In Transit! Santa Cruz to San Francisco to Beijing

It's strange to think that on September 11, 2011, I'll be on the Great Wall of China, for the somber 10-year marker of the 9-11 attacks. For now, though I am focused on getting to Beijing. I'm at San Francisco Airport now.

My trip so far, by the numbers:

2:30 a.m. - Time I went to sleep

5:00 a.m. - Time I got up

1 stop - at Emily's Bakery for pumpkin muffins and sandwiches for the plane ride

8 a.m. - Time Saskia got me to San Francisco Airport

33 pounds - weight of my 1 checked suitcase! (with 50 pound allowance)

40 minutes - time to get thru security line

1 - thing I forgot so far: hairbrush

1 - thing I miss already but deliberately left at home: my cell phone

12 hours - flight time directly from San Francisco to Beijing (United)

133 - number of yuan, Chinese currency that I have (thanks Bobby!) About $20

16 hours - China is 16 hours ahead of Santa Cruz time - it's tomorrow there already!

Willie Weir A Frugal Cyclist's Guide to the Universe

Author, public radio commentator, and columnist for "Adventure Cyclist" magazine, Willie Weir has cycled more than 60,000 miles throughout the world. I'm excited to hear what he has to say in Saratoga, California, tonight at the REI store, where he has filled the venue and there's now a waitlist. Here's his travel schedule for March in April in California and Washington.

Some may call him cheap, frugal, a tightwad, or an initiator of kindness, but everyone agrees he knows how to get the most bang for his buck when it comes to traveling the globe, be it protesting an over-priced fish dinner, knocking on doors for free lodging, or giving the world's cheapest engagement ring. Tonight, Willie will bring to life tales from his latest book, "Travels with Willie" - hilarious tales that will leave you wanting to quit your day job and hit the road. Thanks to Willie's generous donation of a portion of his book proceeds from these events, two Bay Area nonprofit organizations will benefit - East Bay Bicycle Coalition and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.

I'll let you know what I think!

San Francisco Day Trip! Changing Gears from Cycling to workshop and dining!

Off to San Francisco today for two treats: a workshop with National Public Radio's guru Davia Nelson of the Kitchen Sisters, an award-winning public radio production team. Afterwards, Thai dinner with a friend near the Embarcadero. Stay tuned here for my class and dining reviews!

The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are award-winning NPR documentary producers who have been working together for more than 25 years.

Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters is conducting another round of basic recording and interviewing workshops in San Francisco on Wednesday, May 26th from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and a second workshop from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The three hour workshop is for people who want to acquire and hone their skills for an array of projects: radio, online storytelling, oral histories, family histories, and other multimedia endeavors. Both workshops will cover the same information so please only sign up for one session.

We will cover miking techniques, sound gathering, use of archival audio, how to make interviewees comfortable, how to frame evocative questions that make for compelling storytelling, how to listen (which is harder than it looks), field recording techniques, recording equipment and more. The workshops are customized to fit the projects you are working on.

People who attend come from radio, newspapers, photography, oral history, historical societies, farms, music, writing, libraries, archives, filmmaking, web design and beyond. The groups are lively and good contacts are made.

Amgen Tour of California 2010 - Stage 3 in Santa Cruz Race Report

Cycling Fans Celebrate Stage 3 Finish Under Sunny Skies
By Karen Kefauver

At the finish line in front of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, spectators crowded ten deep to watch the climactic ending of Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of the California, an 8-day, 810-mile professional bike race that ends Sunday in Thousand Oaks. The most fanatical of cycling fans had staked out their spots hours before the racers were expected. The crowds leaned over the orange fencing, cameras in hand, striving to record the excitement of the best pro racers in the world sprinting for the win. There were no umbrellas in sight.

“I am so glad the rain stopped after last night,” said Bart Coddington, a member of the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club and a Tour of California volunteer. “It’s so much better with the sun,” he said, recollecting the drenching rain that greeted fans and racers last February, the first time the Tour of California came through Santa Cruz. Despite a light rain Monday night, the weather cooperated on race day and organizers were pleased that the roads dried in time for safer cycling for the athletes.

The 113.3-mile Stage 3 race started in San Francisco yesterday morning and blasted down West Cliff Drive after the peloton’s tough seven-mile climb up Bonny Doon Road. David Zabriskie of Garmin Transitions captured the victory with a time of 4:26:10. Competitors Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) and Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack) were only a hair behind. Peter Sagan followed in fourth place. The rest of the peloton charged into the finish area with equally deafening cheering and cowbells clanging moments later.

“This is so thrilling!” said Mary Alsip, decked out in a golden feather boa. The coordinator of the Peloton Club, a booster club for Stage 3, Alsip said she thought finish line frenzy was even greater than last year. “Cycling fans are out in force,” she noted.

In addition to the ideal weather, there was race drama when the three overall favorites broke away together on the critical Bonny Doon climb. The trio pushed full force towards the finish line as a driven pack closed to within a handful of seconds of them.

“It was an amazing finish,” said Nils Tikkanen, a competitive cyclist who races with Team Bicycle Trip. He managed to squeeze in his own training ride before watching the race from the Peloton Club. As a racer, he appreciated the work required to charge over the finish line.

Zabriskie, the reigning national time trial champion, attacked the others with less than a kilometer to go and held them off. He captured the win and a 10-second bonus that put him into the overall lead, displacing Brett Lancaster (Cervelo TestTeam). At the press conference afterwards, a visibly drained Zabriskie said, “This is my favorite race on the calendar,” he said, Then, he added with a smile, “I won the surf board!” The board was a special Santa Cruz prize awarded to the winner of Stage 3.

“It’s iconic of Santa Cruz,” said Matt Twisselman, noting that designer Judi Oyama and shaper Doug Haut had put a lot effort into the custom surfboard’s design and creation.
At the finish line, Cindy Jewell summed it up, “The crowds were loud and had a blast- what a great day for Santa Cruz!

The fifth annual Tour of California continues to day with Stage 4, a 121.5-mile race from San Jose to Modesto. For more information visit: www.amgentourofcalifornia.com.

Karen Kefauver, www.karenkefauver.com, is a freelance sports and travel journalist based in Santa Cruz and an avid cyclist. Visit her Sentinel cycling blog at www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/outside.

Missed Maverick's this weekend? Here's a report from the world's biggest wave contest!

Where in the world are the biggest waves? 

Surfers claim some of the biggest waves ever rolled through Northern California's Pillar Point area on Saturday, February 13, 2010,  the day that an elite group of surfers decided to hold the infamous Maverick's surf contest. This was the first time the contest had been held in two years and a $150,000 prize purse, the biggest ever, was at stake for the world's best surfers who were invited to join the competition.

 I could have jumped in my car and driven from Santa Cruz about an hour north to Pillar Point, a little north of Half Moon Bay. Instead, I asked my well-traveled friend and neighbor, Shannon Armstrong, to describe her experience watching the monster waves that towered 40 to 50 feet tall.

Here's a photo, below,  from the New York Times' Bay Area slide show.

After I told Shannon that I joined 54,000 others viewing Maverick's live online, she said:

"You definitely would have a better view of the surfers riding the waves and the standings by watching the internet stream at home. But there's nothing like the perspective of seeing the enormity of the wave from sea level and seeing how small the surfers are in comparison.
Mavericks was awesome!"

Here's the rest of Shannon Armstrong's report from that epic afternoon of surfing big waves:

Getting there
We parked about 5 miles from the action and rode our bikes to the view point, whizzing past the cars inching their way toward Pillar Point. Fire engines and ambulances were leaving the scene when we arrived (carting off the 15 people injured earlier by the high tide rogue wave that swept onto the beach). It was packed, but we were still able to weave our bikes through the pedestrians.


Viewing spots
You could view from up top the bluff, but we heard you could only see the surefers waiting for the waves on the backside and then missed all the action once they took off. So we hoofed it over to the announcer stand on the beach where people had been swept away earlier. Thank god we weren't there then!

We arrived around 1:30 p.m. - just in time to see the finalists set out from the beach. About 10 police  were guarding the barricades they'd put up to keep people off the beach below the cliff, even though it was now low tide and no real danger of being swept away.

There was no announcing we could hear and luckily we brought binoculars. It was bright, warm and sunny enough to need sunblock (it was so foggy the entire drive  up that we could barely even see the shore!)

The waves were HUGE
I overheard one pro surfer saying that this was the best Mavs contest ever! These mountains of water kept rolling toward us, stopped by a barrier of craggy rocks that looked like an eagle taking flight. People lined the beach and up the cliff, peering at the surfers bobbing above the wave as it broke in front of us. We always knew when someone caught one because there would be cheers from the viewers on the cliff. It was thrilling to see someone have the guts to fly down the face of the monster wave.

It was interesting to see how locals paddled out to the wave. I'm certain I would have perished in the 45-minute paddle to  the wave, should I ever lose my head and decide it seemed like a good idea to paddle out and give it a go.

Best of all
we were right there as the pros came to shore after the contest to see all their broken boards, exhausted bodies & big smiles when congratulating each other on a great day on the wave. The winner was Chris Bertish, a mid-thirties (one of the younger contestants, I think) humble south african with short sandy curls and a bit of blood on his chin, drawing attention to the fat lip he got when the wave pushed his board into his face on one ride. He was taking pictures with a bunch of people & doing interviews & only after he walked back to talk to his buddies in the roped off area did he realize he'd won. He said "nobody told me!" It was fun seeing his reaction when he found out. It was already posted to the internet...he was the last to know!

The cherry on top 
was riding a spectacular bike path along the ocean bluff back to our car...all 5 miles. Some high clouds were rolling in and the wind was cool, but the sunset colors were beautiful. We stopped on a cliff bench to enjoy it for a bit.

Yes, the New York Times Bay Area edition covered it here:
http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/mavericks-surf-contest-2010-a-lesson-in-natures-power