May I first thank Draugnar for the understanding message
I think you should play without me, there is way too much suddenly going on in my personal life for me to be able to play at my best & with a clear head.
I also have a few games already going on,
one I will gracefully exit asap, as the country I am playing is stuffed, so I won't be messing anyone about in that game.
There are three other games I have going and I have obligations to other players in alliance with me in two of those games and I must do the right thing by them.
Most Australian Police are honest and serve their community well.
A small minority would be suited to the sorts of Police Forces operating on behalf of
tinpot dictatorships. I think they somehow get past the psychological screening tests.
Anectdotal evidence suggests maybe up to 10% of applicants to Police Forces in Australia are trying to join up with a "hidden agenda" , eg get in, stay clean and work their way up to a position from which they can then become criminals.
Fortunately we have a relatively good, strongly independent judicial system.
I am still an idealist ( despite some experiences ) and have a lot of confidence that in the "fullness of time" we will prevail, and then the taxpayer can pay "us" lots of
compensation/damages/costs.
I am also in the period of the "anniversaries" of my deceased, but much loved cousin
Andy's death and birthday, and although it's 5 years since he died, that wound is still very raw. He served in Vietnam, and that war was a political mistake and a human tradgedy, but Andy was a conscript, and did his duty. He always said, after the war, that "the real enemy was never the VC", but were "those Politicians that caused the war and those that were responsible for sending him there".
( During his time on active service he had to fight, but I know of one occasion where he
"influenced events" to avoid a firefight between a Company of Australian soldiers and a force of VC, but his motivation was they had been out in the scrub for almost 3 weeks and he wanted to get back to Nui Dat, their base and get on the beer.
I also know he stopped a group of fellow soldiers from "gang raping" a small group of Vietnamese women that they knew had been delivering Rice and food to the VC that
were "blackmailing" the little village & it's farmers, and that they caught returning with empty "grass baskets". He also fought for the whole duration at the Battle of Firebase Coral and Firebase Balmoral--google those names- he experienced nightly "human wave" assaults by the VC and New Zealand Army & Australian Army Artillery firing using "open sights" ie "point blank range" and firing "Splintex" rounds over his and his mates positions because of the intensity of the VC assaults. )
Andy also got into BodyBoarding, he got some of the first "Morey Boggie Board" kits that Tom Morey (USA) sold to an Aussie and were bought to Sydney in 1976 or 77.
He went on to make his own designed Bodyboards & influenced BodyBoard design.
So I am immensely proud of him and miss him terribly. Tonight I wrote and sent a letter to his woman, and that has taken me 5 years to do.
He always told me I was a selfish person and since he died,
I have tried very hard to be less selfish and more generous to others, but...
So, I will share with you all a thing to do with BodyBoarding that was something he worked out--he surfed some crazy waves on a Bodyboard--Uluwatu in Bali at 8 ft with the Hawaiian surfer gerry lopez---
Most Body Boarders--99% will use a "standard" positioning for their hands--so the arm that is closest to the wave--eg the right arm when you "go to your right on a wave"---
the right hand will go to the front of the board, and the left hand ( "outside arm" ) will go to the "rail" at the "rear" of the board.
When they go "left on a wave" they will put their left hand at the front of the board and their right hand on the "outside" rail at the rear of the board.
Why, we do not know, it's the common technique, so is copied.
Then they find themselves "pullng up" on the outside rail--they are using their hips, or the weight of their hips" on the Body board as a "pivot point" and are trying to get
"downforce" on the other rail, the one in contact with the wave.
problem is, their hips are bouncing along and not a good "pivot point"
So Andy came up with "Switchhands" it's like being a "goofy footer" as a "stand up" surfer" but has real advantages--
So as you "paddle on" you have to think, and if you are going to "go right on the wave"
then position your right hand on the right rail at the rear of the board ( the rail in direct contact with the wave ) and your left hand at the nose of the Body board.
Also at this moment, do not hesitate and "hang back" on the board, GET FORWARD
get weight forward, this will make the Bodyboard accelerate, when you hang back, you have the "handbrake" on and when you are surfing "reef break waves" will come unstuck badly and get to be pounded on the reef.
If the wave is one where you will go "left on the wave" then you put your left hand at the rear rail in direct contact with the wave and your right hand at the front of the board.
The hand on the nose of the board is for "steering"
The hand on the rear part of the rail in direct contact with the wave is used to PUSH DOWN--this is much more effective than trying to use a "lever effect with a bouncing
"pivot point"
Steering becomes much more "instant response", you can turn much harder--
do a complete 180 degree change of direction an a sixpence.
You can also perform a stunt it took me years & many wipeouts on serious waves to work out-- travelling along the wave just under the breaking lip, right up high on the wave.
To do this you have to balance 3 things--the lateral speed of the breaking lip just above your head, the acceleration effect of maintaining weight well forward over the Bodyboard, that is wanting to "drop you down onto the wave face" and the
"adjustable bit" --Drag at the rear corner of the bodyboard in direct contact with the wave, you get this drag by pushing down hard at that rear part of rail, AND by using
the flipper on the leg closest to wave, you use that flipper to create Drag----
So you balance the Drag to keep you "hanging in the wave" right up high, just under the lip, too much Drag and you get caught by the breaking lip and wave and get " pitched over the falls", not enough Drag and you "drop out of the high part of the wave" and have to do a normal "bottom turn" -- this is less dramatic than going over the falls on a decent wave.
One thing you do not do is ease your weight back over the Bodyboard, you have to keep that weight forward.
So for any keen Bodyboarders, try out "Andy's Swtchhands" technique & if that works
for you then you can progress to the "zoom along just under the breaking lip, staying right up high on the wave trick"
We were never into the "spinning" trick that so many bodyboarders do,
If I want to do a 360 degree turn, that is what I do, so I "carve" a circle" on a wave face.
This is because we worked out how to put a hard fin ( we used water ski fins )
onto a Bodyboard, and make "twin fin" body boards with proper "down shaped rails" like a surfboard.
Bodyboards, even Mike Stewart branded bodyboards still have a "rail shape" that is two "curving flat surfaces" and they talk about a 60/40 rail or a 50/50 rail
Mike Stewart was quoted in an article YEARS AGO saying the perfect rail shape is that used by surfboards-- a "down shaped rail" ie a changing curve along a curve
trouble is the machines used to make the bulk of bodyboards cannot produce that shape-- yet it is a simple thing to do with a simple tool Andy worked out after years of shaping bodyboard rails by hand.
So I have a small collection of Bodyboards designed to suit serious reef break waves.
twin finners, plenty of "rocker" in bottom surface, down shaped rails that are "fat round rails" for the front third of the rail, so the water "rolls around" the rail & gives "grip" and change to a different shape by the rear third, that does not cause the water to "roll around the rail", but "encourages" the water to "piss off fast" ( less drag, more speed )
So if you are a keen Bodyboarder and you "adopt" "Andy's Switchhands" technique,
and like it, Please call it "Andy's Switchhands" in memory of a very Lovable Scallywag.
and "put it on" any other Bodyboarders you tell about it, to similarly call it "Andy's Switchhands".
If you are interested in Bodyboard design and production, send me a personal message if you wish to ask questions etc
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Top 300 GR Game starting soon
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