Posts Tagged ‘Brazil’

Huge shout of ‘congratulations’ goes out to Jenson Button for securing the 2009  F1 world championship title when he crossed the line 5th in an action packed race at Interlagos in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Button drove aggressively and extremely well having qualified in 14th place he made up 5 places in the first lap with some overtaking that was a joy to behold – something all too rarely seen today – he finally finished fifth.

His team mate and nearest rival Rubens Barrichello, who had qualified on pole and who desperately wanted to win in front of his home crowd was dogged by bad luck and came home in 8th position meaning that no one, with one race to go in Abu Dhabi, can catch Button who has scored 89 points.

It also meant that Button and Barrichello’s team ‘Brawn Mercedes’ won the team championship with 161 points. Team principal Ross Brawn paid tribute, ‘Jenson is a fantastic racer and he had a great race today, particularly after such a difficult qualifying yesterday. He knew what he had to do and did just that and is a very deserving World Champion.’

Button who was ecstatic after his triumph said:

“Today was the best race that I’ve driven in my career and I’m really going to enjoy this moment. For the team to win the Constructors’ and the Drivers Championships here is just fantastic and they deserve it so very much after all the difficult times that we all went through over the winter. This season has been a rollercoaster ride from the elation of the wins at the start to the hard graft in the second half of the season which has seen us grind out the results needed to take the titles.’

Jenson Button with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata

It is a great story when you think back to last year and when Honda pulled out of the sport – Button had no car to drive. But when Brawn, Button and Barrichello, with an ace team in support, got together there was no stopping them, winning 6 of the first 7 races they today find themselves, in their débutante year, champions of the world.

We need say no more – that is professionalism.

In the video from havefun3333 you can see Jenson Button, world champion celebrating the knowledge that he and his team are world champions…….singing might not be your forte Jenson – but who cares! Well done.

We were talking with friends last night about the tsunami which struck south east Asia on December 26th 2004 killing an estimated 150,000 people – the worst natural disaster in modern history. ‘That will be nothing’ chirped up our friend, ‘it will be the collapse of Cumbre Vieja that will leave in its wake a death toll of more than a million people’.

OMG – what is that we thought and having been given a rudimentary explanation by our friend we decided to do some further research when we got home and what follows is a brief synopsis of why it is western Europe which poses the most extreme threat to human life on the east coast of the United States.

Researchers at Benfield Hazard Research Center have identified a potential Atlantic Ocean tsunami threat from large-scale landslides at the Canary Islands. Surface and submarine investigations show a long-term history of mega-landslides at multiple locations in the Canary Island chain.

Recently, scientists have realised that the next Mega Tsunami is likely to begin on one of the Canary Islands, off the coast of North Africa, where a wall of water will one day race across the entire Atlantic Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner to devastate the east coast of the United States, the Caribbean and Brazil.

Dr Simon Day, who works at the Benfield Greig Hazards Research Centre, University College London, says that one flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, in the Canaries, is unstable and could plunge into the ocean during the volcano’s next eruption.

Dr. Day says: “If the volcano collapsed in one block of almost 20 cubic kilometres of rock, weighing 500 billion tonnes, it would fall into water almost 4 miles deep and create an undersea wave 2000 feet tall. Within five minutes of the landslide, a dome of water about a mile high would form and then collapse, before the Mega Tsunami fanned out in every direction, traveling at speeds of up to 500 mph. A 330ft wave would strike the western Sahara in less than an hour.”

After six hours it would reach Britain, where waves up to 40 ft high would hit southwest England at 500 miles per hour, travel a mile inland and obliterate almost everything in its path.

However, the destruction in the United Kingdom will be as nothing compared to the devastation reeked on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Dr. Day claims that the Mega Tsunami will generate a wave that will be inconceivably catastrophic.

He says: “It will surge across the Atlantic at 500 miles per hour in less than seven hours, engulfing the whole US east coast with a wave almost two hundred feet high, sweeping away everything in its path up to 20 miles inland.

Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then all the way down the coast to Miami, the Caribbean and Brazil.” Millions would be killed, and as Dr. Day explains: “It’s not a question of “if” Cumbre Vieja collapses, it’s simply a question of “when”.

Of course you will all want to know the answer to that question – when – we know no more than the boffins but we think you might like to think twice before closing on that beach front property in the Hamptons.

By definition natural disasters are not predictable – reference the terrible loss of lives in the earthquake in Italy this week but as you will see in the video below from the thomgoddard the devastation will have no precedent.

We received many comments from both race organisers and individuals interested in the Vendee Globe in which the last competitor finished on March 15th and therefore thought it only right to mention another mighty world circumnavigation that is currently underway. The Volvo Ocean Race is an exceptional test of sailing prowess and human endeavour which has been built on the spirit of great seafarers – fearless men who sailed the world’s oceans aboard square rigged clipper ships more than a century ago.

Their challenge back then was not a race as such, but recording the fastest time between ports. This meant new levels of pride for themselves and great recognition for their vessel.

The spirit that drove those commercial sailors along the web of trade routes, deep into the bleak latitudes of the Southern Ocean and around the world’s most dangerous capes, emerges today in the form of the Volvo Ocean Race, a contest now seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.

We are extremely grateful to the Volvo Ocean Race website www.volvooceanrace.org for this historical information.

The first edition of this sporting adventure came in the wake of two remarkable sailors of the last century, Sir Francis Chichester and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, men who drew worldwide acclaim for amazing solo voyages around the planet. Inevitably their success led to talk in international sailing circles of a race around the world for fully crewed yachts. It became a reality in 1973 with The Whitbread round the World Race, the longest, most demanding and perilous sporting contest the world had known.

Dangerous it was. In that very first race three competing sailors were lost after being washed overboard during storms. This led to the inevitable call for that inaugural contest to be the last, but the desire for unbridled adventure and great competition led to the race being staged every four years.

The re-badged Volvo Ocean Race was run for the first time in 2001-02. Today it is, quite simply, the ‘Everest of Sailing’.

During the nine months of the 2008-09 Volvo, which starts in Alicante, Spain in October 2008 and concludes in St Petersburg, Russia, during late June 2009, the teams will sail over 37,000 nautical miles of the world’s most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Kochi, Singapore, Qingdao, around Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm.

Each of the seven entries has a sailing team of 11 professional crew, and the race requires their utmost skills, physical endurance and competitive spirit as they race day and night for more than 30 days at a time on some of the legs. They will each take on different jobs onboard the boat and on top of these sailing roles, there will be two sailors that have had medical training, as well as a sailmaker, an engineer and a media specialist.

During the race the crews will experience life at the extreme: no fresh food is taken onboard so they live off freeze dried fare, they will experience temperature variations from -5 to +40 degrees Celsius and will only take one change of clothes. They will trust their lives to the boat and the skipper and experience hunger and sleep deprivation.

The race is the ultimate mix of world class sporting competition and on the edge adventure, a unique blend of onshore glamour with offshore drama and endurance.

It is undeniably the world’s premier global race and one of the most demanding team sporting events in the world.

Ports of call for the Volvo World Ocean Race

The promotional video below from Darkxtremheb will give you a better idea of what is involved in this extreme test of stamina, sailing skill, nerve and team effort.

The race is now well under way and the boats having rounded Cape Horn are heading north for their next port of call which is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. That will mark the end of leg 5 whereupon the teams will have to ready themselves for the 6th leg from Rio to Boston which starts on April 11th at 13.00 hours local time.

At the time of writing Ericsson 4 leads the 8 teams overall with Puma in second place and Telefonica Blue in third place. But it is likely to be Ericsson 3 that is the first boat to arrive into Rio with Ericsson 4, Puma and Green Gragon making the most of some difficult sailing conditions – high pressure.

However with another 5 legs to be completed it is not unreasonable to say that anything could happen. For up to date information we suggest you log onto the official race website – the link for which follows: www.volvooceanrace.org

This is without doubt one of the most extreme sporting events happening in the world today.

We were very sorry this morning to hear of the hang gliding tragedy that resulted in the deaths of two men in a tandem hang glider which crashed near Queenstown earlier today. But it is the danger of this sport which sits along side the beauty of flying a hang glider which is the paradox of this (and we suggest many) extreme sports. Our thanks to Will Hine and Clio Francis of stuff.co.nz for bringing us this story.

‘The fatal flight took off from an area known as The Knoll on the Remarkables this morning and was piloted by an Argentinian Gerardo Bean who was working for the adventure company Skytrek. The passenger was named by police as Andrew Michael Scotland, a volunteer firefighter from Waipu, 41km southeast of Whangarei.

Mr Scotland had been in Queenstown at a fire safety officers’ conference, he had stayed behind in the tourist town after the conference, along with four others, specifically to take part in the morning’s flight. At about 10.15am the hang glider crashed in Kelvin Heights, a southern suburb of Queenstown. Mr Bean died on impact along with his passenger, Mr Scotland.

Skytrek specialises in guided hang-gliding, allowing tourists to fly with an experienced pilot. According to Skytrek’s website, the company was established in 1992 and has flown more than 39,000 customers. A Civil Aviation Authority investigator was on his way to Queenstown to investigate. There were five witnesses to the crash.

CRASH SITE: Police and firefighters prepare to remove the bodies of two people who died in a hang glider crash near Queenstown this morning.

Compare this tragic scene with the fabulous experience demonstrated in the video from Airadventures which shows a promotional video for www.riohanggliding.com of hang gliding at Sao Conrado in Rio de Janeiro which is probably the world’s most beautiful place for hang gliding and has some of the best atmospheric conditions all year round. The take off area is the “Pedra Bonita” (The Pretty Rock), at a height of 1,700 feet (520 meters). The route flies you over a tropical forest called the Tijuca National Park and over the mansions of Rio’s rich and famous before landing on the sand at Sao Conrado’s “Pepino” Beach.

This juxtaposition of the beauty and fear – the paradox – is what seemingly is the great attraction of extreme sports – both for participants who actually experience the adrenaline rush and for spectators who, not surprisingly are watching, waiting and maybe even hoping to see something spectacular. A somewhat macabre thought about the human psyche.

Our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of both Gerardo Bean and Andrew Scotland.

A new one for us but surely Professional Bull Riding (PBR) has to be considered one of the most extreme of all sports – if not the most extreme it must come close to being the toughest of extreme sports; injuries are frequent and sometimes fatal.

We thought a brief explanation of what goes on would be useful and we are grateful to the likes of the PBR and Wikipedia for what we we have gleaned.

The organization began in 1992 through the efforts of 20 professional bull riders, since when the organization has grown to include four tours which collectively stage over 100 events a year. Prize money has exploded from $250,000 in 1994 to over $10 million in 2006; crowds and TV viewer numbers have likewise taken off – you can understand why – the action is non stop.

Pyrotechnics, pulsating music and special effects open each event, and each features the top 45 riders in the world at the time. Riders attempt to stay on a bucking bull for eight seconds, and rides are judged based on both the rider’s and the bull’s performance. At the end of each event, the top 15 riders compete in the short round, or “short go”; the rider with the highest point total from the entire event becomes the winner.

There are now more than 800 cowboys from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico who hold PBR memberships and if you look at the list of PBR World Champions since 1994 it is predominated by Americans and Brazilians – not forgetting one Aussie!

Below you can view a video from PBRNow which has been put together by the organisation’s president Ty Murray, in which he explains for the benefit of mere simpletons like ourselves some of the jargon and what goes on.

Amongst other things we learn about:

• the bull rope
• being being bucked off
• about disqualification
• an 8 second ride
• the flank strap
• a foul
• a re ride
• judging

The next major event is the Anaheim Invitational to be held at the Honda Centre in Anaheim, California on February 20th and 21st and if you want further information and/or tickets we suggest you hit the link following www.pbrnow.com and get your boney butts down there for what is an exhilerating and extreme event.

Our thanks to sanela who posted this great guide in www.sessionmagazine.com to the top 20 places in the world to bungee jump – so good we could make no improvement but knew we just had to let you have this information.

Bungee jumping – dive from the giddy height of a towering fixed structure while an elastic cord secures you and keeps you suspended just inches above the ground level at the end of the leap. What leaves most people breathless during a bungee venture are the rebounds that occur due to the stretching and snapping of the cord. Bungee jumping was first practiced as a rite of passage for the youths of Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. Since the modern times, several records have been made and broken by bungee-jumpers world over. The Guinness Book of World Records of the highest bungee jump was by AJ Hackett from Macau Tower of China from an altitude of 233 meters.

Below follows a brief guide on the places to bungee jump

Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge, USA – 1053 ft (321 m)

Hanging above the Arkansas River, this suspended bridge is an all-time favorite bungee-jumping spot because of its amazing height. It spans over the Royal Gorge Route Railway and has a wooden plank-way for a breathtaking walk across the river.

Bloukrans Bridge, South Africa – 710 ft (216 m)

This unique highest single span arch bridge adds much to the giddy raptures of bungee jumping. Look ahead to the instructions by the jump experts, the tantalizing countdown before the plunge and the smoothest recoils owing to the pendulum bungee technology that makes it the highest commercial bungee jumping venue internationally.

Verzasca Dam, Val Verzasca, Switzerland – 721 ft (220 m)

Ever since the famous James Bond stunt in the movie ‘Goldeneye’, this high arch hydroelectric dam has been one of the favorite haunts for bungee jumpers. You require an advance reservation, a medical check and of course, the proper height and weight proportions for stepping into the shoes of 007.

Corinth Canal, Greece – 260 ft (79 m)

The Corinth Canal works as a connector between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese. If you like to plunge down to the canal’s depth, just take a bungee jump from the bridge. This is a regular weekend sport organized by the Zulu Bungy in the summer months.

Ponte Colossus, Italy – 500 ft (152 m)

You will find this 350 m long bridge awe-inspiring and an inspiring spot for an energetic sport like bungee jumping. It will take you an average of almost 4.5 seconds for the first fall. You need a lot of nerve power to sustain the 100 km/hr vertical velocity of the free fall.

The Pipeline Bungy, New Zealand – 335 ft (102 m)

As you undertake the four seconds of free fall from the longest single span suspension bridge over the raging Shotover River, your heart skips a beat. At the close of these four second, you hang dangerously close to the foamy waters only to be secured in a boat and brought to the shore at the end of the oscillations.

Colorado River, Costa Rica – 279 ft (85 m)

The Colorado River is chiefly the haunt of the hobby fishers though its bridge is an excellent bungee jumping site as well. There are both normal and special all-day long bungee jumping schedules offered by Tropical Bungee to give you diverse ranges of experiences at the highest safety levels.

AltaVila Tower, Brasil/BH – 233 ft (71 m)

The Alta Vila Tower of Nova Lima attracts site seers and bungee jumpers alike since it commands a breathtaking view of the mountain-surrounded Belo Horizonte.

Navajo Bridges, USA – 467 ft (142 m)

Navajo Bridge of Marble Canyon spans across the Colorado River right over the Grand Canyon. The autumnal beauty of its natural setting makes it a lovely bungee jumping spot in late September. The advantage of the superb elevation of the Navajo Bridge is coupled with a unique sense adventure that you associate with bungee jumping.

Macau Tower, China – 764 ft (233 m)

This 338 m tall tower holds the provisions for an observation deck for relaxing as well as for undertaking daring sports like bungee jumping or ‘sky jumping’ as it actually feels like. It counts among one of the giddiest entertainments that Macau has to offer to its visitors and locals.

Nevis Highwire Bungy, New Zealand – 440 ft (134 m)

The jump pod overlooking the roaring Nevis River holds an irresistible attraction for the lovers of bungee jumping. This incredible 8.5 seconds of freefall offers you an exciting scope to span the Nevis Valley. Nevis Highwire Bungy shuttles the jumpers to the glass-paneled jump pod to help them have an unforgettable experience.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – 120 ft ( 37m )

Puerto Vallarta is more than a resort with its countless scopes for adventure sports in its jungles, beaches and cultural getaways. You can accept the allure of the lush-green waters of Banderas Bay by taking a bungee jump from the adjacent cliffs for $55.00 between 10 am to 6 pm. The superior quality of the jumping equipments allows you to enjoy a safe thrill.

Graskop Gorge, South Africa – 197 ft/262 ft (60 m/80 m)

As a potential bungee jumping site, Graskop Gorge offers you a peerless freefall from a height of 18-19 stories of Foefie slide. As you leap off, the cord will take you across the entire width of the gorge in a single sweep. Catch the spectacular beauty of the Graskop Falls as you trail across in the super-fast zipline like a bird.

Pont de Ponsonnas, France – 338 ft (103 m)

If you deem suspension bridges as the most exciting bungee jumping spots, this is something you can positively rave about. The old dilapidated Pont de Ponsonnas Bridge has been now replaced by concrete-built arch Ponsonnas Bridge to give you an even safer bungee jumping experience.

Ledge Urban Bungee, Queenstown NZ – 154 ft ( 47m )

Queenstown offers a perfect combination of wild adventures and serene beauty. The Ledge Urban site is known for its unique runaway jumping style whereby you can catch a glimpse of the nighttime beauty of Queenstown. The bungee harness helps you to adopt any posture during the free fall and enjoy a maddening rush of adrenaline.

Perrine Bridge, USA – 486 ft (148 m)

You do not need a permit for year round bungee jumping from this bridge connecting the Twin Falls area to the Jerome County. You can find several BASE jumping compeers to share the excitement.

The Last Resort, Nepal – 525 ft (160 m)

It gives you a scope to look and jump off from the longest Nepalese suspension bridge across one of the scariest tropical gorges, with the Bhote Kosi River rumbling below. You can remain in air for a long time during your free fall amid the charming valley sights.

Niouc, Switzerland – 623 ft (190 m)

Niouc holds the record for the highest bungee jumping spot in Europe. Discover the wild side of Switzerland as you go for an entire array of holiday activities, with bungee jumping topping the list.

Longqing Gorge Bungee, China – 164 ft ( 50m )

With its green mountains, caves and clear water, Longqing Gorge of northeast Yanqing County is an amazing natural spot for trekking and cruising. However, nothing matches up to bungee jumping. Just gear up some courage and take the plunge. Let your friends capture your action in a camera that you can treasure for a lifetime.

Victoria Falls Bridge, Zambia – 500 ft (152 m)

The Victoria Falls Bridge over Zambezi River connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia is reckoned a perfect spot by bungee jumpers to get a close brush of the spraying falls. Once you jump off, the fall may seem to rush up to you at a maddening pace but you can trust the ankle and body harnesses for their full-proof security.

Wow – sure is quite a list and if you have skalped all of these death deying adrenaline rushes we send you a big shout of respect – must be some kind of world record!