Surfing The Maldives

With waves like Pasta Point, Sultans, Jail Breaks and Cokes, the Maldives is a perfect tropical surf trip. Whether you score barrels and have the time of your life or get a little bit skunked for waves, the Maldives is a beautiful place to visit. If you’re staying on land, it is also an idea to take your wife or girlfriend with. In fact, it is an excellent idea, as there are no females to speak of on the islands, and in fact, there might not be too many female Maldivians at all. The resorts are geared towards pleasure and luxury, as well as for surfing & yoga. It is illegal to bring alcohol into the Maldives. Everyone knows it, and there are signs all over the airports. So if you bring a bottle, they are going to confiscate it. It’s that simple, yet so many surfers entering the country try to get a few bottles in. They always get caught. When I arrived, people were getting caught all around me. If you want to get alcohol in, then get those plastic tots that you can buy from the bottle store. They don’t come up on x-rays, and you can hide them inside bubble wrap between your boards, as long as they don’t burst. I got 112 tots into the country.There really isn’t much travel once you’re inside the country. You’re living on an island and surfing that island break, taking a dhoni out for daily surf missions or living on a luxury yacht. You’ll fly in and get transferred to your boat or island, and the rest is taken care of.There are plenty of surf camps, and new ones starting up here and there. The main ones are the Hudhurenfushi resort, formerly Lohifushi, and the Dohnveli resort. Dohnveli Surf Resort / Water Suites / BookingMany of the more modern resorts are pretty expensive. Boats are good options simply because you have access to more waves. Still, there are some hardcore wave ownership rules going down over there with many surf camps owning exclusive rights to the waves on that island through the ‘house reef’ Maldivian law.The best waves are those of Lohi’s, Pasta Point, Jailbreak, Honkies and Sultans. There is also Chickens and Cokes. Kandooma Surf Resort / BookingThere are great waves to be found around the Kandooma Resort, and there are incredible waves further south, including Vodi Point at Niyama Resort. Club Med Kani Surf Resort / Direct BookingNinjas is a great wave that breaks in front of the Club Med resort, and there are even more great waves deep south that are accessed by boat.There is not much to worry about while surfing the Maldives. There are a few things to watch out for. The coral is quite shallow at some breaks. Strong currents called the Malé Express that runs between the islands and can carry you out to sea in minutes. The waves are not as intense as Indonesia, and the water is similarly bath-warm.The exclusivity at the resorts works both ways. On the one hand, exclusivity goes against what surfers believe in. Waves are free, that the ocean is for everyone, and that surfers are a brotherhood (and sisterhood) that looks out for each other and shares what they can.Vodi Point at Niyama ResortOn the other hand, however, to enjoy an exclusive holiday at Pasta Point, where it can’t really get crowded, is unparalleled. The people there are usually salt-of-the-earth, and the vibe is incredible. It is something quite hard to describe and, after experiencing it once, I yearn for it again. I want to take my family there. It is expensive, but worth every cent of it."We left South Africa in September en route for the surf trip of a life time. We were headed to the central atolls. May, June and July have the biggest swells - but August and September offer even better conditions. As South African surfers travelling to the warm, idyllic Indian ocean island of Chaaya Dhonveli, we were frothing. Pasta Point is notorious for being the most consistent wave in the Maldives and it breaks almost year round. The famous left-hander breaks over smooth reef and is an incredible ride in all conditions, without being too sketchy. The island limits the number of surfers to 30 at a time, so crowds are controlled and waves guaranteed. The island is also the best positioned for quick access to nearby Sultans, Honkeys and Jailbreaks - all public waves - which enables a short exclusive window in the morning before the crowds arrives."Film by Roarke Bouffe on location at Pasta Point


The Dawn Patrol Of The Mentawais

Who really knows who the first surfer or surfers were to find and surf the Mentawais. History books say that it was Martin Daly, who took the boys out to a few other islands, and before that Lance Knight, who discovered Lances Right and Lances Left. The place was kept so secret for so long. Much of those early days has been lost in the mists of time. We do know that it was Martin's trip with Pottz, Tom Carroll and Ross Clark-Jones that got the story out. Apart from the few photos that emerged from that trip, there was also a shonky VHS video, hand-held with ancient technology that started doing the rounds. Not that it mattered. Before long Quiksilver released Surfers Of Fortune, and everyone who saw that movie and saw Kelly Slater getting ridiculously barreled at Lance's Right over and over again wanted a piece of it.The waves that they surfed on the fateful trip weren't only around the Mentawais. They travelled further out, a few islands further south and west that had a few other waves. Big lefts. Fast rights. Exciting times. On the big left that they discovered, Martin said in a recent article on surfline.com that, "Potts had the most amazing drop. I now knew the difference between them and us mere mortals."After Quiksilver ran their videos, the world found out about the Mentawais, and with a fair bit of missioning, it was even possible to go and stay with the local tribespeople and get a few of the best waves in the world at about 10cents a wave. It was a departure of sorts. People who had been going to Nias for years started looking further south, surfers who hang around Bali every year started staring at charts and trying to figure out what was going on up there. As the demand grew, so did the surf charter industry. While it was possible to feral it out, the islands were heavily laden with malaria, and there were no fresh supplies available anywhere. Food and water were often what was carried in on your back, and then fresh fish with the locals. It was rough on the islands. It was always stifling hot, and people died from malaria all the time. There were no cold beers around, and there were no showers. Sponsored surfers like cold beers and showers, and Frosted Flakes and cold milk.The Morning Session.The surf charter industry in the Mentawais snowballed. It soon turned into a flourishing business where brands paid very top dollars for charter boats, and these charters served as simple photo trips, with mags getting the images, and brands getting the coverage. This quickly evolved, and brands started taking entire ranges out to sea, to shoot surfers in exotic locations wearing next years' board shorts and vests. This carried on for years, with more boats coming into the scene. For boat owners it was a win-win situation, with skippers getting paid good money in western currency, living for next to nothing on Indonesian Rupiah, and still getting the chance to surf the best waves in the world with the best surfers in the world. These charters had very little to do with the tribespeople, as the charters never made landfall, and a disparity grew. The locals continued to live on their own poverty line, and they continued to die from malaria, without the knowledge of keeping the 'nyamuk' (mosquito) at bay. In 1999 surfer and doctor Dave Jenkins went for a trip to the Mentawais to find perfect waves and instead he found people dying from, as he put it, "treatable and preventable situations." The death rate from malaria, malnutrition and inadequate living standards changed Dr Jenkins life and what was necessary. He subsequently started the renowned Surf Aid to help the Mentawai people. The NGO has been going ever since and has been saving countless lives in the shadows of the jungle. Surfers simply cavort in the waves.On the other side of the coin, a bodyboarder named Rick Cameron suddenly emerged on the scene and decided it upon himself to take over the tourism policies and systems of the island chain. Armed with his charter boat The Electric Lamb as well as a slew of less than trustworthy Indonesian tourism officials, Rick started putting bizarre laws into place to make it as difficult as possible to get to surf the Mentawais. You had to go through him and pay your way in. Rick's ownership of the breaks in the Mentawais didn't last long.. With Cameron trying to enforce rules, charter captains started pondering the same policies, and on top of that, there was the great tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.Lunch Time For The MentawaisIn the Great Tsunami 250million people died, Banda Aceh was all but levelled, and it wasn't the end as it was followed up by the 2010 tsunami. This was more devastating to the Mentawais, with hundreds of people dead and many more seriously injured. Surfers who were in the area were generally extremely lucky, with the tidal wave only passing under their boats, and it was predominantly low, outlying areas that were affected. The Mentawais was starting to look like a very unfavourable place to go to for a quick surf trip. Some of the waves had changed.Further afield, Asu had too much reef sitting out of the water after the Tsunamic shift, and Indicators was all but unrideable except on the highest of tides. The Machine, as well, became a memory of left-hand tubes. Still, when it had all settled, there was one element that soon came back into place: the waves in the Mentawais were still that good.Nowadays, in the year 2015, a lot of people have surfed the Mentawais, from 4Bobs to John Candies, from Nokanduis to The Hole, from outer islands Enggano to Mega to the very, very outskirts and those secret spots. There is not that much left to discover in the area, with the best waves, it seems, open and free for all. Just imagine, however, what it must have been like to see HT's with a solid 4-foot groundswell and a fresh little offshore wind, and the most ridiculous barrels rifling through again and again and again with no one around. John McGroder found it overwhelming and dedicated his life, himself his wife and his two children on the Barrenjoey – to getting sessions at The Office, as he affectionately calls Lances Right. Or Ray Willcoxen and the perfection that is Rifles, or Christie Carter and Nokanduis. So perfect and mind-blowing are the waves, that no double Tsunami was going to keep the hordes away forever. No, they kept on coming back like the creatures in The Walking Dead, mindlessly shuffling back for more barrels to satisfy their basic needs, and the charter industry coughed, spluttered, and continued along its merry way.The Afternoon Session In The MentawaisMuch like the three land camps at G-Land, so the camps started increasing all over the Mentawais. Some were in front of good waves, and some were in front of excellent waves. Others were built cheaply on the wrong side of the islands and visitor needed to route march to the waves, while others were built on tiny atolls in front of reasonably average waves. Some were developed in such remote places that even though the waves were excellent, no one made it out that far. The resorts at Rifles and Kanduis, for example, are of excellent quality with all the mod cons of the Internet, rim-flow pools and air conditioning everywhere. With this instant gratification, travellers found it less than necessary to travel to the outskirts. It didn't take long, however, for the land camps to start making some sort of ownership of the waves nearby, and new levels of confusion and problems started kicking in. There are the boat access rights at Macaronis, with only two boats allowed at a time and the Macaronis land camp working with the local tribe to ensure this rule. Not ideal if you're a charter boat with guests wanting to surf Maccas, but the land camp has their rights, and charter boats need to work within the system, book their berths in advance, and keep to the two boats maximum.Right now, there is a simple system of taxes in place, with every surfer having to pay a government tax to enjoy paradise. On top of that, there are charter-specific taxes, in which charter owners and land camp owners ask for donations to locals, medical facilities and other charities that might be needed in their respective areas. More taxes are coming into place, with the government set to extract decent sized fees from all surfers and all boats. There is more to come.The Sunset Session.As in anywhere in the world, you can still have uncrowded sessions. If you go to Hawaii and you're not a local or a top surfer, you can forget about any set waves at Pipe or Rockies or V-Land, but you can still find space at Gas Chambers, Gums, Freddyland and Backyards. You just need to be appreciative of what you can get and accept that other people are ahead of you in the queue and they're going to be there for many years to come. In the Mentawais there might be some sort of stricter legislation coming, as mentioned, more taxes, but the point of the matter is that with more and more surfers worldwide, there will always be more surfers in the Mentawais. What was once a curtailing of too many operators has, besides all the worries, become a free for all, and the capacity of the area is quite close to breaking point. In a recent interview with Kelly Slater, who attended a crowded-as-Lowers session at one of the best waves in the Mentawai with 11 boats moored in the channel, tends to agree. "It's fucking crowded everywhere," said The King. "I'm not against 'private' breaks if they're in a faraway land and difficult to access and some guy figured it out and set up a camp or boat, but when the floodgates are opened, it's over."In the Mentawais, it does seem that the floodgates are well and truly open. Martin Daly, one of the main reasons, if not THE reason for the opening up of the area, has already fled the scene, and has set up base in the Marshall Islands. There he has discovered many excellent waves, predominantly right-handers, and a place that should eventually take some of the flak off the crowded Indonesian scene. The Marshall Islands are most famous for Bikini Atoll. Between 1946 and 1958 the American army displaced the inhabitants from the island and launched 23 nuclear bombs on the atoll and nearby reefs. They might soon become famous for waves, of which Slater is a fairly frequent visitor. When it comes to chasing solitude, he's all for it. "We are all to blame, but the numbers have exponentially increased in recent years. I'm super flustered with it."Is it the twilight for the Mentawais? No, not at all. It is just a correction that is coming, a slight adjustment in the mindset of people who are going to go there. The waves are still going to be excellent, some of the best barreling waves in the known surfing universe. There are just going to be less to go around. Way less. "Maybe we all need to practice transcendental meditation," reckons Slater, "and be happy for the person lucky enough to get a wave in the crowds."And, believe it or not, there is still some room for discovery in the Mentawais. The area had been surfed for over a decade before Greenbush revealed herself. There was a recent, excellent discovery last year of a right that charter boats had been sailing past for years, unaware of this near-shore gem, and there are rumours of more endless lefts, peeling forever, at various remote islands and atolls. That part of the adventure, while not as heady as the early years, is still in existence.Amongst the politics, the crowds, malaria, the tidal waves and the intricacies of Padang, there are still perfect reefs, with clean ocean swells breaking over them. If you get there, you might get the wave of your life or the flogging of your life. Both are good for the soul.Let us guide you to find the best suitable surf charter vessel for you. Join a trip as a single surfer, with a small group or book a private surf boat with your friends. LTL Surf Charters plants trees to offset your carbon footprint. We plant 10 trees per single surfer booking and 100 if you book a private charter.


Experimental wooden boards

Ben Weiland has been on the forefront of arctic surf exploration for the last 7 years. Along with partners in crime like Chris Burkard the world has shrunk greatly since they’ve set their sites and cameras on cold empty waves.‘Mr. Kookbox’ is a short story about @nolecossart ‘s obsession in building experimental wooden boards based off of Tom Blake’s 1930’s design. @bobcatdavis and I spent the last few months shooting, editing, animating and illustrating this piece. With extra time on our hands during the edit, we dove in and explored some new creative avenues. Huge thanks to @kleankanteen for supporting! This film accompanies an article about Nole in the latest issue of @surfersjournal so be sure to check it out, it’s epic. And thanks to @apiary_ of course! 🙏🏻 Music by @mapacheband and @seanwspellman . 🙌🏻A short story about Nole Cossart's experimental journey into 1930's surfboard building. Directed by Ben Weiland. Edited by Brian Davis. A Story by FIELDER


Wild Times In Secret Chile

There is a headland in deep Chile that is still relatively inaccessible. Many years ago it was a popular camping spot for surfers who would set tents up on the hill, surrounded by the thickest, deepest forest of trees. Through the trees along the edge of the headland, you could see the lefts peeling off forever. One of the rarest of gems to get these days, this left is one of those waves that can and does literally change lives.More and more surfers found out about this left, the long sand bottom, the ridiculously easy tubes, the tranquil setting and the incredible odds of it ever getting crowded. Chile has many hidden gems, here's another one. Don't go looking for it.Access was a real mission that used to include a full one day hike along soft sand with your boards and your food and water. Along with the surfers finding out about the wave, so did a few of their friends. Under Pinochet's rule, many of the Chilean people were repressed and lived in fear. They had no manner or means of expressing themselves or of cutting loose. So instilled a rebel nature amongst a large section of the youth. They found that drugs were often great outlets, and a scourge of acid took over a generation.Young Chilean people, girls and guys, would congregate on the headland, bring wine and acid, tune in, drop out, and play bongo drums for weeks on end. They were very far out of harm's way. They never really bothered the surfers except for keeping them awake with their bongoing. His wasn't really a problem, because the surfers were usually beyond exhaustion after paddling up the point all day.One fateful weekend a group of students from the capital city of Santiago, came out to have a party on the beach. At the same time, a large group of surfers gathered at the headland to surf a fresh spring southerly swell. All was good, and the waves and the parties went on for a few days. Then a few more party people arrived including one strange cat from the south of Chile who had come up to see what these city people get up to. The south was more rural, farmlands, even slightly uncivilized. This guy was a wild Chilean cowboy, and he brought with him some acid that he had scored along the way and handed it out to everyone.The party people started hallucinating heavily from the onset of the new batch of acid. Bad hallucinations of death and devils, of snakes and goats heads. They were all convinced that the headland was haunted. They thought that evil spirits had taken possession of the woodlands. Spirits were now trying to get hold of their minds, of their souls. Mass hysteria took over, and the crazed people set fire to the headland. The headland was massive; a thick forest that went back about twenty kilometres, and these giant trees started burning furiously.Trees that were hundreds of years old and stretched into the sky all started burning, and the surfers ran for the safety of the beach. There they found crazy gibbering fools dancing in circles on the beach and shouting at the forest, as they tripped hard on the bad acid and freaked out. The wood burned for days, and 90% of the trees were levelled or burnt down. Due to the inaccessibility of the area, there was nothing the authorities could do except saving the villages in the danger line further inland. When the partygoers came around and realized what they had done, they fled before they could be held accountable for one of the most significant fires in Chile. As a result, the surfers got blamed.That was the story Matiaz told us as we sat around the Hotel Chile watching a giant south swell grind down the Puntillo. We were looking for a place that would get the same swell, but that would barrel over a sandy bottom as opposed to soften and fatten and tease as the Puntillo did. Los Lobos had provided us with moments of terror and pleasure. The secret spots down south had also thrown some great barrels. The weirdness of the people and the wildness of the terrain rattled us after a few days. We heard people screaming from their tiny huts at night, we had been robbed, and a drunken cowboy had threatened us one morning.The people living near the best spot, in a deserted farmyard, were alcoholics of the finest degree. They were continuously sipping on some kind of brown barley whiskey and mumbling foreign dialect at us through toothless gums, living on the beach in front of perfect waves.Chile was a wild trip, but we needed to get into this last area to call our trip done, so we agreed to Matiaz's deal and got ready to head into the reserve. We drove through the night, along sand roads and over loose gravel. We stopped a few times to lift trees out our path, and we arrived in the morning on top of a massive cliff. The headland was there, just as described, but all that remained were the blackened stumps of giant trees. The entire cape stretching back as far as we could see was black and levelled. Bits of shrubs and bush appeared here and there, but on the whole, it was a dead landscape. But that took us all of a millisecond to take in as our eyes wandered back the ocean.Not this spot, but some epic B-Roll from ChileA six-foot set was coming around the corner and heading for the bank. From our vantage point, we could clearly see the line of sand that sat perfectly alongside the jutting rocks. The set started feeling a bit of a warble off the top rocks, before steadying herself and setting up for what looked like a mile-long barrel section. "This is going to be good." I thought out loud as we all stared and started mind-surfing together.


Exploring Web3 Music Streaming

The example follows a musician that launches their debut album. In order to listen to the album & all subsequent works, a user needs to acquire a token of the artist and show that they are holding it.In order to buy this token (say: artistToken), the user spends ETH. The largest percentage of the ETH that is spent to buy the artistToken is kept in a communal pool with a small percentage of the ETH being sent as revenue to the artist. When the user does not want to listen to the music anymore, they can sell their artistToken, and get some ETH back from the communal pool. This artistToken that is sold is then removed from circulation.The ETH cost to buy the artistToken & the ETH the user receives when selling their artistToken is determined by how many tokens are in circulation. As more tokens are in circulation, the larger the communal pool is. There is a correlation between the amount of tokens in circulation and the amount of users who want to listen to the music. A user can however buy a token & not use it to access the media (for whatever reason).This cost to buy & sell is plotted on a specific, hardcoded curve. Different curves (exponential, linear or sigmoid) have different around outcomes on how token buyers view their commitments.Over time thus, the price will increase & decrease along this curve in order to consume the media as users buy & sell their artistTokens. The supply of tokens will thus grow and shrink relative to the amount of people who want to listen to the music.Users who buy an artistToken early receives a benefit for being an early adopter if they choose to exit & sell their artistToken when the popularity has increased & the amount of tokens in supply & the size of the communal pool has done so similarly.Equally, a user who buys an artistToken at the peak of the song’s popularity and sells it back at at a time when there’s less outstanding supply, will get less ETH back than when they bought access.Second Order Benefits: Fan-Artist Connections, Early Adopter Benefits & CurationBy requiring a token to get access to the media in this manner allows various second-order benefits.1) A musician has direct access to their fans who have committed to listen to their music. The token holders are the true fans who aren’t pirating the music elsewhere. The musician can offer various benefits to the token holders above & beyond media access. For example, if it costs say, 1 artistToken to listen to the music, they can offer higher tier rewards, such as: 1 artistToken == access to discography.100 artistTokens == access to bonus content & media.1000 artistTokens == access to an encrypted, fan-only communication forum.10000 artistTokens == access to meet & greets in cities where the musician is playing.2) Early Adopter Benefits & Curatorial MarketsIf more media is consumed in a similar manner, curators can be rewarded for surfacing novel content by undergoing opportunity cost by staking their ETH towards various forms of media. Thus early adopters of popular media (across all media) get rewarded & in turn allow others to find novel media to consume. They are being rewarded for doing the job curating through skin-in-the-game.Optional Platform Revenue:As with CryptoKitties, it is not necessary on a protocol level to leverage a fee. In CryptoKitties case, they can be traded/bought/sold through other means, but if done through the CryptoKitties website they *do* charge a fee.Similarly, Ujo can charge a similar fee if tokens are bought/purchased through Ujo & thus it allows Ujo to earn revenue from the economic activity taking place.Reliance:At this stage, a centralized provider is required to check if whomever is accessing the content has the required amount of tokens. Potentially in the future, the encryption/decryption & file serving can be done automatically without requiring a centralized provider. Additional cryptographic research can be done here.As is the case with emergent outcomes, anyone can optionally choose to give access to media to anyone with a token, and thus it’s possible that anyone can become a media provider with consent of the musician.Website: ujomusic.comRead More💭 Ads didn’t kill content monetisation - our lack of imagination didIn The Rationalization of Publishing, Ev Williams (founder of Medium) audaciously declared the advertising-only model for online monetisation dead. He first recalls the eureka moment when one…ParatiiFelipe Gaúcho PereiraRe-Fungible Token (RFT)UPDATE: The Re-Fungible Token concept has been converted into an EIP draft that can be viewed here: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/1634 The point of this writing is to explore the potential…Mediumbilly rennekampTokens 2.0: Curved Token Bonding in Curation MarketsSince introducing Curation Markets in earnest earlier this year, quite a few projects have started adopting some of the designs. Curation Markets is a set of protocol designs that aims to reduce…MediumSimon de la RouviereSolving Price Discovery Of Non-Rivalrous Goods (with Curved Bonding)How much should I sell my software for? How much should I sell this song for? How much is this e-book worth? This fundamental question is often asked about creators of non-rivalrous goods: goods…MediumSimon de la Rouviere


Exploring Web3 Video Streaming

Over 2 billion people watch online videos, every month, around the world. The medium grows exponentially. Manipulating video on the web has become easy after HTML5 and the  tag (along upper-level abstractions like Video.js). However, streaming remains complex."We once heard a large (~20%) share of Amazon’s transcoding services revenue came from Google itself, which needed to outsource the processing for some of the monstrous amount of content Youtube got. The anecdote may be false, but the point remains: it’s just impractical to compete with the big oligopolies in economies of scale, when it comes down to streaming."Value capture is a topic that always seemed a bit overlooked in business modelling. Traditionally, as Peter Thiel frequently points out, there’s little correlation between value creation and value capture (e.g. one may generate tons of revenue without really profiting from it). Some industries have even established dynamics that clearly separate value creation from capture: think of the film industry, with production companies doing all the creative and operation work on one side, while, on the other hand, distributors and exhibitors take 80–90% of the share of profit, at the end of a movie’s life cycle.In the context of video, specifically, we need reliable decentralised transcoding (Livepeer). We need incentivised bandwidth allocation (Filecoin, Swarm). We need decentralised querying (The Graph). We need permissioned storage (Lightstreams, Unlock). We need token abstraction (0x). We need app-to-app, or even vertical-specific relayers (Amadeus). We need global identity standards, and we need scalability.We can already say we have peer to peer storage and delivery (IPFS), plus a bare identity backbone and a decently automatable payments infrastructure (ethereum). If that all sounds too otherworldly, bear with us: it means there’s a clear path to decentralisation in the field, although self-governing media applications are not around the corner yet.Today, we’re still at ‘newspaper on the iPad’ stage. Clunky UX, abstract concepts, a constant struggle to bridge scientific research with technique and implementation (the usage rate for the first TCR live on Ethereum is close to negligible, so far).Teams will get this wrong a thousand times. Then, when the “Gangnam Style of crypto-video platforms” happens, puts in practice a redistributive model that works, and enriches those who spotted the content early on, many will ponder: “how haven’t I thought of this earlier!?”.Well, few believed the internet would ever handle video, in the beginning, and here we are, a couple decades later, discussing its intersection with crypto-assets.Industry-wide shifts are usually unclear until they do come to fruition.I believe that the trend towards self-sovereignty, privacy and “user-generated-work” means institutional investors are losing the power to dictate the direction of content monetisation as a whole. The monopolies in the space have already been making it unattractive to VCs. Social consequences of “surveillance-by-default” are becoming clearer to all. In the end of the day, “redistributive” models basically recognise that consumers who’re sovereign over their own money, attention and data are, in practice, investors themselves.We don’t need to play investor storytime with them. We need to get them to play the investors in content platforms we come to build. If it sounds too far off, still, make an effort to believe: with a little bit of imagination and courage, it becomes conceivable that ads or subs are not all that’s left for content makers.Researching & developing video applications on top of public web3 infrastructure.Imagine a library any developer can use to put a video stream and get a playable url for it, while it gets ingested, stored, transcoded and distributed behind the scenes, all through non-centralised means? With this, one can easily build out-of-the box decentralisable video-powered web applications. Paratii.JS has early functionalities for handling tokens too, meaning one will soon be able to use it to set monetisation models for videos, collect earnings, participate in curation, and else.Extrapolating the definition of a “redistributive” monetisation model, one realises the potential of self-sustainable content communities as a business model. Despite alternatives for “having stakes on content”, and for more “distributive value exchanges”, we are still far from having autonomous media apps (a.k.a. the decentralised YouTube).Under a generic framework for distributed curation, TCR tokens confer holders the right to adjudicate over the contents of a registry. Such registry usually requires a minimum stake for new listings to come through, it puts in place propose-challenge mechanisms for any token holder to curate over listed items, and it redistributes stakes between token holders aligned with their pairs every time challenges happen or stakes are forfeited.Example: Relevant, ... (Aragon Video about TCR's!!!)Value accretion: if a list accurately represents its focal point; and (2) this focal point is of interest to certain audience(s); TCRs tokens will accrue value proportionally to the value that listees earn by being in the list. In the context of video, if content consumers desire high-quality curation, and content producers like to be included in well curated lists, “a market can exist in which the incentives of rational, self-interested token holders are aligned towards curating a list of high quality”.The paradigm shift begins by understanding that it’s not one who’s capitalising on anything anymore, but rather many. To illustrate with an example, let’s take recommendations, something that’s at the heart of modern video platforms and is constantly being optimised.But optimised for whom? Ad-dependent business models might shape their engines to present users with promotional content highly likely to be watched; platforms seeking engagement will maximise exposure to addictive sugary videos. Whatever the drive is, incentives are generally skewed in favour of businesses, and in disfavour of end-users.Now imagine a different scenario, in which content is distributed in a p2p fashion and traffic data is not privately held. Instead, user behaviour is tracked client-side, properly anonymised, and then broadcast to peers, being eventually registered in a public ledger where data will live forever, untampered and available for anyone to explore or build predictive models upon. Now why would you build a predictive model upon pieces of “anonymous navigation history”? Because if data is public, so should recommendations be. In this hypothetical paradigm, we could have a market of decentralised engines analysing traffic patterns, applying their own prediction strategies and updating an index that measures quality of outcomes, in a way that any user can choose which recommender to subscribe to, and poll suggestions from. The issue of filter bubbles is tackled at the same time that a new revenue flow is opened up, by replacing the work of monolithic recommendation engines by that of competing algorithms in an open market.In this case, there’s still a handful of practical constraints, but, a decade ago, the model could hardly be conceived (in fact, a decade ago we were discussing about ads on amateur videos, as you can see below). Along the same lines, the longtime debate comparing “advertising-supported” vs. “subscription-based” vs. “pay-per-view” monetisation models has became anachronistic in an age of customisable smart contracts. Discussion has to be broadened to encompass a wide range of alternative methods being tried out. However, development still has to go a long road, before we can have fully-decentralised video sharing applications operating on global scale.While the code works, it’s still unusable on the Ethereum mainnet. Primordial scalability issues (when it comes to public chains) are intentionally unaddressed, and no external security audit has been conducted. There is a lot of work ahead until this becomes a viable system.The public nature of blockchains makes privacy a sensitive issue. How can media buyers (be they advertisers) know who they are targeting without everyone else in the world knowing about user’s private data? Even if we don’t want ads, how can we build content engines aware of the users they’re dealing with, without letting them overexposed? A useful reference here is Brave’s use of Anonize-ZKP to convey ad attributions without leaking private information. Another heavily discussed issue regards the ability of networks to provide sufficing incentives for audience itself to moderate abusive or inappropriate content. If the internet brought self-publishing to a global scale, will web3 make self-tokenisation the next big trend in digital media distribution?Credit: Felipe Gaúcho PereiraUpdate:Google is teaming up with Theta Labs in a move aimed to help the video delivery network onboard users through Google Cloud. As part of the partnership, the tech giant is assisting Theta with its Mainnet 2.0 launch, said Theta Labs CEO Mitch Liu. Google will become the protocol’s fifth external validator node, staking 5 million THETA tokens (worth about $2.4 million at a press-time price of $0.48 apiece) on the network.Theta rewards network participants for relaying video content to other users using their spare bandwidth and computing resources. The end result should be a “massive decentralized mesh network of relayers,” Liu said.Eventually, Theta aims to have 31 external enterprise validators. Google Cloud is also becoming Theta’s preferred cloud provider for users with today’s announcement. Google will be Theta’s first European enterprise validator since it will be hosting the node at its office in Ireland, further geographically decentralizing the network. In February, Hedera Hashgraph announced that Google Cloud would run a node on the blockchain-like network and make hashgraph analytics available for users. In addition, hundreds of Guardian nodes (available to the public) will act as an extra layer of consensus with the Mainnet 2.0 launch by finalizing blocks and checking for bad actor validator nodes. Liu said he could see Google help Theta scale the number Guardian nodes on the network to the thousands or tens of thousands.Theta also plans to further collaborate with Google’s artificial intelligence, machine-learning and big-data initiatives. Google also owns YouTube, a key target for Theta’s partnership aspirations.“YouTube is particularly interesting because they utilize mostly internally-developed technology for video delivery and streaming, which makes experimentation a lot easier without having to rely on external platforms like Akamai or AWS,” Liu said.


Victoria Vergara

French-born, Victoria Vergara, grew up between New Caledonia and Reunion Island. Victoria learned how to swim before she learned how to walk. Now, a professional surfer, she is on the world longboard tour, ranked 2nd on the European Championship and has been invited to compete in several classic longboard events. Victoria travels the world year long with her boards in tow to discover new waves, learn new cultures and share her positive energy with the people she meets along the way."Almost a decade ago, I met Victoria Vergara on a small volcanic landmass deep in the Indian Ocean, known as Reunion Island. Now famous for its shark-infested waters, the incredibly rugged french island is a far-fetched idea from where you'd think this longboarder and model would hail from. Now, after many fun adventures traveling the world together with cameras and surfboards, it's an honor to share this short film on this incredibly unique human being."direct/film/edit: Morgan MaassenSupported by O'NeillMusic by: Monster Rally & The Phoenix Foundationwww.victoriavergara.fr


Keramas and the Rainy Season

Bali has vied for our attention for so many years and for a myriad of reasons. There was always ever-popular Uluwatu, that people flocked to for years, and then there was G-Land across the blue expanse and waiting for us. All the other waves had value – but back then people didn't travel hard to surf a wave like Green Balls, Balangan or Dream Land. You came to charge big walls at Ulus, and if you were lucky, you got to get barrelled at G-Land.When the onshore winds arrived, and the rain came, everyone simply left Bali, and there were subsequently way fewer surfers around. Bali never used to deal with heavy rain well, with filthy water just washing down streets, picking up dirt, and pouring into the ocean. Yet no one considered that there might be waves on the other side. No one believed that the rainy season might actually have somewhere that embraces those winds and turns them into crisp offshore barrels.There was a wave, a world-class wave, that broke for literally decades while surfers just sat on the Bukit and wrung their hands at the onshore winds and went hard on the arak. Eventually, after much soul-searching and equal amounts of searching from the air, a few photos started showing up that revealed this sick right-hand barrel, but no directions.Then an Australian magazine broke with a story on a perfect right that was perfect offshore in the offseason, and some surfers went looking for it. It wasn't an easy find. Most places out of the way in Indonesia take either a plane ride or a boat to find. The google earth options are not good enough because of the outer reefs. You need to look further.When it was eventually discovered, it still was a nightmare to get to. If you ever tried to get there when it was early days of the discovery, you would have found that it was really challenging to locate. There was a busy run of Bali traffic to negotiate along the way.Then the surfers started arriving. Starved of right-handers, natural-footers from around the world headed over to the other side of the island to sample these perfect waves, and it was soon crowded with Indonesians and travellers. It also attracted the Japanese, and it was soon as busy as everywhere else.Photos: Komune Resort BaliBefore long, the resorts started popping up, and comfortable options for travellers were in construction all over the place. A World Junior event, soon followed by a Championship Tour event sponsored by Oakley, continued to make the area more and more popular. It was worthy though, the wave is a perfect right-hand barrel.Highly dependent on the tide, Keramas can be totally flat on the low tide and look like an impossible wave to surf, with small close-outs breaking onto the near-dry reef. These are the times that so many people use to drive away, thinking that they had been skunked.It soon became apparent, however, that the spot was so dependent on the tide that as soon as the water got to a certain height above the outer reef, the swell would come surging in. A flat morning on low tide would result in booming six-foot barrels by early afternoon. On top of this, there were a few more waves in the vicinity. KFC's up the drag is so named because the run up the beach on the hot sand used to burn surfer's feet so severely that they looked like trussed up chicken feet, heading for the KFC kitchens.Nowadays there is a resort with 180 staff members, techno music, night surfing, cold beers, and a swimming pool. There is a yoga studio, and there are personal trainers for you throughout the year. It's a brave new rainy-season world, and there are always girls in bikinis hanging by the pool, right in front of the gulley.Resort rooms from $117, suites from $260, room only. (+62) 361 3018888Online Booking: Komune Resort & Beach Club Bali / e-Mail


What about Programmable Art?

Programmable art is a new movement in which creators deconstruct their work into “Layers” and endow them with abilities. Collectors can then own and alter artworks through said Layers. Layers can even be hooked up to external data sources such as time to change autonomously.Read more @ https://edition.async.art/The opportunities to disrupt the media landscape are endless ... NFTs introduce a new medium and a format for copyright. As a medium, copyright is being ignored right now. As a format, NFTs are an unrivaled solution to enforcing copyright.NFT Issuance Landscape — MirrorThis post offers a 10,000ft view on the NFT issuance landscape, helping creators better acclimate themselves with the tools, players and resources leading the growing movement around scarce digital content.A big problem with producing and selling digital art is how easily it can be duplicated and pirated. Once something is copied and replicated for free, the value drops and the prospect of a market disappears. For things to be of value they need to have scarcity. Blockchain helps solve this for digital artists by introducing the idea of "digital scarcity":  issuing a limited number of copies and tying them back to unique blocks proving ownership. So we would like to introduce an IP layer!Discord + NFTs + Community Token + DAO = Creator EconomyNFT Value Capture Equation — MirrorLast month, I set out to explore one question: where do NFTs capture value?In the exploration of new features for our experiments we would like to propose a couple of ideas that could help in the value capture equation ...For creators, artists & galleries 🖌🎨Build new experiences and revenue streams with authenticated digital issuanceBranded digital gallerySolo artist worksExclusive content for fansCertificates of authenticity & provenanceFor brands & agencies 🎥 ⚡Create engaging digital experiences for fans and followersDigital rewardsBranded collectible giveawaysPremium content accessCommunity ContestsFor nonprofits 🌍 🌱Raise funds and awareness by creating meaningful digital campaignsTokenized “adoptions” for charitable causes, e.g. planting treesFundraising campaigns with collectible digital memorabiliaExclusive badges and rewards for community membersFor entrepreneurs 💡 💸Launch a global marketplace for digital or tokenized physical goodsStock photosDigital IPFor merchants & producers🍷 ⌚Authenticate physical goodsSurfboardsFashionWine bottles


The Best Surf Spots On Nias

Nias is hard to get to and is still quite wild, but the wave at Lagundri Bay is what dreams are made of.1. Lagundri BayOne of the best waves in the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, Lagundri Bay has an almost mesmerizing look and feel because it is so perfect. When it is small, it is a wave that suits everyone, but as it gets bigger, it starts to resemble the real deal. Surfers have died at Lagundri Bay.The wave suits everyone when it is small, and the inside Kiddies Corner is where most people learn to surf when there are small but perfect waves. It is a right-hander, and it has a reasonably easy take-off into a steep section that often barrels. Still, when small it offers a beautiful wall to open-face carves and other moves.Swell from the southwest is optimum, and a northerly wind will keep those barrels open. It works on all tides, and the barrel changes slightly when the tide is high. It is not surfable in onshore conditions, but it is usually glassy to offshore every morning. It does get crowded, and there are a few locals, so you need to be careful out there2. The MachineThe Machine is a hefty left-hand reef break that breaks well inside Lagundri Bay. You can walk there along the beach, or you can get a lift in a car or a boat. It is a full barrel, and you need to be on your game there as well as brave.The Machine is, unfortunately, expert only, and is probably left to the goofy-footers unless you are a highly skilled backhand tube rider. It is only a barrel, and the reef is shallow and razor-sharp. This is a wave that can and does seriously injure people. You don’t really want to be seriously injured at Lagundri as the hospital facilities are lacking.The Machine needs the highest of tides and the biggest of swells before it is worth a hike across the bay or a boat ride. Even then, it is a problematic paddle out, and it is best accessed from a boat. If you know how to surf fearsome left barrels, then this place is for you.3. SobatuJust around the corner from Nias lies Sobatu, a shifting but enticing big wave spot that has grown in notoriety over the years. It gets enormous, and it has a shallow reef, but a big wave here will be a wave that you will remember forever.There are two sides to Sobatu, and the one is a place to go surf when Lagundri is small because you will always find something here.The other option is to go sand surf here when Lagundri gets massive, and then you could get the biggest wave of your life. So it suits small wave surfers and big wave surfers alike.Sometimes the paddle out can be challenging at low tide, and reef boots are a good idea for walking on the coral.Southwest swells and northerly winds are also the go here, and it works on all tides. Sometimes, when the swell is giant, the low tide can cause the waves to shift quite a lot, and that makes it quite tricky.4. AfuluThis left-hand reef is one of the longest and most perfect lefts on Nias. It is a quiet area, away from all the attention focused around Lagundri Bay, but it is more exposed to the winds.There are a few good quality beach-breaks around the Afulu area. Still, when the main reef turns on, there is no need for anyone to go and look at the beach breaks unless you’re still a beginner.The wave is fast, and the water is very shallow, barely covering the reef for much of the wave. It, therefore, prefers a high tide, and it also has a tricky end section that needs to be negotiated. It is a wave for experienced surfers, and sometimes you will need a step-up to surf it on a bigger swell. It never gets crowded, and there are hardly any locals who surf out there.Afulu works best on a southwest swell and a northerly wind. It used to be a lot better, but the earthquake lifted the reef up, and now the wave isn’t as dreamy as it used to be. It still gets excellent, however, and it lights up when all the other waves are too big and maxed out. Best accessed by boat.5. AsuWhile not on Nias as such, Asu is one of the surf spots found on the nearby Hinako Islands, and surfers travel between Asu and Nias daily. Asu is a premier left-hander, but it too was somewhat changed by the first earthquake. It is a fast wave, and the wave runs to a dry end section called The Nuclear Zone. You want to be out of the wave before that zone appears.The wave itself is not that scary, except for the Nuclear Zone, but it is fast, and it does run over some reasonably shallow coral. It barrels, and it gets fairly crowded on good days if the camps are full. There are 5 surf camps on the island in front of the wave, and if they are full, then the wave is crowded. The island is rife with mosquitoes.Ideal conditions are a southwest swell and a south-east wind. The area picks up a lot of swell, and it does get massive there at times. It can be ridden big, but it tends to run flat into the deep water. There is another famous surf spot called Bawa in the area, and when the wind is onshore at Asu, it is offshore at Bawa.Mark & Debi have built KabuNohi Sorake Resort on their 2,400 sq. /meter freehold private property located Ocean front directly at the surf point; Sorake beach, Lagundri Bay.The name Sorake (Zorake), in Nias language means ‘broken coral rocks’. KabuNohi Sorake is absolute beachfront and the coral sands are pushed up our beach to our retaining wall by the breaking waves, The KabuNohi, Oceanfront garden area has a large and private viewing deck that is a great camera spot covering the view directly up the length of the point, and the 3 wave sections with the Rice Bowl Peak, directly out the front), Kiddies Corner, and the Main Nias Break. This deck is the ultimate place to hang out in between surfs or relax on Sunset with a cold beverage. Non-surfers will enjoy this relaxation area as much as the surfers with some shaded areas to relax in a deck chair with a good book whilst catching the sea breeze and checking out the surf action beyond.Mark has met travelling surfers from all corners of the globe over the years and whilst they love the surf and vibe of Nias. Many have expressed the need to have higher quality accommodation and food on offer so they can bring their non-surfing partners and families to enjoy the wonders of Sorake Beach. KabuNohi Sorake will meet the higher standard requirements of couples, families and discerning surfers looking for quality accommodation, the highest quality cuisine and personalised service.Booking / +62 821-6595-4781 / InstagramThe Jamburae Lodge is a perfect place to stay for surfers who are looking for accommodation in front of the world-famous wave "The Point". From the spacious terrace, you can check the wave conditions or just relax and watch the surf for hours while sipping on a smoothie or beer. Booking / +62-822-7279-9664Located among coconut trees, crystal clear water and 1 degree above the equator, a remote island surrounded by perfect waves, PURI ASU RESORT is the real “Surfers Paradise”. Enjoy the comfort and privacy with access to some of the best and most consistent waves in the world. With a pristine white sand beach in front and clear calm water we have world class scubadiving and snorkeling within meters of your room, and the waves are 3 minutes away. No walking over coral or long paddles to the breaks, we will drop you off and pick you up in the line-up ANYTIME YOU WISH.  From our private pier and we are always on stand-by to take you to surf, check the waves, go fishing, shoot photos or explore the 8 islands in our area."This is like the ultimate surf trip. Perfect and heavy waves with no crowds. Very clean and good accomodation and the food is delicious. Alemao and his team go the extra mile to make sure all the guests have a great time. Although surf is the focus they have high quality scuba diving gear and there is plenty fish around. Right in front of their beach the coral reef is very impressive and you can spend hours enjoying the beauty of it. Many waves available with Asu right at thee corner. They also now have Jet Ski for Tow In surfing which is amazing. If you want to spend an awesome time this is the place to go."eMail / Facebook / Instagram


Magic Carpet. 2 Years On A Boat

Maya is Canadian, obsessed with sailboats, and loves to play the violin. Aladino is Swiss/Italian, a boatbuilder by profession, and an incredible sailor. They met in the summer of 2017. Maya had just graduated from a 4 year university degree in Canada, and had accepted a job on a tall ship in the Mediterranean. Aladino was also sailing around the Mediterranean on a 31ft Jeanneau Rush which he won for an insanely good price at an auction. That boat has since been sold. When she met Aladino, she could tell he was very special. Their boats were sailing to different places, but they kept in touch, and when the summer season ended Maya decided to go visit him in Switzerland. On her first day in Switzerland, she texted her best friend back home in Canada: “I think I just met my future husband.Magic CarpetMagic Carpet is a 28ft Vindo 32, a Swedish boat that, four years ago, fell 20ft from a crane onto concrete. She was an insurance right off, destined for the junk yard. But, Aladino bought her and spent four years giving her a new life. The “32” in the name refers to sail area, not length. Cheeky Swedes! She was built in 1979, and was bought by a Swiss couple who took impeccable care of her for 40+ years. In 2013, tragedy struck. She was a total write-off. Her keel was crushed, the entire transom blew out, the rudder was mangled, and there was a giant crack on her port side. That’s when Aladino found her. He saved her the junkyard and gave her new life. He spent four years expertly rebuilding her hull and turning her into his masterpiece. During the last year of the restoration, Aladino and Maya met, and Maya helped with the last pieces of the restoration. Check out her Patreon account to get access to Maya’s secret journal, early access to the videos, AND their undying gratitude! The dream is to make filmmaking and sailing a full time way of life. Sailing Magic CarpetDocumenting the sailing adventures, restoration endeavours, and life changing moments in the lives of Maya and Aladino. We aim to tell beautiful stories abou...YouTubeSailing Magic Carpet"Our videos focus on sailing, music, storytelling, and serenity. We hope our videos inspire you to pursue your own dreams and to develop a greater appreciation for the diversity and beauty of the world."They launched Magic Carpet in Basel, Switzerland in June of 2018,  just a few days after they got married! They took her through the French canals on a two-week journey to the Mediterranean.Update