swinhoe industries - web, video, design, digital & consultancy » Surf

Technology in motion… the 24 hour surf-check challenge.

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:52:47 +0000

Usually you don’t expect to find the internet and technology closely tied to surfing, but a recent project saw that change for me at least.

One of my pet-projects at the moment is the information site for Beadnell Bay – http://www.beadnellbay.info.

On it Ive created a page specifically for the surf report that im providing for the area (http://www.beadnellbay.info/surf-check/), and Ive been looking for an efficient way of running the content.

Its really not that hard, you go to the beach, take a photo, go back to the office, upload the image to the web server, and hey-presto, you have a surf report. But, doing this every day will take up more tim than is ideal, and is very repetitive.

So how can we make the process more streamlined ? how can it be easier ?

I had tried a few ideas, and had searched for the best solution online, and the best I had come=up with was to use Yahoo Pipes to push the latest image from a Flickr group into the page. The pipe is here if you want a look -

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=tgsFay003hGYXDqQBR50VA.

However this is not really what I wanted. The images do not display large enough, and whilst its nice running it through Flickr, linking out to the set is not ideal.

Enter technology and the perfect solution.

Apple iPhone

Im already using my iPhone to take the photograph and push it to the Flickr group, so ideally I wanted was something as easy to use but with a btter web presentation.

Enter the right application, and a little bit of AJAX.

FTP Picture upload provides a simple and easy way to FTP any picture from your iPhone to the web server of your choice. With a little tweaking, it was up and running in 10 minutes and i had the right image on the server.

On the page I could now print the latest image as uploaded form my iPhone. Fantastic.

However the image being displayed could not be identified as recent. How where users to know that the shot was taken today ? or even this week ?

What I wanted was a script that could find out when the shot was taken and print that to the page, telling the users the image was recently updated.

JavaScript alone can not do this, but the helpful people at http://twitter.com/javascripthelp quickly pointed out that the XML Http Request can grab the Last Modified date from the header of any file on your server.

With that, I searched, found the right piece of JavaScript and then set it all in motion. (code is below).

The surf report image now displays, is enlargeable, and has the upload date and time printed next to it. And all automated via the iPhone.

Along with this, I post a text update via Twitter and you get a pretty decent surf report.

****************** Example Code ******************

Picture updated on –

Updating…

Envy is a terrible thing.

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:45:28 +0000

Unless you use it to good advantage.

Last night I stayed up late to watch the WCT fellas finish off the contest in Tahiti. There’s nothing like a surf contest in a perfect location, streamed live over the web to get you pining for a wave. Sadly there ain’t nothing doing here for a week at least.

Taj was beaten by an on-form Bobby Martinez to take the title, with Parko, Slater and Bede all going out early.

Aritz had another good event taking out Kelly en-route to a semi’s spot.

And then after watching that last night, whilst eating breakfast I watched the second in the awesome South Pacific series on BBC2.

Awesome footage and insight into the world of the ocean and islands.

Then stupidly I link-out from a tweet and start reading about the North-east guys who are getting set for a Mentawai trip… which in turn reminds me that 5 good friends have only just returned from the damn place – where they scored (as you do in Indo…)

Some snaps from their trip are below…

Indo dream

Randall getting set-up to be slotted...

Mentawai Perfection

More Mentawai Perfection

Yet More Mentawai Perfection

Now, normally all this would be fine, I can handle a fair bit of land-locked torture – its good for the mind every once in a while. Except I have to drive to London tomorrow. And that just makes things worse.

In fairness, im going to see a good friend who has the Best Job in the World… so there are gonna be some good bits. But im also going to a funeral and that wont be so good.

Anyway, to come full-circle, envy is terrible, but Im not letting it get to me. Im using it to motivate and search for that trip of my own. I’ll ge my piece of Indo gold… im just waiting in the meatime. Making it work for me…

Sleepy May

admin — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:18:33 +0000

Its been a relatively slow week around here.

There are a couple of projects being worked on, in the ‘slow-burner’ style that will come to surface soon.

One of the days has me in front of the camera this time with me as the focus for James’s final photography project.

A few extract snaps are below as a spoiler, the final series will be much tighter.

Quiver shot

Skim-boarding at Beadnell Bay

The Kite / Batman shot

Searching.... (sorry Rip Curl)

Surfboard silhouette

Beach walk

Point break... almost

The 'launch'

Grassy detail

Skimboard hack

Dune walking

More when the exhibition opens from this series.

Had a moment of fun creating a nice business card graphic from a lobster pot at the harbor too…

Lobster Pot

Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:23:58 +0000

The last eight weeks have seen a heavy amount of traveling, but with plenty of rewards to sweeten the deal.

The highlights…

We spent a week with the Sail Rock divers on Koh Phangan, diving in the Gulf of Thailand, great crew and great setup. The video below was shot and edited by Alex there.

Diving on Koh Phangan with Sail Rock Divers from swinhoe on Vimeo.

We stopped in at the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise with Randall and the folks from Noosa to see the first weekend of the Quiksilver Pro at D’bah.

The QuikPro setup at D'bah

The waves were reasonable, but the highlight was watching the semi’s and final with Parko and Mick going head-to-head, pulling ten point rides out in the heaving Cyclone surf.

Whilst in Noosa for the Festival of Surfing, we dropped in at the Classic Malibu factory to see Randall and Jake in office clothes.

Classic Malibu factory

Cyclone Hamish, hit Noosa during the visit and we snagged some footage of the biggest day, video below.

Noosa Points – Cyclone Hamish – 10.03.09 from swinhoe on Vimeo.

We toured in New Zealand for a while, including a visit to Raglan to catch a decent overhead swell.

Raglan point wave.

Raglan point - long view

The Noosa Festival threw-up a few gems too, seeing Bob McTavish and Rusty Miller surf first point, Dave Rastovich riding an alaia, and the premiere of the new Michael Peterson film “Searching for Michael Peterson” (website)

Searching for Michael Peterson

As well as the MP film, Picaresque was also premiered, to a great reception. One of the best surf films Ive seen in a while.

Check the tralier here.

all a bit busy

admin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:23:42 +0000

well, it seems to have been ages since this added to meaningfully… so lets have a stab now shall we ?

tonight is the beginning of a two rollercoaster… – cant wait.

im VJing with the C6 crew and Longrange at SE1 from 11pm till 3am tonight, then, i head home, get a few hours sleep, then drag myself to Kings Cross for a train to Newcastle. Steve is picking me up there, where we’ll drive up the coast to the beach and relative serenity.

Saturday, we have 20ft waves forecast with 20MPH wind… so we’ll see if the sea is worth a surf about… if not, diving with the seals could be on.
Sunday is more of the same, waves look better, wind lighter.. some good spots will open up .. looking forward to it. Of course friday, saturday and sunday will be punctuated with large amounts of drinking, catching up with old mates and talking story.

I think we have some time slotted in for a meal with the folks on saturday, so that could work well, really good to see them again.

Monday, will be a quick surf in tht morning, taking in the views and air, then heading for a train at Newcastle for 5pm. Landing back in London about 8pm.

Tuesday morning is 7am up and to Gatwick – flying to Innsbruck, then on to Mayrhofen for the JibVid team talk and build-up.
Wednesday is riding, shooting and learning the park… might even get a few hits in – lets see how the ankle feels..
Thursday is the start of the event, lots of shooting and coverage. Evenings are party’s all through the week.. and somehow im working… till 2am.
Friday is 3 hours of filming, then the close down. Afternoon is best trick in the park – guess where im going to be – then its a 6pm start for the judging and prize-giving. Afterparty ? – yeah, im sure.. go on then.

Saturday, we hope to get some decent hill time… ride some powder, learn the pistes – Mayrhofen is quite a short resort, so should be easy and quick.

Sunday last day of riding and researching, hit some pubs, hit some hills, then ge the car packed for the drive to Laax and the Brits.. Contest evening party arranged… would be rude not to turn up… ?

Monday, we’ll have the contest to cover and meet with contacts.. then its the work on Flims we’re producing… and maybe some snowbaording. Contest evening party…

Tuesday – reseach, riding and shooting at the contest. Hard life. Contest evening party…

Wednesday – last day of trip – run around madly, go riding, grab last shots not shot already, cover anyhting weather disallowed… head for the airport.

Land back in the UK, then off to Croyde for the weekend to see Jamie, get some surf, and maybe chill out a little…

This photo is my desktop at the moment – it arrived through Desklickr – sorry if its your photo