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Whereas our own Alex Santoso decided to get his PhD in cushy, postmodern subjects like “biochemistry” and “molecular biology”, this guy decided to go the traditional route and get his doctorate in snowboarding. Neil Elliot, an Anglican priest from British Columbia, is the recipient of the first such degree from Kingston University in London:
While Elliot’s thesis doesn’t draw any definite conclusions, he says it offers a new point of view.
“What my thesis does is give a new model for spirituality, saying that spirituality is a way of looking at the world and a way of looking at the world that includes there being something more than just the material,” he said.
“My thesis goes on to say that there’s three dimensions to that. There’s the experiences that we have, there’s the context that we’re in and then there’s what’s going on really inside us, who we are.”
Link via Geekosystem | Photo: St. Andrews Anglican Church
This video shows a snowboarder doing a flip over a jump and landing on a different snowboard. Do you think that it’s real?
via Super Punch
Industrial designers Mike Simonian and Pieter Schouten made this skateboard in order to add the flexibility of snowboarding movements to skateboarding:
The Flowlab Skateboard allows you to surf without waves and ride without snow. Years of experimentation resulted in the geometry that allows a device with no moving parts to simulate the fluid motion of snowboarding or surfing on land. The arced axles let you carve to 45 degree angles with no resistance and fluid transitions edge-to-edge.
You can view a technical drawing of the design at the link.
Link via DVICE | Photo: Mike & Maaike
Just in time for snow season! DC co-founder Ken Block teamed up with Subaru to design and produce the world’s fastest cat-track snow car. Primarily for reaching alpine backwoods to engage in some fresh boarding, the vehicle is also built for fun as a standalone toy.
Prepared by Vermont SportsCar, performance modifications include 400-hp and features Group N competition rally dampers made by EXE-TC and a KAPS 5-speed close-ratio dog-engagement gearbox. Under the hood sits a 2.5 liter, 4-cylinder, turbocharged and intercooled STI engine tuned with a MOTEC M800 ECU.
Not seen is a trailer that will haul up to four boarders and equipment. More info here.
Sliding down a mountain on a snowboard is a completely different experience when the mountain is an active volcano! The new sport is drawing snowboarders and surfers to the foothills of Nicaragua’s Cerro Negro mountain.
Surfers, dressed in protective jump suits, knee-pads and helmets, can reach speeds of up to 80 km/h (50mph) on their specially-constructed plywood boards.
Phillip Southan, owner and manager of Bigfoot Hostel and Green Pathways Tours, said the unique trip is a world first.
‘We started offering this trip on 2005 and its has become so popular,’ the 26-year-old from Barbados said. ‘This is a unique tour as nowhere else in the world can you board down an active volcano.
‘This is the fourth year and to date we have taken over 10,000 people on this tour,’ said Mr Southan. ‘It is a 45 minute hike of easy to moderate difficulty.
Cerro Negro last erupted in 1999, and the crater is still smoking. Link -via Unique Daily
