Sea trials
Last Sunday, with some friends, I was out at sea in the vicinity of Hadsan, Mactan. Not that far out but far enough to achieve what we set out to do.
We were with the group from the Jump-Off Point, Inc. They are a fledging but growing enterprise that offers outdoors experiences for local and foreign tourists, corporate team builders and individuals who wish to learn outdoors skills or upgrade them.
They set shop next to the Turtle's Nest Book Cafe two years ago. For many years now it has been and is the regular haunt of artists and outdoor types, in many cases both the same person. They were a natural fit, soon becoming good friends with the regulars there, myself included.
More than that they became active supporters and collaborators with the art and other activities regularly held in the cafe. Reciprocally, they welcomed many to their activities as well.
Though I had heard about those activities, saw and read some of the documentation, I had never joined in any until last Sunday.
Among the activities that they have been promoting is kayaking. This is precisely the activity I had many times wanted to join but had not been successful at doing so.
A recent experience over the Christmas holidays at having to rescue a friend and her little girl, both of whom had no experience whatsoever with kayaks but nonetheless went ahead – with my not-so-considered encouragement -- in conditions that turned out to be stronger currents and heavier winds, convinced me of the need to upgrade my kayaking skills. We had to effect the rescue in another kayak, although a pumpboat dispatched by the resort completed it.
They had some kayaks made by a local kayak maker. They were going to use these for an expanded program timed, hopefully, for the summer. This will include regular kayak clinics, friendly competitions which would lead to a training program for more serious ones, monthly moonlight kayak cruises to nearby islands and islets and other kayaking activities that would continue the already successful pioneering efforts of Danny Ebrada and Chris Courtney, the latter widely regarded as having popularized kayaking in Cebu.
Seven in all, -- five tandems and two singles-- these kayaks were to be tested for seaworthiness, buoyancy, handling and comfort. Also, deployment issues had to be studied and timed; loading the kayaks into the transport vehicles, hauling them, unloading them, etc.
After the morning of preliminary tests with two tandems, myself in one pair, and after lunch, the rest of the kayaks and the paddlers were ready to launch.
Stretching exercises, a short reminder on paddling techniques and other kayaking basics preceded our entry into the water.
Soon the colorful cruise was on its way. Amid the crazy clatter and high-speed runs of sea scooters and the hysterical screams of their passengers we were silently slicing the water, paced by the synchronized movement of the paddles. Or, we would just be sitting in the water, resting our arms and enjoying the gentle swaying of this splendid sea craft.
At the turn around point, we gathered in an area hemmed in by three big reef rocks. We took a long rest and had an impromptu lesson in reentry techniques used when one falls overboard and has to get back into the kayak.
Back at shore, we gathered around the kayaks and discussed the ride and pointed out improvements to the kayaks. I imagined being in an industrial design class with a focus or testing group. For all practical purposes, that was what this group was even if no grades or certificates were forthcoming.
More satisfying though was how the back and forth between experience and technical practicalities enriched us individually for having gone through it. Also, it would hopefully improve both the final outcome of the kayaks and, consequently, the ride.
Even the personal flotation devices or life vests – a must for kayaking -- were not spared scrutiny. Here many suggestions were also made and taken.
In all, we had fun. We learned quite a bit. We look forward to doing more of this in kayaks that we could say, without fear of sounding foolish or presumptuous, we helped make, or, -- why not? -- perfect.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
01.18.07 kulturnatib
What is your homeland like?
The Asean Summit hosting in Cebu had its uses after all. This does not diminish one whit the monumental hassle and inconvenience it brought to ordinary citizens like me who, during two of those closed-street security exercises, could do nothing but bear the heat and the rising frustration of fellow passengers inside those cannot-be-airconned jeepneys.
At least one of the jeepney drivers had the compassionate sense to wait out the jam away from the crush of vehicles and sought refuge under the shade and the windswept leaves of a tree some two kilometers away. And then, the wait wasn't that long.
The use of the summit for me was that it gave me the space and time to enjoy a book I had picked up from a secondhand book shop in Davao City on a recent trip there. More enjoyable still was that it was just walking distance from our hotel during a day that saw a break in a week-long downpour that had completely doused Davao.
The book, a hardbound, is 'This Place On Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence”by Alan Thein Durning.
Aside from the praises from other authors and authorities at the back of the jacket cover, which is expected, what drew me to the book was in the first pages. The author relates how the seed for the change and the writing of the book – the move from Washington, DC back to Seattle,Washington and the motivations that spurred that move and the experiences that sprang out from it – was planted by a medicine woman of the Banwa'on tribe living near a tributary of the Agusan River.
The seed was in the form of a question, “What is your homeland like?” Durning was taken aback. He did not expect the question. He finally admitted, “In America we have careers, not places.”
From a promising career as a senior researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, Durning decided that his homeland is the Pacific Northwest. He quit his job, packed his family and moved. To stay. In 1993 he founded the Northwest Environment Watch or NEW.
Admittedly the book's focus is on the Pacific Northwest of North America. This is the bioregion stretching from southeast Alaska to northern California and from the Pacific coast to the Rockies. Durning and the NEW believes that this region still has the capacity to carry into fruition efforts at sustainable development.
Just a quarter into the book, it is obvious that the problems he is writing about are similar to our own though particular circumstances, histories and cultures and very different.
Yet, as he says, the solution lies in the paradox that the more we realize that many our most pressing problems – global warming, hunger, plagues, even terrorism – are ultimately global in scope and consequence, the solutions that are possible, sustainable and lasting are local; in conscientious citizens realizing that the only durable answers to global problems can only be motivated by the desire to save their own place, their own locality.
Or, in a slogan popular in the early 90s, “Think Global, Act Local.”
Better still, Durning suggests, “Practice permanence.”
This is a difficult book to summarize in a few paragraphs. But, a few things stand out so far – there are still more pages to go -- and bear mentioning. First, is that responsible population growth must be encouraged with education and incentives. Every educated or even simply aware person knows this. Yet, this book and our country can't be more different. In the Pacific Northwest there is no Catholic Church that stands in the way of a clear discussion on such matters as contraception and family planning, let alone adolescent sex education.
Second, that prices must reflect ecological truth. The reason why most of us do not care about polluting the air is because it costs us nothing, although there really is a cost in health impacts, medicines, etc. The price of gas does not factor in the cost of pollution. There are many other examples to this disparity, Durning argues, the record showing that, as far as energy consumption goes, only rising prices change behavior.
I haven't read yet any document of the Asean Summit save that headline about an anti-terrorism pact. Hopefully that summit, the Asean and we shall look more closely into the question, What are our homelands like?
The Asean Summit hosting in Cebu had its uses after all. This does not diminish one whit the monumental hassle and inconvenience it brought to ordinary citizens like me who, during two of those closed-street security exercises, could do nothing but bear the heat and the rising frustration of fellow passengers inside those cannot-be-airconned jeepneys.
At least one of the jeepney drivers had the compassionate sense to wait out the jam away from the crush of vehicles and sought refuge under the shade and the windswept leaves of a tree some two kilometers away. And then, the wait wasn't that long.
The use of the summit for me was that it gave me the space and time to enjoy a book I had picked up from a secondhand book shop in Davao City on a recent trip there. More enjoyable still was that it was just walking distance from our hotel during a day that saw a break in a week-long downpour that had completely doused Davao.
The book, a hardbound, is 'This Place On Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence”by Alan Thein Durning.
Aside from the praises from other authors and authorities at the back of the jacket cover, which is expected, what drew me to the book was in the first pages. The author relates how the seed for the change and the writing of the book – the move from Washington, DC back to Seattle,Washington and the motivations that spurred that move and the experiences that sprang out from it – was planted by a medicine woman of the Banwa'on tribe living near a tributary of the Agusan River.
The seed was in the form of a question, “What is your homeland like?” Durning was taken aback. He did not expect the question. He finally admitted, “In America we have careers, not places.”
From a promising career as a senior researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, Durning decided that his homeland is the Pacific Northwest. He quit his job, packed his family and moved. To stay. In 1993 he founded the Northwest Environment Watch or NEW.
Admittedly the book's focus is on the Pacific Northwest of North America. This is the bioregion stretching from southeast Alaska to northern California and from the Pacific coast to the Rockies. Durning and the NEW believes that this region still has the capacity to carry into fruition efforts at sustainable development.
Just a quarter into the book, it is obvious that the problems he is writing about are similar to our own though particular circumstances, histories and cultures and very different.
Yet, as he says, the solution lies in the paradox that the more we realize that many our most pressing problems – global warming, hunger, plagues, even terrorism – are ultimately global in scope and consequence, the solutions that are possible, sustainable and lasting are local; in conscientious citizens realizing that the only durable answers to global problems can only be motivated by the desire to save their own place, their own locality.
Or, in a slogan popular in the early 90s, “Think Global, Act Local.”
Better still, Durning suggests, “Practice permanence.”
This is a difficult book to summarize in a few paragraphs. But, a few things stand out so far – there are still more pages to go -- and bear mentioning. First, is that responsible population growth must be encouraged with education and incentives. Every educated or even simply aware person knows this. Yet, this book and our country can't be more different. In the Pacific Northwest there is no Catholic Church that stands in the way of a clear discussion on such matters as contraception and family planning, let alone adolescent sex education.
Second, that prices must reflect ecological truth. The reason why most of us do not care about polluting the air is because it costs us nothing, although there really is a cost in health impacts, medicines, etc. The price of gas does not factor in the cost of pollution. There are many other examples to this disparity, Durning argues, the record showing that, as far as energy consumption goes, only rising prices change behavior.
I haven't read yet any document of the Asean Summit save that headline about an anti-terrorism pact. Hopefully that summit, the Asean and we shall look more closely into the question, What are our homelands like?
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
01.11. 07 kulturnatib
Cycle Klaus
Last Christmas, Santa Claus didn’t arrive borne in a sled by a fleet of reindeers as we always expect him to. In fact, he didn’t arrive at all. But – and this is what we really care about – his gifts did, right on the dot on Christmas day. Packed – not wrapped, I’m sorry to say for those who are hung up on Christmas wrapping – in a 40 foot container van.
Also, he has slimmed down considerably, shaved off his snow white beard, gained a few inches in height and generally grew healthy and fit as you would expect of somebody who exercises regularly, like chew up a couple of kilometers on the bicycle.
Then, he no longer goes by the name Santa. What kind of sissy name is Santa anyway? His name now is Herr Doctor Norbert Reiss.
He is a dentist in Germany who, when he is not attending to matters oral, can be found atop the saddle of his bicycle, a mountain-off road model since 4 years ago when he started on this passion with a typical German single-mindedness usually useful only for the exercise of world domination.
At the other more tropical half of the globe another German was following his own passion that, in that half of the globe, is also identified as being some kind of Santa Claus though taken more seriously and is more known by the name of Boddhissatva; A person who postpones his or her attainment of Buddahood or enlightenment in order that others can attain theirs.
Funk Jens is the earthly name of this Boddhissatva and his passion goes by the name of the Bike4U foundation. The aim of this foundation is to make bicycling a serious commuting option for the local population especially for those whose flesh and spirit are still ideal for this option – the young.
In a recent trip to Germany Funk Jens met Dr. Reiss. This was a case of a friend knowing a friend who knew yet another. Jens tells Dr. Reiss his passion and was asked to write about it for a local paper. Two papers it turned out.
Before you could say Ja doch! Dr. Reiss was busy collecting used bicycles. And, before long he, and some volunteers, had collected some 100 bicycles -- enough to fill a 40 foot container van -- from the community including from some Germany-based Pinays, whose other bikes are now Beemers, Benzes and other low-end vehicles.
Meanwhile, here, Funk was busy getting the foundation ready for the arrival of the bicycles: they smoothed out the kinks in the procedure for access, prepared the application forms and made sure that the donated bikes arrive and are distributed without the hitches and hassles such cargo has been known to have endured or are very likely to endure.
Following the wisdom of charity beginning at home, the foundation had decided that the Faxite Omnis, would get priority access. This is the bicycle organization of the students of the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise Institute (CITE), where Funk is the Information Technology consultant in charge of IT curriculum development with the German technical assistance organization DED. The foundation, incidentally, is also mostly based in CITE. At least, for now.
This donation program is also open for others, of course, says Funk. But, as of this writing, only one non-CITE student has submitted his application. He is a 15-year old who is also a triathlete, but who doesn’t own a bicycle.
At the end of this January the foundation is looking to sponsoring a fun-ride in the city for those who will have been awarded their bicycles and those who support the foundation who will be asked to make a donation in cash or kind, bicycle parts or accessories.
Will Dr. Reiss be joining the fun ride? This is a good question for Funk who, I guess, will just be too happy for Dr. Reiss to continue to be what he has proved to be good at: Being Cycle Klaus.
Last Christmas, Santa Claus didn’t arrive borne in a sled by a fleet of reindeers as we always expect him to. In fact, he didn’t arrive at all. But – and this is what we really care about – his gifts did, right on the dot on Christmas day. Packed – not wrapped, I’m sorry to say for those who are hung up on Christmas wrapping – in a 40 foot container van.
Also, he has slimmed down considerably, shaved off his snow white beard, gained a few inches in height and generally grew healthy and fit as you would expect of somebody who exercises regularly, like chew up a couple of kilometers on the bicycle.
Then, he no longer goes by the name Santa. What kind of sissy name is Santa anyway? His name now is Herr Doctor Norbert Reiss.
He is a dentist in Germany who, when he is not attending to matters oral, can be found atop the saddle of his bicycle, a mountain-off road model since 4 years ago when he started on this passion with a typical German single-mindedness usually useful only for the exercise of world domination.
At the other more tropical half of the globe another German was following his own passion that, in that half of the globe, is also identified as being some kind of Santa Claus though taken more seriously and is more known by the name of Boddhissatva; A person who postpones his or her attainment of Buddahood or enlightenment in order that others can attain theirs.
Funk Jens is the earthly name of this Boddhissatva and his passion goes by the name of the Bike4U foundation. The aim of this foundation is to make bicycling a serious commuting option for the local population especially for those whose flesh and spirit are still ideal for this option – the young.
In a recent trip to Germany Funk Jens met Dr. Reiss. This was a case of a friend knowing a friend who knew yet another. Jens tells Dr. Reiss his passion and was asked to write about it for a local paper. Two papers it turned out.
Before you could say Ja doch! Dr. Reiss was busy collecting used bicycles. And, before long he, and some volunteers, had collected some 100 bicycles -- enough to fill a 40 foot container van -- from the community including from some Germany-based Pinays, whose other bikes are now Beemers, Benzes and other low-end vehicles.
Meanwhile, here, Funk was busy getting the foundation ready for the arrival of the bicycles: they smoothed out the kinks in the procedure for access, prepared the application forms and made sure that the donated bikes arrive and are distributed without the hitches and hassles such cargo has been known to have endured or are very likely to endure.
Following the wisdom of charity beginning at home, the foundation had decided that the Faxite Omnis, would get priority access. This is the bicycle organization of the students of the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise Institute (CITE), where Funk is the Information Technology consultant in charge of IT curriculum development with the German technical assistance organization DED. The foundation, incidentally, is also mostly based in CITE. At least, for now.
This donation program is also open for others, of course, says Funk. But, as of this writing, only one non-CITE student has submitted his application. He is a 15-year old who is also a triathlete, but who doesn’t own a bicycle.
At the end of this January the foundation is looking to sponsoring a fun-ride in the city for those who will have been awarded their bicycles and those who support the foundation who will be asked to make a donation in cash or kind, bicycle parts or accessories.
Will Dr. Reiss be joining the fun ride? This is a good question for Funk who, I guess, will just be too happy for Dr. Reiss to continue to be what he has proved to be good at: Being Cycle Klaus.
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