SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Yesterday, I headed to Launch 2002 in Punggol, Singapore’s largest wakeboarding area. Joined up on a boat with 4 others through the invite from a friend of a friend - we had had all-types on-board from ‘never done-it’, ‘done it a few times’ to ‘local pro!’.

Here’s a short TGU video from the trip:

TGU Wakeboarding, Singapore from Robin Blandford on Vimeo.

We headed out to the lee of one of the islands on the Malaysian border into (at times) total flat calm. It was great to have a proper boat and tow line as the wake was fantastically formed for jumps for some big air.

The hired driver was only ok, good at the driving - but didn’t give much instruction for the new starters. Apparently some of the instructors at this school are fantastic, so there is credit due.

I got a few wake-to-wakes and we snapped some great pics! I took out my new Olympus m790 waterproof camera and it worked well enough although many photos were missed due to shutter-lag. It’s certainly not the Canon EOS D-SLR I’ve got used to!

Cost:
We got a taxi from Orchard road to Punggol Marina Country Club costing S$14 (20mins costing £5 split between 3). The wake-boarding boat hire, all equipment and a driver was S$110 an hour (£35), we had it for 3 hours (S$330 split by 5).

Full flickr Set here.

-Robin

(Image Credits: Author & friends at Launch 2002 Wakeboarding, Ponggal.)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - The Water-Buoy, a flotation device for your keys has appeared on Springwise, one of my favourite sites for ideas.

As featured on BBC’s Dragons’ Den last night, young entrepreneur James Halliburton is bringing an innovative solution to market for boaters who are worried about losing valuable items overboard

It works very much like a hydrostatic release on a lifejacket. At a certain water pressure it pops open a valve releasing gas. The impressive thing here is, this tiny keyring can lift 1kg.

Once the Waterbuoy hits the water, the gas inflates the balloon and the submerged item is pulled up to the water’s surface. Aiding retrieval at night, an integrated LED light switches on and keeps flashing for 24 hours.

Much like Alex’s dark thoughts about his Life Bag being used on long flights, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if this went off in your pocket on a dance floor.

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Images from Water-Buoy, montage made by Springwise)

Greenlight has made it easy for all surfers, first time shapers to veterans, to build quality, eco-friendly, fun to ride surfboards.

“Riding my own boards is the most satisfying sensation. I’ve shaped 15+ boards (& counting) and the experience firmly connects me to the ocean. When shaping, I just imagine that I’m the wave flowing over the board… bliss… and to be eco-friendly… absolute bliss.”
~Stu Bowen

Hear these guys interviewed on a Podcast by World Surf Radio, an initiative by IrishSurfer.com.

-Robin-