March 2011 Blog
Lots of Rain, unusual weather is the new normal - fortunately the wind has been returning fast after the rain. We have not seen the extreme wind fronts blowing in with the rain yet as we will get from July through into September. Wind so far is not as good as previous years, but still quite good for 7.5 - 8.5M Sails on efficient Boards. Weekends are always good at Blue Lagoon with lots of really nice and interesting people coming to play, learn or just hang out. Wind is due to increase from Sun 6th through till Wednesday - Southerly direction. Craig is away on a Permaculture designers Course until 28th
March 20th - Great wind Saturday from NW. Sunday very busy, but wind much lighter. Friday saw Markets make a huge recovery, which is strange as JPN situation still not certain. Some bargains remain, however keep some cash in reserve for more volatility. Making arrangements for our next big shipment of water-wear and windsurfing sails. If we can win on the duty/logistics, we will pass on the savings as usual.
We will continue to test the Atom, our next big sail order will arrive with Pre Production Specials on Severne NCX, TURBO and NCXPro sails - 1 piece only of each popular size. Severne Blue Line Booms back in stock and a huge range of NEW 2011 STARBOARD LYCRA and FASHION goodies. Last Years excellent quality NPX range is on sale and moving fast also.
Last Month Marc and Wilfred opened their Windsurfing School in Koh Samui and now Koh Lanta Paddle Sports is also teaching Windsurfing. Our amazing safe, fast and efficient sport of windsurfing is now available more widely through Thailand. Both venues also have Stand Up Paddle boards too. Windsurfing lessons are booming, even the thrill seeking kite students are watching in interest as new surfers train in wind that is just too light to teach kite-boarding.
Two new gadgets to test this month - Bullet HD Waterproof Camera and a waterproof MP3 player. Interestingly both can be used for educational use as well as for entertainment. I always use MP3 files to squeeze in extra lectures on things I am studying. Windsurfing with music? fun to try, I'll let you know how it turns out.
This month we will do an SUP adventure scouting trip in the beautiful Silver Lake near the winery just outside Pattaya. This area surrounded by picturesque mountains is developing into a tasteful tourist destination with coffee shops, restaurants, museum, one of the Kings many agricultural education centers and of course the Carving Buddha, (which I am not sure the great man himself would have quite understood, but whatever, it is there now). This trip is open for all who would like to join - and will be a practice run for more trips in future. SilverLake is also holding outdoor concerts, March 26th is Kitaro - Japanese Composer. Same day is earth day also where millions of people turn of their lights for one hour to show that they do actually give a shit about the planet.
Permaculture
Just reading that water demand is expected to increase on Eastern Seaboard, (ChatseonSao to Rayong). One of the key elements of Permaculture is to catch and use all the water your property reasonably can, and re-run this water through duty cycles. It is not about how much you can catch, more about how many times you can use that water. eg. 1000L of water used in 5 duty cycles is as effective as 5,000L.
Not bad to consider how we are using existing energy consumption before we commit to building Nuclear power plants - personally I would rather be a little more considerate than live with a cheap, but threatening supply. The more wealthy among the population could be the first to invest in more responsible systems - and share the excess created. This could be viewed more of an opportunity than a guilt trip :)
I will somehow steal some time from my life to start a couple of small scale Permaculture learning experiments - please feel welcome to discuss or become involved as they progress. Thai people are traditionally extremely clever at working with living systems and conserving energy, the best way I can learn more, is to improve my Thai language - alas not enough hours in the month.
