Late Christmas Presents
Posted on 03/01/08 13:21
Well, it seems I'm having a late Christmas today - a couple of parcels were delivered to me containing Christmas presents from me!
Mares Avanti Quattro Power x2!
First up we have some new fins. My old Mares Avanti Tre fins are feeling a bit tired, and they've never had the power my old jet fins had (and that I had to stop using as people complained they banned by the rules of octopush). So, when Gareth Ayres (from NEM-OC) offered me a pair of Technisub Stratos FPs for £35, I thought I'd give them a go. They definitely have a big power advantage over the Avanti Tres, but unfortunately they just don't fit my feet well, and even with socks I get blisters on the top of my 3rd and 4th toes, and on the outside of my right big toe and on the right side of my left foot. It started feeling like it was taking me much time to patch my feet up as I was getting time in the water during training sessions. Given that the Avanti Tres never gave me blisters, I figure that Mares' Avanti Quattro Powers should fit just as well, whilst being equally (or more) powerful than the Tres. At which point I discovered, just like the old Alas, they're no longer made. One of the guys in the York Uni Octopush Club has a new pair, which he informed me he'd got from a place in France. A quick search on Google turned up a place in the US selling them at a reasonable price, but shipping was extortionate - and shipping two pairs (Ali wanted some as well) didn't bring the costs down. After much trawling of French online dive shops, I finally found somewhere that sold them and had both mine and Ali's sizes in stock. However, they didn't seem to deliver outside France. Many discussions about friends in France led nowhere, and in the end I dropped La Palanquée New's an email asking if we could order them for delivery to the UK. A very rapid response came back explaining how to do this via the site (which took a bit of thinking seeing as it was in French - but I worked it out in the end), and, having ordered them on Christmas Eve, they arrived this morning! The only slight downside is that the Quattros are a size smaller than my Tres - but as I've had to use fin retainers to stop the Tres occasionally coming off my feet, I don't think this should be a problem.
When I've had a chance to try them, I'll post more details. I suspect they'll be quite similar to the Stratos fins - great for straight line speed, but not so good for manoeuvrability, so I'll probably still use the Tres when that's more important (like at the Nautilus competition this Saturday). And yes, I'm well aware of the discussions on Underwater Hockey World about fins (here, here, here and here) in the equipment forum, but I'm afraid I'm sticking with what I know, and can't justify the cost of fancy fibre fins (I'm having enough problems justifying the cost of the Quattros!).
The Dune Encyclopedia
So, on to my other present: The Dune Encyclopedia (Wikipedia entry, Amazon). I'm a big fan of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, and a friend of mine owns a copy. At the time I graduated and was looking to set up my first ISP account (way back in 1997 - with Demon), I had to pick a username. Everything else I tried had been taken, so I resulted to skimming through the encyclopaedia until I found something that I liked and was still available - and that was Jacurutu. The name's stuck ever since (hence jacurutu.org.uk). I've been keeping my eye out for a copy for a long while, and even once got Amazon to check round second hand book stores to see if they could find a copy (yes, way back when before Amazon become just another marketplace, and they had a service to find out of print books). They did track a copy down, but it was £65! That kind of put me off looking again, but out of interest I checked it out on Amazon again last week, and found a copy for a much more reasonable £10.25 (inc delivery - from gracehorne). Condition isn't perfect, but quite frankly it's better than most of the books on my bookshelf once I've read them a couple of times, and I didn't buy it as a collectors item, but to read and for reference (even if it's authority is now questionable).
In case you're interested what the encyclopaedia has to say about Jacurutu, here's the start of the entry (sorry - it's taken on my N73 camera phone, so the quality isn't great):
And the final present? It's snowing!
Mares Avanti Quattro Power x2!
First up we have some new fins. My old Mares Avanti Tre fins are feeling a bit tired, and they've never had the power my old jet fins had (and that I had to stop using as people complained they banned by the rules of octopush). So, when Gareth Ayres (from NEM-OC) offered me a pair of Technisub Stratos FPs for £35, I thought I'd give them a go. They definitely have a big power advantage over the Avanti Tres, but unfortunately they just don't fit my feet well, and even with socks I get blisters on the top of my 3rd and 4th toes, and on the outside of my right big toe and on the right side of my left foot. It started feeling like it was taking me much time to patch my feet up as I was getting time in the water during training sessions. Given that the Avanti Tres never gave me blisters, I figure that Mares' Avanti Quattro Powers should fit just as well, whilst being equally (or more) powerful than the Tres. At which point I discovered, just like the old Alas, they're no longer made. One of the guys in the York Uni Octopush Club has a new pair, which he informed me he'd got from a place in France. A quick search on Google turned up a place in the US selling them at a reasonable price, but shipping was extortionate - and shipping two pairs (Ali wanted some as well) didn't bring the costs down. After much trawling of French online dive shops, I finally found somewhere that sold them and had both mine and Ali's sizes in stock. However, they didn't seem to deliver outside France. Many discussions about friends in France led nowhere, and in the end I dropped La Palanquée New's an email asking if we could order them for delivery to the UK. A very rapid response came back explaining how to do this via the site (which took a bit of thinking seeing as it was in French - but I worked it out in the end), and, having ordered them on Christmas Eve, they arrived this morning! The only slight downside is that the Quattros are a size smaller than my Tres - but as I've had to use fin retainers to stop the Tres occasionally coming off my feet, I don't think this should be a problem.
When I've had a chance to try them, I'll post more details. I suspect they'll be quite similar to the Stratos fins - great for straight line speed, but not so good for manoeuvrability, so I'll probably still use the Tres when that's more important (like at the Nautilus competition this Saturday). And yes, I'm well aware of the discussions on Underwater Hockey World about fins (here, here, here and here) in the equipment forum, but I'm afraid I'm sticking with what I know, and can't justify the cost of fancy fibre fins (I'm having enough problems justifying the cost of the Quattros!).
The Dune Encyclopedia
So, on to my other present: The Dune Encyclopedia (Wikipedia entry, Amazon). I'm a big fan of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, and a friend of mine owns a copy. At the time I graduated and was looking to set up my first ISP account (way back in 1997 - with Demon), I had to pick a username. Everything else I tried had been taken, so I resulted to skimming through the encyclopaedia until I found something that I liked and was still available - and that was Jacurutu. The name's stuck ever since (hence jacurutu.org.uk). I've been keeping my eye out for a copy for a long while, and even once got Amazon to check round second hand book stores to see if they could find a copy (yes, way back when before Amazon become just another marketplace, and they had a service to find out of print books). They did track a copy down, but it was £65! That kind of put me off looking again, but out of interest I checked it out on Amazon again last week, and found a copy for a much more reasonable £10.25 (inc delivery - from gracehorne). Condition isn't perfect, but quite frankly it's better than most of the books on my bookshelf once I've read them a couple of times, and I didn't buy it as a collectors item, but to read and for reference (even if it's authority is now questionable).
In case you're interested what the encyclopaedia has to say about Jacurutu, here's the start of the entry (sorry - it's taken on my N73 camera phone, so the quality isn't great):
And the final present? It's snowing!
