast is horizontal to the water (at about 3 seconds into the video you linked), the camera should see all sky. Maybe it's just the wide angle thing.

Catapulting Aaron said...

The go pro I use uses a fisheye lens, when the camera is pointed down, the horizon looks like a hump shape. When the camera is pointed up, the horizon looks like a U shape. It captures the horizon at more extreme angles than a normal lense.


Wide angle (fish eye) camera pointing down:
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/153/PreviewComp/SuperStock_153-1312A.jpg

Fish eye lense pointing up: http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/78032022.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=C1A2C3D60D3A494DA73C042917AC8FD3E30A760B0D811297

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George Markopoulos said...

I've already given aaron his props but here is one more. Great job man.

HD said...

Hey really enjoyed this site, and good to see you sailing in the UK. Although you were on the wrong coast. Next time try and head out West..North Devon has really been firing lately.