Podcasts about dacron

When you fish long enough, things break. That's the nature of life, really . . . things fall apart. But if you're resourceful, you put them back together.Sometimes it's out of necessity. Honestly, a couple decades ago, I simply couldn't afford to go through gear as fast as it was wearing down, so I learned to patch waders, fix a fly rod, mend a fly line, resole my boots, sew tears in my fishing vest and fix my landing net.Likewise,  we've all run into those moments on a fishing trip where we need a quick fix for a broken rod tip or a wader patch . . . whatever it is.We all spend a lot of time, money and effort to get to the river and go fishing. But as we all know, even the simplest gear failure can change the day — it can ruin your trip. But by carrying a few things like zip ties, electrical tape, tension straps, Dacron and maybe a sewing kit, field repair or maybe just fifteen minutes spent at the tailgate can save the day.Also, part of a life on the water is the maintenance and preparation — doing what you need to do — to keep your fishing gear stocked, functional and ready to go.Being a versatile angler, like we talk about so much, requires a lot of stuff, and if you don't think it through and keep on top of it, gear failures can hold you back.That's what the guys are here to talk about tonight.My friends, Matt Grobe, Bill Dell, Dr. Trevor Smith and Steve Sawyer join me for a great discussion.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | All the ThingsPODCAST: Troutbitten | Versatile Angler - S3, Ep15VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

On this episode of History Ignited, we're unraveling the story behind Dacron—one of the most iconic inventions of the 1950s!

On our last of 3 episodes, Dave Westwood, Director of Sales and Marketing at ALUULA, Paula Novotna, Professional Kite and Wing Foiler and Klaas Voegt, Co-Division Manager PD & Marketing Duotone Wing & Foiling Duotone,  join us to talk about: - How did the ALUULA Duotone relationship develop? - Why did Duotone start using ALUULA- Early insights into the use of the fabric (R&D, Testing)- What are the performance benefits of ALUULA- How has using this material impacted the way Duotone designs wings?- Longevity of the wings versus dacron/stiffness. Are there other benefits?- How does it feel to ride an ALUULA wing versus Dacron or other materials - Is there a Target market group, or is the material for everyone? (heavy versus light riders)- Can you feel the weight or performance differences- And Much More!Visit: https://aluula.com/ & https://www.duotonesports.comWatch entire episode on Youtube Trip Alert !! --> Want to improve your wing foiling? Join us in Bonaire, May 4-10. Details: foillifepodcast.com/bonaire-may-2025Learn more about our team!Our Links: https://linktr.ee/foillifepodcastHelp Frank get to AWSI 2025: Support us!  

On our 2nd of 3 episodes, Tyler Cuthbert, Chief Scientific Officer at ALUULA, joins us to talk about: What exactly is ALUULA fabric?How it's made?How has ALUULA impacted kite and wing design?Performance Specs of ALUULALongevity of material Does it come in different thicknesses?Can you get it in any colour or design?How does that diffexrentiate from other materials used in wind sports (Dacron, etc)?Why is it so light?What are the selling features compared to other materials?And much More!Visit: https://aluula.com/ Trip Alert !! --> Want to improve your wing foiling? Join us in Bonaire, May 4-10. Details: foillifepodcast.com/bonaire-may-2025Learn more about our team!Our Links: https://linktr.ee/foillifepodcastHelp Frank get to AWSI 2025: Support us!  

This week on The Beat, CTSNet Editor-in-Chief Joel Dunning spoke with Dr. Vinay Badhwar, the current vice president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), about his groundbreaking achievement in combining robotic aortic valve replacement (AVR) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) through a single small incision. They discuss the background and premise of this technique, the process of taking this technique from an idea to performing it on a patient, differences between this approach and other cardiac approaches, and the future of cardiac surgery. They also explore the first operation performed using this technique in immense detail with visuals of the procedure.   Joel also highlights recent JANS articles on multisociety endorsement of the 2024 European guideline recommendations on coronary revascularization and bioprosthetic vs mechanical aortic valve replacement in patients 40-75 years. He also reviews short- and long-term outcomes of lung transplantation from brain death vs circulatory death donors and intracavitary cisplatin-fibrin followed by irradiation improved tumor control compared to the single treatments in a mesothelioma rat model.  In addition, Joel explores a Dacron graft double inversion for ascending aorta surgery, a redo mitral valve surgery with previous aortic valve replacement, and a right sinus of Valsalva aneurysm causing right ventricular tract obstruction. Before closing, he highlights upcoming events in CT surgery.   JANS Items Mentioned  1.) Multisociety Endorsement of the 2024 European Guideline Recommendations on Coronary Revascularization  2.) Bioprosthetic vs Mechanical Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients 40-75 Years  3.) Short- and Long-Term Outcomes of Lung Transplantation From Brain Death vs. Circulatory Death Donors: A Meta-Analysis of Comparative Studies  4.) Intracavitary Cisplatin-Fibrin Followed by Irradiation Improved Tumor Control Compared to the Single Treatments in a Mesothelioma Rat Model  CTSNET Content Mentioned  1.) Dacron Graft Double Inversion for Ascending Aorta Surgery  2.) Redo Mitral Valve Surgery With Previous Aortic Valve Replacement  3.) Right Sinus of Valsalva Aneurysm Causing Right Ventricular Tract Obstruction  Other Items Mentioned  1.) CTSNet Career Center 2.) CTSNet Events Calendar  Disclaimer The information and views presented on CTSNet.org represent the views of the authors and contributors of the material and not of CTSNet. Please review our full disclaimer page here.

This week on The Beat, CTSNet Editor-in-Chief Joel Dunning recaps The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. He discusses Dr. Jennifer Romano's presidential address, remarks from incoming STS president, Dr. Joseph F. Sabik III, and the keynote addresses by Dr. Jennifer A. Dounda and photographer, filmmaker, and educator Ami Vitale. Joel also shares his top presentation picks from the meeting, including “Bioprosthetic vs Mechanical Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients 40-75 Years” by Dr. Vinay Badhwar, “DOAC for Mechanical AVR” by Dr. Joon Bum Kim, and “Surgeon Frequency for Multiarterial Grafting and 19-Year Outcomes After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Over One Million Medicare Beneficiaries” by Dr. Justin Schaffer. Additionally, he covers the STS Evidence-Based Guidelines, an AI tool for medical information called OpenEvidence, and STS TV.  Joel also reviews recent JANS articles on transcatheter versus surgical aortic valve replacement in patients younger than 65 years in the United States, post-implant transcatheter aortic prosthesis deformation, redo surgical aortic valve replacement for bioprosthetic structural valve deterioration, and five-year outcomes in low-risk patients undergoing surgery in the PARTNER 3 trial.  In addition, Joel explores a hybrid debranching of aortic arch branches and endovascular repair of the aneurysm of the aortic arch and the thoracic aorta, handmade valved woven Dacron conduits as an alternative for repair of congenital heart defects, and how to remove a bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement. Before closing, he highlights upcoming events in CT surgery.   JANS Items Mentioned  1.) Transcatheter Versus Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients Younger Than 65 Years in the US  2.) Post-Implant Transcatheter Aortic Prosthesis Deformation: Tricuspid Versus Bicuspid Valve  3.) Redo Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement for Bioprosthetic Structural Valve Deterioration  4.) Five Year Outcomes in Low-Risk Patients Undergoing Surgery in the PARTNER 3 Trial  CTSNET Content Mentioned  1.) Hybrid Debranching of Aortic Arch Branches and Endovascular Repair of the Aneurysm of the Aortic Arch and the Thoracic Aorta  2.) Handmade Valved Woven Dacron Conduits as an Alternative for Repair of Congenital Heart Defects  3.) Redo Mitral Valve Surgery: How to Remove a Bioprosthetic Mitral Valve Replacement   Other Items Mentioned  1.) STS TV  2.) CTSNet Events Calendar  Disclaimer The information and views presented on CTSNet.org represent the views of the authors and contributors of the material and not of CTSNet. Please review our full disclaimer page here.

Guest: Dr. Christian de Virgilio is the Chair of the Department of Surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is also Co-Chair of the College of Applied Anatomy and a Professor of Surgery at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at Loyola Marymount University and earned his medical degree from UCLA. He then completed his residency in General Surgery at UCLA-Harbor Medical Center followed by a fellowship in Vascular Surgery at the Mayo Clinic.   Resources:  Rutherford Chapters (10th ed.): 174, 175, 177, 178 Prior Holding Pressure episode on AV access creation: https://www.audiblebleeding.com/vsite-hd-access/ The Society for Vascular Surgery: Clinical practice guidelines for the surgical placement and maintenance of arteriovenous hemodialysis access: https://www.jvascsurg.org/article/S0741-5214%2808%2901399-2/fulltext  KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Vascular Access: 2019 Update: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32778223/    Outline: Steal Syndrome Definition & Etiology Steal syndrome is an important complication of AV access creation, since access creation diverts arterial blood flow from the hand. Steal can be caused by multiple factors—arterial occlusive disease proximal or distal to the AV anastomosis, high flow through the fistula at the expense of distal arterial perfusion, and failure of the distal arterial networks to adapt to this decreased blood flow.  Incidence and Risk Factors The frequency of steal syndrome is 1.6-9%1,2, depending on the vessels and conduit choice Steal syndrome is more common with brachial and axillary artery-based accesses and nonautogenous conduits. Other risk factors for steal syndrome are peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, advanced age, female sex, larger outflow conduit, multiple prior permanent access procedures, and prior episodes of steal.3,4  Long-standing insulin-dependent diabetes causes both medial calcinosis and peripheral neuropathy, which limits arteries' ability to vasodilate and adjust to decreased blood flow. Patient Presentation, Symptoms, Grading Steal syndrome is diagnosed clinically.  Symptoms after AVG creation occurs within the first few days, since flow in prosthetic grafts tend to reach a maximum value very early after creation. Native AVFs take time to mature and flow will slowly increase overtime, leading to more insidious onset of symptoms that can take months or years. The patient should have a unilateral complaint in the extremity with the AV access. Symptoms of steal syndrome, in order of increasing severity, include nail changes, occasional tingling, extremity coolness, numbness in fingertips and hands, muscle weakness, rest pain, sensory and motor deficits, fingertip ulcerations, and tissue loss.  There could be a weakened radial pulse or weak Doppler signal on the affected side, and these will become stronger after compression of the AV outflow. Symptoms are graded on a scale specified by Society of Vascular Surgery (SVS) reporting standards:5  Workup Duplex ultrasound can be used to analyze flow volumes. A high flow volume (in autogenous accesses greater than 800 mL/min, in nonautogenous accesses greater than 1200 mL/min) signifies an outflow issue. The vein or graft is acting as a pressure sink and stealing blood from the distal artery. A low flow volume signifies an inflow issue, meaning that there is a proximal arterial lesion preventing blood from reaching the distal artery. Upper extremity angiogram can identify proximal arterial lesions. Prevention Create the AV access as distal as possible, in order to preserve arterial inflow to the hand and reduce the anastomosis size and outflow diameter.  SVS guidelines recommend a 4-6mm arteriotomy diameter to balance the need for sufficient access flow with the risk of steal. If a graft is necessary, tapered prosthetic grafts are sometimes used in patients with steal risk factors, using the smaller end of the graft placed at the arterial anastomosis, although this has not yet been proven to reduce the incidence of steal.  Indications for Treatment Intervention is recommended in lifestyle-limiting cases of Grade II and all Grade III steal cases. If left untreated, the natural history of steal syndrome can result in chronic limb ischemia, causing gangrene with loss of digits or limbs. Treatment Options Conservative management relies on observation and monitoring, as mild cases of steal syndrome may resolve spontaneously. Inflow stenosis can be treated with endovascular intervention (angioplasty with or without stent) Ligation is the simplest surgical treatment, and it results in loss of the AV access. This is preferred in patients with repetitive failed salvage attempts, venous hypertension, and poor prognoses. Flow limiting procedures can address high volumes through the AV access. Banding can be performed with surgical cutdown and placement of polypropylene sutures or a Dacron patch around the vein or graft. The Minimally Invasive Limited Ligation Endoluminal-Assisted Revision (MILLER) technique employs a percutaneous endoluminal balloon inflated at the AVF to ensure consistency in diameter while banding Plication is when a side-biting running stitch is used to narrow lumen of the vein near the anastomosis. A downside of flow-limiting procedures is that it is often difficult to determine how much to narrow the AV access, as these procedures carry a risk of outflow thrombosis. There are also surgical treatments focused on reroute arterial inflow. The distal revascularization and interval ligation (DRIL) procedure involves creation of a new bypass connecting arterial segments proximal and distal to the AV anastomosis, with ligation of the native artery between the AV anastomosis and the distal anastomosis of the bypass. Reversed saphenous vein with a diameter greater than 3mm is the preferred conduit. Arm vein or prosthetic grafts can be used if needed, but prosthetic material carries higher risk of thrombosis. The new arterial bypass creates a low resistance pathway that increases flow to distal arterial beds, and interval arterial ligation eliminates retrograde flow through the distal artery.  The major risk of this procedure is bypass thrombosis, which results in loss of native arterial flow and hand ischemia. Other drawbacks of DRIL include procedural difficulty with smaller arterial anastomoses, sacrifice of saphenous or arm veins, and decreased fistula flow. Another possible revision surgery is revision using distal inflow (RUDI). This procedure involves ligation of the fistula at the anastomosis and use of a conduit to connect the outflow vein to a distal artery. The selected distal artery can be the proximal radial or ulnar artery, depending on the preoperative duplex. The more dominant vessel should be spared, allowing for distal arterial beds to have uninterrupted antegrade perfusion. The nondominant vessel is used as distal inflow for the AV access. RUDI increases access length and decreases access diameter, resulting in increased resistance and lower flow volume through the fistula. Unlike DRIL, RUDI preserves native arterial flow.  Thrombosis of the conduit would put the fistula at risk, rather than the native artery.  The last surgical revision procedure for steal is proximalization of arterial inflow (PAI). In this procedure, the vein is ligated distal to the original anastomosis site and flow is re-established through the fistula with a PTFE interposition graft anastomosed end-to-side with the more proximal axillary artery and end-to-end with the distal vein. Similar to RUDI, PAI increases the length and decreases the diameter of the outflow conduit. Since the axillary artery has a larger diameter than the brachial artery, there is a less significant pressure drop across the arterial anastomosis site and less steal. PAI allows for preservation of native artery's continuity and does not require vein harvest.  Difficulties with PAI arise when deciding the length of the interposition graft to balance AV flow with distal arterial flow. 2. Ischemic Monomelic Neuropathy Definition Ischemic monomelic neuropathy (IMN) is a rare but serious form of steal that involves nerve ischemia. Severe sensorimotor dysfunction is experienced immediately after AV access creation. Etiology IMN affects blood flow to the nerves, but not the skin or muscles because peripheral nerve fibers are more vulnerable to ischemia. Incidence and Risk Factors IMN is very rare; it has an estimated incidence of 0.1-0.5% of AV access creations.6 IMN has only been reported in brachial artery-based accesses, since the brachial artery is the sole arterial inflow for distal arteries feeding all forearm nerves. IMN is associated with diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, and preexisting peripheral neuropathy that is associated with either of the conditions. Patient Presentation Symptoms usually present rapidly, within minutes to hours after AV access creation. The most common presenting symptom is severe, constant, and deep burning pain of the distal forearm and hand. Patients also report impairment of all sensation, weakness, and hand paralysis. Diagnosis of IMN can be delayed due to misattribution of symptoms to anesthetic blockade, postoperative pain, preexisting neuropathy, a heavily bandaged arm precluding neurologic examination. Treatment Treatment is immediate ligation of the AV access. Delay in treatment will quickly result in permanent sensorimotor loss.   3. Perigraft Seroma Definition A perigraft seroma is a sterile fluid collection surrounding a vascular prosthesis and is enclosed within a pseudomembrane. Etiology and Incidence Possible etiologies include: transudative movement of fluid through the graft material, serous fluid collection from traumatized connective tissues (especially the from higher adipose tissue content in the upper arm), inhibition of fibroblast growth with associated failure of the tissue to incorporate the graft, graft “wetting” or kinking during initial operation, increased flow rates, decreased hematocrit causing oncotic pressure difference, or allergy to graft material. Seromas most commonly form at anastomosis sites in the early postoperative period. Overall seroma incidence rates after AV graft placement range from 1.7–4% and are more common in grafts placed in the upper arm (compared to the forearm) and Dacron grafts (compared to PTFE grafts).7-9 Patient Presentation and Workup Physical exam can show a subcutaneous raised palpable fluid mass Seromas can be seen with ultrasound, but it is difficult to differentiate between the types of fluid around the graft (seroma vs. hematoma vs. abscess) Indications for Treatment Seromas can lead to wound dehiscence, pressure necrosis and erosion through skin, and loss of available puncture area for hemodialysis Persistent seromas can also serve as a nidus for infection. The Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines10 recommend a tailored approach to seroma management, with more aggressive surgical interventions being necessary for persistent, infected-appearing, or late-developing seromas.   Treatment The majority of early postoperative seromas are self-limited and tend to resolve on their own Persistent seromas have been treated using a variety of  methods-- incision and evacuation of seroma, complete excision and replacement of the entire graft, and primary bypass of the involved graft segment only. Graft replacement with new material and rerouting through a different tissue plane has a higher reported cure rate and lower rate of infection than aspiration alone.9     4. Infection Incidence and Etiology The reported incidence of infection ranges 4-20% in AVG, which is significantly higher than the rate of infection of 0.56-5% in AVF.11  Infection can occur at the time of access creation (earliest presentation), after cannulation for dialysis (later infection), or secondary to another infectious source. Infection can also further complicate a pre-existing access site issue such as infection of a hematoma, thrombosed pseudoaneurysm, or seroma. Skin flora from frequent dialysis cannulations result in common pathogens being Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, or polymicrobial species. Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas are highly virulent and likely to cause anastomotic disruption. Patient Presentation and Workup Physical exam will reveal warmth, pain, swelling, erythema, induration, drainage, or pus. Occasionally, patients have nonspecific manifestations of fever or leukocytosis. Ultrasound can be used to screen for and determine the extent of graft involvement by the infection.   Treatments In AV fistulas: Localized infection can usually be managed with broad spectrum antibiotics.  If there are bleeding concerns or infection is seen near the anastomosis site, the fistula should be ligated and re-created in a clean field. In AV grafts: If infection is localized, partial graft excision is acceptable. Total graft excision is recommended if the infection is present throughout the entire graft, involves the anastomoses, occludes the access, or contains particularly virulent organisms Total graft excision may also be indicated if a patient develops recurrent bacteremia with no other infectious source identified. For graft excision, the venous end of the graft is removed and the vein is oversewn or ligated. If the arterial anastomosis is intact, a small cuff of the graft can be left behind and oversewn. If the arterial anastomosis is involved, the arterial wall must be debrided and ligation, reconstruction with autogenous patch angioplasty, or arterial bypass can be pursued. References   1. Morsy AH, Kulbaski M, Chen C, Isiklar H, Lumsden AB. Incidence and Characteristics of Patients with Hand Ischemia after a Hemodialysis Access Procedure. J Surg Res. 1998;74(1):8-10. doi:10.1006/jsre.1997.5206 2. Ballard JL, Bunt TJ, Malone JM. Major complications of angioaccess surgery. Am J Surg. 1992;164(3):229-232. doi:10.1016/S0002-9610(05)81076-1 3. Valentine RJ, Bouch CW, Scott DJ, et al. Do preoperative finger pressures predict early arterial steal in hemodialysis access patients? A prospective analysis. J Vasc Surg. 2002;36(2):351-356. doi:10.1067/mva.2002.125848 4. Malik J, Tuka V, Kasalova Z, et al. Understanding the Dialysis access Steal Syndrome. A Review of the Etiologies, Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment Strategies. J Vasc Access. 2008;9(3):155-166. doi:10.1177/112972980800900301 5. Sidawy AN, Gray R, Besarab A, et al. Recommended standards for reports dealing with arteriovenous hemodialysis accesses. J Vasc Surg. 2002;35(3):603-610. doi:10.1067/mva.2002.122025 6. Thermann F, Kornhuber M. Ischemic Monomelic Neuropathy: A Rare but Important Complication after Hemodialysis Access Placement - a Review. J Vasc Access. 2011;12(2):113-119. doi:10.5301/JVA.2011.6365 7. Dauria DM, Dyk P, Garvin P. Incidence and Management of Seroma after Arteriovenous Graft Placement. J Am Coll Surg. 2006;203(4):506-511. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2006.06.002 8. Gargiulo NJ, Veith FJ, Scher LA, Lipsitz EC, Suggs WD, Benros RM. Experience with covered stents for the management of hemodialysis polytetrafluoroethylene graft seromas. J Vasc Surg. 2008;48(1):216-217. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2008.01.046 9. Blumenberg RM, Gelfand ML, Dale WA. Perigraft seromas complicating arterial grafts. Surgery. 1985;97(2):194-204. 10. Lok CE, Huber TS, Lee T, et al. KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Vascular Access: 2019 Update. Am J Kidney Dis. 2020;75(4):S1-S164. doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2019.12.001 11. Padberg FT, Calligaro KD, Sidawy AN. Complications of arteriovenous hemodialysis access: Recognition and management. J Vasc Surg. 2008;48(5):S55-S80. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2008.08.067

Dr. Zimmerman presented a Real Science Lecture webinar on December 12th, 2023, titled “Not All Rumen-Protected Products Are Created Equal.” You can find the webinar recording at balchem.com/realscience.  Clay outlines four attributes of a good rumen-encapsulated product. They are feed and TMR stable, ruminal stable, nutrient bioavailability, and good efficacy biologically in the animal.  (6:21)Kari describes a TMR stability test that Balchem has been perfecting based on a paper published in 2016. One to two grams of a rumen-protected product (based on the nutrient composition) is mixed with a half pound of TMR in a Ziploc bag, then the mixture incubates for 0, 6, 12 or 24 hours (based on feeding 1x, 2x, or 3x per day). Once a sample is finished incubating, it's placed in a strainer bag in one liter of distilled water for one minute. Then, the amount of nutrient that was leached into the distilled water is measured. She describes some of the observations and trends they've seen from using this technique on different products. (8:24)Mark asks about the impact of abrasion during the mixing process on encap stability. Kari describes a mineral mix technique using a small ribbon and paddle mixer. In this case, 5-10 pounds of encap product are mixed with 90-95 pounds of a mineral mix for three minutes. Then a sample is analyzed for damage to the encap. Clay does not recommend pelleting any encapsulated product because that will only reduce efficacy. It may not be 100% damage, but it will be significant. (12:41)Scott asks about the freeze-thaw stability of encapsulates. Clay mentions that all of Balchem's encapsulated products are freeze-thaw stable. If a product is not, there will be cracks in the coating and some ruminal stability will be lost. (19:34)When it comes to ruminal stability, matrix encapsulates tend to have lower stability in the rumen, but it varies widely. Some have no ruminal stability; some lose less than 10% in the rumen. Encapsulation is a complex process and there are tradeoffs between some of the steps. For example, between TMR stability or rumen stability and bioavailability, the goal is to find the perfect mix of these to make a high-efficacy product on the farm. Kari describes a rumen stability test that can be conducted on-farm for protected choline and lysine products. Mark describes in situ experiments for rumen stability testing using small Dacron bags in rumen-cannulated animals. He mentions that creating an encap with high rumen stability and high intestinal digestibility is key.  (19:58)Bioavailability is key, but methodologies for assessing bioavailability are a limitation. Kari and Mark discuss the pros and cons of various in situ/in vivo techniques, including mobile bag, abomasal pulse dose, and stable isotope. (29:25)Clay mentions that in vitro techniques are a key piece to product development and testing, but may give erroneous results compared to in vivo testing. Kari describes an experiment she conducted with Mark comparing in vivo and in vitro techniques. She suggests that there may be an argument for creating specific in vitro tests built for different types of protected products.  For example, for a pH-sensitive product, a step mimicking abomasal enzymes would be important. For a fat-coated product, a step mimicking intestinal enzymes for fat breakdown would be important. Clay cautions that a product with only in vitro data should be regarded with skepticism. (44:25)Biological response in the animal is the key final step. Ultimately, you want independent, peer-reviewed data to prove the efficacy of a product. Mark reminds the audience that even if animals don't respond to a product, there are a host of different issues that could be causing that unrelated to the product being tested. Things like water quality, water quantity, stress, cow comfort - there's a whole laundry list of things to consider. (50:39)In closing, Kari recommends that when picking an encap product, ask for the research that hits the four pillars: TMR stability, rumen stability, bioavailability, and animal performance. Mark suggests that you can't make a bad encap good, but you can make a good encap bad if you aren't careful. Clay agrees that the more data, the better. Lastly, we need more work on the feed stability pillar which has been overlooked. It is a critical piece to encap products being effective in the field. (55:13)Please subscribe and share with your industry friends to invite more people to join us at the Real Science Exchange virtual pub table.  If you want one of our Real Science Exchange t-shirts, screenshot your rating, review, or subscription, and email a picture to anh.marketing@balchem.com. Include your size and mailing address, and we'll mail you a shirt.

Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/488 Presented By:  Chota Outdoor Gear, Dette Flies, Waters West, Angler's Coffee Today on the Littoral Zone with Phil Rowley, we cover part two of our in-depth discussion on making sense of stillwater fly lines. In Part 1, Phil revealed seven of the twenty fly lines that make up his kit. And today, we unwrap the remaining lines, break it all down, and lock in on the crucial trio Phil swears by – the three primary lines you should never hit the water without. Making Sense of Stillwater Fly Lines Show Notes 04:33 - If you listened to Part 1, you heard Phil Rowley break down the goal of this dynamic two-part series on stillwater fly lines, which is to provide an understanding of why you need multiple lines to be consistently successful on lakes. 10:02 - By the end of the first part, Phil revealed seven out of twenty fly lines that make up his kit. Today, we complete the list and discover the three primary lines Phil recommends having in your arsenal whenever you hit the water. Sinking Lines  11:15 - For most people fishing lakes, sinking lines are often the go-to choice due to the deeper water depths where trout predominantly feed on subsurface prey. 12:17 - The horizontal retrieve path that sinking lines provide mimics the way many of the natural food sources trout feed upon move. 12:45 - Lakes can be windy, affecting both casting and presentation. Wind-induced surface chop can disrupt floating line presentations. Longer leaders used in these conditions can lead to casting issues like tailing loops and knots, causing frustration and hindering successful angling. 14:59 - Grains are a unit of measure used to help determine line weight so you match the fly line to the correct weight of the rod. The American Fly Tackle Manufacturers Association set a standard that the grains measured over the first 30ft of a fly line are used to determine the line weight. 17:46 - Density compensation addresses the uneven tungsten powder distribution that caused U-shaped sinking profiles in early double taper lines. With density compensation, the line sinks tip first, eliminating the curved profile and enhancing bite detection. Hover Lines 26:11 - A hover line generally sinks at approximately one inch per second, although exact rates may vary among manufacturers. These lines are commonly not density compensated. Clear Intermediates 30:47 - Clear intermediate lines sink a little faster in the hover, anywhere from one and a half to two inches per second, depending on the manufacturer. Like the hover, this is ideal in windy conditions because it will get below that surface chop yet not sink fast enough. Faster Sinking Lines  33:50 - While line type usually corresponds to sink rate, factors like water density can subtly influence sinking speed. Faster sink rate lines are used for getting into much deeper water. Sweep or Parabolic Lines 37:27 - Another type of line that's come into the market recently and gaining popularity is the sweep or parabolic line. These are lines that have sections of different sink rates along their length, which encourages an exaggerated U-shape retrieve path. Hang Markers  44:00 - A common feature on many sinking lines today is the hang marker, a physical marker on the line. Hang markers can be added manually using Dacron-based bobber stoppers, slid onto the line, and secured through a tug. 48:00 - Monofilament lines commonly exhibit memory issues, regardless of the manufacturer. 53:00 - Phil provides valuable insights into efficiently changing fly lines while on the water. Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/488  

Joe Plasky talks about his efforts interviewing as many people as he can who worked for DuPont's Textile Fibers Department between 1950 and 2000. Joe Plasky is a retired engineer from DuPont's Textile Fibers Department and he has been collecting oral histories from former DuPont Textile Fibers employees for well over a decade. Every year, sometimes multiple times per year, Mr. Plasky deposits a batch of these oral histories with Hagley. Currently, the collection has approximately 260 interviews and counting. In this interview, Plasky talks about what inspired him to undertake a project of this size and how he feels the development of different kinds of polyesters, including Dacron and other fibers used for their elasticity in shapewear is an under-researched topic. He also shares some of the most interesting stories he's heard while working on this project and shares what he hopes future researchers will be able to learn by utilizing these interviews. The entirety of the Oral Hstory Interviews with Former Employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department collection is available here: https://digital.hagley.org/textile_fibers_interviews For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.

On this episode, Steve is discussing applying polymeric covers to stents and laser cut hypotubes with our guest Elad Einav, CEO of Medibrane based in Rosh HaAyin, Israel.Medibrane is a contract manufacturer of polymeric covers for medical stent devices. They offer a variety of covering materials and technologies such as; Silicone, Polyurethane, ePTFE and Dacron polymeric covers, implemented using dipping, spraying or lamination technologies. Cutting down the supply chain; Medibrane collaborates with its partners to oversee the project as a whole; cover and stent.For more information, visit on www.medibrane.comHost: Steve Maxson | Innovation & Business Development Manager | US ExtrudersGuest : Elad Einav | CEO | MedibraneAnnouncer: Bill Kramer | President | US ExtrudersProducer/ Editor/ Original Music: Eric Adair | Marketing Manager | US ExtruderFor video episodes visit www.us-extruders.com/podcasts

Ken Winner, wing foil designer extraordinaire talks about his background as a pro windsurfer and how he became a designer at Duotone and developed the first inflatable handheld wing for foiling.  At first there was little interest in his invention but once a few people tried it, the sport of wing foiling really took off. Transcript of the interview:  Aloha friends. It's Robert Stehlik. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the Blue Planet Show, where I interview foil athletes, designers, and thought leaders.  You can watch this show right here on YouTube or listen to it on your favorite podcast app. Today's interview is with Ken Winter, the designer at Duotone wing designer extraordinaire. And as always, I ask questions, not just about equipment and technique, but also try to find out more about his background, what inspires him and how he got into water sports. So Ken was really open in this interview, shared a lot of information about wing design, even showed his computer screen where he designs wings. So that's  at the very end of the interview. So you don't want to miss that part. It's really cool if you're into Wing design and wanna know more about the materials and the construction, the design and Ken's philosophy. This is a really good show for all that kind of information. During this interview, I'm gonna play a little bit of footage of Alan Cadiz Wing foiling in Kailua. I got some drone footage of him, which was after this interview, but he's using the 2023 Duotone unit Wing 4.5 meter wing. I'll play some of that in the background. Thank you so much for your time, Ken, and for sharing all the detailed information. So without further ado, here is Ken Winner. Okay. Good morning, Ken. How are you doing today? Good morning. I'm pretty good. All right. It's a little bit of a rainy and windy day here on Oahu. How's the weather on Maui? Same. Same. Yeah. Yep. So have you had super stormy winds the last few days? It's been crazy windy here. Yeah, it's been gusting 45 at times. Do you actually go out in those kind of conditions or do you wait? Yeah. Windy days. Yeah. It's pretty fun. Yeah. So you've been doing what you, what do you do on days like that? You go on a down window or you just go go off? I only do down windows with my wife nowadays. That's her favorite thing. Otherwise I from a friend's house over on Stable Road and Peter actually lives on Stable Road and so we launched there, go out race around a bit, test different wings, hydrofoils. Nice. What kind of equipment were you on in, on those super windy days? Anything from a two to a four. Sometimes we go out pretty overpowered just cause we have something we wanna try and we don't have many choices. Some days we just have to go and do what we can with what we have. We do a lot of prototyping in the four and five meter size. We do a fair amount in the three meter size and then smaller and bigger. We also prototype and test quite a bit, but maybe not as intensely. Nice. Okay. But before we get more into all the equipment and stuff like that, I wanted to get talk a little bit about your background. So tell us a little bit about start in the beginning, like wh how, where you grew up and how you got into water sports and all that kind of stuff. was born a long time ago, 1955, so there's a lot of history there. You don't wanna hear it all. Grew up near Annapolis, Maryland. Did a fair amount of recreational cruising type sailing. My dad owned boats. Built a lot of stuff when I was a kid. Owned a couple boats when I was a teenager. Started windsurfing in 75. How extensive do you want this to be? Started windsurfing in 75, won the world championship in 77. We won again, 80 in 81. We had the right there on Oahu, where you are. We had the World Cup, the PanAm World Cup, which I. Actually, yeah don't worry about making it short. Like we, we got time. So just actually like how did you get into windsurfing? What was your first experience with that? Or what were you doing? Anything other like surfing or water sports before windsurfing? Yeah. No, I've never actually surfed. As I said, I grew up sailing I, when I was a teenager, maybe 17 or 16, I bought a old wooden boat, a little wooden boat, a Bahamas fixed it sailed around, kept it house else. I also bought a shark catamaran sail out bit. So I was into sailing and I, I saw an ad for a windsurfer and thought that would be a good thing for me to try. So wind, Also about the same time bought a hang glider. So I taught myself to hang glide and but I really enjoyed the windsurfing more so sold everything else and just focused on windsurfing. So that you were around 20 years old? Yeah. About 20. Yeah. Did you you have any like formal education or did you go like straight into wind surfing? Yeah, it's funny, I was gonna University of Maryland when I started windsurf, and I might have stuck with that, but I started windsurf and thinking, oh, I can go to college little, a little time windsurfing. And and then when I'm ready to quit, I can go back to school. But I never did actually go back to school, kept wind surfing. For the next forever , 23 years, but ba So basically you're self-taught, like all the knowledge you have on with computers and aerodynamics or, all that is basically from experience and self-taught kind of thing or? Yeah, I do a lot of reading. I remember in, sometime in the early eighties Barry Spanner, I think got a book. The title was The Aerodynamics of Sailing. And I, I heard him make a comment about it, so I got it and I read from cover to cover several times and really absorbed, I think the lessons of that. And did a lot of other reading after that. But that was sort my foundation for learning about the technical side of sailing. , nowadays, of course, it's super easy to get a lot of information online, really good information. So unless you're pursuing a career like attorney or doctor or degreed engineer or PhD scientist, you don't need formal education as much as you used to. If you need it at all, I don't know. But yeah, I think as long as you're a lifelong learner, you can pretty much teach yourself almost anything. . Yeah. Okay. Yeah, a lot of things, for sure. Yeah. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some screen sharing here from the windsurfing Hall of Fame. There's little bit of information about you online here. So in the, so you started windsurfing in 1975. That's, this was the day, days when they, the booms were still made out of wood and so on, right? Talk a little bit about your first first wind windsurfing set up bought a used board for 300 bucks and went out, taught myself to use it, and just became hooked like most people. Did it every chance I had. And at first all I focused on was trying to improve my skills. That was hundred percent of my effort. But then gradually over time, I got more interested in improving the equipment. So over time I did some things like. Built my own boards and built my own rigs, masks spoons. Yeah. And you start, you started winning a lot of races, so you were very focused on the com racing side of windsurfing or also I guess freestyle as well, right? Yeah. So I won the freestyle world two or three times, and that was back, it was a much simpler affair than it's now. Of course, the guys who do freestyle nowadays circles around all of us who did freestyle back then. yeah. Around. But you gotta start somewhere in every sport. And so that, that's a picture of Robbie and Jurgen in me at the pan, the Panta actually which was right there on Wahoo. Over in Kai. Yeah. And you were able to beat Robbie, I guess at that point. Still, and you have several world world titles right? In Windsurf racing. Yeah. Robbie and I were rivals to some extent, but he was younger and when he got to be when he achieved his full adult strength, he was extremely hard. I started when I was 20. He started when he was nine. And it's surprise that he dominated the sport so much for so many years. He's a amazing athlete and really great guy. Good entrepreneurs, got a great business. And and we're still rivals. , it's been a good, it's been a good 40 some years. . And then you started build, you said you started building your own boards and making smaller and smaller boards, right? Yeah. So I, excuse me. Yeah I built a a nine foot board. Actually prior to that I had a board shaped for me and glass, and that was a board I would say. I basically invented carving, jives, cause everybody had boards back then. I had a round tail board, which carve through my, instead of skid through them. And basically from that point on, I focused a lot on trying to improve my equipment. I  you're showing a picture of the Transatlantic Windsurf race, which was a pretty funny. That was in about 98, I think. But this has gotta be pretty boring for anybody watching. People are interested in what's happening now. Yeah. No, I don't think so. I don't think so at all. I don't think any, what he's gonna find is boring at all, but, , yeah, just yeah. And then I guess you yeah, I tell us a little bit about how you got into the Wing, wing des, or were you designing w windsurfing sales for duo to before kites, or like how, or, and then, yeah. Just tell us a little bit about how you got Yeah. So I went surfed intensely for three years. I guess in 97, I think I won the US Racing Championships. And then just shortly after that I tried kiting for the first time. And basically after I tried kiting for the first time, I I sold on my windsurfing gear and got straight into kiting. My, my first kite experience was with Don Monague right off Stable Road on Maui. He was out kiting. I was out windsurfing and I told him I wanted to try that, so he handed me his control bar and the leashed, his board to my ankle, and he told me how to secure the kite. And I, so I kited back and forth down to Kaha for the next half hour. And so that was my, that's how I got hooked on kiting. And so from the very first session, you were able to stay upwind and everything and no, I didn't stay upwind. I ended up down at Kaha, so starting at camp one, ending up at Kaha. Oh, okay. And yeah and when, not long after that, I spent a week on Maui hiding every day. And and then a few months after that I did some, I did a how kite video. Cause there were no schools, hardly anybody knew how to learn. So I did some videos. Robbie was saying needed somehow to kite videos. So took the opportunity to do that. We sold about 30,000 videos and then of course, schools came along and the internet came along. So that was, there's, you don't need that kinda stuff anymore. It's all online. Yeah. Oh, so you had a, like a VHS tape on how to kite and sold it like through magazines and stuff like that. But I actually, I used the Nash distributor network to the dealer network to sell boxes of videos to dealers who would then them, to 'em, to customers. And I had a website so I could retail videos directly to the customers. And we actually did a total of three howto videos over a couple years time. And then I helped convince boards and more, which is the parent company of Duotone and fanatic to get into kite boarding kit, making kites. . And so that was about the year 2000. And we tried to hire people to do the job of designing kites, but there were so few kit designers at the time that I ended up taking it on. So I had learning design kit weeks and in China working 16 hours a day learning how to use computer aid design software, CAD software, and then pumping up existing kites and trying to figure out the geometry and trying to figure out how to do that on the Ultimately it worked, so we ended up with a decent and started growing the company from that point. Okay. So boards and more at that time, they had Brand was fanatic and or what were their brands that they were run? It, I'm just gonna say Boards and More is the parent company of the, the parent company that I work for now. , which is we produce Duotone kites and Fanatic windsurfing gear and kites surfing and surfing gear and, sub foiling gear. Boards and More is the company I've been working for the last 22 years. And right now what is your official role at Duotone? I know, I just wanted to say I've been waiting such a long time to get you on the show because you're always so busy. You said you have to, come up with a whole new line of wings and kites and everything, so you were too busy to meet with me. But Yeah, tell me a little bit about like your job, like your role and how you were able to make time today to come here, . Yeah. Yeah, great question. I I tend to overcom commit and try to do more things than I can reasonably do. So years I was designing kites, but I also decided to start designing hydrofoils and that turned into a lot of work. And then I started designing wings and that turned into more work. So I was to foil design work off on some very capable guys that we in Mauritius and Germany. And then more recently I've been able to push the kite design work off on Sky now. Sky's been working with me for 18 years. We've both been learning a lot about kite design and in the last year, so I've been helping him master the software that we use for kit design. And so now he's doing the kite design. And I would say that he's for sure one of the most experienced and capable designers in the world, even though he hasn't been the lead on kite design until recently, but he's now and he's doing a great job. He's making some really great improvements. So having a good teacher, right? Hope . So having so now I'm just focused on maintenance, so that, like your job basically at duo tone right now is wing designer? Yeah. I'm focused on wing design now, and we have two main wing models the unit has handled, boom. And. The unit is more focused on wave riding and down winding. The slick is more free ride and freestyle. Unit has a little bit more Wingspan Slick has a little less the okay. So before we go into the current gear let's go back to when you first started winging and like how you came up with The Wing. I interviewed mark Rappa Horse and Alan Ez as well on the show. And they both talked about how, you guys used to go out downwind together with the standup paddle foil boards and and then, when one day you showed up with the wing. So can you talk a little bit about. Like how you first came up with the wing and the inflatable wing design and so on. Yeah, I was trying to downwind hydrofoil with these guys, and I wasn't doing it that well, was having great success and I was getting a sore shoulder. So I was trying to figure out how could I do downwind hydrofoiling and not get a shoulder? And I, by chance, I saw a video of Flash Austin with his homemade handheld wing that he was using on a hydrofoil at Kaha. And I thought eight years before I had designed some inflatable handheld wings for suffering. Not with a hydro, but just for, and so I thought I wonder if something like that would work. It fits my skillset because I do inflatable adult toys. And so I, I went home, got on the computer, designed crude. Another crude, handheld, inflatable wing. So those designs are you sent me an email with some pictures. Is that from that time when you designed your first wings? Yeah. That, that blue and black wing was my first effort to do a handheld inflatable wing. My idea was to use it on aboard, and that was back in two 10 Sky and I tried it. So this one was the one the original one that you made for for basically wind windsurfing on or on a regular windsurf board? Well, a sub board, yeah. Board. Ok. Yeah. And so it was very similar to what we have today, actually, you yeah. It has some similarities. Yeah. And then you would, hold one hand would go here on one hand here. Yeah, that's how it was at first. Okay. And I tried another one a month or two later and Sky and I didn't, we tried and we didn't really think it was that much fun. Another guy who designs for us took the idea and made a inflatable rig. We call it the I rig, which was pretty nice for kids, very low impact. So I remember that. So in that picture of six wings, you can see the first two in two 10, 2011. And then in 2018, I tried something. I just yeah, just very quickly threw something together. I modified an existing neo design and like a Neo's, one of our kites. And sent that off to the factory. And then when I took it to the beach and stepped on the board and sailed away, it popped up. I popped up on the foil immediately and sailed right out to the reef. Turning around, I fell and I had trouble getting going again. But basically I considered that a success and I figured that would allow me to do down windows without stressing my shoulders. I kept building prototypes after that sky went, this was June of 2018. Sky went to a dealer meeting in there and demonstrated it for everybody. Everybody there and nobody was interested. And then we took it to the SI show in August and nobody was interested. But then finally in November, people started getting interested. I got our ceo Alber. He's a, he used to be a snowboarder on the German national team, so hes really good. And he had thought it looked too complicated and difficult, but then when he tried it, he discovered that it's not too complicated and difficult. Maybe we make some of these and people will buy 'em. So at that point we decided we were gonna go into production with wings, and I think some other brands decided at that point. Interesting concept. Of your of your wife, and then you also sent me this little video. So she was the fir you said probably the first woman to wing Foil. Is that, Yeah. Sky's wife, Christine and Julie both tried it out. I think right around Christmas time of 2018. And then after that Julie got very interested in it. And I took her out at KEG quite a few times, and I think this was her first time on the North Shore , and she was a little excited by the size of the swell . So nowadays she, she really enjoys doing downs from to the harbor and she can do it in about 35 minutes if she's in a hurry. And it's her favorite sport. Cool. Yeah. And then this was your first wing design? The foil wing. And I actually got one of those. I've been, I was waiting for a long time and then finally got the wing and I think it was a three meter, the first one I got. And it was yeah, it was super cool because same as you were, we were trying to do the foil doman runs and Really kind. It's really hard actually. But talk a little bit about this first wing design and because it had a boom and no strut and then it had full battens and so on. So talk a little bit about the swing. Your first Yeah. Starting from scratch, we had no, I had no idea really what to do with it. We, we tried differentl angles and different patterns. I put bats in it because that reduces the fluttering by quite a bit. Nowadays we don't have belong bats because we've found other ways to reduce the flutter. Some of us have a lot of brands go ahead and continue making wing wings with a lot of flutter, but I don't really care for that. The boom I made my first few wings with handles as you saw in the photo, and I really hated the handles. Then I went to a kind of a strap on rigid handle. And then after that I thought why should I have a strut and a boom or strut and a handle and I can just have this one boom or long tube and potentially save money and hassle. So that was the reasoning there, but, It turns out the strut is really nice for stabilizing draft. And so we went back to using a strut sometime later. Yeah. Like I know the, that first wing, it was it did that TikTok thing right? When you held it by the front handle it, it didn't really behave very well. Just lefting behind you. It didn't yeah. So was that, I guess part of the reason for that was because it didn't have that strut to of stabilize it. Yeah. I think the strut kinda acts like a ruter in some respects helped stabilize the it's really hard to know what's gonna be important to people when you're starting with something new. One of the, one of the things I have to do is I have. I can't just pay attention to the things I like to do. I have to pay attention to what other people like to do. At first, to me, the idea of holding the wing by the front handle I just never did it. I would hold it by the boom. So never really noticed that instability when I was using it myself. Yeah, but basically, yeah, that's what, how when I used it on a wave, I would just hold the front of the boom and it worked fine. But but then, yeah, I guess some of the other wings were really stable, just holding it in the front handle and you'd be able to surf with it, just holding the front handle, which, which then I guess so yeah. So another thing that's kinda interesting is if you wanting, that will be pretty stable when you're just on the, we experimented with. And the thing we found is that if I let the air out of my wing and let it get a little bit floppy, take it down to three or four psi, it will fly on the leash. Really stable. But then if I pump it back up to eight psi and I haven't really tight 12 canopy, which is something I like, then it's no longer really stable on the leash. So far we kinda have to make the choice. Do we wanna, do we want our wing more floppy and therefore it'll fly on the, or do we want our wing more stable? Which it's less stable on the leash, but it's more stable otherwise. And so basic, so that's basically why you have those two different wings. One is the unit for more that's more, I guess more stable being on supplying by itself. And then the unit is more, has more of a profile. And is that kind of the thought behind it? We go for a lot of canopy tension on both models of wings. We're not gonna compromise on canopy tension cause it gives, it helps give lift to the, when it's, and it improves power when you're pumping. It improves de power and stability when you're overpowered. So we're not gonna compromise on canopy tension but the difference, one of the differences between the slick and the unit is the unit has more sleep. In the leading edge, and that helps improve the stability. While it's, if you're surfing a wave and holding it by the front handle, the fact that it has more sweep than the slick makes it a little more stable in that respect than the slick. But then the downside is you have more wingspan, so it's easier to catch a wing tip, by sweep. You're saying like the leading edge in the front is a little bit more like this versus that kind of thing? Or, but what do you mean by sweep? Sweep is the you know how some airplanes, like a fighter jet will have wings that are swept back.  And some wings, like a sail plane will have wings that are not swept back. . So sleep is that back angle in the leading edge. Understood. Okay. And DL is the up angle in the leading edge. So we've done quite a bit with different DL patterns and some things I thought would be better weren't. So I thought a progressive DL would be more stable than a linear dl. And a linear DL is actually more stable. So the new unit has a very linear DL shape and uhno. Another thing that's kinda interesting is some wings have very little dl and the advantage of that is when the wing is lying flat on the water, it's less likely to flip over. The disadvantage of that is it's hard to have a, with a deep canopy and with a lot of canopy tension when you have little, so again we're giving up the fact that. . Our wings when they're lying belly down on the water, are more likely to flip over than somebody else's mic. But on the other hand, we have the ability to put in more depth while maintaining really good canopy tension cause we have more behavioral. So would you say there's a downside to having more canopy tension? Like to, to me it seems like the more tension you have, the, the better the profile works, but I guess like sometimes on a wave or whatever, when you're luing it, it has a little bit more drag, right? Is that, or like what's your experience with a tension? The canopy tension gives you less drag if you have, if more canopy tension gives you less drag when you're, but the wing is more stable while if it has A bit less canopy tension. If I let some air pressure out my wing and make it have less canopy tension, it'll flutter more. And that makes it drier and sad to say it makes it more stable. Yeah. Cause it basically when it doesn't have a lot of attention, it can just completely flatten out and just flutter flat. Versus attention has, it still has that profile. Yeah. So thet thing you can have is a wing that flaps and flutters and loves, but that drag impart a certain amount of stability. I see. This is one of those things where you, it's hard. It's hard to get, it's hard to get everything you want. Divorce, trade offs. Okay. So maybe talk a little bit about things you've tried early on that were that ended up on the trash tape and versus, like things that, I guess like the full battens, you said in the beginning you tried them or used them to reduce the flutter, but I remember those battens used to break really easily too in the waves, right? So the, they're thin battens. Yeah. So early on I never really even imagined I would be using a wing in the waves, which is why I didn't mind putting bats in . They don't, they're not really compatible that way. It's, I did make a three strut wing early on. My, my fourth wing in 2005th wing in 2018 was a three stru wing. And it was, perceptively heavier. So I didn't make any more three str wings for a while. So by, sorry, by three struts you mean three inflatable struts? Like this kind of Yeah. So the blue one? Yeah. The 3.0 from July of two 18. Yeah. Yeah. I tried that and it was, not a great wing and a little on the heavy side. So I decided I was gonna try to stick with just one strut, and then actually went to a home after that.  For the simplicity and the low cost and so forth. So the three stru is something I abandoned early on, but it does have potential advantages. So we've been doing more work with that. F1 has a nice three wing. It has its pros and cons, but there are people who like it. And one of the reasons is the fact that you have strut takes away the corner, the the back corner at the tip of a wing, and that's the place people drag most often when they're trying to get going. Getting rid that, I'm sorry, screen. Share that again. So what you're saying, like this corner is what drags in the water when you're to get foiling, right? Yeah. And so a certain arrangement of three strut, I certain three strut geometry will get rid of that corner. . So I think F1 actually has like a patent a patent or a patent pending for that third strut. But it looks like you were the first one to develop that. So how does that work? They They, if they came to contesting it with us, I don't think they could win. But I don't think either of us or them are interested in having a fight. So I don't think it'll be a problem for us. So basically when, I know Duotone is also has a, I think you, I know you have a patent for the hand, the rigid handles on the unit. Are there any other patents that you're, you've gotten or applied for and Yeah, we've, and the question is like, why didn't you apply for a patent for the inflatable wings in the first place? Or did you? Because I think in part you have to do it pretty quickly and it can't really be in the public domain. So these wings that I made in 2000 10, 2 11 From what I understand is they were out there in the public domain and they were, they happened many years before. And so just trying to patent an inflatable wing I don't think that was an option. But we've tried to, we've applied for patents on various aspects of the inflatable wing design as, things related to the DL and boom. And trying to think, what can I mention? What can I not, there's some things we do that we don't even talk about because some people. Aren't aware and we don't wanna give them ideas. Yeah, you don't wanna give away your secret sauce. So I understand. Not too, it's not too soon. Yeah. . Yeah. Okay. So actually I had a question from a friend, my friend Steve. He was asking, have you ch or about basically, on windsurf sales where the can doer and stuff, they have a left tube to improve the laminar flow on the bottom side of the, have you tried that? Have you tried playing with that and or what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, that, that's a popular topic. It came up in in connection with kite design years ago, and I think when I was picking up. The first kite that I actually owned from Don Monague, he was talking about that very idea and doing it in connection with kites. And Don Monague has done amazing amount of work along those lines in connection with kites. And if you were to see PDFs, he put all the things you tried, you would be astonished. Don would be a really interesting guy for you to talk to on this. Don Monague. Okay. Yeah. . Yeah, he was the kit designer for Nash 20 years ago, or 23 years ago. , he's moved on to a lot of really interesting things. But he was talking about it then he worked with it then, and it, it's never really worked for kites for a variety of reasons. There's weight, there's the tendency for. Water to get in and weigh down the kite. Complexity, cost and the actual benefit is hard to find. I've also tried to do elliptical, leading edges in kites and where I have two leading edges side by side. Kinda two bladders next to each other kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. Trying to thin out the shape of the wing and make it stiffer. And that, that's been really hard to make it work. There are people who, tried this stuff and they, know, somebody's probably gonna succeed at some point someday, but so far hasn't One of the problems with double surface on a wing is that the lower surface tends to keep the flow attached, and that attached flow sucks the second surface down. And actually tends to suck the whole wing down. So we spent a lot of time making sure our wings always lift. If you're locking the wing, it lifts if it, if you get hit by a lifts every, all the time, our wings are lifting. If you add that second surface, boom, your lift goes away. The flow remains attached on the bottom of the wing.  As it passes, the leading edge sucks the lower surface down and sucks the whole wing down with it. And this is something I've actually experimented with and tried and observed, so I'm not just speculating here. Interesting. Again, I'm not saying it'll never work, but it's not a slam dunk. It's not an obvious, easy thing to do.  And the benefits aren't obvious either, so Yeah. And it's more weight, it's more cost. So we and with wings in particular, we have to worry about weight. Wind surfers don't worry about weight nearly as much as we do apparently. Tis are, you have to hold it, hold that thing up in, in your hand, and light wind especially then the weight really makes a difference. It does. Yeah, for sure. What about rigid wings? I know people have been making rigid wings for on the ice and stuff like that, but and forever, have you played around with that or have you tested rigid wings? Yeah. Yeah. I saw early on I'd like to have a rigid wing that opened up like an umbrella. . And I actually have tried some rigid and hybrid prototype. But the problem you run into there is you lose one of the greatest attractions of wings, inflatable wings, which is the simplicity in the fact that you just blow 'em up and go and when you have rigid components, elements. You make a more complex, harder to rig up. They're less robust because something like a carbon fiber tube can break pretty easily, especially in the waves.  And I question whether a lot of people would want give up the simplicity and the robustness of inflatable in order speed or higher or whatever tructure might give you. That's priority for Right. Would working on that for kids and people who aren't fanatical wingers, people who wanna get into it, but aren't gonna be doing it every day, I would, I'm interested in making it better for families rather than, Better for Kailin . Yeah. But obviously you're also very interested in going fast and testing. I know ANCA has told me that you guys go out and race each other and see what's faster and test equipment and that's, he told me about the Mike's lab foil that he let you know, you let him try your foil and then he got one himself and I just got one recently. So those are, yeah, just having a fast foil makes a big difference that alone, right? I do going fast up to a point about the Mike's slab, what happened was during the pandemic we had a shortage of fanatic hydrofoils. We weren't getting the latest stuff. We weren't even able to get anything out China for a while. My wife is pretty into getting the latest stuff. So she ordered Mike's lab hydrofoil and she got it and she actually had a hard time with it, so I started using it. So I used it a fair amount. But she went to an 1100 Mike's Slab and that worked really well for her. Then she moved to 800, which worked well for her. Then she went to a and that worked well for her, and now she's, now, she now, I dunno she's in the five 40 to 800 range nowadays, depending on what she wants to and so through all that I've been using her hydros as well. But I also use, fanatic has some new stuff that I also use. Peter Slate, who I sail with a lot, is using fanatics and he's going really fast with, he's hard to keep up with. And Alan, of course is very hard to keep up with too. Yeah. And I, sorry, should, when we're talking about fast and I should say don't try to go faster race, because I think that but I'm not sure how to put this. I think that racing with slow equipment is actually more interesting than racing with fast equipment. In the old days of windsurfing, we raced with really slow boards. Didn't matter that we were going slow. Cause the important thing was trying to use the wind and the waves and whatever we found out there to go a little bit faster or to take a slightly shorter course than the next person. So I don't of speed as requisite on the, and. just getting on the water and racing with the stuff you have is pretty interesting. . Yeah, I that's I guess the beauty of one design racing where everybody uses the same equipment and it's not an arms race and it's more about this, your skill and sta strategy and so on, right? Yeah, exactly. And I think of it as the most social form of winging on the water because you're actually doing something with other people. And it's a very sort of a responsive thing where you do one thing and somebody will do another thing in response. So you're, there's interaction that you don't have pretty much any other time, except when you're wanting people to stay outta your way on wave, which is different kinda interaction. But getting back to the winging that Alan or Peter and I do if we're racing around side by side, Trying to go faster. What the main thing I'm doing is I'm trying to assess the performance of the wing. I'm trying to, the power delivery, I'm trying to, is the power consistent hit? Does easy to deal with gust? Is it difficult to deal with the gust when a gust hits, do I accelerate or do I just slow down because there's so much drag? And then, we'll go upwind and we'll go downwind. And if we're going downwind, we can, whether we can deeper with one wing rather than another. This all translate into performance that even someone who's not racing is gonna appreciate. And you can notice subtle differences between wings when you're side by side with somebody of equal ability. But you can't notice if you're just out there cruising by yourself. So that, that, I think that's a real valuable thing for us. But the other thing we do is we've got Finn and Jeffrey Spencer out there on our wings. They test every prototype that comes in. They write our little report and every wing that that comes in, they go out, they loop 'em and spin 'em and race around with them. Do everything that anybody does with them and evaluate them in very thorough, in a very thorough manner, I think. Yeah. I think originally they used to ride for what's it called? They used to write for Slingshot. Slingshot, yeah. So how long have they been writing for Duotone? The last few months. Okay. Yeah, they're amazing wingers. Talk a little bit about the r and d process. I guess it's like you can't really make too many changes at once yet, right? You have to change one, one variable at a time, and then like how many prototypes go into like how many prototypes do you have to make to come up with next year's wing, kind of thing. I'm just curious about that. Yeah, so for the 22 4 meter unit i, I design I name every prototype with a, from the alphabet. So I got down to Q on that one. I'm not sure how many. That's maybe 20 or so. And each one is one that you actually made. Is it just a, do they all make it to the, to be actually samples, or those are all actual samples that you made or that's a good question. I might starting design and try five different variations on my computer. , but they'll all be the same letter. That might be, it might be, okay. Four B dash one or four B dash two and I'll, okay. I'll look at all those and then I'll decide which one I wanna try and in person. And I'll send the, I'll generate patterns. Send the patterns to the factory. The factory, ship it out a week later, or five days later. And then we'll test it. But, I can go through dozens and dozens of prototypes before we finalize a line like, The unit from size two to size 6.5, which is 10 sizes. And we do build and test every size before we put any big into production. Yeah. But I guess on Maui, like basically the four meter is your, like that's the one you start with and then once you have a good four meter, then you start working on the other sizes. Is that kind of how you do it or? Usually I'll do a four or a five in a lot of iterations. I'll also do some sixes. I'll also do threes. I did quite a few threes on the latest slick design because it can be hard to get a three meter working really well. So we , we made six or seven threes before we felt like we were in the right ballpark with with the slick. Yeah, because you can't really use the same design and just make it bigger and smaller because obviously the bigger wings the, one of the issues is that they have too much wingspan, so you have to make 'em kind of lower aspect and then, but the smaller wings, it's not, the wingspan isn't so much of an issue. So can you talk a little bit about that? Like the differences be from your bigger swing to your smallest w in the same lineup, or is that Yeah, that's exactly right. The wingspan, the aspect ratio can be a little bit higher in the smaller wings. With the bigger wings, we haven't really gone over seven and we haven't adjusted the aspect ratio that much up to there. But in the future we'll probably have a seven and an eight with a little bit lower aspect ratio. Another thing you can't scale exactly is. Pretty much everything. You can't scale. Exactly. You have to make adjustments with everything. So if you take a five meter that you like and you wanna go smaller, you actually as a percentage have to go bigger with diameter of the leading edge. And because if you were to scale those down exactly to a, like a three meter, the leading edge wouldn't be big enough in diameter to get the stiffness you want. And then it goes small wing. You really want a stiff leading edge. Cuz otherwise when you're winging and gusty wind, it'll just bend. Yeah. And that, let's talk a little bit about that, the leading edge diameter, like the what you learned about that from all your designing and where, what are your thoughts on that and also the different materials. I know you're doing the unit D-lab with the a Lula fabric and stuff like that, and can you make the diameter thinner with the different fabric if you have more pressure and so on. Just go talk a little bit about that. Yeah. At first of course I was trying a lot of different diameters to see what seemed to work OK at my weight. And one of, one of the issues we have is people of all different weights are doing the sport. And we have to optimize around the average weight of the average writer wrap. So why are you showing that? Oh, I just wanted to bring up some of the wings and the different I was gonna show the aula wings and stuff like that. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Distract you there. Yeah. So leading edge diameter is a huge topic and most of us who test are in the one 40 to one 90 weight range. So we tend to optimize for that weight range. And a four meter wing has a diameter of about 10 inches at the center. And at eight psi or eight and nine psi, that seems to enough, we've. Tried going smaller diameter. When we go to our ULA wings or glab wings are made outta right now and is great cause it's very light. It's very, and you would think that since it's so you could go smaller in diameter, but after making quite a few prototypes with smaller leading edge we see both advantages and disadvantages. So you can have a little less drag if you're going up wind or if you're in a lot of wind, you get less drag with a smaller leading edge. But if you lose a little bit of air pressure, then you have a softer leading edge. And the smaller, the leading edge, the more sensitive it's to small losses and air pressure. So with our DLA wings, our Lulu wings, we've decided to just keep the diameter about the same. And anybody that wants a little bit softer leading edge can run a little air out. And then bigger riders, the 200 pounders or 210 pound riders will have something that's fully stiff enough to handle their weight. That's one of the tradeoffs we've made with leading edge diameter. Another thing, so basically you found that you can't really even though the all Lula can handle more pressure, you can't really reduce the the leading edge diameter by much? Not yet. We can. It's just when we do it, we find that we're not happy with the tradeoffs. . And so we're leaning toward being conservative. We won't, we don't want. We don't want people to have unreasonable we don't want their expectations to be stymied. Yeah we're getting the best all around performance by keeping the leading edge diameter pretty substantial. Recently, for example, we made two identical slick prototypes. One with standard leading edge diameter. One with maybe a not quite a 2% drop up a about a two centimeter reduction from about 10 inches to a little over nine inches. And the smaller leading edge diameter had advantages as we expected. If we were going up wind and a lot of wind, the guy on the smaller levy edge had a, had an advantage. But overall it had a little less power, little less grunt. And if we lost a little bit of air pressure, it had a little less stiffness. And we felt like those were big enough problems to keep us away from that. Okay. So can you talk a little, sorry, go ahead. Another thing we did related to leading edge stiffness is we put a two 30 gram Dacron in the center. That white panel, those white panels in the center are a heavier, stiffer Dacron. So we put those in a place where there's a lot of stress on the leading edge and both in terms of point loading where the strut attaches and that leading edge handle attaches and the leash touches. And it's also a point where there's a lot of bending load. So that helps make our leading edge differ. I know a lot of brands will double up on their clock there. , which we did at one point, but we really prefer the single layer of two 30 gram Dacron. It's very robust. Interesting. Can you explain like how, why you recommend different pressures for, depending on the size of the wing, like I, I see you're the 2.0, you're recommending 12 psi and then for the 5.5 7.5 and kind of in between. So can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. The load on the seams, first I should say the closing sea of a leading edge has the most load on it. Of all the seams, it has twice the load on it. Segment, the inter segment seems are the ones between panels of, so we do a lot of testing to try and maximize the strength of our closing. But one thing about closing seams is the load on the closing sea is related to, it's proportional to the pressure times the diameter. So if you have a small diameter, you can have higher pressure without overloading the closing sea. But if you have a big diameter, have to have lower pressure to avoid overloading the closing scene. And think every, everybody understands this in the business. They're all recommending higher pressure for small and lower pressure for big, and it's all related to how much load the closing can handle without breaking. I. I see. Okay. Do you our standard Dacron construction can handle 15 or 18 PSI in a four meter size before it breaks. And I've, I. Done test tubes. I do a lot of test tubes where we test the strength of seam and I've done test tubes where I've taken it up to five psi in the standard diameter for four meter before its, so we do actually quite a bit of lab testing and bench testing on things like strength and cloth strength. So the difference between the unit and the D-lab unit is basically just the material of the leading edge and the str. Is that correct? Otherwise? Yeah, that's correct. Another difference is that the materials stretch a little differently and they require different seam construction. So I can't use the same patterns for the D-lab that I use for the unit. Customize the patterns for the D-lab wings.  To make adjustments to allow for a different, not just different stretch, but also different shrinkage because different scene construction will take up more cloth. know, One scene construction might take up X amount and the other scene construction will take up 1.5 x amount. So I have to make those adjustments in the patterns. And then I've noticed let's talk a little bit about the flutter in, in wings. I noticed looks like the unit has like this little tiny Batten thing versus the D-lab doesn't have that. Is that what's the reason for that? No. The D-lab has it. They just didn't put it in the graphic. Okay. They both have it. But that's one thing I noticed, like the first generation wings, they would get really baggy quickly or after a few months of using them, they would get all bagged out and and you would lose a lot of performance and there would be a lot of flutter in the, in especially in the trailing edge. So how did you, do you eliminate that? Or how are you able to get away without battens in the trailing edge and avoid fluter stuff like that? About a year and a half ago we decided we were gonna attack that problem and we built some wings with different materials stronger rip stop materials for the canopy, and we sent 'em out to team writers in schools around the world and got feedback on how durable the different materials were. And so the material we use in the canopy, the white material in the canopy of the, no, not that one. That, so that one has standard kite rip stop, which is 50 gram rip stop, which is pretty good, especially if you get this panel alignments right. And you get the warp orientation. But then the wing, you're showing now the 2023 D-lab which I think is coming up tomorrow. Oh wow. That has our, what we're calling mod three for modules, three ripstop material in the canopy. So the white material in that canopy has three times the bias stretch resistance of the standard kite style. Rip stop and. That makes it not only more resistant to things like rips when you drop it on your hydrofoil, but really makes it more durable and a higher performance material. It makes our standard unit feel more like a D unit because it's more solid and when you're pumping it, you get better response. It's not a spongy response, it's a, it's more rigid response when you hit a gust. The draft is really super stable. So all around it's a big improvement. There's a small weight penalty of course. But we've, we did some testing where we built three nearly identical six meter wings and we put different amounts of this mod three material in the canopy of each one. So they would in weight by bit. And we founded the canopy with the most, with the largest amount of this material in it was far and away the best performers. So we decided to put in all of our wings for 2020 canopy. So that, so basically that combats that bagginess after, after using it for a while. That doesn't stretch as much, basically. Exactly. Yeah. I just noticed that. Okay. Yeah. So this is the traditional canopy, the mod three. You just have less stretch and especially in the d diagonal direction, right? Yes, exactly. So I just noticed that for the unit. You recommend, the D-lab wings, you recommend a lower pressure than the regular unit wings. Why? Why is that? You get more stiffness for the pressure, know, whatever you're given pressure is. The D-lab gives you more stiffness, but the thing about all is it's incredibly strong and stiff. It's incredibly strong everywhere except where you put a hole in it. So if we have to sew these things together so they have thousands of holes in them, and we do a lot of reinforcement on the seams with materials that are not alu. , but our testing shows us that these are the numbers we should be using for inflation to be safe. And so even though you might pump a five meter to seven instead of eight, it's gonna be stiffer at seven than Aron wing at eight. Okay. So you, you just said, so tomorrow you're gonna release the new the 2023 wings. I think on your website, this is still your 2022 model, right? So what is the no that DLA you're pointing at is the 2020. Oh, I'm wrong. It's the 2022. You're right. It's got the windows for 2022. So what has changed? I think I've seen Alan  with some wings that have two windows here. Is that like one of the ways you can tell, or? Yeah. So the new units. Have windows that are more like the current slick, the 2022 Slick has four windows, not just two of them. Ok. And that improved our, that improves the visibility quite a bit. So talk a little bit about the seam orientation. Because it seems like the seams have a little bit more they don't stretch as much as the fabric, right? So is that, is that you're trying to use the seams to add more basically more tension to the canopy? Is that what your thought is on that or? What I'm doing there is I'm trying with the wing design in general, I'm trying to get more tension from tip to tip across the canopy. And in order to deal with that tension, I'm, or I'm making the thread orientation run tip to tip. So it's more about getting the thread orientation. The aligned with the loads that I'm trying to put in the, and that's actually evolved a bit. Those same angles have changed for 2023. And I surprised there's no photo anywhere of the 2020 threes. They've been out for a while now. . So the Duotone Sports website doesn't have the New Wings. Yeah, I dunno. But yeah, so talk a little bit about the changes that you did make in the wings from 22 to 23 other, I guess the windows, the seams, but what else has changed? Yeah the cloth is a huge thing. It's a really big thing. And up to now, the leading edge materials have lasted longer than the can materials, and you really want everything to break all at once, ideally. So we change the windows, we change the, we increase the depth and the power of the wing a bit. The profile depth is greater. So we are getting more power, but the canopy cloth itself also improves the top end, so we have more wind range overall. We we refined the tip angles, tip angles, tip twist has a lot of influence on wing performance. And so we've been, we've gone through a lot of prototypes trying to find the tip angles that are best. So I'd say we have an improvement in overall power delivery in part cause we've got better control over tip twist. Trying to think what else we've done is I know I'm forgetting something. So the, this wing that Alan Kiddas is using is probably the 23 right? As that's probably A2 three prototype. Correct. That's one of our prototypes where we were trying different canopy materials. Material is one of the materials we tested for use production. And we, we decided not to use it, but it's a very good material. We might use it in the future as possible. Okay. Interesting. Cool. That's cool that , you're able to talk about that it's gonna be released shortly for wing design. What's your philosophy and what are you trying to accomplish when you're designing a wing? I guess for this slick, I really like a wing that delivers power as, very consistently across the wind range. And, I've ridden a lot of wings. I've, I've ridden wings that don't do that. Most wings in the past haven't done that. And we're getting better and better at keeping the power on at all times. I like a, that's always lifting. A lot of people don't have that yet. I like a wing with good canopy tension for low flutter good pumping. Never want, I never really want have to move my hands cause I'm in a, the old days of windsurfing and the old days of winging, you hit a, you have back, wind, move back. You used move handle, or, which is one reasons I liked having a boom at first because I could just slide my hand back. I didn't have to let go and grab another handle. Nowadays the wings, our wings are so stable that I never really have to move my hands back or when lull hits, they're always in the right place. So that's really important to me and I think it's important to everyone when I'm thinking about the sport in general and how to, how to make the sport appealing to more people. I think about the fact that we get families doing winging. We get. No, my, the guy who actually runs our wing brand guy named in Germany, lives just off the Baltic Sea, near Keel. He has a seven year old son who started when he was five. And yeah, I think that's awesome. I love the idea being able to do the sport. So I don't ever wanna lose focus on making it easy, making it accessible, making it affordable. We're a high end brand, so we don't tend to go for the bargain basement type wings. But we do wanna make quality wings at a reasonable price, and I don't wanna lose sight. Yeah. And like in terms of price, like obviously the, a Lula wing is much more expensive, the material like, and like what, how much of a performance advantage do you actually get out of that material and is it, only like someone noticed that, is it just for high performance wing foiling or do you think the average user, it's a big advantage for them to go with a Lula fabric? Yeah, I mean anybody that can afford it will benefit from it. It's just a question of do you wanna spend the money and, know, where are your priorities? You have three kids you have to worry about until spending my wife likes them cause they're light and she doesn't need the stiffness, but she likes the low weight, so she always wants to be on, if possible bigger rider like the. Someone who weighs 200 pounds is gonna really benefit from the stiffness or somebody who likes to jump, who benefit from the stiffness. Most people, it's totally a matter of whether they wanna spend the money or not. You, there's always a benefit and the bigger the wing, the greater the benefit. So a six meter gives you more benefit in aula than a three five in Aula for sure. So let's talk a little bit about the equipment that you use personally. What's your go-to wing like on Maui? I know you have, what, which wing do you use the most, on. We use s scores and fives here a lot. Three. Three fives scores and fives a lot. . On a sea breeze days, sea breeze day when it's blowing six, eight knots, I can be on a seven or eight pretty easily. And. Of course if it's blowing like it has last week, I can easily be on it too. And do you prefer the unit or the the slick wing for your personal use? I really like booms a lot because I can, it's easier to locate my harness lines precisely and I can put my hands anywhere and I can fly one handed. When I say I'm getting from my, from a sitting position to a kneeling position I can one hand the boom and that makes it easier. One hand. But, I used to hate handled wings, but we, our handles are good enough that I like the units also. So what I, it's pretty much whatever I'm working on is what I'm writing. So lately I've been working on slicks mostly and I've been writing slicks mostly. But in the coming few months I'll be working on units entirely and I'll be writing units. So what changes have you made to the slick wing for 2023? What have been? So we did a lot of the things on the new slick that we did on the unit. So we went to the mod canopy, we four windows. We have gone with more canopy depth and more power. We fine tune the tip twist and we had some reflex, quite a bit of reflex in the strut of the 2022 slick. With the new canopy cloth. First I should point out that the thing the reflex did was made it so that the back of the canopy didn't bag out so much when you get gust or if you're out in high wind. So the reflex in the stru improved the top end performance of the slick. By however, with our new canopy, We don't have that bagginess in the cloth. So we were able to tone down the reflex by quite a bit. It's just a maybe three degrees now of reflex in the strut. I should point out also that the wider tips of the flick make it so that the slick benefits more from a little bit of reflex than the unit. The unit has narrower tips and it works different. What else on the slick? We've changed the shape of the strut a little bit. And yeah, o overall it's a lift smoother, lift wing, smoother wing. The power development is actually the smoothest of any I've tried. So when we're sailing along through Guston walls, we feel the gusts less with the slick than we have with any other wing we've ever tried. Okay. And then what about your board and your foils? Like what are your go, what's your go-to equipment on that? Yeah, so I I don't use small boards. I did a little bit a while ago, but I don't jump, so I don't really need a small board. I've been using 75 liter five foot boards quite a bit for the last year or two. And lately I've been on a five four, that's 24 wide and we're trending narrower. Some of us are trending narrower, just cause if you're on a small hydrofoil, if you have a little bit longer narrower board, you can pop up on the foil more easily. But. A longer board isn't necessarily good for waves, so anybody who's on, heavily into waves isn't gonna be on the longer board. I see. There's probably, I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say the ta tail shape, I mean I know it people used to have all the kick tails and all that, but it seems like with the, the smaller, faster foils high aspect foils you need, it's almost like you don't want to pop up at a steep angle. You want to keep that board as flat as possible on the takeoff. So do you still use that kick tail or is it just a flat tail in your Yeah, I haven't used kick tail in quite a while. And I think those were mostly valuable in the bigger boards cause it was hard to some lift. Sinking the tail and getting the nose up is easy. So I think you don't really need any kick for a small board. , the boards I use my mask is about six or seven inches from the tail of the board. So there's just not much back there to keep it from kicking up in the nose. And then how long is your mask? What mass length do you like? I've been using in the 90 to 95 range a lot. And I've used longer, but there's a lot of shallow water around here. Yeah, I was gonna ask what's the disadvantage? So a lot of times it's, it is just like you don't want to hit the reef, right? ? Yeah. The longer, longer mass are either they're, to keep 'em stiff, they have to be a bit heavier and maybe a little thick, which. Not necessarily attractive. And then there's, you always have to look at what the tide's doing. Where I ride I don't like to go out. If there's less than a foot of water a foot above mean water. And if it's two feet, that's better . And sometimes I'll just go to the harbor. If it's a super low tide time of day and I need to test something, I might go to the harbor. Cause at least I know they can get away from the beach without hitting the bottom. I'm curious cuz you've done a lot of testing, like when you get scratches on your foil from the, like hitting the reef a few times all my fos are pretty scratched up. How much does it affect the performance, like in your experience? Hugely. Hugely. Yeah. Yeah. It's terrible. I feel it. I've had, I won't say bad luck, but I have had collisions with things in the water that have destroyed my foils. And you really notice yeah, you notice everything. If you're, if you're sailing with somebody else, you notice because you're going slower all of a sudden, if you're not, yeah. Do you repair it? Scratch, do you try to repair scratches in your foils? Or is there a way to Oh yeah. Fix it. Like how do you repair scratches on the bottom of the foil? I usually try to keep the scratching to a minimum and I'll just use a little tiny bit of two epoxy to fill the scratch. Just, just enough to fill it and then sand it smooth. , I wanna get some epoxy paint so that I can, do a proper paint and sand job on some foils. But I haven't got around to that yet. You can't get a shipp here. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that would be like a two-part paint epoxy paint kind of thing. Yeah, there's stuff called DPO out Think Australia that America's Cup campaigns use for their hydrofoils and boats. That's supposed to be really good, but you have to ship it by boat probably, or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, . Okay. And then what we talked a little bit about the Mike's lab foils, but like what foils do you use the most and what sizes and so on? Yeah, so we have a phone has a really nice five 90. It's, I don't think it's in the shop. It's a five 90 front wing that I really like. They, we have a seven, we, we've got an eight 50. We've got sizes, I guess the, I really dunno what's on the website. Okay. You just have a look real quick, but okay. So that's pretty small for you. You have five 90 is pretty small foil size for your you're not, probably not as light as Alan could is or someone like that, right? Yeah, Alan and I use a Mike five 40 sometimes my wife uses it too. And so Alan and I can sail around both being on five 40, but 60 pounds, 50 pounds. So work for most days around here, something like a five 90 is a really nice size for me.  Lighter wind days. The seven five is good. It's a very powerful for size. I was looking at the so are they the duotone foils or the fanatic foils did you say? Use those are Oh, the ones you're showing the, there's those are kite hydrofoils. Oh, duo Kite hydrofoils. Okay. And they're not the, they're not the latest stuff. I don't know if we have the latest stuff on the website. Cause it's been quite the challenge to get the new stuff outta Asia. It's basically not in available yet, basically. Yeah, I think so. Okay. So probably by spring on the mainland. Okay. And that, but the, so the foil that. Five 90 that you're saying using, I assume that's a pretty high aspect pretty thin fast foil. Is that kind of what you, how you would describe it? Yeah. It's, yeah, high. It's probably 10 to one aspect ratio and designed to be fast. We have cfd Computational Fluid dynamic in Germany who does, we work for a lot of projects, likeer America's Cup campaigns, and he's designed some profiles for us, for our mask and for our wings that we think are really very competitive. I, Peter rides his stuff all the time and he's extremely hard to keep up with, so I have no doubt that it's fast. , yeah. It's pretty amazing how much the foils have improved over the last couple, or, last three years or so. Coming from the early goal foils, what foils did you start on? I was designing our kite hydrofoils and our windsurf hydrofoils, and we had some decent trading windsurf, hydrofoils. And then when I started making 'em bigger, they weren't very good at first. So I started on some real crap foils. Very difficult to ride hydrofoils. . Then over time they got better and and became pretty easy to ride over the period of some months and maybe a year. Okay. So I just want some of the, a lot of those hydrofoils you just showed on the website or things that I designed Oh, a couple years ago. . Yeah. So actually, let's talk a little bit about the challenges that, during the pandemic, the whole supply chain issues and logistics, shipping issues and things like that, and delays and the demand, obviously during the pandemic when everybody was like staying, could, couldn't, people couldn't go to work, so they added more free time. It seemed like that's when winging just took off, like I know here on Oahu it was like, you just couldn't, we couldn't get enough stuff, there was like more, way more demand than supply. And then now it seems like where it's almost like the op opposite way where there's everything's back in stock and people are back in at work and not buying as much. I don't know, just can you talk a little bit about that and your experience with that? You pretty much said it all except for the fact that when pandemic was. Paradise. There was no traffic, there was no people on the beaches. It was amazing time in so respects sad in many respects, but not

Paolo RepettoChristo e Jeanne Claude ProjectsCastello di Miradolo15 ottobre 2022 - 16 aprile 2023A poco più di due anni dalla scomparsa di Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, il Castello di Miradolo dedica a Christo e Jeanne-Claude, la coppia che ha rivoluzionato il concetto di opera d'arte e il suo processo di realizzazione, la mostra Christo e Jeanne-Claude. Projects, che espone disegni, collages, fotografie e video delle loro opere più famose, insieme ad opere di alcuni artisti del Nouveau Réalisme e della Land Art che hanno influenzato la loro produzione artistica e il loro pensiero.Curata da Francesco Poli, Paolo Repetto e Roberto Galimberti, con il coordinamento generale di Paola Eynard, la mostra, realizzata grazie alla collaborazione con la Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation di New York, presenta circa sessanta opere accompagnate da un'ampia sezione fotografica e dalla proiezione dei video che documentano la realizzazione delle monumentali installazioni artistiche. Le opere di Christo e Jeanne-Claude, tanto inedite, quanto ardite e monumentali, fecero sempre molta fatica ad essere approvate ed accettate. Nel 1966 il permesso per il progetto Wrapped Trees, concepito per il parco adiacente al Saint Louis Art Museum, in Missouri, fu negato. Nel 1969 gli artisti immaginarono il progetto Wrapped Trees, Project for Avenue des Champs- Élysées and the Rond Point des Champs-Élysée a Parigi, anch'esso mai realizzato. Il progetto Wrapped Trees per Riehen (Comune alle porte di Basilea) è stato infine completato nel 1998 ed è il risultato di 32 anni di sforzi e attese. Nel parco intorno alla Fondation Beyeler, 178 alberi, alti da 2 a 25 metri, sono stati avvolti con 23 chilometri di corda e con 55mila metri quadrati di tessuto in poliestere intrecciato.Al 1968 risalgono i primi due edifici impacchettati: entrambi musei. Si tratta della Kunsthalle di Berna e del Museum of Contemporary Art di Chicago. Nello stesso anno, in occasione della quarta edizione di Documenta, la quinquennale esposizione internazionale che si svolge a Kassel, in Germania, Christo e Jeanne-Claude realizzano davanti al palazzo del Friedericianum, sede della mostra, 5.600 Cubicmeter Package, una gigantesca scultura gonfiabile alta circa 85 metri. Nel 1974 a Roma il critico Achille Bonito Oliva organizza la grande rassegna “Contemporanea” a cui partecipano tutti i maggiori artisti internazionali. Christo e Jeanne-Claude realizzano una delle loro opere urbane più straordinarie: The Wall-Wrapped Roman Wall, che vede una sezione di ben 250 metri delle Mura Aureliane interamente coperta da tessuto di polipropilene legato da corde in Dacron. Nel 1985, undici anni dopo, The Pont Neuf Wrapped segna un nuovo intervento urbano che ha come protagonista il più antico ponte di Parigi, la cui architettura – in costante evoluzione - ha rispecchiato per secoli il carattere trasformista della città. L'intervento di Christo e Jeanne-Claude conferisce al Pont Neuf una nuova dimensione scultorea, continuandone dunque la tradizione della metamorfosi architettonica, trasformandolo per 14 giorni in un'opera d'arte.Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet (1969) nella Little Bay di Sydney in Australia, Valley Curtain (1972) a Rifle in Colorado, Ocean Front (1974) a Newport, Rhode Island a sud di Boston, Running Fence (1976) nelle Contee di Sonoma e Marin in California, sono tutte opere di dimensioni colossali, dove enormi teli in polipropilene o nylon hanno celato, per alcune settimane, vasti spazi, ora di costa, ora di acqua, ora di cielo. Valley Curtain, il grande telo arancione disteso come una immensa diga tra gli estremi di due colline, richiese 28 mesi di preparazione e durò solo 28 ore poiché forti raffiche di vento, fino a 100 km all'ora, resero necessaria una tempestiva disinstallazione. Running Fence, lunga quasi 40 chilometri e alta 5,5 metri, si estendeva da est a ovest, a nord di San Francisco, sulle proprietà di 59 allevatori di bestiame. Per 14 giorni l'alta “recinzione” di nylon bianco, come una inedita muraglia cinese, ma più elegante e leggera, seguiva l'andamento sinuoso delle colline per poi scomparire, immergendosi nell'oceano Pacifico, a Bodega Bay. L'idea arcaica della grande muraglia, come recinzione e difesa, delimitazione politica e confine, nella concezione dei due artisti si trasforma in un sinuoso nastro di luce che anziché separare, unisce, riaffermando ed esaltando così le caratteristiche coloristiche e luminose del contesto naturale catturato in una precisa frazione di tempo. Wrapped Fountain and Wrapped Medieval Tower (1968) sono le prime opere pubbliche realizzate da Christo e Jeanne-Claude in Italia. In occasione del Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto impacchettano una torre medievale e la Fontana del Mascherone del XVII secolo. Per i dieci anni dalla fondazione del movimento del Nouveau Réalisme, Christo e Jeanne-Claude impacchettarono con un tessuto in propilene bianco e con corde arancio due dei principali monumenti scultorei di Milano: quello di Vittorio Emanuele II in piazza del Duomo e quello di Leonardo da Vinci in piazza della Scala. Wrapped Monument to Leonardo e Wrapped Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (1970) ebbero entrambi vita breve: rispettivamente due e sette giorni.Wrapped Reichstag (1995), l'impacchettamento dello storico palazzo del parlamento tedesco a Berlino, ha visto Christo e Jeanne-Claude impegnati in un travagliato processo di approvazione del loro progetto durato oltre due decenni. Per la forte pregnanza simbolica dell'edificio questo è forse l'intervento urbano più significativo degli artisti ed è tra quelli che ha avuto la maggiore risonanza e il più forte impatto a livello mondiale. La facciata, le torri e il tetto sono stati ricoperti con 100mila metri quadrati di tessuto in polipropilene color alluminio legati con ben 16,6 chilometri di corde blu. Il lavoro è stato compiuto da 70 alpinisti professionisti e da 120 operai installatori.A differenza degli esponenti della Land Art americana, che hanno privilegiato lontani territori desertici incontaminati e difficilmente raggiungibili, Christo e Jeanne-Claude hanno sempre voluto realizzare le loro opere in luoghi facilmente accessibili, anche nel caso degli interventi in spazi naturali. La componente fondamentale dei loro progetti era la presenza umana in forma di rapporto che una comunità di individui sviluppa con il contesto in cui vive e al contempo di interazione e coinvolgimento diretto nella creazione dei progetti stessi. Con Surrounded Islands (1983) nella Biscayne Bay di Miami, 11 delle isole situate nella baia furono circondate da oltre 600mila metri quadrati di tessuto fluttuante in polipropilene rosa che ricopriva la superficie dell'acqua e si estendeva per 61 metri da ciascuna isola nella baia. All'alba del 9 ottobre 1991, alla presenza di Christo e Jeanne-Claude, furono aperti i 3.100 ombrelli alti 6 metri e con un diametro di circa 8,5 metri, a Ibaraki e in California. The Umbrellas (1991) intendeva indagare le somiglianze e le differenze nei modi di vivere e nell'uso dello spazio in due valli interne, una lunga 19 chilometri in Giappone e l'altra 29 chilometri negli Stati Uniti. In Giappone, la valle si trova nella prefettura di Ibaraki e comprende le proprietà di 459 proprietari terrieri privati e di agenzie governative. Negli Stati Uniti, la valle si trova a poco meno di 100 chilometri a nord di Los Angeles, nelle proprietà del Tejon Ranch, appartenenti a 25 proprietari terrieri privati e agenzie governative. Con The Floating Piers (2016) per 16 giorni, dal 18 giugno al 3 luglio, il Lago d'Iseo è stato reinventato. Centomila metri quadrati di tessuto giallo dalia scintillante, fissati a un sistema modulare di pontili galleggianti composto da 220mila cubi di polietilene ad alta densità, ondeggiavano con il movimento dell'acqua, appena sopra la superficie del lago. The Gates (2005) è un cammino lungo 37 chilometri a Central Park, a New York: 7.503 “cancelli” alti quasi 5 metri e distanti tra loro circa tre metri e mezzo.Tutte le opere ambientali di Christo e Jeanne-Claude sono sempre state interamente finanziate dagli artisti stessi, attraverso la vendita dei disegni, dei collage e dei modelli in scala dei progetti in essere o passati. Tutti i progetti sono sempre stati liberamente accessibili al pubblico in maniera gratuita.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEAscoltare fa Pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

Aloha friends, it's Robert Stehlik, welcome to season two of the Blue Planet Show.  On this show, I interview wing foil enthusiasts, athletes, designers, thought leaders, and go into great detail on technique, equipment, but also tried to find out a little bit more about the person, what inspires them, and how they live their best life. You can watch it right here on YouTube. For those of you who are visual learners like myself, that's really helpful to have that visual content. But of course you can also listen to it as a podcast on your favorite podcast app. Just look for the blue planet show. In this interview with Alan Cadiz is we start with very basic beginner tips, the top five tips for beginners, and then we get into a much more advanced stuff as well. So there's something here for everybody. And we also talk about equipment, including what Alan used in the recent wing foil race on Maui that he actually won against other wingers that were less than a third of his age. So a nice work Alan, on that. I really hope you enjoy this interview. If you do, please remember to give it a thumbs up here on YouTube and subscribe to the blueplanetsurf YouTube channel. And without further ado here is Alan Cadiz: Allen, welcome to the Blue Planet Show! Actually, welcome back to the blue planet show. Thank you for inviting me back. Yeah, so we, we had a great interview last year and there was one of them actually, it was the most popular video on the Bhutanese show with almost 40,000 views on YouTube and then a lot of listens on the podcast as well. You always have great information. People love to hear about it. So that's great to have you back on the show and just wanted to catch up and see what happened over the last year. So what's new or what's the latest and greatest that's going on Maui? It's during the last year, it's just been more, more winging. We've had consistent wind all year on winging is growing in popularity on, it's still been quiet, with COVID winding down. It's not as many people as in the past, but we just had our first competitive event in three years. And what else is new? That's cool. Yeah. We're going to get into that more later that definitely hear about that Patagonia, kite and wing festival, but to get started like last year, I'm usually asked all the more advanced questions first that I was interested in. Hearing about, and then at the end I asked the guests to talk a little bit about beginner tips, but I want to turn it around the other way, start with the beginner stuff and then work up to more advanced things. Cause I figured that most people that are really into winging are gonna watch till the end or listened to the end and the beginners, we got to get them into it right in the beginning. So I asked you to come up with your top five tips for beginners to get into wink foiling. And you not only prepared some answers, but you've made a little video from what I understand. So let's start with that. What are your top five tips for beginners? All right. Thank you. Yeah. So I was thinking about those tips and there's so many different things. But I've tried to think about the key things and I put together a little timeline video here. Tip number one. And I just pulled these clips out of my inventory of clips and start on a big board. Now this is a winter Ford. We have a surplus of wind surfboards here on Maui on you can, you might think a sup board would be a good substitute, but you really need the daggerboard unless you can put strap-on fins on your support. I don't recommend using the support. It really needs to have something with the daggerboard now. And I recommend this for people who are just learning, how to use the wing, just to learn the basics on you can learn on a set board a foil board, but I recommend a large foil board to start with. Here, I've got Frank my, my pay here. He's a very skilled. And using a smaller board. It's challenging. So as a beginner, if you're on a smaller board, it's pretty tough to get going. And, in the extreme case, a really small board, it has its advantages, but it's tough to get up on the smaller boards and this is goes through the whole spectrum. So as a beginner, you really want to have a floaty board is just more challenging to get up. There are advantages to the tiny board once you're up. But in the learning stages, you really want to have a floating board. Yeah, I totally agree with that. So that's tip number one. So not everyone has access to the big boards on and. It doesn't because the learning curve is so fast. It doesn't always make sense to buy a big board. Maybe for some, they've got a big family or they've got a slow learning curve or they're sailing in light wind, but if they have the option to rent on, I would encourage that for the first, a few runs on a mistake that a lot of people make is they'll run out and buy the board that they think they're going to end up on, maybe an 80, 80 liter board. And it's a real struggle to learn on those smaller boards. You can do it, but it just takes a lot longer. So if you have access to a bigger board take advantage of. Yeah, very good. And then I just wanted to mention too, for people that have an old standard board or something, a big floaty signup board, there is a kind of a stick-on center thin daggerboard available from Slingshot. I believe that you can basically glue onto the bottom of your board and make if your board doesn't have a dagger board. And that makes a big difference because it keeps the board from this going downwind. If you only have the fins on the tail, the boards is going to turn down when, and it's going to be very hard to stay cross winds. I've seen people show up at the beach with the sup board and have that problem where they just go straight down wind. So yeah, that's basically I as tip number one, before you try this foil, learn the wing handling with a regular board that doesn't have a foil on it, basically. Yes. And if you don't have access to that, you can, learn on a foil board, but really get your hands on the biggest foil board you can get. Yeah. And I, I don't know if this is another tip you had to, but I'm also practice as much as you can on the beach before you get it on the water. The wing handling a lot of it. You can practice on the beach before, before you're in the water. Yes, I do have that. I think it's tip number four or five. Okay. So tip number two, you want to learn how to steer the board and turn around? Very close to the beach specifically, learn to turn around before you get out there on, so this is my daughter she's she has an interesting technique. She'll kneel down at the end of her run, do the turn on her knees. So she doesn't fall. And then stand back up. But the point is that you're turning around close to the beach. And when I say close, 20 feet out, get on the board and turn the board around 180 degrees to come back in. You don't want to get a hundred yards off shore and realize you can't turn around. Now I can keep going or I can keep going, or we can discuss that idea. Yeah. I think that's a really good tip. I guess a lot, I know I've heard of people, like they were so excited about getting up on foil and be able to go there. They just kept going as long as they could before they fell in. But then when they got way outside, like in Hawaii, Kai, for example you realize, oh, I don't know how to go the other way. Yeah. And why Kai is slightly off shore. If I remember. So maybe that's a tip in itself, you want to go in a place where it's side shore, if it's off shore wind, make sure you're sailing with a partner to keep an eye on you. Yeah. And then I'll also, it's a good idea to just if you have a place where you can just go down when, and maybe park your car at the other end, then don't have to worry about staying up when in the beginning. Yes. This next clip is all about staying up wind. And this is something that when I'm teaching my students, I try to focus on getting them to go up wind for a number of reasons. And the biggest reason is that you're not downwind. You don't have to walk back up or find transportation. You spend your time sailing back and forth instead of walking back up. So this next clip here is a little bit longer. It's actually a section of a video that I call maximum performance. This is the tip for beginners on turning the board up when, and this is one of my edited videos on, so I'll go ahead and play the whole thing. It's about two or three minutes, and then we can stop and talk about it. Okay. Great. One of the things I want to cover with quickly, this is more of at the novice level. And this is for almost the first time wingers. It's really easy to go down, wind and end up down wind very quickly. What I want you to try and do is turn the board into the wind. This does two things. One is it gets you going up wind. So you're not losing as much ground. And it slows the board. The struck is like a wind sock or a weather vane. It wants to point the wing into the wind. You can use this constant to leverage the board upwind or downwind by pointing the clue towards the back or front of the board. Respect. So we call the back of the struck clue or back end of the wing. And if I point that wing pointed down wind, it's going to point the board down wind. So I want to point the struck behind or in this case to my left, the more I aim it to the left I'm pulling here. The more it turns into the wind. If I push it away, it turns down with this is done while luffing the wing overhead and steering the board through your core. If you come from a windsurfing background, you'll recognize this as similar to wind surfing in that if you drag the clue towards the tail of the board will turn up. When you twist the wing toward the tail of the board, the wing wants to return to pointing into the wind and as it does it torques your body and board up wind. However, if you sheet in while pulling the clue back, the sheeting will overpower the steering effectively canceling the wings, torque to turn the board up wind, I'll say it again. Over sheeting cancels, the upwind effort, move your hands forward or sheet out as you twist the clue towards the back of the. You're going down when you need the sheet, it out, turn it up when, and then start simply stated left the wing. As you twist the wing to torque the board up wind. I actually really like how you explain what the weather vain and that, when you pull it the. The strike wants to point straight down downwind. And then if you manipulate that'll give you a steering momentum. So I've never really heard it explained that way, but it like intuitively we know how it works, but it's hard to explain it to someone who doesn't understand that concept. So I think that's a really good way to explain it. Thank you. I've been trying all different ideas, one way to think of the strep as a rudder or a guide. And you're aiming that guide to torque the board on a bunch of different ways to show it. And I even, I look at this and I'm like, oh, I might've might do that a little bit differently next time or try to explain it differently, which is I try to attack the idea from a different angle and try different ways. And on teaching this to my students early on, I couldn't understand why they were going down when, what was causing it to go down when, and even myself, I couldn't understand what was the technique to get it, to turn up, wind on until I started well, trying to solve the problems at night, going to bed at night, thinking that why were they having trouble? Why can't they do that? Yeah, I've been trying to capture it on video. Nice. Yeah. Okay, cool. I think we're ready for the next tip. Yeah. Okay. The next tip is more or less where you're standing on the board. So food placement on the board let's start with being off foil. So when you're slogging out to the wind line your front foot should be slightly on the Windward side and your back foot on the more or less on the stringer, as opposed to being this orientation. This is going to actually set you up to point further down. Or that is it's harder to go up wind in this position than this position. Now, the next thing to determine is where to stand on the board regarding the board's flotation. So you may be comfortable standing in the front, but if the nose of the board is curling, you need to move back. On the other hand, if the tail is sinking, you need to move forward. Again, this is off foil. And once you find that flotation point, you want to adjust your foil so that you stay in this position, as it comes up on foil, you can't be stepping forward as it transitions to on foil. So you want to have your feet in the spot when it foils. Okay. One thing that I've done in the past with some of my boards is I've marked on the board. Some lines just as a reference for. So I have an idea of where to stand before foils. Ideally you want to be comfortably on the flotation, but when it foils, you want to make sure that your foil is matched with that flotation point and having marks on the board, just give you a better idea of where to place your feet. Yeah, exactly. And if the D or does design well and you and your files in the right place, basically where you stand to float in the center of flotation, that should also be more or less where you want to stand once the board lifts up, right? Yes. Yes. You can put the foil too far forward in the track or too far back, or if you have a foil with a lot of lift in it on, you may have to adjust that, but. Yeah and then another good point you add it. And then in a different video with the was being centered over the center line of the board to cause you might be able to fly on when the boards on the water, if you're not exactly in the center, it's fine. But once the board lifts up and you're on foil, you have to be centered exactly over the foil the center line of the board. And that's the next clip here staying centered. I do have in this shot here, you think more of front and back where you're pressuring the nose down and you're kicking it up, but there's also the side to side. So that's this next clip here. Okay. We'll just play that whole thing. Okay. Some people are afraid to learn to foil for fear of falling on the foil, a legitimate concern. So let's look at what causes this type of. So let's look at the foil. It generates lift. The front wing is lifting up the back wing. The stabilizer is pushing down, but together there's force up through the mast lifting the board. Now it's important that you trim your weight for, and AFT. If it's too far in the front, you're going to stick to the water. If it's too far in the back, you're going to overflow. So you're constantly trimming the weight and a half, but it's also equally important to keep your center of mass directly over the foil. So the foil is lifting up. Gravity is pushing you down and if they're equal, you stay centered over the board. But often as a sailor, you have another force that the sail is pulling you laterally. So you need to compensate by leaning back against that pole. And when the. It's flat on the water. You have the stability of the ocean. So you can put lateral push on the side of the board, but as soon as it comes up on foil, you don't have that stability and any sideways push is going to cause it to in this case flip away and you fall towards the foil on your bum. And here's a couple examples, unlike windsurfing, where you're pointing your toes to keep the board flat in foiling, you're flexing your foot to keep your ankles at a right angle to the board, or that is your body. Mass is always over the top of the board. And the top means at a right angle. I have this drone footage, which really shows it, centered right over the top of the board, even though he's hiked out he's on. And then here, if you draw a line from the mast up through his center of mass, you can really see it here. So if you're not centered and I've got one more clip here of not being centered and you can see it right there. It's the beginning of the. Yeah, that's a really good point then. And I always like to tell people too, when they, before they try to wing and foil together, maybe just try to learn how to control the foil first. I guess even going behind a boat though is sometimes you got to pull from the rope, so you can lean against the rope. So you can be a little bit off centered on, on, on the floor away from the pool of the rope, if you're going sideways. But but just to have that feel where you can, where you're foiling on the board without getting pulled or without pressure, so that you understand that you have to be right over the center line of the foil and you can't be like offset, yeah. Trying to isolate just the foil skills. Th the foil is one way, but the foil is different. The board is pretty heavy, so it's not as responsive. As a regular foil board certainly the prawns surfers that come to wing foiling, they have the skill already going behind a boat on is good. But I have seen people that have learned behind a boat. And when they're out on the wing board, they're leaning back against the wing, trying to wheelie the board. And I'm like no, you can't leverage, you can't leverage the board like that with the wing, the way you can with the rope. But any foil time that you can get before you get on a wing is good. Yeah, I agree. So the next clip here is about wing handling. And that is we talked about it earlier about practicing on the beach and here's just a few things on. A few things you can practice on the beach, simple stuff like flipping the wing over. And this is a six meter when I'm trying to flip a six meter wing over in the water is pretty tough. So you can practice it on the beach. You can practice standing up, having the wing help you get to your feet. And the wingspan on a six meter, you have to go up to the wing tip to flip it over. So it looks easy and it's relatively easy on the beach. It's harder in the water, but that's something you can practice. And just practicing, like for tacking or jiving, just practicing the hand movements of flipping the wing over on, just leaning back against the wind and the wind. And this is something you have to do where there's a breeze. You can't do it in your backyard where the winds all squirt. You really need to have steady wind to get steady feedback, but this is worth doing, taking the time. And that there's in most of my instructional videos, I've got some kind of beach homework where you practice on the beach, whether it's the Heineken jibe or tacking or whatever. Yeah, no, that's really good advice. I think in a lot of times the beginners too, don't if you don't have a wig like a cutting or windsurfing or a sailing background just beginners have a hard time understanding exactly where the wind is coming from and how to angle your wing and relation to the wind and which way you want to go in and out, what's what direction can you go? And what does. You can't, you can't go straight into the wind obviously, and things like that, that's things people don't understand at first, I think, or don't think about really. So just learning that. And then also I like to get people to just keep the wing tip, kinda get the wink to blow to the sand, but without touching it, like controlling the height of the wing on the beach, and that, that's something that, that I'm in. I've got videos on that and all the clips here, this is just a fraction of the stuff that I have. And there's so much more there's so many more tips and these, I wouldn't call these the top five tips. These are just five tips in general on, and I also, the sport's still relatively young and we may look back in a few years and think, oh, we were teaching that progression where it's so much better to teach this progression. There's still so much we're learning about the sport. Yeah there's there's definitely the idea of sheeting and steering the wing on, I've taken a couple stabs at explaining that in one video, I have one video up there already on what I'm going to. I have another video where I'm trying to explain it more clearly to sailors or non sailors, and just the idea of sheeting in and out to catch the wind and spill it. That's relatively easy. But when you throw in the steering of the wing up and down in front of you, like you said, having the wing tip right on the sand and taking it above your head and separating those two skills it's a challenge to get people to understand that. It's really simple once you get it, but it's sometimes difficult. Yeah, you have to grasp that concept first and the I, and I like to even the more advanced maneuvers and all the different tax and things like that on your patron channel, you have like really detailed info videos breaking it down. Step-by-step into really easy to follow steps that very detailed and, I highly recommend that your instructional videos are great, and I think, those beginner tips are great, not just for the beginners, but also for more advanced guys. Cause you're going to have to show other help, other people that are learning and just understanding how to explain things like how to steer the board up into the wind. Th those are kinds of things. If you have a good way to explain it and to make it easy to understand that'll help a lot. Yes. Yeah, that's good. My following on Patrion has grown almost a 700 at the moment, or just over seven to 700 at the moment. And the range of skills on, there's beginners on there that are just trying to get up for the first time. And then there's advanced sailors that are asking for jumping and more advanced stuff. This recent video, the one you're looking at gliding on foil, that's more for entry-level. It's gliding is a skill that you take for granted, it's really easy to do once you know how to do it. But I had a number of students recently that I could see, they were relying on the wind for support and they didn't have the feel for gliding. Yeah okay. So yeah, I just find it too. I'm just, screen-sharing this now you're at your patron channel and yeah, it's 747 patrons. That's great. Congratulations on that. So it's actually I guess if you get enough people supporting you, then it's actually, you can actually make a living, being a virtual instructor, basically. Just making the instructional videos and teaching. Yeah, I so that, that seems like it really good business model for you, huh? I fell into it, with COVID when they shut down all the restaurants and airplanes and they closed the beach parks. That's when I started doing this and someone suggested I do a premium online video here on Patrion. And so I've been doing that for the last almost two years now. I think there's 20, 22 or 24 videos, instructional videos ranging from. The first time holding the wing to more advanced stuff like three sixties and Heineken jibes and that kind of stuff. Heineken jibes and the three sixties. That's probably the top 10% of wingers out there. I think the majority of wingers are working on basic stuff like this jibe here, that's George, one of our local sailors. This came to wild, demonstrating how to glide on the swell on. So this is a clip from the wave video on. So there's all different skill levels here and I've tried to try to address all of them. Yeah. I like how you explain how to I guess that's a challenging thing at first for people that are used to just always having the wing powered up and leaning against the wind. That to transition into not using the wing and deciding on the foil without using the wing wind power. So that's what you explaining it and just doing it kind of real step-by-step slowly getting used to this using the energy from the foil without having the wing pull you along. Yes. And if you come from a prone foiling background, you already know how to do this automatic. But for the prone boilers, I've got tips on how to use the wing. Yeah. That makes sense. And I think this is a really important skill for jiving because basically when you're going into the jive, you have to de power the wing and just surf a turn on, or, do a turn on the foil without using the wind power basically. Yes. That was the idea of it. So that angle right there that's, I got this new camera, actually it's not new, but I had to modify it for that board. Yeah. I just wanted to ask you about the the different handles. On the duotone wings, you have the rigid handles. And then some, you have some that have the longer boom handle, like this one, and then the new D-Lab unit that you're using has two, two separate handles. We'll look a little bit about the handles and yeah the advantages and disadvantages of having rigid handles and two handles versus one long handle and so on. Coming from a windsurf background, I've always liked the boom. And in fact that the first wings that my neighbor Ken was making all have booms. So we started with boom. I don't know if you remember the first echos on they had a boom and. The nice thing about the boom is it's infinite hand placement. You can put your hands anywhere along the boom. When you're flipping the wing over your head, it's really easy to feel where the boom is. You don't have to look where the handles are. You shouldn't be looking even if you have handles. And the boom is so much more rigid than the webbing handles. So in fact, most manufacturers now are switching to some kind of rigid handle. The handles I've gotten used to the handles, but initially when I went from the boom to the handles, I was grabbing in between the handles and missing and falling in. Now I can grab the boom or grab the handles pretty much every time without looking. I know where they are. Some of the bigger wings, the handles are a little further apart. So I've got to remember to reach further back on. That's one of the things you miss when you have the boom or the two handles. I noticed like when I come out of the jive, I like to grab the wing right in the middle with one hand so that it kind of flies. But it would be right between those two handles. So do you ever miss having that that grip in the right in the middle or you just get used to? I did get used to it. I did have that problem. I grabbed right in the middle and fall. So it, it took me a while to retrain my hands. I still prefer the boom over the handles, but these, this D-Lab wing is really superior. This cloth it's super stiff. So the wing is really tight and light. You can see there. It's just, it's really nice. So I'll tolerate the handles to use that wing. And so let's talk about that a little bit, so that new this is the Lula fabric on the new do a tongue D-Lab weighing, and then they also have the unit in with the regular Dacron leading edge and and strike. So can you talk a little bit about the difference between the two? And I know that there's a big difference in price, so I just wondering what you think they are the different between the difference between the two and if it's worth it for the average user to spend more, to get that well there, the wings are virtually the same shape slash design, just different cloth. So the yellow cloth, the Lula cloth makes it really stiff and light. So if you're into performance, the Alula is the way to go on the, I think the sizes are from up to seven. Or no two and a half to seven meter, but the Alula the D labs don't start until three five on, but you're really gonna appreciate the Alula cloth in the bigger sizes on, 5, 6, 7 meter that's in the light wind where you want that lightness and stiffness. Now, as far as the value on, money is different things to, it's a different thing for everybody. For some people money's not an issue, they can get whatever they want. I think as a novice Patty, my wife, her favorite wing is the SLS three, five unit on, I really liked the Fibo D-Lab I think that's what we're looking at here. Yeah, this is, I think this is the three, five, or the three meter SLS. This is one of her favorite wings, although she recently tried the D lab for, and she said, this is my new favorite wing, and this is my shit. She tried to claim my fluoro. I'll share it with you. That's interesting. Yeah, that you're saying that that yeah. Makes more of a difference than in a bigger wing on, in lighter wind, obviously. Yeah. Because if you have plenty of wind then I guess actually sometimes having a little bit of weight in the wind can actually be a good thing too, in some cases. It's not always the case that lighter is always better, but definitely in a big wing and light wind, it makes it, it can make a big difference, right? Yes. Yes. I'm not sure we're heavy is good, but that's true. But my thank you. You're gonna they're all good, but you're gonna appreciate the bigger sizes with the D lab and. As a novice sailor, you'll be fine with the SLS. I think you're going to pay a little extra for that performance in the Alula cloth. Okay, cool. Let's talk a little bit about that recent event you mentioned earlier, the Patagonia Caden, Wade Fest. You said that was just recently and there was a freestyle part of it and the race part of it. So let's talk a little bit about that event. I did a film, a little bit of the freestyle on, and I can try and share that here. I was the Patagonia Maui, kite and Wingfield festival was that canal beach park. And when I got my camera out, the battery was flashing almost dead. So I just filmed one year. This is Chris McDonald. He won the event with moves like this he's 16 years old from the Gorge. That's here's Kailani. He dropped in and he was doing moves. I'm not sure how he finished up. I think he made it to the final. I only filmed one heat. Just this Andre. He's a local ripper. He did pretty well. Wow. And I think also in this heat Otis Buckingham, no, that's Chris again. That's so you can see why he won the event there. Oh, so there was racing and unfortunately I don't have any video of the race stuff. But you told me earlier that you actually won the race event. So just tell us about it. I did I spent a lot of time training for it and I had some really good gear and one of the guys I sail with all the time, he says, when you're out there, I can see you're sailing with purpose. You're training for this. And I did. I worked really hard on it and I actually, I'm going to just show a little clip of the board that I used on. So I got this new board flying Dutchman. This is what that camera Mount I'll show you that. And then I posted this on Instagram clip coming up here. So this flying Dutchman is different from my previous board in that it's a little. Mark made it a little narrower. So I wouldn't drag the rail while I was going to Winward other dimensions, sorry. Or what are the dimensions? Is the board it's four foot 11 by 21 inches wide. And it's about 60 liters, 20 to 60 liters, 2021 wide 2121. Okay. Pretty narrow four foot 11 engine the board so that when I do touch down, there's more of a planning surface, the rails not digging in and on the back. There's no tail rocker, no tail kick, just a sharp edge. And this really helps to release the board from the water. Now it's also matched with a Mike's lab and I wasn't sure about the Tuttle box, but after trying it in this board, it's super solid. It's all one piece, no moving parts. There's no play whatsoever. It's just really tight. And then my result in the racing I finished, I actually won the racing event. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you. Then. You're probably not the youngest one in there by far. In fact, you could probably fit a whole generation in between me and the next place. When I went to the registration up in , it was at a. Mandatory. I went up there and I got in line and everyone in front of me was a teenager and I thought, oh man, what am I doing here? The older guys were in their twenties. Yeah. So one third year age. Yeah. Yeah. But I have to say that the Maui fleet and a wife who, they were a couple of people that came over from wahoo, both the men and women, young men and women, they're going to be a force. They've got some talent and, they were going plenty fast in the racing, but the start line and the tactics. That's where my experience came in. So tell us how that whole, how it worked at, what was the format like? How did this start work? W were, how were the terms and upwind, downwind, and so on. Tell us how that format works. They had a rabbit start that is that a jet ski raced across the start line and you'd pass behind the jet ski on and we'd race out. It was a close reach to a mark outside. And then from that mark, we had to go up wind to a Windward mark. So it, the way it was set up, it spread everyone out on and I had some good starts. And then the upwind leg, it was favored on the inside. It was a little bit north wind. So you'd get a good lift along the shoreline, which I knew from experience where most of the fleet went outside into deeper water where the wind was lighter and there was more current on there were. Some of the kids that Chris McDonald, he was very fast. He beat me to the Windward mark twice. But I was able to catch him on the downwind run. It was almost a straight downwind run to the finish line. So you had to zigzag your way to get down there. And Kai, I think he was able to pump downwind faster than with the wind, his pumping skills where most other sailors had to zigzag back and forth. And I was using a six meter. It was light wind by Maui standards on, I was using a six meter. So yeah, I feel pretty good about that when I think it's probably my last competition, I'm passing the Baton onto these younger people. That or I'm anxious to see where they take the sport. And I'm confident in the riders. We have so much window defending champion. You can't give up after the first time. No. I've yeah. I'm 60 years old Robert it's tough to compete 16. And I remember when I was doing wind surfing competition, when I was 20, I was looking to the guys that were 25 and I thought those guys have peaked. They've peaked at 25. And for sure, in, in windsurfing jumping freestyle, doing the leaps and having the flexibility, I think you do peak in your early twenties, more endurance style type of stuff on more in your thirties, in your sixties. I'm not sure. I think what I've earned is that shirt that says old guys rule. I think that's about. Experience too, right? You have, you got the experience and then, like you said, you train with the purpose and you're ready for it. So you're not just winging it, you're actually winging it. Yeah, yeah. No, it's awesome. I love that. You can still beat everyone, including the guys. I Lenny, that's pretty awesome. No, Chi is, I, he it was funny during the wave event, one of the announcers talked about Chi being a legend. And I thought he's, he is a legend, as far as his ability. There's no question there, but when I think of legend as an old, if he is a legend, what does that make me? Am I guess I'm a fossil, but no, Kai and all the younger kids, Chi's, he's so good at everything. And he hasn't really put effort into wing racing. And I think if he spends just, a very short period of time, he'll be on the top of his game. It seems like whatever he tries out, he succeeds, but there's a lot of other young talent on Maui. That, that is really good. And I, we have the amount of advantage in that we have wind almost every day you can wing. And with the waves came to wild is doing some turns in the waves that are really impressive and he's just getting started. So it's going to be really exciting to watch as this younger generation leads the way right. I'm stepping aside. And then I guess something, I was going to ask you to like, Yeah, generally two foot straps in the front and then not no foot strap in the back, which means basically you're not really jumped. You can't really use that set up to jump or not jump very high anyways. Yeah. Or do you most, do you just avoid jumping usually or do you actually do jumps with that sort of, I do not do jumps and early on, I made a pledge to myself that I would not take the sport to the air on. I had a back injury surfing, a compressed vertebrae, a wedge vertebrae, and my physical therapist says I can't afford another fall. So I don't trust myself. I'm looking at these guys do in the jumps, I've studied Chris McDonalds, flips and I'm like, I could do that. I know I could do. But no, I know better. The back there's no back foot strap because I do move my foot around a lot and it does keep me from jumping. I was just noticing in this picture, the leash, I have it attached to the foot strap because when I have it attached to the back of the board, it would flip and get in the way of the camera. Okay. So I want to show you my, and one of those retracting leashes that like, I should send you one of those, but yeah I noticed actually, why don't you keep that up for a little bit. I want to talk about the equipment a little bit. Yeah. I noticed you have the leash pug monster on the tail of the board, is that, so it's kinda more out of the way of your feet or less drag or what's the idea behind that? Putting it back there? Oh, sorry. Here. Rapid horse at flying Dutchman suggested I put it back there and it seems like a good spot. I noticed I do have a prom foil board that I use for surfing. And the Mount is, I don't know if you can see my mouse here, but the amount is right there. And I found as a regular foot surfer as I stand up, my foot would always drag over the leash and I'd end up standing on the leash cord. No, I'm not planning on doing any prone for them with this board, but it made sense on, there was one of the rider that had the same setup and he felt that the leash was dragging in the water. So I think for racing, especially to have a lease dragging in the water, it just totally doesn't make sense. Yeah. So anyway, but okay so yeah, the two front shots. That way you, the back foot if you just had one center strap you tend to have both feet a little bit off to one rail, right? So being able to offset your back foot more towards the opposite rail helps with keeping your weight center too. And that's one of the reasons why you don't use the back foot strap to ensure it? Yes, because I would stand on it. And I also found too that sometimes when I would do attack, as I switched my feet, I found myself stepping on the far side of the board to keep it from rolling over from scissoring. And the other reason as I did, I was using a back strap for awhile and I fell and tweaked my ankle. Didn't injured myself, but tweaked it enough that I thought I'm taking that strap off. And then, it also helps sometimes moving your back foot forward or backwards, depending on how fast you're going or trying to get up and light when and things like that. Right now. 50, wait a little bit on this board. I don't have the foot straps. Doesn't show the bootstraps here, but the foot straps I have, they're longer foot straps. They're not the standard eight inch they're about 12 or 14 inches on. I placed the inserts further apart so that I could slide my foot forward in when I was going real fast to compensate for the additional lift by the foil and then move it back when I was going to Winward or so I really liked the ability to be able to move my foot four and a half still in the strap. And I've taken some other videos. I've got a lot of different camera mounts. And in fact, let me pull up one of those camera mounts. Okay. But yeah, actually I did want to ask you about the foil as well. So I noticed you had that a few shots of the foil there too, but yeah, so don't turn off the grease screen sharing yet, but yeah, this particular clip here it doesn't really well, lot of times I'll do different camera angles and trying to capture one thing. And I realize, oh, this is a really good example of where the foot is, or I didn't realize the wing was this way. Or when I put the camera on the front of the board, it really shows my front foot, my toes curling up and down not so much in this video, but I didn't realize how much I was using the front strap to manipulate the board or leverage. Yeah. I find that, yeah, having footsteps just allows you to turn much harder to you just feel more connected to the board. So you get, you're able to like crank Carter turns that you have that those foot straps, right? Yes. And I did do some video recently, then the board didn't have foot straps and it was a performance oriented board, but I just didn't put the foot straps on there. And I found that I couldn't do the tax and the jibes as aggressively without the foot strap. So I do definitely pull with my front foot to pull the board around or leverage it this way or so, yeah. Okay. So let's talk about the foil, cause I think maybe the foil might be one of the most important parts of the equipment and like those Mike's labs foil, I know that like Johnny Heineken and San Francisco has been winning a lot of the races there with those foils too. And it just seems like he's going faster than everyone else. And so anyway, talk a little. Yeah. Mike has been making the carbon foils for the kite racers for quite a while. He's been making foils and more recently for, he's got a reputation of making the fastest foils, particularly in the kite race and fleet. Now I think he's winging himself and he's made foils for Wayne's specifically for winning. And this is one of them. It's the bullet series. I believe he makes an 1100 and 800 and a 600 and this is the 600. And let me see if I can get a little bit better angle of it on. So it's actually the smallest foil and is in this series. Yeah. Yes, he does have a smaller foil for kite racing, but it has a shorter fuselage and he's also got a tiny little race foil on, I think it's a four, 10 tow foil. And apparently I think one of the kite racers clocked 46 knots on it. Wow. Yeah, I don't want, I don't want to go that fast. So this the 600 sizes at square centimeters, like projected surface area or something like that, or this is a full-on top performance race, foil. It's not something that, the average person. Is going to use, it's very sharp edges on it. It's pointy and it's delicate, you bumped the bottom and it you don't want it. You don't want to scratch it, not just because it's expensive, but because the performance of it on, I used the Gulf soils and they're tough. They're tough on, I scraped the bottom all the time coming in, hitting a rock right in the sand. Sorry. I I just find it to describe it a little bit. For those listening to the podcast sites, it looks like it has a really thin front wing pretty flat with a little curve the tip slightly curved down or straightened out basically with those dihedral man. And everything's full carbon was the extended finish. And then we'll take it as a really long mass to it. Is that like a hundred centimeters? Something like that? Or how long is it mess? This one is a 96. Okay. They make a 1 0 2 and I believe an 80 something. I tried the 1 0 2 and I could see the advantage of using it on a coast run where you're blistering down wind and tall chop. You want to be able to clear the wave tops, but still keep your foil under water and going to Winward. I could really lean over, but going just a little bit longer, there was loo tiny bit of wobble in it compared to the 96. And and it, with the total box, it just is really tight. So I think this is the right length mass for me on it is. It is a little bit long for low tide. It cannot low tide is off limits. Medium, medium tide is okay. And you know you learn where the spots are, where you can go and where you can't. But the medium size is perfect for me. And the leading edge, she slosh and trailing edge is all one piece, which I think is one reason why it's so stiff and so tight. So the only place that comes apart is like great, right at the the joint between the mass and the fuselage. And then this is all one. This is all one piece construction, all one piece construction. There's two parts. There's the mask and the rest of it. And that you can adjust the pitch and the stabilizer. He has a system pretty clever. You put a spacer. I used a little nylon while. And you put that spacer in there. And then as you screw the three bolts down tight to the mast, it flexes the fuselage just ever. So a little bit, and that changes the pitch in the back, Wayne. A bigger spacer flexes more and gives it less pitch where it melts stabilizers more pitch. Interesting. No. So to get us set up like that, like how did you have to like special order and how long does it take and about how much does it cost? If somebody wanted to order one on it? When I originally placed my order on, it was a 12 week wait and they took my order with no deposit. And they said when it was ready, they would send for the check. And I told them that I was planning on racing in the store. And if I could get it, a week beforehand on that'd be great and we'll, they expedited it, they got it out to me early enough that I could train on it. And but I believe it's a 12 week waiting list, but I also know that they can, you can wait longer on, it was about $3,500 for the whole setup. That is the foil. I believe that included shipping. And at this point I'm putting it away until I do more testing with Ken and racing with Ken, trying to keep up with Ken winter is pretty tough. He also has a mic slab 800. And that's really why I got this 600 was so that I could keep up with him trying to test the wins. And of course it's a great race swing, but when I'm pre-writing and teaching I'm using the Gulf war. So I you guys obviously don't want to scrape over the reflux that on low tide or whatever. So like you said, it's Tragile and you don't want to scratch it and ruin the performance. So it makes sense. But would you say that was one of the, your secret ingredients to winning the race part of it? Yes, for sure. The foil, but also the board. I actually had some great wings to the D labs. And so actually something I wanted to mention too, like for the boards cause, cause it's such a thin profile and I'm assuming that it takes a as a pretty high takeoff speed. Like you can't like some of the big thick foils you can pop up at pretty low speeds, but this one looks like it would take a little bit higher speeds to pop up on foil. Surprisingly it, it pops right up. Now some of it's, some of it's my experience, but it it was later. During the regatta. And there are a couple of times when I, during the weekend that I had to pump pretty hard, flapping the wing and pumping the board to get up. But the majority of the time, I it's basically sheet in and go combination of the foil. There's so little drag. It reaches take-off speed very quickly. And that's the total box. And what about the star speed? Does it like, do you do you ever have a problem, like stalling with it stalling the foil or not really? Not really. That last video that I posted on gliding on foil, pretty much everything I'm riding this foil. It has a very nice glide to it. Sure. Surprisingly and I was thinking. On the windiest days that I might be able to do a set foil run with this setup. That there's almost enough volume. There is enough volume to float me, to stand still whether or not I could paddle it fast enough with a paddle to get up on foil on. And I've been out outside the reef in the rollers, luffing the wing and gliding for quite a ways on a couple hundred yards and thinking I could do this with a paddle, but once it does slow down, it's pretty tough to get the speed back up again, pumping it with your legs, but I'm pretty certain that 800 would work on a coaster. So yeah, the dominant paddling is something else I wanted to ask you about too, but let's finish the equipment thing here. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about the wings, the important importance of the wings. We talked a little bit about the board the foot straps, the foil. Obviously the wing is other thing that's really important having the right size wing and then the, and the right profile and shape and all that kind of stuff for upwind downwind. And talk a little bit about that. Like what you found that is works best for you. With the D labs are pretty tough to beat on, you probably know, or maybe for the people that don't know Ken winner lives across the street, the designer for duotone, he's one of the designers here. There's a team in Europe that, that works with them as well, but he's the main guy. And I'll go out and race with him. And every now and then I'll throw out my ideas about, what to do. And he quickly shoots them down. So he's really, he does everything on, I'm just a benchmark out there racing with him, but he wants to raise up wind and then turn around and race down land. And then we swap wings and do it again. And there's another guy that runs with us regularly. Peter slate. He is he's national slalom champion in wind surfing. So he's got some experience in racing and he's the three of us go out there and beat up on each other. But Ken really puts a lot of emphasis on the speed of the wing up wind. And really when you think about it, if you have a wing that goes fast and is stable, both upwind and downwind, it's going to work on, in every aspect. Being able to get the speed to jump, being able to get on foil quickly on. So he's got all these different parameters and it's amazing to me we'll go out and do a number of runs and he'll decide right away. Oh, this one needs more, it needs more of this or that. So what determines the up wind speed of a wing, I guess the drag, the depth, the approach as a cider profile, or or more attention, or what are the things that make it work better on up, going up when the stiffness of the frame on the canopy tension, the draft position on the amount of twists or leech tension, all those things on, that's really his wheelhouse. I don't really try to design or pretend to be a. I think the draft position is really important because if it travels backwards, then it ruins the upwind performance rate. If the draft flexes too much or moves back too much, then that'll ruin the forward propulsion, right? Yes. Yes. And when we get, he'll get a new wing and it looks really good and we'll go out and test it. And sometimes it's amazing. And then there's a clear, cut difference that it's better or worse. Other times they're very similar, but he seems to know exactly what changes to make. And the, again yeah, I've been trying to get Ken to come on this show for for over a year. And he's always too busy designing new wings and kites. But he said maybe check back with him and at the end of July. So I'm going to keep trying, I'm going to keep trying to get him on the show. He's a little bit, he doesn't want to be in the limelight either, so it's very interesting. Definitely trying to get him on the show and then, they just for those who haven't watched, the first interview that we did I just want to do a little recap that you basically grew up in Kailua. Like I think ki peak Cabrina was one of your neighbors. You learned to win wind surf at a young age and then moved to Mali, started your lesson business. Now, and our teaching, the whinging but w the way he got into wing foiling was basically you were doing downwind, foil, standup, foil, downwinders with mark, Robert Horace and Ken winner. And then Ken was kinda having a hard time getting up on the foil. So he basically designed this wing to try and you were kinda making fun of him for about it, but then you saw at some point he saw it and you said, it looked like poetry in motion, and you have to try it as well. Yeah. Yes, that, that image of him coming down, the swells is burned into my brain. That was the turning point. It's okay, I got to try this. And because up until that point, we were set foiling down the coast and we were waiting for Ken to catch up. And in this case, we were sitting there waiting for him to catch up and he came down the swell. It was just a beautiful thing. So that was when I made the decision to try it. And at that point I think flash Boston had made his own way out of spars. And he went out and did a run on the sup board out and back, got some video and then the wing fell apart. And so the story goes and he never put it back together. It was a novelty thing, but, and Ken saw that and he said, okay, I'm going to make a wing and try it. So slash Austin was the pioneer, but then can actually develop the first inflatable wing kind of thing. The homework. Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn't so much that I was making fun of him. It was more of my scratching, my head, what is he doing? But yeah, he's, I think he can be now there's one other guy, Tony Legos that I believe did an inflatable wing. And I think there might be some video of him out there on foil, but he was ahead of his time. It didn't catch on. Okay. Okay. So basically what I wanted to ask you is I, lately I've been listening because that's how I got into wing filing twos. Like we were doing downwind standup foiling, and like you're on a wall with the wind is not that good usually. So we were struggling with that, trying to like mediocre conditions is so hard to get up on flow and stay up on foil. So when the wings came out, that was just like, oh, this is so much easier, and more fun because you're always flailing. You don't have to struggle to get back up. And once you come off the foil, but Lately I've been listening to the James Casey podcast. He has like a really good podcast. Now about downwind. Foiling is really enthusiastic about it, trying to get people into downwind foiling. And I talked to mark Rapa horse in the interview and he said, that's still his biggest passion, even though he doesn't get to do it as much anymore. But I wanted to ask you, do you still do downwind, standup foiling, or did you give up on that since you started winging? I gave up on it since I started winging and not, I did a run with mark wrap horse and we did it late in the evening. It was really rough and he got ahead of me and I tried really hard to stay with him. And the next morning I, my back hurt so bad. I couldn't walk. So I laid off from it. But now there's some new boards that are coming out. Dave Kalama he's calls it the Barracuda. That's quite a bit narrower and longer. And it looks like it's relatively easy to get up on foil. And since I laid off the down winning the foils have improved quite a bit and I think they're easier and faster. So I'm thinking, yes. I want to try it again on, but at the moment I'm still wrapped up in winging. So yeah. Now I'm exactly the same way I got, I stopped doing it once I got into winging, but now I'm going to getting curious and hearing about the new equipment that makes it a little bit easier, like to compare it to what we're using. Early on, I think might be worth another try on a good day though. I wouldn't want to go out in mediocre conditions if it's the waves or the wind smells nice and clean and easy to get up on them. I definitely going to try it again, but kinda got out of it too, but yeah. Okay. Just a few more things. It's been our gosh, it's almost two hours already, but we didn't want to ask you, like in one of your videos, you mentioned rotator cuff pain that you had, like in your shoulders, and that's why you liked to practice the movements before you do it on the water to avoid hurting yourself and so on, which I think makes a lot of sense. And I can relate to that, to add some rotator cuff issues, mostly from Santa paddling doing like the molcajete race and training a lot and stuff like that kind of insane, like my shoulder. So I had to do, I was actually had really bad pain for two years and I had to do physical therapy and stuff like that. And I found some good exercise that worked really well. So whenever I have a flare up, I do more of those exercises and that really helps. But but yeah, I just kinda wanted to hear your side of it. Like what kind of pain you have and how you deal with it and what you do. Fortunately my shoulders have healed up and I don't have the shoulder pain that I was having. I, I was just using Advil and ice on and that would tend to bother me at night in my sleep. And so I seen it in Advil and then once I was stronger, I did some, simple exercises with dumbbells, these and that seemed to, to help lightweight dumbbells on. So fortunately I have not had any trouble lately, but winging is something that, that it might restrict people that have shoulder problems, that it might be a problem to do that. But the new wings are so much lighter and stiffer. They don't muscle you around like the older ones. So maybe that's an impressive. Yeah, but yeah, I think it's definitely a good idea to practice the movements on the beach first, just to make sure that you don't get yanked around by the wind when you know, like no unexpected motion or throwing you back, like pulling them shoulder backwards or whatever, lift up, pulling. Those are the things that bothered my shoulder. And I found there's a little exercise I do on the beach where I bring the wing up overhead and then back down, up overhead. And even behind me and back down. And I found that has really improved my tax. Just doing that little warm up on the beach. When I go out in the water, I feel more confident doing the tax. Yeah. And I think too I was watching on your patron child that when about tacking 2 0 1, I think you called it, but just like when you bring your wing over your head, just to give the clue little push. It kind of ticks over and lands in the right place to accelerate out of the attack. That's a super important thing to, to learn how to do before, before you try to do those tasks, especially on your heel side, right? Yeah. But I'm also, just regarding aging well and staying healthy and so on. Do you have any good tips? I'm almost 55 now, so I'm not that far behind you. And I find, as I get older it's easy, obviously get injured, easier nutritionist super important so do you have any kind of tips or things you do that, that help you avoid inflammation or like nutrition, anything like that? I try to stay hydrate. I do every now and then maybe once or twice a month, I'll take Advil or Motrin, if I've had a long day on, but I think just staying active, I started water sports when I was 12 years old and I told my wife that I'd been practicing for this sport since I was 12. And really I've my whole life. I've been fortunate enough to spend in and around the water surfing, wind, surfing, sailing, kite, surfing, paddling, I did them all Chi to Oahu a number of times with a teammate then set foiling and now wing foiling. Now it just and I probably put in four days a week wing foiling Fortunate here on Maui that we have wind virtually every day. And you can go just about any time you want, but just getting out on the water and staying active. And I'm a little older, so I am cautious to avoid things that I might get injured like jumping. And I try not to overdo it on my sessions, and an hour or two, I use a harness so I can stay out longer on. And with the harness, I'm not putting the load on my shoulders going to Winward on, but yeah, just trying to stay active, I'm winging. Foiling has kept me young. It's gotten me back in the water. I was kinda over, I was over wind surfing. I was over kite surfing on the prone paddling or the sub paddling was hurting my lower back. That, that motion. I was just grinding my spine and I but wing foiling, it's an other than the initial stages of climbing on the board, fallen off, climbing on the board. Once you get past that point, there's very little pressure in your hands. And because the foil is above the chop or the board is above the chop, it's like powder snow. So there's not a whole lot of pressure. And there's people out there that say, oh, you don't need a harness. There's no pressure. And that's true, unless you're racing Ken winter up, when, you need that power to, to drive up wind. But it's just really forgiving easy on the body. And I hope that I know I have a number of patrons and students that are over 70 that are foiling and being 60. They're an inspiration to me that I think I can keep doing this for another 10 years. Barring any injuries. I think it's, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a fountain of youth and it's great to see so many different age groups doing it too. And like you said, the initial learning curve is a little bit can be a little bit dangerous, especially for older people, you have to be really careful not to injure yourself in the beginning, I think. But once you get it down, it's really yeah, like you said, very low impact and not really that hard on your body. So it's something I think I can keep doing for quite a while. I'm hoping. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Excellent. Anything else that you wanted to talk about? Let me see here. So many, actually we never can you show us your new camera amount? I did. I did want to get back around to that. So you have this camera Mount that months on your plate. Underneath the plate Mont of the foil. And then it sticks out behind the back of the board. So this, I made this plate, actually. I had a local machine shop welded up in town on and displayed sandwiches between the foil and the board on the track mounts with the Tuttle box, I had to cut this groove to get it to fit the Tuttle. And so it hangs off the back of the board. And then at the other end, I have a GoPro Mount on it with a little floaty, just in case it comes off. I also have the gro GoPro floaty on there. So if I lose the camera and I've lost a few that's one Mount. So that's how you get that follow cam look like. It looks like there's a camera falling, like a drone coming in right behind you kind of thing. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's this action right here. This clip here on and I can aim the camera up to get the hand work. I can Mount it taller on. So it is, and you said you tried the go at the GoPro max. Like the GoPro max 360. That's the one I've been using a lot. It's like the as I get 360 lens, but then it takes a lot of work to edit it afterwards. And you said you don't really like using this one that much. So you use just a regular GoPro eight or nine? Yeah. This was the max and I found that it is difficult to use the 360. And I've found that generally trying to capture things that the regular hero amount or just using one side seems to work. The level horizon is really cool. It keeps the horizon level as the board banks right on. I also have a solo shot camera and this is. You wear this satellite tracker on your body and then the camera will track you Zuni and zoom out. And when this works, it's exceptional, I can shoot 120 frames a second. So it gets slow motion, but so often it thinks I'm over there and it's looking the wrong way. It misses the shot. Yeah. And I had a love, hate relationship with that thing. Cause yeah, like half the time it would work great. In the other half of the time, it was like nothing. All it, the whole session I would get was just like walk water without me in it. Like where I'm just out of the frame or something like that. I got lots of that. I've got lots of that footage, but when it does work, it's exceptional that I have irregular Sony 4k. I just got this recently, but I need someone to film and my wife has been doing that. I also have the drone. It's a Maverick too. Yeah, this is really good, but because so many of the sailing spots are near the airport. I can't fly this. Oh yeah. And then yeah, that's kinda my camera gear. But you said mostly you use a, this irregular GoPro like a GoPro hero and eight or nine with the horizon leveling and yes, I also have the nine with the hydrophobic lens, which is really good. So many of my shots are ruined because the hydrophobic lens or the non hydrophobic lens, particularly that the max, when water gets on it, it ruins the shot. So interesting. So that's a good one on the camera gear. So how often do you come out with the new video? Do you try to do it on a regular schedule or is there like a like a certain I try to put one out once a month and I'm gonna pull my patrons to see what they'd like to see next. I have a few ideas, but I try and get ideas from them. And then when I'm out teaching, when I see a particular pattern where a number of people are having trouble with a certain issue, then I'll try and capture that and try and solve that problem. Okay. Okay. So as the fastest person on Maui, what are some tips for going fast on a wing for aboard board? I'm not the fastest, I'm just joking, but as the winner of the race anyway first one on last one off first one on the wall. Last one off the water. You got to put your time in, you're not going to get good thinking about it, sitting on the beach. So that's the biggest tip is just spending a lot of time practicing it for sure. Time out there, you can buy speed, you can buy speed. You can buy the foil, you can buy the board, you can buy the wing, all of that, but you also have to know how to use it. So it just takes some time. Yeah. And that part is the, I think the more important part than the equipment, I the equipment is super important, especially at the very high level. I think where a little bit can make a difference. But I think for the average person, that's just about yeah. The technique and practicing it and to get faster, yeah. I think that's where you make them. That makes a big

As a young girl, Jean would look at the moon at night and dream of working for NASA. That dream came true when she became one of 18 seamstresses that built (sewed), created, and repaired thermal protection, flight hardware, and parachutes. This dedicated team of women dubbed themselves the Sew Sisters.Jean felt that getting her initial interview with NASA was a miracle. “The second time Kennedy Space Center came on the caller ID, I thought somebody was playing a cruel joke.”  It was no joke. Jean got accepted into the team.  She remembers telling her daughter, “Oh gosh, this is a call Mom's been waiting for her whole life.”  She shares the fascinating story of how her dream came true—from her initial meetings with the panel to her training to receiving her official stamp number that showed she was officially certified.  This number appears on every part she's ever built.  (5:54-11:19)Everything from the giant industrial sewing machines to the precision of the work to the materials used, pose a unique challenge to sewists. There's Teflon-coated fiberglass used for the spacesuits. Silver Polyamide film that's layered with Dacron mesh to create blankets. Threads made from quartz stones are liquified, then spun and twisted into thread.  Whatever the material, each one has special properties designed to perform a specific function while protecting the equipment and the astronauts. Jean goes into fascinating detail about how these unique fabrics, threads, and materials are created and combined to provide the ultimate protection against even the most extreme conditions. (11:20-27:00)Because of her work at NASA and her interest in the Wright Brothers, Jean received a call from Neil Armstrong's son, Mark, about a special project. The project involved precisely cutting and preparing nearly 200 pieces from historical fabric for auction. This fabric had flown in the Wright Flyer in 1903 and had also accompanied Neil Armstrong to the moon. Pieces that were three-quarters by three-quarters of an inch sold for $95,000 each, the ones that were an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter went for $175,000 each. Whenever Jean gives a talk, she stresses the need for creative people at NASA because, as she says, “those are the dreamers of the world.” It was through channeling her own creativity that she came up with Sew Sisters Space Creations, which is an homage to her fellow Sew Sisters at NASA. She creates shirts, lanyards, and ties; everything she makes has a piece of flown payload bay fabric from Columbia, Discovery, or the Endeavor space shuttle.  ( 34:06-40:00)Although retired, Jean is still involved in many NASA-related activities. As you listen to her story, you can't help but be inspired by how a little girl from Michigan had the chance to live her dream. If you'd like to connect with Jean, you can reach out to her at her Sew Sisters Space Creations on Facebook or by emailing her at candylady187@msn.comIf you know someone who has an outstanding story that should be shared on this podcast, drop Meg a note to info@sewandsopodcast.com or complete the form on our website.

Welcome to damp cloth utopia! Plastic is coming to save us all and you can even go canoeing without wetting your suit! But what the heck is Dacron? Why is it a miracle fabric? And how is it shaping the fashion disasters of the late 20th century? The expert of all things American, Dr Cara Rodway, is back for a record third time to help us figure it all out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron, Dien Bien Phu falls, Rock Around The Clock! We're back with our history lesson courtesy of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire", this time with the year 1954. Also, Rachel gives a quick recap of her recent visit to the American HorrorPlex. Plus the news, your feedback, and some housekeeping. Our blog: http://thefiveishfangirls.com Twitter: @fiveishfangirls Email: fiveishfangirls@gmail.com Become a supporter on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/FiveishFangirlsPodcast Support us by shopping Amazon through our link We have merch! https://www.redbubble.com/people/fiveishfangirls

This episode I cover Arturo Toscanini and also Dacron

Chris Frame joins us to talk Maritime History and Cruise News. Adam joins us to talk about his milestone birthday cruise onboard Windstar's flagship Wind Surf from Lisbon to Barcelona.Wind SurfWatersports PlatformAft PoolStateroomSuiteVerandah BuffetStella BistroYacht ClubAmphora RestaurantWind SurfMaritime HistoryCrystal Cruises celebrated their 30th Birthday on 24 July 2020.Cruise News:Saga Cruises – Spirit of Adventure was floated out ahead of sea trialsRoyal Caribbean Group re-invents cruise safety drill, introducing Muster 2.0 across Azamara, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International.Ponant continues their restart with voyages into the Arctic on Le BorealNCL Holdings extends its pause until 31 Oct 2020 on all NCL, Oceania and Regent ships and its “Peace of Mind” cancelation policy.Fred Olsen launched its first 2023 itinerary on Balmoral with a 34nt cruise to North Americas Waterways and Canadian Fall sailing, departing Southampton Sep 2023Scenic suspends operations in Egypt, Jordan and Israel plus all Eclipse voyages 1 Nov – 31 Dec 2020Holland America Lin's new build under construction has changed the ships name from Ryandam to Rotterdam and is expected to be delivered in July 2021.Venice reduces the capacity of its famous gondolas but its not COVID relatedCarnival Fantasy finally rests on a Turkish beach awaiting recycling.Cruise ReviewAdam reviews her cruise onboard msy Wind Surf along the Iberian peninsula.  Itinerary: Lisbon – Cadiz – Almeria – Malaga – Palma de Mallorca – BarcelonaWindstar Cruises: https://bit.ly/3jYNK0UWind Surf: https://bit.ly/3fi3GrIWind Surf Cruise Departures: https://bit.ly/39Jq0JoTONNAGE: 14,745 gross registered tons (grt)BEAM: 66 feet (20 meters)SAILS: 7 triangular, self-furling, computer-operated sails with 26,881 square feet (or 2,600 square meters) of Dacron surface areaMASTS: 5 at 221 feet (67.5 meters)ENGINES: 4 diesel electric generating sets, 2 electrical propulsion motorSPEED: 10 to 12 knots with engines only; up to 15 knots wind and engine assistedJoin the show:If you have a cruise tip, burning question or want to record a cruise review get in touch with us via the website https://thebigcruisepodcast.com/join-the-show/Show Sponsors: Cruisefinder.com.au: https://bit.ly/3dBeGRcSandals and Sunsets https://bit.ly/2yPN7Up  SAVE $10 on your next pair of Avacas – use code BIGPODGuests: Chris Frame: https://bit.ly/3a4aBCg   Chris's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisCunardPeter Kollar: https://www.cruising.org.au/HomeListen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2XvD7tFCastbox: https://bit.ly/2xkGBEIGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/2RuY04uSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3caCwl8Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2JWE8TzPocket casts: https://bit.ly/2JY4J2MTune in: https://bit.ly/2V0JrrsPodcast Addict: https://bit.ly/2BF6LnEThe Big Cruise Podcast is brought to you with the help of our friends at CruiseFinder.com.au, with over 30,000 cruises available, most with live availability and pricing. But most importantly every call, chat or email is answered here in Australia by CLIA Cruise accredited specialists. When considering your next cruise visit: www.cruisefinder.com.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They say that a goldfish grows to the size of its tank. But what if that small fish is ready to launch into a bigger pond? That is the situation Sea Bags has found itself in recently. With a rabid following and millions in revenue, the Portland, Maine-based retail store has outgrown its initial eCommerce setup and is ready to grow into a major totes and accessories brand thanks to growth fueled by personalization, storytelling and an incredible social media presence. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Laura Hnatow, the Vice President, Marketing & Ecommerce at Sea Bags, explains how she is helping to expand the eCommerce platform using a cross-platform social media strategy, and she digs into the re-platforming experience she is leading to help Sea Bags utilize tools like A.I. and M.L. to grow their business both online and as they expand to brick and mortar locations. Key Takeaways: Content, social media and UGC utilization are critical in building and maintaining an active and engaged customer base Re-platforming offers an opportunity to utilize new tools such as A.I. and machine learning to introduce new forms of personalization in product offerings as well as marketing strategies The power of storytelling is the most important tool in your toolkit to differentiate yourself from the competition For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible eCommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Welcome to the show. Laura: Hi, thanks for having me. Stephanie: I'm really excited about you joining me today. I just was browsing through your website, Sea Bags, and I wanted to buy like about five things. Laura: Oh, that's flattering. Stephanie: Yeah. It's awesome. An awesome product. I'd love to hear a little bit about what Sea Bags, in your own words, and why you joined it. Laura: Yeah. Sea Bags is a company based in Portland, Maine, that manufacturers bags, totes and accessories from recycled sails from sailboats. We gather those sails one at time from the boating community all around the country, and bring them back to Portland, where we cut them down one-by-one. Each sail is a little bit different, therefore each bag is a little bit different from the next. People come to visit us in Portland, where they can actually see the bags being made on the waterfront, at our building that actually overhangs the water, with the hum of lobster boats outside, along with the sewing machines and the seagulls. It's really a great experience in quintessential Maine. Laura: The reason why I joined Sea Bags... It was almost seven years ago at this point. The opportunity was presented to be by the current CEO. It was the story effectively. The whole story about the brand. It was so compelling. I've worked for a number of brand manufacturers before, L.L. Bean and Cuddledown. They all had great manufacturing stories to tell, but this story was so much more authentic and rich. It was that authenticity that made the story so easy to tell. They also had built the brand up on these three core tenets, that drive the business every day. It was this very defined mission behind the company, of being made in the U.S.A., sustainable in product and practice, and also committed to giving back to the community generously. Those three things guide all of our decision-making in everything that we do. With such a clear mission and mandate, in terms of how we were going to grow the business forward, to me it seemed like a no-brainer to join that team. Stephanie: Yeah. That's very cool. What is the story behind Sea Bags? I think it started with the Founder's dad. Right? Laura: Yeah. Many years ago, the original founder, Hannah, her dad, he was in the sail bag-making industry, for the actual bags that hold sails in between seasons. He made a recommendation to his daughter, "You should try to figure out what to do with these old sails. They're just going to landfills." She crafted the first ones. It's our current COO, Beth, who actually grew the business from there. She partnered with her and then grew the business to where we're at now, with the help of our current leadership and CEO. Yeah. It started as a hobby business, and now has really ground to be a lifestyle brand. Stephanie: That's amazing.The one thing I really liked, which I didn't know before, was I didn't realize that sailboat sails actually can't break down. So when you guys say you're focused on sustainability, you really mean it. Nothing would happen with those sails, if you didn't transform them and give them a second life. Is that correct? Laura: You're absolute right. Yeah. Predominantly sailboat sails are made out a material called Dacron. Dacron has an element of plastic fiber in it. It's that resilience that lets the sail hold up to the strength of the wind and actually propel a sailboat forward. But it is that strength in the fiber and how it's made that makes our bags so durable as well. Because of that inability to break down in the landfill, we knew that that material, itself, would be perfect for a bag. They wear like steel. People have gone into our store to show off, "Here's my bag. I brought it 15 years ago." They wash it regularly in the washing machine. They look great. Yeah. They do wear really well. Stephanie: That's so cool. How do you convey that uniqueness to your customers, especially through an online experience? I saw some really great videos that you all had on your website, which I thought were amazing. Is that part of the way that you convey that? Laura: Yeah, absolutely. Storytelling is one of the things that we do best. Like I said, that's why I joined the brand, is this rich story. We do a lot of content creation on our team. It's easy to do content creation when you have a lot to work with. Building really great video content... We have a new line of products all the time. We have new partners that we're collaborating with regularly. So being able to stitch together different videos, content pages on the website. We integrate a lot of user-generated content into the website and our marketing. Laura: So things like customer testimonials, but also customer images. We have a very rich user-generated content campaign, called our Sea Bag Citing campaign. It's a hashtag. And customers in that campaign will tag us and show us all the places they take their Sea Bag. It's really a great opportunity for us, because when we see a great picture, instead of us having to go out and stage a photo shoot, we've got a really authentic image of somebody vacationing using their bag in the environment that it was intended for. Stephanie: Yeah. I was very impressed when I saw your social media following and how engaged people were and the really great photos they were tagging you all in. I definitely see the world of online sales seems to be moving to social media and building a community. How do you think about building that up, and creating relevant content, and keeping those followers engaged? Laura: Yeah. I'd say it's one of the things we're really good at, but it's also probably one of the things that's the most challenging in what we do. Because people spend a lot of time on social media, but everybody's competing for their attention. I have a social media team with multiple partners on it. I've tasked them with making sure, across all the platforms, that, number one, we're showing different content, to keep different types of people engaged. And the other thing is that we're hitting the breadth of content that I'd like us to do. Laura: They have a filter that they put all of our content through, to make sure that we're showing the right variety of, and frequency of, things like behind the scenes images, testimonials, new product launches, PR news that we're doing. We're trying to make sure that we hit the breadth. And also, we're tailoring it to the specific types of platforms. Obviously Facebook and LinkedIn are not a synonymous platform so we make sure that some of the content goes on one location and we speak to those audiences a little bit differently. Laura: I think customers want to be invited to participate and we do a lot of that with either surprise and delight opportunities, where we ask people to come and bid on something for a chance a win to a wristlet. A wristlet is a small item. It's not like a vacation getaway. But that alone... people love the gesture. They love to participate. It's really interesting. When somebody does win a prize, it's funny how authentically and genuinely thrilled for the winner the other customers are. It does become very communal. They're like, "Oh, my God. I'm so happy for you. Great job. You're going to love it." Laura: Then we also find that customers... Getting back to this idea of engagement. This is delightful for us. Customers sometimes answer on our behalf. We'll get comments that say, "Do you have this bag in this color? Are you ever going to offer this again?" Before we can even comment, we'll have other customers saying, "Yes, they have it. You can go to this page." It's almost like we've got these brand ambassadors stalking us right within our social media. That is so flattering. It really does speak to a highly-engaged social media following. Stephanie: Yeah. That's amazing. Having people who are working for you and your brand without even asking. Laura: Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie: It's a key strategy, if you can figure it out. Laura: It is. It's great. Stephanie: Are there any new emerging digital channels that you are excited about or focused on right now? Laura: I think in terms of new channels, I don't think there is one. Social media really is where we're spending a lot of our time as a channel, in terms of trying to grow audience and engagement. We are playing around with some things like influencer marketing, which is important. I think some people might not call it new and emerging either. We're doing quite a bit in just dabbling in lots of different spaces. There is a lot of overlap. I think video is probably where we found the most success, in terms of developing content and distributing. Video specifically for Facebook has been fantastic for us. We're repurposing a lot of that video content again. We like to recycle. We put it in a lot of places. We're trying to incorporate it into the site. We use it for things like Instagram Stories. It's been really fruitful, so that's been really fun. Stephanie: Very cool. Any key strategy that you have when it comes to guiding a customer through that buying journey while utilizing social? Laura: It's interesting. We have a really defined and fine-tuned digital marketing strategy. We work with a great partner that helps us distribute all of our paid advertising. That would include paid social. One of the things about paid social that I think is challenging for people... I do chat with folks who say, "Facebook doesn't really work for us." I am always surprised to hear that. I think part of it is, it's the type of content that you're putting out in terms of advertising on Facebook advertising. Making sure you have the right mix of video, and static ads and then dynamic remarketing ads are really important. Laura: I think the other thing, too, is how you measure it. Of course, there's different attribution models. Last click attribution and first click attribution. Of course, Facebook measures the performance differently than some other folks might measure it. We base it on Facebook's measurement. When you base it that way, you'll see that the programs themselves actually perform much better than if you base it on the other attrition models out there using Google Analytics. Stephanie: That's interesting. I definitely see Facebook stepping their game up with the launch of I think it's Facebook Shops just yesterday or the day before. Laura: Yeah. It's so interesting. The landscape is changing quite a bit. I was actually talking about this recently with the CEO, because we see organic shifting quite a bit. We're doing a lot, in terms of SEO on the website and building organic content. We have a blog that we try to regularly publish. It's made a big impact on our SEO, but then all of a sudden when you have the search results pages changing to favor, again, more ad space? You do immediately see a falloff in your organic search results. Paid search all of a sudden is also doing much better, but you're also spending a lot more money perhaps than you had intended to. Stephanie: Are you guys doing any quick pivots to try and bring back the organic searches? How do you think about that when things change so quickly? Laura: Yeah. I don't think there is a quick pivot with organic. Organic is a long game, as always. The pivot that we're doing right now, and I wouldn't even call it that. We are looking at our digital strategy on a daily basis and really refining things. So if we see something taking off, we are chasing it. A great example is shopping at one point was doing very poorly. We didn't know why and watched it for about a week or two. It was right when things were headed down to a flat line period at the end of March. Everybody was in kind of a lull. Then all of sudden things turned around and a lot of e-commerce folks were seeing a spike. As soon as we saw that spike, we chased it. I think that's the thing. You really have to be on top of it and know when to chase it and keep increasing your budget. Laura: We've increased our budgets in area like shopping more than we've typically been comfortable. I would say the same goes for Facebook Prospecting. We found that Facebook Prospecting is performing incredibly well for us. We do a lot of prospecting with video ads for Facebook as well, and those are very productive too. Stephanie: Very cool. Did you have to adjust any messaging when it came to acting fast on that? With everything going on with the pandemic, did you kind of change how you target people and market to them? How do you think about that? Laura: We changed the messaging. Yeah. We definitely wanted to make sure we weren't being tone deaf to what was going on. We definitely pulled down any ads that had anything to do with travel-related products. We have a great travel collection. We pulled down all of those because nobody was going to be traveling. I think the thing that we did more so than the actual ad strategy was our product strategy changed a little bit. We wanted to look at our product from the viewpoint of how we could add more value to it, to help solve problems for people who were now stuck at home and still had life to conduct. Laura: The example I'll give is Easter came around and people were kind of caUght off guard by the idea that, "Oh, our Easter family celebration is not going to happen. The Easter egg hunt is not going to happen. I have a grandchild. How are we going to commemorate this holiday that is very important to a good portion of the population?" We quickly partnered with a local chocolate company that had just laid off most of its workforce. They were able to bring back five of their employees to help produce chocolate to put in our Easter buckets. Stephanie: That's great. Laura: Within a very short period of time... We thought, "We might sell 50 of these over the next three or four days." We sold over 700. It was one of those things that every day, we said, "How many more do we need?" It was really a matter of how much chocolate could the chocolate maker make in that short period of time? It was a real success story, in being able to reach out, help a fellow business in the community, but also solve some problems for customers. The comments we got from customers were unbelievable. Just saying how appreciative they were because they weren't going to be able to see their family and bring them something. This is how they were able to do that. Laura: So that was really rewarding. That afforded us a lot of opportunity in our digital advertising to reach new customers, to convert customers who were prospects and who were already looking into the brand. It was more about just being relevant with a message that solved a problem for customers. So then we took that same product strategy and same digital strategy and expanded it onto Mother's Day, and Father's Day, and Graduation. Even though a lot of the stay-at-home orders have been loosened a bit? I think a lot of people are still looking for some convenience to eliminate any unnecessary visits to stores that they don't want to make. Stephanie: Yeah. I completely agree. That's such a good strategy, to find partnerships like that. I could see that lasting into the future, where a lot of brands start thinking about who they can partner with. That seems like it would help future-proof both brands, if they figure out ways to work together and send business to each other. I think we'll see more of that over the coming years. Laura: Yeah. I hope so. I know for our brand, we're not going to stop doing it. It was a pilot that was a success. Now we've realized there is an opportunity here and the customers see the value in it. We've always been very collaborative as a brand. We typically do reach out and collaborate with a handful of companies that are like-minded in their business practices and approach. What we often bring to the table is that we're a sustainable product and they might not have that same messaging in their product that they can offer. Or the fact that we're a Made in the U.S.A. product, which again is really valuable to a lot of brands to partner with us. So we have similar mindsets and very much focused the Coastal lifestyles perhaps. Laura: A more recent relevant example, we're partnering right now with Life Is Good. If you're not familiar with that brand, they are an apparel and accessory company that basically delivers the message of optimism in all of their designs. Really quirky designs that we are now able to add to a Sea Bag, and then with these really important optimistic messages during this time that we're all going through. It resonates really broadly with customers. That's another example of ways that we reach out and collaborate. It's given Life Is Good an opportunity to have a Bag story that they sell to their audience, and it gives us a different story in terms of different designs and messaging for our audience as well. Stephanie: That's great. When it comes to messaging, does the consumer know the background of the flag, where it came from and the journeys that sailboat went on? Do they have any insights into that, so they can find of feel connected to their bag even more? Laura: Yeah. It's interesting. We would love to be able to pedigree every bag, but when you start talking about 700 tons of sails that we've saved from landfills, it's really, really challenging to figure out how we could actually catalog that many sails. On a one-to-one basis, no. But what we do is when we take a sail in, our customers are so great about wanting to share the stories. So we've had many cases where a Sail Trade, is what we call it. The customer will bring a sail into our store, for example. Just show up and unfold the sail right in the middle of the retail store and start talking about, "Oh, this is the sail that was on my grandfather's boat. As a kid, we sailed." They just go into this long elaborate story. What we try to do is get somebody from the marketing team downstairs to take notes, and talk to them about it and basically interview them a little bit about what the story behind the sail is. Because that stuff is so meaningful. Laura: We have a really great one on our website called The Santana Sail Trade Story. The gentlemen, Ben, tells the story about how this boat meant everything to him. He had this boat since he was 15. At this point, he was in his late 40s, maybe early 50s. He still has the boat but was retiring the sails. He talked about the different moments that that boat was present for his life and every smudge and stain on that sail means something. He hoped that everybody who buys a bag really understands how meaningful the heart of the sails are. Stephanie: That's great. Feeling like you're connected to a community like that, and another person, without even knowing them, I think it's super important. What people are going to want after all this. Now we're all getting in the state where we're connecting with people that we don't even know online. Laura: Right. Stephanie: We're getting used to that now. I think moving in that direction is really smart and also just fun. Knowing that you have something that has experienced things that you could never even think of. Laura: Yeah. Yeah. We like to say that carrying a Sea Bag is like carrying a story on your shoulder. Stephanie: Yeah. That's great. Have you ever had a sail come through where you're like, "This is from a pirate ship?" Laura: I don't know about that. There is a type of sail called tanbark. It's like a dyed tan-colored sail. The lure of tanbark, it's not often used in sail manufacturing today. It's definitely not as common. The lure is that the pirates, they used to use tanbark sails so that they wouldn't be seen on the horizon with the sunset. It was the way that they were able to sneak about in the ocean and not be spotted in the distance with a bright white sail. Stephanie: That's cool. So if you see one of those come through, you'll know. You'll know where it came from. Laura: Yeah, exactly. I do think we have some tanbark on the site right now. It is definitely a little bit more rare and we tend not to offer it all the time. But I think we have a handful of tanbark designs right now. They're just so cool because they are really uncommon and we don't always offer it. Stephanie: I'd also be giving the side eye to whoever brought that in, like, "What did you do to get this sail?" Laura: Exactly! I could be looking for their medallion. "Are you actually a pirate?" Stephanie: Yeah. I know. "Tell me." Obviously retail is on hold right now, but I saw you guys were expanding. Expanding actually one place that is close to my heart, Rehoboth Beach, in Delaware. Laura: Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie: We used to go there every single summer. I'm from Maryland. Such a cute beach town. How are you thinking about utilizing brick and mortar stores? How are they lifting each other up and accelerating your e-commerce as well? Laura: That's a great question. By the end of this year, we'll have 33 stores, spanning 12 states. That's really exciting for us because when I joined the company, we had two stores. That's a lot of growth. We open four to six stores a year. We're opening eight this year, alone, which is really, really exciting. I think that one of the important things with meshing the retail business and the online business is just a general omnichannel approach. Right? Laura: Our CEO likes to say that the e-commerce site is our biggest retail store. It carries all the products for the brand and you can see them all there at any time. And you go to our stores, and the stores may have most of those products but some different selections that might be regionally appropriate. For example, you mentioned Rehoboth Beach. There might be some coastal nautical chart bags down in the Rehoboth Beach store relevant to that regional area. So there's some things like that. But we try to do... Stephanie: Crabs all over the bags and whatnot? Laura: Right. Yeah. To customize and be relevant to that local region. If you were to go to a store and they didn't have a product, the great thing is that you can log onto the iPad at the store. They can get the bag for you that you were looking for and ship for free. We're using an endless aisle concept that leverages the flexibility that we have as a just-in-time manufacturer. We make our bags on demand for customers. It's great to have that flexibility, where we don't have lead times to worry about. We're sourcing everything locally here in the United States. Most everything we source is within New England. That's really criticaL, in terms of being able to take an order and turn it around in a matter of days. Stephanie: Yeah. That's huge. With all this expansion that you guys are experiencing, how have you had to adjust your technology, your platforms you're using. What does that process look like with such a large amount of change that you guys have been experiencing? Laura: Yeah. It's great. I'm actually really excited about this. It's very timely. We decided right in the beginning of this year to move forward with replatforming our website. It's a huge endeavor. We realize that over the last six years, we've been on this very exciting ride of growth and expansion. Quite simply, we've outgrown the website platform that we're using. I do find it really rewarding to think that we have squeezed every ounce that we could get out of the current platform we're on. There's nothing that we have left unturned. Laura: Embarking onto this new platform, we're working with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. There are so many new opportunities for us to improve the customer experience and to refine our practices, in terms of how we approach selling to customers. Using new technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning, personalization, I think we're going to be as a team much more efficient and much more sophisticated in how we are able to speak to our customers and give them what they want. It's going to take us a lot less time to manage that. I'm really excited about being able to grow the business utilizing those types of tools specifically for the e-commerce website. But the great thing is that it really does trickle into the other channels as well that we sell in retail, for example, too. Stephanie: Yeah. That's very cool. Tell me a little bit more details around how you plan on using AI. When you think of using that with Commerce Cloud, what are your ideas around how that's going to improve the consumer experience? What does that look like? Laura: Yeah. We have some personalization currently on the site that we do. Not too much. It's mostly personalized recommendations. I'm really looking forward to using that, in terms of... One of the most exciting things for me is the merchandising of the site and making sure that the predictive sort of the categories. When a customer lands on a page with 150 different wristlets, that the ones that are most relevant to them are actually rising to the top. It's not based on a static presentation of what we think is the most important things to put at the top. Laura: I think that's really important. One of the things on our roadmap after the site is launched, is to actually take a look at the marketing opportunities in terms of email marketing and how we can pull some of the artificial intelligence into the journey map of the customer and how we message to the customer in their lifecycle. I think a lot of those components as well will be really exciting to start to create not just a series. I think in the past, people have created a welcome series, or a trigger series after they buy X product. Laura: I think instead what I want this to be is a more dynamic opportunity to generate emails to customers that are, again, pulling in predictive content. So the customers have performed certain activities, and then the machine learning decides, "Okay, great. Because they did these five things, the most relevant thing to put here is this item and a message about this." That's what I'm excited about. And then being able to look at that data. I think the data is so exciting too, and knowing what works and what's not working. And being able to do site tweaks and adjustments to it will be really helpful. Stephanie: Yeah. I completely agree. I was just going to ask, were there any metrics that you paid attention to in the past that you think it will be way easier to get to? Or that you weren't able to access easily because it was too hard to maybe compile all the data and see it easily. What are some of those metrics if so, that are now going to be accessible to you that'll really help? Laura: I'm not sure if this definitely going to make it easier. But what I'm really more excited about is seeing... The measurements are customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs. Starting to really understand the customer lifecycle better. So that once we see customers logging onto the website. Also, we just launched a Customer Loyalty program. Getting customers more engaged and in the habit of, "To get your reward points, logging in and making sure." We're keeping track of what customers are doing and delivering them relevant content, as opposed to just sending them too many emails. Laura: I think I was telling you, I'm in the process right now of cleaning out my email and unsubscribing from everything possible. I don't want people to have that experience with our brand. Saying, "You guys just email me too much." I want the contact that we're sending them to be interesting. The one thing I will tell you, and again this goes back to how we engaged our audience is. The open rates on our emails are really high. The click through rates are high. Our customers, like when we do these auctions periodically on the website. Laura: After the auction is complete, we usually take a look at who won the auction. We'll just see who the customer is. What's their lifecycle like? Almost every time when we do this, the customers email open rate is over 80%. They're highly-engaged people. Of course, they're participating in an auction. You would assume that. But it is so interesting to see somebody opening that emails from us. That to me, is a real testament to the strength of the brand and how engaged people are. Stephanie: That means you're definitely doing something right. For sure. How are you assembling the team for this digital transformation that you guys are about to undergo? How are you thinking about aligning your organization and your team members so everyone can help make this transition quick and easy? Laura: Yeah. That is critical. So what we did, it's probably not so different than what a lot of other folks might do. I assembled a core team. A Project Manager whose in charge of managing the project with our Systems Integrator. Then I have a Lead Developer in-house. His job is really to get into the technical details behind the development and transition. Because he has been primarily responsible for all of the development on our current website. I'm on the team, more from a strategic guidance standpoint and decision-making. Then our CEO has been really involved as well, which I really appreciate. Laura: This is the biggest project that our company has undertaken in the last six years, to do this type of major replatforming. It's a totally new platform. We've done some previous site launches and relaunches, but this one's pretty huge. I still have a number of other people on my marketing team who will participate and we'll start pulling them in one-by-one. We'll also embarking on a training curriculum, that we're developing in-house for our team. That's going to be going on while we're doing the developing, so that we're ready to go when the site's ready to launch. Laura: We're also looking at peripheral technology that is impacted by this transition. So an example I might give you is, our shipping platform and how we ship products. That was impacted. We needed to make a decision to shift to another provider. We assembled pilot team to get together and review the technology available and the vendor. We got all our decision-makers in one room and everybody agreed said, "Yes, let's do it." We've been making these decisions quickly. Kind of in that agile methodology of those sprints. Laura: Part of that is a function of how the Systems Integrator has outlined and structured the project. We have a very tight timeline, too. We're looking to have the website launched by October 1st. We started it in mid-March. We're definitely on an accelerated scheduled and we don't want to miss any milestones. Knock on wood, we are currently on target. So I'm excited about that. Stephanie: That's so fun. I can't wait to see the new site and try it out. Are there any digital commerce trends that you guys are preparing for, as you're launching this new platform and putting out a V2 of the brand? Are you preparing anything in the e-commerce space that you think is coming down the pike, that you're thinking, "We better get ready for this, or this trend?" Laura: No. I can't say that we're focused on anything like that right now. We're definitely mostly looking at the capabilities of the new platform. Like I said, the AI and machine learning component is so rich, that we see that as foundation to changing how we approach, how we do our marketing strategies and communicate with customers. So I think that's really the biggest opportunity for us. Stephanie: Very cool. One side question I had was, when you have your customers tagging all these photos and they're flowing into your website, are people able to buy from those photos right now? Laura: Yeah. On a limited basis right now. When we launch the new site, it'll much more prolific. You'll be able to buy from almost all of them. Stephanie: Yeah. That's great. Laura: I think that's really critical and it's important. Stephanie: Yeah. I know. When I was looking at all the different photos that you guys were getting tagged in, I'm like, "Oh, I want this Bag." There was this one alignment. It was like a tan orangeish bag but it had a duffle bag, and a bigger bag and there was like three of them together. I'm like, "If I could just click in and get this set, it would be so much easier than going into the website and trying to find out what this is called, or trying to figure out which one it was." Laura: Yeah. It's really interesting. The thing about user-generated content is that the customers put the product in context that we wouldn't necessarily be able to in our marketing because it wouldn't make sense. I'll give you an example. Just this week, we received a review from a customer, that was a picture of what they were calling a COVID Survival Pack that they were sending out their friends. It was a Sea Bag's beverage bucket bag. A beverage bucket is kind of a like a tall 14-inch high bucket that has handles, and the interior has six pockets for six beers. Then in the very middle is like a cavity that you can put ice and it has a grommet in the bottom, so that the ice can melt and escape out of the bottom of the bag. So it's a collapsible cooler. Laura: While they were filling the buckets with six Corona beers, and then put a roll of toilet paper in the center. They were mailing these out to their friends as COVID Survival Packs. It got such a laugh for us. It also is great, in terms of giving other customers ideas on ways to use our product in a way that is memorable and fun. Yeah. There's a lot of that. But like I said, that whole idea of content creation... While a lot of stuff can come from us and we can push it out, when it comes our audience, it's even more relevant. Stephanie: Yeah. That's such a fun idea. I want one of those Survival Packs right now. Person whoever made that, please send one my way. I want lime as well. Laura: Yeah. The lime would be great. Stephanie: Yeah. That's a necessity. That's a good point, too, for larger brands. We work with a lot of larger brands developing podcasts for them and whatnot. When you have your customers, where they can actually interact how they want. They don't have to go through the brand policy team and all these approvals and things like this, where maybe 80% of it would never get past the company's PR team. But when the customers are able to engage the way that they want to, it seems like it allows for more organic conversations to start and just things that maybe wouldn't normally get past the actual internal policies. It makes it more fun to have those customers who can do that stuff. Laura: Yeah. Absolutely. I agree. Stephanie: So to shift a little bit. Are you the founder of Women in Retail Leadership Circle? Laura: No, not the founder. Stephanie: Tell me about that. Laura: I'm very flattered. No. Women in Retail Leadership Circle is a national organization that basically connects senior women in leadership, C level and director level, in retail organizations. They were started about seven years ago. They're backed by NATCO Media. I was a founding advisory board member, on the team there. So I've been involved over the last almost seven years. They've grown significantly in size over that time. It's one of the most energized and engaged leadership groups I've ever participated in. They have an Annual Conference that I can say is nothing short of transformational. It has been rescheduled this year for October. I'm hoping that I'll be traveling, to be able to go to it. Laura: Even so, during COVID. The conference is usually in April. They were very quick to figure out how they could be of service to their audience. They set up peer groups that leaders could participate in on a biweekly basis with opportunities to share advice and experience with other senior female leadership. During more normal times, they do regular what they call On The Road Events, where you can connect in a major city, like Boston or New York, over an evening of cocktails or something like that with leaders like Rebecca Minkoff talking about her leadership struggles perhaps. It's a great way to collaborate with other companies. Laura: I've been able to uncover new tactics and strategies for growth. I also use it as a tool to refine my leadership style, because there's a lot of inspirational leadership that we share in those, like I said, events that they sponsor. They're doing a lot of stuff virtually right now. The thing I like the most about it, is it's noncompetitive. It's just great personal development at the senior leadership level, which I think there doesn't happen to be a lot of that typically. A lot of the personal development that happens in organizations usually is more at a junior level. Stephanie: That's really cool. Is there anyone in the industry that you look to for not only leadership, but maybe different tactics or strategies that they're trying out or doing? Do you keep an eye on anyone to incorporate at Sea Bags? Like incorporate what they're doing? Laura: Yeah. I look at a lot of brands, which is the reason why I need to pair down my emails so much. I do. I track a lot of folks. I also follow a lot of people on LinkedIn, because I feel like it's just a great opportunity to see what everyone's doing. As a brand, we try to spend time benchmarking and keeping our eye on brands, again, that are very, very correlated with our DNA. Coastal lifestyle brands, like Sperry Top-Sider, Life is Good, a very inspirational brand. We have a lot of partnerships like that. We also try to keep an eye towards some more local name brands too that we partner with, and just benchmarking what they're doing. Laura: And we also share a lot of information too. An example of that would be Stonewall Kitchen, which is a gourmet food brand. They also are on Sales Commerce Cloud. While we were going through this whole replatforming project, being able to reach out to people within our network and benchmark around what their experiences were on their websites platforms and technologies that they're using is really important. Stephanie: That's great. Having that little network that you can tap into and be like, "Hey, how did you guys do this?" Or, "Does this work better, or this strategy?" That's really fun. And all about, once again, tying it back to having that community that you can tap into to get answers from and learn from people who've already gone through that. Laura: Yeah, absolutely. Over the years, that's one thing that I learned very early in my career. Some of my leaders, actually one that I'm still working with today, who is on our Board at Sea Bags, taught me how important that skill of networking was and that networking is a two-way street. It's really important to make sure that you're not only asking things of people and keeping in touch with them, but you're also being a value to them as well, in terms of that networking relationship. Stephanie: Yeah. That's such a great point. Coming up next we have the Lightning Round, which I can tell you a little bit more about in a second. But do you have thoughts or ideas that you want to share before we move onto that? Laura: Geez, thoughts that I want to share. Stephanie: Anything that we missed? Laura: I'm sure there's something we missed. But I think we covered a lot, too. I'm excited to hear what the Lightning Round is all about. Stephanie: All right. Cool. So the Lightning Round, bought to you by our friends at Salesforce Commerce Cloud. It's where I ask a question and you have one minute or less to answer. Are you ready? Laura: I guess so. Stephanie: All right. What's up next on your reading list? Laura: Oh, on my reading list. I am about to start... I'm like one chapter in. A book by the founder of IDEO. I think his name is Dave Kelly, if remember correctly. It's a book all about innovation and idea generation and how to approach innovation a little bit differently. I'm really excited about that. I'm definitely one of those people that reads multiple books at once, too. Stephanie: Yeah. Me, too. I think they did have a space here in Palo Alto, right down the street from us. Laura: Yeah. I think you're right. I think you're right. The name of the book is The Art of Innovation. Stephanie: Okay. Cool. Laura: It's Tom Kelly. I got his name wrong. Stephanie: Tom Kelly. Got it. For everyone, Tom Kelly. Yeah. That's really funny. We went and we were touring office spaces. We toured through their building. It was very forward-thinking and innovative. I mean, just like what you were talking about. It was all about R&D and trying new things. It was cool to see the inner workings of their space. Laura: Very cool. Stephanie: What's up next on your Netflix or Hulu Video? Laura: Oh, I am watching Ozark. I know I'm a little painfully behind. Yeah. I'm trying to make my way through into, I think, season three of Ozark. I am really enjoying that and it's a problem I will sometimes stay up way to late trying to fit in just one more episode. Stephanie: Yeah. Me, too. I love that show. What's the next conference you're excited about attending? Laura: I am really excited about the Women in Retail Leadership Conference. Like I said, I hope it's happening in October. This is, as I mentioned, it's a transformational opportunity for me to go talk with other senior female leaders about their challenges and opportunities and where they're seeing growth within their companies. I've walked away from this conference before getting lots of new ideas, new business opportunities and third-party partners to work with and collaboration opportunities. So that to me is what I'm most looking forward to and I hope that it still happens, especially because it's in Miami in October, which will be a really nice time of year to be there. Stephanie: That's very cool. I'll have to check that out. What are you doing for fun these days? Any passions that you have? Laura: I am actually, after this podcast, going to jump on my boat with my husband and two kids for the first time this season. That is actually our big passion. This is the kickoff to boating season in Maine, Memorial Day weekend. Usually while I'm on the boat, the things that I do is knit. I've been knitting a sweater for four years now, that I am committed to finishing this year. That's my goal. Stephanie: You have to post a picture when it's done, so we can all see it. Laura: I will. I hope it actually fits. I'm kind of laughing at it going, "I don't even know if this is going to fit." I end up probably giving it as a gift. Stephanie: Yeah. My mom got into sewing and knitting and all that. She was trying to make us outfits, just for fun. Sweaters and things like that. She ended making one that ended up having to go towards our Shih Tzu dog because it... She was like, "Oh, this went really wrong." Laura: Yeah. It can go wrong quickly. That's what I'm worried about. I've ripped out a few rows of this a few times and I'm not sure I recounted correctly. So we'll see. I post a picture regardless of what it looks like. Stephanie: Great. It's a journey. Laura: Yeah. Stephanie: The next hard question. You guys at Sea Bags are moving quick. You're having to transition platforms. It's your job to stay ahead on the expectations and your competition and all that. What do you think is up next for e-commerce pros? Laura: Up next for e-commerce pros. I think that we really are going to have to focus on is how to take omnichannel retailing to the next level. I think that that term, omnichannel, is really broadly thrown around. I think that people don't really understand what it is. I think that we need to be able to deliver a seamless customer experience regardless of where they're shopping and figure out, also, how to do it without inconveniencing customers with asking for their information repeatedly. Laura: I think that's one of the challenges in retail, is being able to know when somebody places an order in one of your retail stores, and being able to translate that into their customer profile so that you have, again, that really full 360-degree picture of that journey of that customer and really knowing what their full lifetime value is. Again, so that you can come back and customize and personalize their shopping experience and make it more rich. They feel valued because they know that you're speaking to them in a way that is informed and caring about what value they play for your brand. Stephanie: That's a great answer. Laura, it's been blast. Thank you for coming on the show. For all our listeners, go check out Sea Bags and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Let's help spread the word and spread stories like the one Laura shared today. Laura, thanks. I hope to have you back. Laura: Thank you so much for having me. It was an absolute joy. Stephanie: It really was. Yeah.  

We both had a lot to say this week. We discuss the impact of c*****v***s, the lyrical artistry of B***y J**l, toying with the chronological order, syllable stress, and the camera toilet. Highlights: Payola, Dacron, Cavallari Bahamas drama, Yemen Ceasefire

Sperry Sails is a family run business that has been providing boaters with the highest quality, hand crafted sails and other canvas products for over 40 years.  Throughout their history, adapting has been one of their keys to success.  Starting with Dacron sails, a staple for the traditional wooden boat fleet, the sail makers in the loft now use computers to design and cut carbon fiber sails for the modern, off-shore racing fleet.  As the world copes with COVID-19, Sperry Sails again adapts and has started making masks for those on the front lines. In this episode we talk with Sperry Sails President, Ben Sperry, about the decision to transition his loft in the busiest season to help out those in need. Listen in!

In this episode Fiona and Julie this week talk over the phone with the contemporary artist http://gemmarasdall.com who is a fabulously and fun youthful artist living the dream of being a full time artist whilst living on her boat full time which is mored in the stunning Pittwater and commuting to her studio on Scotland island. Gemma is an impressionist mixed media  mixed media painter working on sail cloth. Gemma studied at Art college in a BA in Design majoring in Textiles because she did not want to be a "poor artist". Mentioned in this weeks episode :If you have a Dacron sail Gemma would love a donation especially an old one. Gemma's mother is local legend Art teacher Meredith Rasdall you can find out about her art classes at https://www.meredithrasdall.com.au/artclassesScotland island is on the Pittwater in Sydney. https://www.scotlandisland.org.auGemma is not currently with a gallery but would love to have a show in the city next year. We talked about the amazing gallery St Cloche in Sydney http://stcloche.com.auCheck out the stunning artist Emily Imeson that Julie and I recently saw at St Cloche https://emilygraceart.wordpress.comCheck out her instagram for commissions and all enquiries. http://instagram.com/gemmarasdallYour can read more about Gemma in the article on the awesome Design Files https://thedesignfiles.net/2019/07/studiovisit-artist-gemmarasdall-sailing-sydney/CONTACT US Submit any questions by emailing http://fiona@fionaverity.com.au DM us on our instagramFollow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/fionaverity  http://instagram.com/julienicholsonartisthttp://instagram.com/art.wankPodcast artwork by http://littlescapes.com.au

In this episode of "The Rigging Station" podcast series, Capt. Bryan and Taylor Sears discuss line capacity on big game fishing reels.Key Topics Discussed in this Episode:Line diametersMono vs. Dacron vs. BraidSpooling up a reel, start to finishBacking to top-shot connectionsWater pressure on lineThis is a great overview on how to spool and setup your big game reels and is a great listen to help you prepare for the 2020 fishing season!Products and Companies Mentioned:Penn Reels (50 VISX)Berkely Pro SpecDeep ApparelSeaBros FishingMass Bay GuidesWe are listed on Apple iTunes Podcasts! Please subscribe, give us a rating, and keep listening to the show. Thank you all!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seabros-fishing-podcast/id1495681837Support the show (http://www.seabrosfishing.com)

In this episode Dan & Henry discuss; The Nylon Riots, what is and is not current slang, and once more The D Files.   Henry's sources: Mental Floss Nylon https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61845/brief-history-nylon Demeo, Stephen. (1996). Dacron polyester: The fall from grace of a miracle fabric. Science as Culture. 5. 352-372. 10.1080/09505439609526436. https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-dacron-and-polyester/

Selecting the right vertical jig assist hook is very important. In this podcast I share my personal experiences with using both Braided Dacron and Kevlar Assist hooks. Braided Dacron Assist Cord Below are my reasons for the for why I discontinued using Vertical Jig Braided Dacron Assist Cords When vertical jig fishing the wrecks off Key Largo I want to be 100% confident that when I set a the hook when target Mutton Snappers and Groupers when using a vertical jig that my hook setting effort is being transferred fully to the vertical jig. I did not have this confidence when using a Vertical Jig rigged with a Dacron Assist Hook. When it came to the hook sets with the braided dacron assist, I felt the hook sets were not good when I was using Dacron assist cords as the stuff is pretty limp and does not command the hook very well, I personally felt it was tough to drive the hook into the jaw of a Grouper or Mutton Snappers for a good hook set. Very water absorbent which leads to breakage. The salt water eats away at the Dacron. After the end of each vertical jig trip I wash every jig in the sink throughly at my house. I found that this did not help extend the life of a Dacron Assist Cord. . Dacron has significant stretch, which leads to unnecessary line failures and break offs. Because the assist cord is rigged to the solid ring and braided Dacron is soft it tended to tangle a lot, the assist would constantly get wrapped around the leader and it would hang up on the jig, the assist split and solid rings. What a nightmare!  A lot of guys band aid this by adding shrink wrap over the Dacron, which is additional step. The Williamson Brand Jig, cheap dacron covered with shrink wrap to make it look appealing to the consumer. Yes it adds a layer of protection, but for only a couple vertical jig fishing trips.  I am not a fan of added shrink to assist cords because the stuff tears up. This allows for water to enter the small tears. The water gets trapped between the shrink and the dacron. Even if you are thoroughly cleaning your jigs at the end of day, you still can not clean the salt water trapped between the cord and heat shrink.  The cord is basically rotting inside shrink.  All it takes in one little nick from a little Tuna or Amberjack to create a tear. Go out a couple weeks later, the assist cord appears to look OK because all you see is the heat shrink, you can not actually inspect the interior cord itself because it is covered in the heat shrink. Kevlar Assist Cord I am currently using high quality Red Kevlar Assist Cord.  We purchased our Red Kevlar Assist Cords in bulk directly from a manufacture.  Before manufacturing the Kevlar we approved quality samples as I wanted to make sure the Kevlar was correct and my quality expectations were met. I was very happy with the process and now I have enough Kevlar Assist Cords to last me many years.   There are many different grades of red kevlar, so be careful when purchasing Kevlar at a lower price point online. Below are my reasons why I prefer Kevlar Assist Cords for Vertical Jigs. More abrasion resistant than Dacron. It commands the hook well because it is stiff and has no memory.  My client hook up rates sky rocketed after I made the change from Dacron to Kevlar. Since I made the switch to Kevlar I am much more confident in the vertical jig hook sets. Kevlar does not like UV light or salt water, but when compared  to Dacron my personal opinion is that Kevlar is better at fighting off these environmental elements than Dacron and do feel Kevlar It has much longer shelf life than Dacron. New Assist Cord Material I am Testing I also wanted to share this other material I am using to make assist hooks with that is killing it. I heard a few guys were using this stuff to make their jigging assist cords with, plus knew the stuff was bad ass because I have put it through hell over the past 2 years in other applications using it as outrigger line, chum bag line, bait pen line.  I was confident it would perform very well as an assist hook, so I made up a few to try out. Extremely happy. I heard that a few hard core vertical jig fisherman started using this material so I decided to put it through a trial phase. I am using New England Rope 1.8mm Micro Dynema Syperline, 350lb breaking strength. It has fairly decent salt water absorption resistance, no memory  superior abrasion resistance, extremely strong, hard to cut, commands the hook well, UV resistant, holds up in the heat, ties easily, has a little stretch. https://www.westmarine.com/buy/new-england-ropes--spyderline-micro-dyneema-braid-by-the-spool--P002_071_002_515?recordNum=46 New England Rope Soft Micro Dynema Syperline Manufactures Specifications  This spiderweb sized, high-performance line has a Dyneema SK-75 core inside a polyester double braid cover that provides superior strength for its tiny diameter. It is flexible, yet firm enough to be led through small leads, micro blocks and purchase systems and is also a great choice as sail ties for the performance Opti sailor. Key Features Available in spools of 50', 75' and 100' 1.8mm (5/64") diameter on a 100' spool and 350 pound breaking strength 2.8mm (1/8") diameter on a 75' spool and 1,250 pound breaking strength 3.8mm (5/32") diameter on a 50' spool and 1,860 pound breaking strength Best Use: Performance dinghy cascade systems, control lines, small one design cunninghams, traveler lines, vang systems, trapeze lines, outhauls, topping lifts, halyards, and twings Construction: Double braid Cover Fiber/Construction: Polyester braid Core Fiber/Construction: Dyneema SK-75 braid Stretch: 1.6% at 20% of breaking strength Buy the stuff in bulk for $29.00 from West Marine it comes in spools of 50’, 75’, and 100’ I will put the link up in my show notes.  Comes in a few colors to choose from. Take Care of Vertical Jigs To Extend the Shelf Life Remember after a day of fishing, make sure to wash all your vertical jigs throughly. To extend the life of my vertical jigs I wash each vertical jig(main body, hardware and the assist cords) after each fishing trip in my kitchen sink at home in hot water and Dawn Dish Soap.  If there is one thing I took away from organic chemistry labs in college, was hot water is the only thing that really works to dissolves salt particles safely without using harsh chemicals that can ruin you jigs.  Hot water is your best friend when it comes to removing salt particles from all your critical fishing gear, including those expensive reels and fishing rods.  Water from a hose does not throughly remove all the salt. New Vertical Jig Hook I am Testing Currently I am testing 3X Owner S-Double Size Hooks with Super Tin Finish. I have always liked the Shimano Wax Wing Vertical Jig Hooks, these are the same hooks(fang hooks). Stay tuned for results. https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/saltwater-double-hook/

What is Dacron? Don't worry, it's not as terrifying as it sounds but it is probably all around you right now! BOO!

If you're hearing this episode around the time it comes out, it means I'm taking some time off after the birth of my son. I've recorded these ahead of time and most likely will not be available on social media for the next few weeks, but you'll still get The Story Behind twice a week if you're subscribed to the podcast. Consider this series to be like a substitute teacher. We won't go as in-depth as in previous episodes, but we'll briefly touch of a number of different topics in each episode. This series focuses on Billy Joel's song “We Didn't Start the Fire” and the headline-making events and people he mentions. Some content may not be suitable for all listeners. I'm your host, Emily Prokop, and this is The Story Behind We Didn't Start The Fire: 1953-1954. In this episode: Joseph Stalin Malenkov Nasser (and) Prokofiev Rockefeller Campanella Communist Bloc Roy Cohn Juan Peron Toscanini Dacron Dien Bien Phu falls "Rock Around the Clock" Follow The Story Behind: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website Check out #PodernFamily on Twitter to find other great indie podcasts like this one. If you enjoy podcasts about history, literature, archeology, and the arts, check out the hashtag #HumanitiesPodcasts on Twitter to find more podcasts like this one. Click here to support this podcast on Patreon. Media: Music for Makers

We catch up with Rob White from Evolution Sails on sail wardrobe planning and material selection choices for both cruising and racing sailors. Rob shares four decades of sail planning, sailing, design and production experience and the changes and advances he is seeing, including the adoption of exotic materials at club racing level. Rob talks specifically about tips for making your boat go faster regardless of how old your sails or boat are. Rob covers everything from Dacron to Carbon Fibre and the choices in between and we also spend some time talking about the ideal set up for short handed cruising sailors, so that speed to your next sailing destination does not have to be compromised. Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

In the fourth part of Pretty in Podcast’s series inspired by the works of John Hughes,Read the post04 – National Lampoon’s The History of Ohio from the Dawn of Time Until the End of the Universe a.k.a. National Lampoon’s Dacron, OH (1980)

Special guest Moe Velitto joins Dave and Stump. Proximity flying in Europe and other catching up with Moe. Safety First with Brian Germain on the benefits of Dacron lines. Pic of the Week - Full moon flyby over Star, Idaho in 1978. Photo by Jeff Wragg. Intermediate (skygod) syndrome discussed. Feature Interview on Women's Leadership Course with JaNette Lefkowitz, Cindy Stroup, and Karen "K-Dub" Wollem. Listener facebook topics.

Our DM Jer runs us through a D&D 5e campaign of his own devising, it's the sixteenth episode of Temple of the Lava Bears! Episode 16: Dacron has issues. Brought to you by: The Kind Backers of the LoadingReadyRun KickStarter AND our friends at: www.WyrmwoodGaming.com Use the promo code "loadingreadyrun" at www.wyrmwoodgaming.com and get free shipping on domestic orders, or $10-off international order! (plus it helps us out) Temple of the Lava Bears Campaign written by: Jeremy Petter Art by Devin Harrgian: www.FeatherweightCreations.com Music by Bradley Rains: www.bradleyrains.com Edited by: Jeremy Petter and Graham Stark

In this final lecture, Professor Saltzman talks about artificial organs, with a stress on synthetic biomaterials. First, the body's responses (immunological and scar healing responses) to foreign materials are introduced. This leads to discussion of different types of polymer/plastic materials (i.e., Dacron and GORE-TEX) and their properties. Next, Professor Saltzman talks about the design and function of some artificial organs, such as lens implants, heart valves and vessels, hip, dialyzer, heart/lung bypass machine, and the artificial heart. Lastly, challenges and areas for improvement in the field are presented.

In this final lecture, Professor Saltzman talks about artificial organs, with a stress on synthetic biomaterials. First, the body's responses (immunological and scar healing responses) to foreign materials are introduced. This leads to discussion of different types of polymer/plastic materials (i.e., Dacron and GORE-TEX) and their properties. Next, Professor Saltzman talks about the design and function of some artificial organs, such as lens implants, heart valves and vessels, hip, dialyzer, heart/lung bypass machine, and the artificial heart. Lastly, challenges and areas for improvement in the field are presented.

In today's episode, the flames of history illuminate the conducting genius of Arturo Toscanini, whose baton shaped the world of classical music. We then transition to the innovation of Dacron, a material that revolutionized textiles and fashion. The episode takes a dramatic turn with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, a defining moment in the First Indochina War. Finally, we explore the cultural explosion of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," a song that rocked the foundations of popular music.In just five minutes, we'll guide you through these historical vignettes, providing context, anecdotes, and a deeper understanding of the individuals and events that shaped their times. Whether you're a devoted Billy Joel fan or someone curious about the history behind the lyrics, "Five Minutes of Fire" is your daily ticket to historical enlightenment.Subscribe now to join us as we unravel the verses of "We Didn't Start the Fire," offering insights that bring the past to life. "Five Minutes of Fire" - where history unfolds swiftly and vibrantly, twice a day. Don't miss your daily spark of historical exploration!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy