Now on ScienceBlogs: Publishers Weekly Cover Girl: Rebecca Skloot and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (HeLa)
"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, pseudoscience, history, and pseudohistory (and anything else that interests him)
Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued here, along with a DISCLAIMER that you should read before reading any medical discussions here.)
Orac's old Blog is archived at Archived Insolence.
« Need more cowbell? | Main | Truth, Justice, and Regularity invade ScienceBlogs »
Category: Miscellaneous
Posted on: March 11, 2006 4:11 PM, by Orac
Given the spring-like weather we've been enjoying the last couple of days, I happened across a reminder of what the weather was like just a few weeks ago. I've never understood the attraction of doing this for fun. To me it looks profoundly unpleasant at best.
Insanity.
Share this: Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Reddit Email + More
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
Eruptions 11.05.2009
Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
Comments
Personally, I think it looks f'ing insane and f'ing awesome all at once. It's only unpleasant if you fall. ;)
Posted by: Ali | March 11, 2006 5:08 PM
Hey, dude! Surf's up!
I have climbed mountains (Ranier, Hood, St. Helens (when it still had a top), Shasta, etc.) with the wind chill being around -55 to -65, jumped out of airplanes, and ski dived in waters infested with sea snakes. There is an exhilaration that some people feel when doing these things.
When I was a kid, I was usually swimming in the waters off Coney Island with just a bathing suit by mid-March.
Posted by: TheProbe | March 11, 2006 5:18 PM
Re: Coney Island swimming...
These days, I think the water temp in that area is the least of your concerns when swimming.
Posted by: IAMB | March 11, 2006 7:37 PM
Way back in the day, I'd have been out there body surfing while my buddies were hanging ten. It was fun, exhilarating, fantastic.
Frankly, I should never have stopped...
Posted by: wil | March 12, 2006 4:53 AM
Alright, so I guess I'm lame. I can understand the attraction of mountain climbing, but I just don't understand the attraction of surfing in freezing, snowy weather.
Posted by: Orac | March 12, 2006 10:44 AM
Cold water surfing is not uncommon around here. During our summer vacation there were surfers in wetsuits off of the Oregon beaches (the water never warms up).
There's good uncrowded surf in Alaska... just remember to watch out for bears. A local TV newsprogram did a story on surfing in Alaska, the surfer asked the TV guy to hold his rifle and look for any bears. Here is Surfer Mag on Alaska
Get your Alaska surf apparel at Icy Waves Surf Shop!
Posted by: HCN | March 12, 2006 3:28 PM
The waters off Coney Island are much better these days than they were 20 years ago. They are nearly as good as back in the 60's...
Posted by: TheProbe | March 12, 2006 8:03 PM
I've braved some rather extreme conditions to pursue a little bit of fun. I used to do a fair amount of ice climbing in the winter and that's a sport that requires one to spend hours being wet and miserable while small fragments of ice hit you repeatedly in the face at high velocity. While I don't ice climb anymore (having only about 70% mobility left in my right shoulder sort of limits my ability to swing an ice axe over my head), I actually miss climbing up frozen water falls.
As for the surfers, I actually don't think being out in the cold to surf is any stranger than people who run to the point where they vomit (and consider it to be the greatest feeling in the world).
Posted by: Socialist Swine | March 12, 2006 11:56 PM
About 2 1/2 years ago I took a Scientific Diving course here in Vancouver. Diving in September and October was fine, the water never gets warm but at least it's sunny when you get back on the boat. November 30 was the last dive - and that's when we discovered the name of the country residing on the far side of hard-core.
Snow on the shoulders of my wetsuit.
The name of the country is "stupidity". Oh well, at least I now have some stories to tell.
Posted by: The Brummell | March 13, 2006 6:57 PM