Hello Paul, When you say “I doubt whether general mushy beach break surf is going any faster than twelve knots”, I assume that you are talking about the speed of the wave towards the beach, not the speed of the rider. Our average small swells are doing 10 to twelve knots when they start to break.
I am interested to know why you think gps can’t be used to accurately measure short bursts of speed. All I have heard about the cheaper gps units is that they sometimes lose the satellite signals over 45 knots, but that this doesn’t occur with the more expensive units. What limitations on accuracy do you expect with a unit like the ‘Gecko’?
Hello Paul, When you say “I doubt whether general mushy beach break surf is going any faster than twelve knots”, I assume that you are talking about the speed of the wave towards the beach, not the speed of the rider. Our average small swells are doing 10 to twelve knots when they start to break.
I am interested to know why you think gps can’t be used to accurately measure short bursts of speed. All I have heard about the cheaper gps units is that they sometimes lose the satellite signals over 45 knots, but that this doesn’t occur with the more expensive units. What limitations on accuracy do you expect with a unit like the ‘Gecko’?
Roy
How about a radar gun like the cops use to measure speed?
Got some insane rides today Malibu area, 8-10 foot reef peaks, rolling to 6-8 foot, walled up point lines with a big dead spot to traverse. The longest one I had was .33 of a mile… I passed 2 longboarders, just incredible full bombing trim speed for around 1.5 minutes, really leaned over, outside hand on the corner, inside hand alongside my body… it was a good position that I found myself in, a few times flying!
I had one wave that I ended up soooo far over the nose that I could not believe! But the surf mat never pearled! I love to chase after people… seeing the (Brian Taylor`s film) “State of S” segment really helped showed me at all cost to get the speed up!
Picked up on this little mini hopping pump… I saw George (Greenough) do… I need bigger legs and bigger fins… when I kicked mad fury I could catch/stay with almost anything! I’m pretty stuck on almost an exact 90 degree bend (estimated air volume) when I roll off the mat, just have to wait to see how it reacts to the cooler water temp, then re-adjust it.
No, James isnt holding out. While he only wrote about his riding time and distance, Im certain he can fill in the other details. Hopefully he`ll check back in.
the gps has a lot more use then just a simple speedometer combined with a program like usaphotomaps
on a computer interface and you have an extremely powerful data logging and map recon tool
on the day Dale posted in malibu area i did not have a gps with me but later using create route in usaphotomaps was able to accurately judge the distance of the ride
the time estimate was an estimate
i highly recommend usaphotomaps and 3dem as a start into the world of gps and computer funk
i made some awesome elevation profiles in 3dem and wrapped pics from usaphotomaps over them for some unique views of the cal coastline
Thanks for the link to the gpsinformation web site–good information. I have one remaining question, however. The speed information page you supplied the link to indicates that speeds are not instantaneous, but rather the result of a Kalman filter. However, they don’t indicate how long a period is sampled to get the “instantaneous” reading.
I have a Rockwell OEM evaluation unit that interfaces (only…no display on the unit itself) to a computer and gives you either unprocessed or processed information down to a pretty basic level so that you can process it yourself in whatever manner you desire. Without any filtering on my part (although I can’t say if there has been any preprocessing in the unit before it spits out the info), the instantaneous speeds (1 sec intervals) it outputs have fluctuations of about 1-2 mph (in random directions) rather than about 0.5 mph. Hence I’m guessing that the “instantaneous” speeds that are the result of a filtering process to get down to +/- 0.5 mph accuracy are probably averaged over a period of at least multiple seconds. Is this averaging info available from the mfg’r?
cant answer the question but in real world usage it is extremely accurate
using it to measure walking speeds it is essentially 1 step behind you
taking tiny steps for a slow reading .8 mph then taking one big step at 3 mph and stopping show 3 mph as your stopped then next reading is .5 or so and then 0
so it can accurately record bursts of speed as small as 1 step or less
the +/- .5 seems generous i would say .1-.2+/-
garmin geko2 is aprox 3.3 oz or 91 grams
size of a business card
thick as a bic lighter
ipx waterproof to 1 meter for 30 mins
i would not recommend using without an aquapak unless you have money to burn
and or love taking risks with 150 $ toys
aquapak is see through perfectly sized and straps it to your arm get the case they use
for the small walkie talkies to have kiteboard instructors talk to their students
Here’s one good reason why we don’t use a cop with radar gun: We don’t want the plods down the beach. They already have security cameras on every second lamp post. Fortunately they can’t read the warrant of fitness stickers on my van with them or they would discover that I haven’t had one since 1989. We avoid cops by reading the tea leaves before we head to the beach.
upside down is a lot to ask,perhaps on its ear like the dog in the little rascals tipping his head to one side momentarily …and then resuming it mindless pursuit of the mundane…like chewing on the leg for flea mainainence…I see your 70 # and raise you 70 to 140# and no wax and no fin and blowing by the x-game brain at double the speed ,only to be ignored …ambrose… twas all in fun,pop gos the weasel
They already can and it could! Unfortunately my ‘fastest ever board’, the ultra flexible X-15, is trapped in Dusty Waddell’s surfboard prison (right next to the gear taken from Mr Dora by the Gisborne police) and it is unlikely to get out of there unless he croaks. I have been riding my D 11-9 which is fast but not as fast. I had better wheel out the ‘Resolute Salmon’ speed board and see what I can do. The Resolute Salmon is horrendously fast but has a long keel fin which means that it draws very long lines, (the kind that most people call straight) so I have to be careful not to mow people down with it! I have been trying to publish a video clip of a speedy section or two but am getting strange results.
If it is going to be no wax then can I wear golf shoes for grip? Is that 140mph or 140 lbs? The surfing world is already tipped over daily due to the earth’s rotation what’s the flea factor?
Just to be on the record… I dislike competition, and all the clocks and gadgets that go along w/ them. There is always someone better, or faster, so who cares. Hog wash, I say, but hey, I love you for trying if you want to…
Seriously, mine is great fun. It’s much heavier than the mat I received from Dale but still a blast to ride. I kind of like the molded hand grip loops. My girlfriend has taken it to the mountains and used it as a river float - she would never be allowed to use the Neumatic in such a fashion.
I haven’t done any speed calculations but it gets a pretty high score on the fun scale.
