Graham Glass, etc.

SCUBA and Maui

I've been SCUBA diving all over the world but have never enjoyed a dive as much as I recently did in Maui. As you might expect, the weather was great, the sea was clear and the fish were colorful. But the highlight was when a pod of about 50 dolphins swam by us and I was lucky enough to be about 10 feet away from them. Apparently this is relatively rare. After experiencing the grace and power of the dolphins in the wild, everything else on the SCUBA dive seemed to pale by comparison.

McClain Tennis

McClain is an awesome SF tennis instructor. Here's a pic of him and I from a recent photoshoot:

Lords of the Lawn

If you like tennis, you will love this video!

And this video is just insane....

San Francisco Tennis Instruction, Part 2

A few months ago I posted about my tennis lessons with McClain tennis. I'm happy to report that they continue to go well, and that my forehand has gone from being weak to pretty decent. In order to keep the momentum up, I've increased to 3 lessons a week with the goal of entering some tournaments in the Fall. If you want to learn tennis in San Francisco, I highly recommend McClain.

Paragliding

I took my first paragliding lesson this Sunday, and it was both fun and exhausting. The lesson lasted about 6 hours and the main objective was to get used to setting up the paraglider and launching it into a light wind from a small slope.

The wind was unusually light which meant that we had to run faster than usual in order to generate lift. Everyone ended up spending a few exhilarating seconds in the air; just enough of a taste to entice us to take the next lesson. That being said, I ended up with quite a few minor bruises and enjoyed collapsing into my couch to watch Federer win the Wimbledon final.

EDU 2.0 Pitch at Vator.tv

Here's my pitch for edu 2.0 at vator.tv, a startup founded by my friend Bambi Francisco.

Awesome Pre-Wimbledon Tennis Clip

Wimbledon is fast approaching, at which point I'll be glued to the TV for most of the day. In celebration of the rich history of tennis, check out this awesome clip from a Federer-Hewitt game; it was voted the "best point of the year". Fans of Roger Federer will also appreciate this top-10 shots compilation.

San Francisco Tennis Instruction

If you live in San Francisco and want to learn tennis, I highly recommend McClain Tennis. I take lessons from McClain twice a week and my game has already improved a lot. McClain is a great guy who has a gift for pinpointing areas of weakness and giving clear and concise feedback on how to improve.

Geocaching: Florence the Cow

When I used to live in Washington, D.C, my friend Pilar and I hid a travel bug in a geocache. The bug was a Cow called Florence, and her tag explained that "her udders were aching to explore the city".

Geocachers found her and have steadily moved her from cache to cache in a series of adventures. I received an email today with pictures that show Florence enjoying the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Here she is standing next to the stone of Roy Rogers and Trigger:

Cycling without a helmet

I love to cycle, but I don't like wearing a helmet. The main reason is that I love the feeling of freedom and the wind in my hair. However, my cautious side usually wins and I end up wearing the annoying contraption just in case. So I was particularly interested to read this article which claims that wearing a helmet makes it more likely you'll get hit. Apparently drivers that see you're wearing a helmet assume you're a good cyclist and then drive closer to you than they would otherwise.