July 11
Another Victory at Sea from Thailand's own Nong Doa - In a close fought battle with Italy's finest, she managed to take second place. Photos from our Thailand SUP race, and more...
Undoubtably the biggest news for us this month is Thailand's own "Siripon Kaewduang-Ngam" taking 2nd place in the Ladies class RSX Yourth World Championships in Croatia. She finished just one point behind the Italian Winner and may of won without the miss-fortune of the Australian girl dropping her rig across Nong Dao's board at the beginning of the last race. Nong Dao is also the current Youth Olympic Games gold medallist in Windsurfing.
Small in Body, huge in spirit, like Amara before her, Thailand's Windsurfing Association has taken her from the most humble of backgrounds, providing the support and opportunity for her to transform her life and show the world that a Lady from Thailand can win at the highest levels in a sport that is both physically and strategically demanding.
SUP RACING THAILAND - the party has started!
In a far less serious environment - Amara Water Sports is happy to launch regular SUP racing. Our first event kicked of on July 23rd and we had 12 competitors in Battle of the Paddle (BOP) relay style competition. Follow this link for the photos kindly provided by www.pattayadays.com - who give a very good accounting of our in-depth preparations...along with the great photos. This was an absolute blast, many people told us it was like old times at the original Amara Watersports at Pattaya Park, we will be doing more activities on the beach as it so much fun. Hardly anyone has good paddle technique or fitness yet, and some even paddled the whole race kneeling down or had the paddle backwards, with-out exception we were all thoroughly exhausted and totally happied out. Thank you to "The View" restaurant who sponsored the prizes for this event and the next two also. Thank you to everyone who joined in, wanted to but could not make it or just watched and laughed. - if you would like to know about the next event - please send us your name and email - all welcome.
The Boards we used for the event were perfect - come and try one, they are stable with great glide and are excellent for light wind windsurfing from a very basic level.Not the easiest conditions for a first event - the wind was side-shore and there was a catchable shore-break - making it quite tough paddling and providing advantage for those with some SUP wave catching experience. Afterwards the wind picked up and the Windsurfers were skimming across the water for a late evening sunset session.
Born Survivor - video, now if he had of taken a beginner windsurfing lesson with us, he could have made a bigger sail and a chest harness from his backpack. Guess the resort he is staying at between shoots, did not have any Windsurfing Gear? pretty cool all the same.
Environment
Of all the challanges facing humanity and the Earth, the largest will come from Over-Population - we are currently at 7billion people and at current growth will reach 10 billion in 50 years. We have enough known Phosphate deposits to maintain Mass Agriculture Production at current levels for about 200 years. However, we must reduce the massive the amount of Soil erosion. For the human race to achieve Sustainability we will need to recycle all organic matter and bring the population back to maximum 5 billion people. By the time the easy Phostphates and Potash are used up, we will have to of gone to extremely efficient sustainable systems such as Permaculture. source of this information
Some facts about Soil - from the SOIL FOOD WEB
1 teaspoon of healthy soil contains - 1billion bacteria,(composed of 20-30,000 types - scientists have labeled about 1% of them) several meters fungal hyphae, several thousand protozoa and a few dozen nemotodes. Nearly all live on carbon.
A good deal of a plants energy is spent on chemical "exudates" released from the plants root systems into the "rizosphere" an area extending 2-3 mm around the plants hair roots.
In the rizoshere the plant exudates specific carbohydrates and protiens to attract, wake up and feed specific benificial bacteria and fungi living in the soil. also organic material sloghed of from root tips as they grow.The bacteria and fungi who live directly from the exudates of the plants roots are in turn eaten by larger microbes. The excretions of these microbes in turn feed the plants roots - right in the rizoshere.
Plants control this web of life by secreting specific exudates at diferent times of the growing season, depending on the needs of the plant.
The microbes are eaten by arthropods, (animals with segmented bodies, joints and an exoskeleton). Which are eaten by lizards, frogs, birds and snakes. Bacteria exudes slime to stick to dirt particals, worms tunnel allowing moisture and air to enter, the life in the soil creates the soil stucture. The life in the soil holds the nutrients locked into their bodies alive and dead to pass to the next element in the web of soil life.
I actually have gained much respect of late for Modern Agriculture, even though I hope, to one day to see Cheap High Yields achieved without methods that seam to be moving away from Nature. ie, pesticides, GMO and Production-line mono-culture.
Investing
Greek Bailed out, and credit rating dropped. US - no decision reached on debt ceiling and days from defaulting. Gold breaking 1,600.
The sexy commodity this month... there isn't one, (except perhaps Gas). Lots of investors sitting in cash means the first signs of good news will see huge capital inflows. However, with QE going global, and a century of waste and corruption already behind us, are there any smart optimists out there? If you have a long term view, then Fertilizers and Energy plays should be safe. I would say that metals and other commodities will do extremely well once USA and EURO debt is resolved properly.
Plant a food forrest on some sub-prime land. Food forrest is like a self-sustaining botanical garden full of human food, support species and wild life. Can leave it alone for 10 years or fine tune it 1 day a month to increase production. - Can leave this in the family for as long as you can protect the tittle. - now thats investing....
