Archive for July, 2009

BUYERS BEWARE – the July/August 2009 Kitesurfing Magazine has exposed an internet scam on the purchase of kites and kite surfing equipment – and we thought we should bring it to your attention too.

“BEWARE THE SCAM

I’ve just been ripped off big time. Bought two Cabrinha Switchblade IDS’s (12m and 8m) online and paid the supplier who has now taken all my money and sent nothing. They are ignoring all emails etc. and seem to have disappeared…

If you go to www.alibaba.com and then search for almost any kite brand (I put in Cabrinha Switchblade), there are loads on offer – AND cheap too! But it’s a scam. They’ll take your money and never send you kites. Maybe you’d like to warn others through your magazine? It won’t do any reputable manufacturers or dealers any good for these rip off merchants to be around! Maybe some of the other manufacturers should join forces and clamp down on these guys. Lesson learned is “always go to a reputable UK recognised dealer”…

Iain”

This scam is unlikely to have anything to do with Alibaba.com. The Alibaba site is a well established global trading site that acts as a portal for business to business trade, and just like with eBay where a scammer can create an account with irresponsible ease, so too can they on Alibaba.

Remember the old maxim, “if it sounds too good to be true, it ususally is” - and go to a bonafide dealer.

South Africa has to have it. Have you ever seen anything like this?

Hole 19, or ‘Xtreme 19′, is a par 3 – a par 3 whose tee is atop a cliff on Hanglip Mountain, more than 1,400 feet above a green carved like the continent of Africa.  The 630 yard hole requires a helicopter to reach the teebox.

This magnificent new golf course is in South Africa at the Legends Golf and Safari Resort. 

This is an 18-hole championship course that was designed by 18 different  top flight golfers including  Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, K.J. Choi, Justin Rose, Trevor Immilman and Retief Goosen.  

But it’s the ‘Xtreme 19th’ that has caught and held the world’s attention.You’ve got to take a helicopter to get to the tee box, and from there it’s more than 630 yards to the pin. Golfers have the opportunity of teeing off from one of three tee boxes.  With advanced technology in the form of four separate cameras and the latest tracking equipment, the golfer can follow and capture the tee shot and the flight of the ball.  Once you tee off, it takes nearly 30 seconds for the ball to hit the ground.

Playing all 19 holes will cost about 2,000 South African rand, or about $220 in American dollars, but for that you get the helicopter ride,  a DVD of your shot amongst other things. And, and here’s the teaser, if you get a hole-in-one on the 19th you will also net yourself a cool $1 million bucks – and the right to call yourself the most xtreme golfer on the planet. But what a beautiful green – the whole idea must have been created with a chuckle and a wry grin…

Unlike certain signature holes, you can play just the Xtreme 19th, if you like, without messing with all that full-round business. And for tournaments held at the Legends, it will serve as the playoff hole.

The Legend Gold and Safari Resort is 2 hours north of Johannesburg. The design and layout of the Resort has been done in a way that minimizes the impact of the development on the natural environment. It preserves the pristine bushveld and makes the Resort one of the most environmentally sensitive of its kind in Africa.

Felipe Massa has undergone surgery after a horrific 170mph head-on crash at the Hungaroring race circuit outside of Budapest, Hungary. He was hit on the head by bouncing debris which had fallen from fellow Brazilian Rubens Barichello’s Brawn during Saturday’s Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.

Ferrari, the Formula One champions, said in a statement that the Brazilian was conscious on arrival at Budapest’s AEK hospital and his general condition was stable.

“Following a complete medical examination it emerged that he had suffered a cut on his forehead, bone damage of his skull and a brain concussion,” it said.

After the operation Massa was reported to be stable but the results of further tests are awaited and it will then be decided on the best course of action for the young Brazilian. The accident, which rules Massa out of today’s race at the Hungaroring, brought back grim memories of the crash that killed his compatriot and triple world champion Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994.

Massa, championship runner-up last year, was hit by a fist-sized spring weighing between 600 and 800 grams, his car, leaving streaking brake marks across the asphalt, ploughed straight on at turn four and into the tyre wall.

Massa, who appeared to have been knocked unconscious before the car left the track, was extracted and taken by ambulance to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to hospital.

Photographs of the driver showed his visor half ripped off and a bloody gash over his closed left eye.

Barrichello was reported to have later visited Massa in hospital – below you can see the tragic accident and the reason it happened in this video from  konamigiants

Renault’s Fernando Alonso will now start Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position with the Red Bull pair of Vettel and Webber in second and third positions and McClaren’s Lewis Hamilton in fourth.

With Massa out of contention for championship points for some time it will be interesting to see whether it is now the Red Bull pairing of Vettel and Webber who bring pressure on Jenson Button’s (who starts in 8th position today) commanding lead.

Current driver standings

All that is left to say is to wish Felipe a speedy and full recovery.

This is an event which has just happened, but until yesterday I didn’t even know about Furnace Creek and all it stood for. I mean – here’s a town in a desolate desert landscape, 214 ft below sea level, boasting a permanent population of 31, temperatures that can surpass 125° (52°C), and where most lodging is closed in the summer.

So what does one propose to do there? Well, why the hell not – an ultra-marathon? and in the middle of summer? And they say it’s a “mad dog an Englishman out in the midday sun”… hey, we’ve nothing on the Americans!!!

So a little more about the extremely extreme Death Valley Badwater Ultra- marathon which was completed on 15th July. There were 86 starters and 75 official finishers – an 87% success rate – not bad, not bad at all for one of the most hostile environments in the world.

Badwater, itself, is just 17 miles south of Furnace Creek resort. It is the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level and has massive salt flats.

Globally recognized as the toughest race of its kind, the Badwater Ultramarathon is a pure athletic challenge of athlete, shoes, and support crew versus a brutal 135 mile stretch of highway, a hellish environment of up to 130 degrees, and a sixty hour time limit from its start line in the bowels of Death Valley at Badwater  to the finish line high on Mt. Whitney at nearly 8,300’ (2530m). The Badwater course covers three mountain ranges for a total of 13,000’ (3962m) of cumulative vertical ascent and 4,700’ (1433m) of cumulative descent. The Portals are the trailhead to the Mt. Whitney summit, the highest point in the contiguous United States. This one-of-a-kind foot race offers the promise of a supremely personal achievement along with international accolades for those who rise to the occasion.

Next event up for Death Valley, an arena favoured by AdventureCORPS, the organisers of these extreme events, is the Furnace Creek 508. This is another well known cycle event which starts on 4th October and finishes on the 6th. It’s a race for endurance athletes where the cyclists will cover 508 miles from Santa Clarita, California, across the Mojave Desert and Death Vallez to end in Twenty Nine Palms. This race is touted as the “toughest 48 hours in sports”.

Athletes who complete both the Badwater Ultramarathon and Furnace Creek 508 in the same year are recognised with the Death Valley Cup – only 15 people have earned that recognition since 1996.

In the words of Keith Wetiz of Team Black Angus Cow, a Furnace Creek entrance:  “There are occasionally people in your life with whom you have an innate sense of communication. I’ve found that these people are often your training partners. Perhaps it’s due to the countless hours spent together not always being able to communicate verbally. Instead, we consciously and subconsciously study and learn their movements and expressions. Over time words are needed less and less. Rather a subtle gesture or body movement or quick look is all it takes to completely understand each other.

“Back home a couple months after our rookie appearance at the 2008 Furnace Creek 508, my Black Angus Cow teammate Scott and I met for dinner at our favorite local hangout, the Q-Shack. As always, the barbequed brisket was tender and the conversation light, but when a friend brought up the previous year’s 508, we both knew what was coming. We had both sensed it since leaving the desert. We had heard it in the still of night and just as clearly during the noisy backdrop of the world during the day. With a quick glance, just like the countless ones during all our rides together, I saw his eyes and knew.

“The desert was calling us back.”

The application period for the 2010 Badwater Ultra-Marathon will open on 1st February, 2010 and in the meantime enjoy this video of the 2008 race (AdventureCORPS) which’ll give you a pretty good idea as to what it’s all about…

Here’s a real feel good video from uzoouk. If these strange relationships can work – surely there’s hope for the human race!

Then all we’d have to work on is global warming…

So who says golf can’t be extreme? If you’ve seen our past 2 articles (and I’d better warn you that there are likely to be more in the pipeline) you, too, might be revising your opinion of golf and golfers… here’s the last 4 of the 8 most extreme golf courses in the world…

Ushuaia Golf Club, Argentina.

This is the world’s sourthernmost golf course and the tmeperatures reflect this. Ushuaia has a maritime subantarctic climate. Temperatures average 1 °C (33 °F) in the coldest month, and 9 °C (48 °F) in the warmest month. The record low is −20 °C (−4 °F) (July), and record high 31 °C (87.8 °F) (December). The record low ever recorded in summer is −6 °C (21 °F) (February). It is a short, difficult and windy 9-holes links course.  From October to April, days are longer and one can play between 6 AM and 10 PM. It is not a championship course. It is different. Created in 1992, the first 9 holes of the Ushuaia Golf Course are located  at the door of the Lapataia National Natural Park nearby the ancient convict train station on the steep hills along a mountain stream, el Rio Pipo. Between snow-topped mountains and the cold waters of the Beagle Channel, the course ambles from the steep slopes, over the small tumultuous river and back up  and down the hill again. There is a touch of the  wild Scottish Highlands here. The holes are short but not straight with narrow fairways, small greens near the stream and the ever-present winds. There is no sophistication, just a lovely natural place with a warm welcome at the club house.

North Cape Golf Club, Norway.

And once again from once extreme to the other – from the southern-most course to the northern-most one…  this course is 280m north of the Arctic Circle. The typical golfing season in Norway ranges from early May until the snow comes (mid/late November). Golfing in many locations is possible twenty four hours a day between the middle of May until the end of July. A golfer’s paradise? or a non-golfer’s nightmare! This is not a challenging golf course, with its 6-hole course, 2 par 4’s and 4 par 3’s and quantities of mud, but it has one lovely oddity – with the Arctic Circle Norwegians having little sense of territory, and obviously a great sense of sportsmanship, if the ball lands in one of the unfenced gardens that border the course, you are allowed to lob it back into play! Although North Cape is on the list of 8 most extreme golf courses, it is now no longer the most northern -most. It has been superceded by Hammerfest Golf Course – also Norway.

Ko’olau Golf Club, Hawaii.

This is reputably the toughest golf course in the world. Carved out of the topical rainforest on the windward side of the 2,000-foot Ko’olau Ridge mountain range, Ko’olau encompasses three distinct climate zones and features winding ravines, extreme elevation changes, and breathtaking views of cascading waterfalls – all on one golf course!. Situated on eastern Oahu, the rugged landscape of this tropical jungle course uses ravines as the target for holes and boasts lush vegetation and huge sand bunkers. The course was built in 1991 as a private Country Club for the high rollers, located just over the Pali Highway from Honolulu.  You can’t beat this golf course for beautz. It has breathtaking mountain views, spectacular fiarwazs surrounded by rainforest, and dramatic sights of the Pacific Ocean. The rule of thumb here is to bring the same number of balls as your handicap. The 18th hole has two carries over a giant ravine – both the drive and the approach shot… you have been warned!

And last, but not least, the world’s oldest and most famous course: Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland.

If there is a single course in the entire world that most golfers aspire to play just once in their lifetime, it is the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland – a course like no other and an experience like no other. Golf has been played on the Links at St Andrews since around 1400 AD and the Old Course is renowned throughout the world as the Home of Golf. Golf was clearly becoming popular in the middle ages, as the game was banned in 1457 by King James II of Scotland who felt it was distracting young men from archery practice. This ban was repeated by succeeding monarchs until James IV threw in the towel and in 1502 became a golfer himself. As the 600 year history of the Links has unfolded, one simple track hacked through the bushes and heather has developed into six, and now seven with the new Castle Course open, public golf courses, attracting hundreds of thousands of golfing pilgrims from around the globe. St Andrews Links is the largest golfing complex in Europe and all 18 hole courses can be booked in advance. In 1764 the Old Course consisted of 22 holes, 11 out and 11 back, with golfers playing to the same hole going out and in, except for the 11th and 22nd holes. The golfers decided that the first four holes, and therefore also the last four holes, were too short and that they should be made into two holes instead of four. This reduced the number of holes in the round from 22 to 18, and that is how today’s standard round of golf was created.