Over the weekend Red Bull held their annual “Tires of Fire” long skid competition. There was a lot of chatter amongst the riders in the days leading up to the day, especially given the previous year’s result, with a winning effort and an unofficial world record 270m (885ft) skid. This year however, with the event moving close to the downtown area, Red Bull could only obtain a 200m road closure for the event, with a 50m run-up to the start point.
Unfortunately for the competitors it started to bucket down during the start of the competition. Riders wondered if it made it easier or harder, but all agreed that it made the competition a little harder in the run-up, with a few riders losing traction and speed sprinting towards the start mark. While the wet road enabled the riders to slide a little further towards the end of their attempt, it was hard work for them keeping the bike in a straight line with the weight shift from a sprinting position to a NtoS (nuts to stem) skid.
Incumbent champion and local messenger Ken White returned to defend his ‘08 title, and laid a solid benchmark at about 140m on his first attempt. Was quite impressive watching him take off in a sprint heading towards the start point and he managed to keep his rig on the straight and narrow.
The lone female competitor Tabitha (left) also managed a great effort - as Jenna Makgill, previous women’s CMWC champion watched on.
The podium.
1st place (centre) = Ken White (185m / 606ft)
2nd place (left) = Max Ginger (148m / 485ft)
3rd place (right) = Conrad Smith (121m / 396ft) (AY YO CHECK OUT HIS TEE YOHEI!)
Here is a ten minute edit chopped up by Red Bull, part of which aired on national station TV3’s “Nightline” news program over the weekend. “Pash the asphalt“.
Naturally, it wouldn’t be a fixed gear event without some reference to a sausage fest of sorts. Luckily for us, Jeff is an expert at drawing penixes. No beef.
A friend linked me to this on Leonard Goh’s asia.cnet.com blog the other day.
Japanese design firm Superheadz is well-renowned for its innovative film cameras such as the Blackbird, Fly and the cutesy Ikimono. However, the company has recently introduced its first digital camera, the Digital Harinezumi.
As with Superheadz’s other snappers, the 2-megapixel Digital Harinezumi produces pictures with a soft, out-of-focus feel. The colors emulate that of Lomo shooters–often quirky and sometimes unsaturated. Although this snapper has an LCD screen, shutterbugs won’t be able to use it to frame shots. Instead, the firm has incorporated a plastic viewfinder on top of the camera for that purpose. As for the display, it is reserved for viewing pictures only.
The Digital Harinezumi is also able to record videos, although the site did not mention what the video resolution is. What the company wants consumers to know is that the recordings have the vintage feel of old 8mm clips. Check out the video below to see the dreamy quality created.
Rather interesting concept - advancing technology to replicate older technology. Although the “Super 8″ video feel does seem rather appealing, it makes you wonder whether developing a digital camera to emulate a 110 film camera, to recreate the ‘out of focus’ imagery (once originally considered a fault with the 110 film format) and even purposely leaving out features like a viewfinder is stepping forwards to step backwards. Is ‘nostalgia’ itself becoming so much of a trend that we’re forgetting why we left it in the past?
It’s a pretty cool concept, no doubt, but it makes you think if it simply makes more sense to use an old 110 format camera instead. What next, a digital camera with no review option? Now there’s an idea.
Our friends Mark Ong and his wonderful wife Sue were in town for a quick whirlwind visit for the DC APAC sales conference. Mark and Sue stopped by the stores to check out mutual friend Sekure D’s installation and show currently running in the gallery space.
Was nice catching up with the original AMKPK (Ang-Mo-Kio-Pai-Kia) as we hadn’t seen him and Sue for a couple of years now. In any case, I admire the dedication Mark has put into his art, medium, and work over the past decade. Unlike others who have ebbed and flowed with the trends like the tide, Mark seems to have kept his work and aesthetic consistent over the years - no small feat in this industry.
Funny, Mark was wearing the exact same shirt as the last time we saw him in Singapore.
This is Minky Moo. I’m not entirely sure how to explain this character, aside from it being a figment of a 12 year old Ben Wong’s imagination that has remained rather unedited over the past 10 years or so. Whatever Minky’s purpose as a bipedal Bos Primigenius is, I’m not entirely sure, except that it’s probably buried somewhere deep in Benjamin’s psyche, right past the lyrics to bad rap and R&B tracks. Personally, I think it’s a self-portrait or some type of projection, but never mind that for now. For one reason or another, Mark took a curious liking to Mr. Minky Moo, after being introduced to him by Benjamin during a visit to his atelier in Singapore a few years ago. Thus began the Minky Moo exchange program - where Benjamin would patiently and painstakingly recreate this complex character for Mark every time they met over the years.
Mark lost his most recent copy of Minky, so Benjamin prepared a special 2009 version for him. The Royalefam seal of approval.
Red Bull’s Tyres of Fire is back in Auckland tomorrow afternoon.
Pretty simple really - the longest continuous skid wins. Track bikes, SS MTBs, Cruisers, all welcome to enter, so long as it’s a fixed wheel bicycle.
Local rider/messenger and alltrack09 champ Ken White took out last year’s event with an unofficial 270m (885ft) record on his Kenevans track bike. It’ll be interesting to see if he, or anybody else can trump that this year.
No, not the airline, but the incredible Aitutaki atoll 45 minutes north of Rarotonga, Cook Islands. We spent five days there after Rarotonga to discover why people kept calling it one of the most beautiful places in the world. The approach heading into Aitutaki was absolutely stunning.
The view, every morning from the front door. I can probably think of worse places to be.
Voted one of the top three reefs in the world, the best way to explore the gigantic lagoon was on one of the many cruises offered on the island. This incredible sand bank is part of the uninhabited “Honeymoon island”, at the southern end of the atoll. It took about 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other on ridiculously white sand. I’ve never seen such clear, turqoise blue water before in my life.
Aitutaki is also where they filmed Survivor: Cook Islands, for fans of the TV series. Depicted above are the last remnants of the set from the show, situated on a motu close to Honeymoon island. The production took about six months from start to wrap, and they commandeered not only one island in the Aitutaki atoll, but three. One for the main set, and two for support crew/staging points. Despite the ‘ruggedness’ they like to portray through the program, the scale of the production was so large that they paid and compensated all local tour operators and cruises to shut down for the entire time of production, had a couple of helicopters shipped over from Tahiti just to ferry crew/cast from island to island, as well as booking out entire resorts for the support crew and some of their families, including series founder Mark Bennett. As it goes, he was so overwhelmed by the locale that he flew his entire family over, who remained on site for two months of the production. The project employed hundreds of locals; not bad considering the entire population of the atoll barely exceeds 2000 people.
