Dr. Masters vs. the Manufactured Doubt Industry

Industries that harm people and the environment are threatened when science reveals their harmful effects, because it puts public and political pressure on them to change, potentially endangering profits. Sadly, the laws that govern corporations require them to do whatever it takes to maximize short-term profits, but make no provisions for protecting people and the environment or refraining from misleading the public. So rather than changing in response to scientific findings, industry will hire creepy PR firms and lobbyists to dispute and suppress the science. The creeps take advantage of the fact that science is complicated to cast doubt on the good science, inject their own phony science, and create a false sense of uncertainty about whether their industrial activity is actually bad.

It's scary how successful the lobbyists have been. For example, even as the scientific evidence connecting humans to global warming has gotten stronger and stronger, more and more people are skeptical or confused about climate change because of misleading PR campaigns by the "Manufactured Doubt" industry.

One of the bloggers who I most admire, weather scientist Dr. Jeff Masters, just did an excellent job of calling out the Manufactured Doubt scam. I was going to put in some snippets of his post here, but it's so good you should really just read the whole thing. Please check out Dr. Masters' Post and spread it around to all your friends.

Strings Attached

Kiteboarding is pretty fun, and once you get the basic feel it's almost stupidly easy compared to windsurfing. But using a large, complex kite to power a small, sinky board is much less reliable than using a modest sized sail to power a floaty windsurf board. One little thing goes wrong, and all of a sudden your high-tech, wing-shaped kite turns into a useless tangle of tent fabric and string, dead in the water. That's what happened to me at the end of an otherwise delightful kiteboarding session on Friday.

This is the whole video, which starts with the good part. The bad part at the end has a swear word. If you don't want to hear it, turn off the sound when Elvis Costello stops singing.

Awesome / Awful Kiteboarding Session from James Douglass on Vimeo.

This is a shorter video of just the bad part.

Kite Size Calculator / Weight Translator

**Note: This is old now. I have an updated version of the calculator, which incorporates wind ranges and board sizes and a graphical chart, at this link.**

**Note #2: My famous WINDSURFING CALCULATOR is available at this link.**

Most kite manufacturers make wind range recommendations for their kites based on a "typical" kiter who weighs about 170 lbs (77 kg). I made this table so people of different weights can translate those recommendations for themselves, or figure out proportional kite sizes relative to what their lighter or heavier friends are using. E.g., if 110 lb Tina is perfectly powered on her 8 msq kite, then 230 lb Lars should use his 16 msq kite.

I also included approximate wind speeds in the right hand columns that you can match to your weight and kite size. BUT the particular relationship between kite size and wind speed depends on the style of the kite, the quality and direction of the wind, the type of board, length of lines, etc. So take the wind speed versus kite size recommendations with a grain of salt, and be careful.

4.7 Onshore Wind Session

The wind here in Florida has been relentless for a week, every day around 20 mph. Yesterday was probably the windiest yet, with 20 - 30 mph. I used a 4.7 msq Ezzy wave sail that I got last year from a guy who had switched to kiting. The waves weren't huge where I launched near Fort Pierce's South Jetty, but I still had some trouble getting out due to the onshore wind direction. Once out, however, it was great. There were some nice waves on the North side of Fort Pierce Inlet, and some very challenging voodoo swells in the inlet itself, where the incoming waves met the outgoing tide.

4.7 Windsurfing in Fort Pierce, FL from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Today is even windier, but I really really really need to catch up on work since I'm leaving for a conference in California tomorrow.

Ocean Sailing with Workin' Dave

"Working" Dave Zaijcek is a stoked windsurfer from Stuart, Florida, who maintains a windsurfing blog called "Treasure Coast Windsurfers" and a local windsurfing forum called "Treasure Coast Windsurfing". Dave usually sails the flat water of the Indian River Lagoon, launching with a good group of mellow, mostly older windsurfers at the Stuart Causeway. But Saturday he got motivated to try the ocean, and braved some challenging conditions with me at the Fort Pierce South Jetty. We experimented with swapping different fins, sails, and boards and figured out that Dave's new Mistral Syncro 92 l board didn't work well with his 6.0 cambered race sail, but worked great with my 5.5 and 6.6 wave sails. So I think Dave is going to get a 5.8 wave sail and come to sail with me more often. Woo hoo! It's always cool to have other windsurfers on the water instead of being the only one among the kiters.

Unbeknownst to me, Dave took some cool pictures when I was sailing in the outflow of Fort Pierce inlet, where nice waves and swells form. I'm reposting some here. The full set is on Dave's blog.

Also, I've been trying something new on the water...

Clew Mount Camera Glory

I was inspired by the awesome videos on Andy McKinney's "Lost in Hatteras" blog to try mounting my GoPro camera on the clew end of my boom instead of just wearing it on my head. I did it exactly like Andy showed, and it seemed to work. Conviently, yesterday evening provided 15-20 knots of breeze and some nice lighting for testing it out. I used a 5.5 msq Aerotech Charge and 106 liter Exocet Cross.

Clew-Mount Camera Windsurfing in Florida from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Another Round of Wind

Now that the "season" has started, Florida has become a darn good place for windsurfing again. Tuesday had about 20 knots sideshore at the Fort Pierce South Jetty, perfect for a 5.5 msq sail and my 83 liter waveboard. As usual, I was the only windsurfer amongst a bunch of kiters. I really don't feel the need to kite in strong winds like this, because I think windsurfing on small gear is plenty fun and challenging. I need to learn some new moves, though, to spice up the GoPro videos, if nothing else.

Windsurfing Ft. Pierce, FL on 3 Nov 2009 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Doug the kiter gloats about his great session while Tim and Marc fuss with Tim's 8 meter kite.

A Kona longboard atop my minivan marks me as the only windsurfer at the jetty.