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Surfboard

A surfboard is a narrow plank used in surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding an ocean wave. They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as papa he'e nalu in the Hawaiian language, and were usually made of wood from local trees, such as koa. They were often over 15 ft in length and extremely heavy. Major advances over the years include the addition of one or more fins (skegs) on the bottom rear of the board to improve directional stability, and numerous improvements in materials and shape.

Modern surfboards are made of polyurethane or polystyrene foam covered with layers of fiberglass cloth, and polyester or epoxy resin. The result is a light and strong surfboard that is buoyant and maneuverable. Recent developments in surfboard technology have included the use of carbon fiber and kevlar composites, as well as experimentation in biodegradable and ecologically friendly resins made from organic sources. Each year, approximately 400,000 surfboards are manufactured.

Sizing
Choice of surf board type and size can be complex. Depending, amongst other things, on:
 * Skill, fitness and surfing style
 * Expected wave conditions
 * Body dimensions of the surfer (height and weight)

Traditionally board lengths have been sized according to the height of the surfer, meaning in general that longer boards would be recommended for taller surfers. Standard dimensions for board size has for long been the board's length, width and thickness. More recently however, the weight of the surfer has also started to be taken into account, meaning in general that a heavier surfer would be recommended a board with more volume.

Bottom
The surface of the board that rests on the water is usually flat or concave but sometimes convex. The bottom can also feature channels, chines, steps and other planing features shaped into the board in order to maximize, direct or alter water flow across the board's bottom surface.

Concave
Modern surfboards often contain multiple contours on the bottom of the board, termed concaves. These concaves have different uses and vary among different types of surfboards. Most concaves on the modern shortboard begin about 30 cm back from the nose of the board on the bottom and then carry out through the middle to the tail of the surfboard. The purpose of concave is to direct water through the fins of the surfboard. Surfboard shapers sometimes experiment with concaves to create different drive and response characteristics on each individual surfboard.

Convex
Some older and more traditional surfboards along with many modern boards that take inspiration from these older boards utilize a convex rather than concave design on the bottom of the surfboard. These boards displace more water and sit lower in the wave than a surfboard with a concave bottom.

Deck
The deck is the surface of the board that the surfer stands on. Contours such as concaves (similar to the deck of a skateboard) or rail channels (to add structural rigidity) can also be shaped into the deck. Surfwax is applied to this surface. Wax comes in different degrees of hardness allowing its application in differing water temperatures. The ideal choice of wax hardness is determined by the water temperature.

Fins
The surfboard fin is a stabilizing rudder fixed to the rear of the surfboard to prevent it from sliding sideways. In the early days, surfers would stabilize the board by hanging the toes of their back foot over the edge of the board and would steer by putting their foot in the water. The American surfer Tom Blake was the first to experiment with adding a fin to a surfboard, fastening the keel from an old speedboat to a surfboard in 1935. About one or two years later, Woody "Spider" Brown independently developed a similar design, but Brown himself gave Blake precedence: "(I made my first surfboard keel) about '36 or '37, somewhere in there; about the same time. But, I didn't know anything about (Blake) and his experiments with adding fins to surfboards. See, we were all separated out. I was in San Diego and he was in L.A., way up there.". This innovation revolutionized surfing, allowing surfers to direct the board's momentum and providing more balance when turning.

The template of the modern surfboard fin was developed by George Greenough in the 1960s. The single fin changed little until the late 70s, when a second was added and popularised by Australian Mark Richards. In October 1980, after seeing a twin fin surfboard with a "trigger point" fin Simon Anderson had the idea for a new, equal size, version of the existing three fin prototypes which was later dubbed the "thruster". He created a prototype and 30 years later his "thruster" design is still the most popular fin design for surfboards.

In the early 90s removable fin systems were developed and embraced. This provides a standardized system that allows fins to be easily removed or replaced, utilizing set screws to hold the fins in place. These systems provided surfers with the ability to alter the riding characteristics of a surfboard, by changing the size and shape of fins used. This innovation opened the market to a range of fin designs, including single foiled fins, concave inside surfaces, and curved fins. Another variation of fin was later designed in the time frame known as the soul fin, a sleek bendable attachment.

Tunnel fins were invented in the 1960s by Richard Deese, and were found on longboards by multiple manufacturers of that era, including Dewey Weber. Bob Bolen, A.K.A. 'the Greek', patented the "Turbo Tunnel" in the late 1990s.

Since the mid 1990s, half tunnel fins have mainly been used on very long hollow wooden surfboards mainly surfed by Roy Stuart.

Bullet Fins were invented in the 2005 by Ron Pettibone to increase surfboard hull planing and rail-to-rail transition speed. The patent-pending fins are based on 50 years of hydrodynamic research on the bulbous bow hull design. Just as with the bow of a ship, the traditional surfboard fin creates a wave as it displaces the water in its path. The resulting turbulence places drag on the surfboard. The bulb of the Bullet Fin reduces this drag by creating a new (primary) fin wave in front of the original (secondary) wave. This new bulb wave is designed to be nearly 180 degrees out of phase with the original fin wave to subtract its turbulence thus reducing fin drag.

Winged fins are another type of surfboard fin, the genesis of which was America's Cup sailboat design. The Starfin was designed in the 1980s by the America's Cup yacht designer, Ben Lexcen, who had designed the winged keel for the America's Cup boat, Australia II. The small thruster-sized fin, the RedTip 3D is manufactured by FCS.

Fins with winglets—tiny wings—were invented in 2005. The purpose of winglets, as in airplane design, is to increase lift (horizontal turning force in the case of surfboard fins) while reducing drag, by reducing the fin-tip vortex.

Fins with a camber have an asymmetrical profile. In windsurfing camber is used to increase the lift to drag ratio of the fin and to minimise cavitation and the risk of spin-out. In particular windsurfers trying to improve speed records use camber fins, as the maximum performance is required on one down-wind course direction. As the camber is fixed to one side, performance when sailing in one direction is improved but performance in the other way is deteriorated.

Fins with self-adjusting camber offer the improved qualities in both port side and starboard side sailing directions.

Spitfire fins are based on the wing configuration used by Spitfire aeroplanes. The elliptical wing shapes work very well as surfboard fins and several manufacturers make fins with this more upright stance, as it increases drive and maneuverability.

In 2004 Frank Fish introduced the world to Whale Bumps with their Tubercle effect. Several fin manufacturers tried making some fins at that time, after the article was discussed on Swaylock's design Forum. The process of grinding bumps, which are properly foiled, into an existing fin is an arduous, time consuming task. Hand foiling tubercles can take up to 40 hours+. Roy Stuart worked on wooden prototypes for years before creating the first polycarbonate, 3d printed, whale bumped surfboard fins in 2013.

Thrusters and Tri-fins
The tri-fin's design attempts to incorporate the glide of a longboard and the performance of a shortboard into a single layout. The additional fins ensure that even what riding down the line, two, or at least one, vertical control surface is in black water (not unstable foam) allows riders better turning capabilities. In a Thruster, the symmetrically-foiled center fin is flanked by twin asymmetric, cambered fins. The camber is angled front in and top in, directing energy from the incoming wave to lift the board and straighten it, not dissimilar from the force vectoring provided by the geometry of a rocket's nozzle.

Quad
A "Quad" four fins, typically arranged as two pairs of thrusters in wing formation, which are quick down the line but tend to lose energy through turns. The energy is lost as the board goes up the wave because the fins are now vectoring energy from the oncoming water toward the back of the board, bleeding speed.

Nubster
Created by professional surfer Sean Mattison as a rear stabilization fin. Dubbed a "guitar pick" the nubster was designed to be used as a fifth fin. The Nubster helped professional surfer Kelly Slater win contests in New York and Portugal in 2011.

Leash
A surfboard leash or leg rope is the cord that attaches a surfboard to the surfer. It prevents the surfboard from being swept away by waves and stops runaway surfboards from hitting other surfers and swimmers. Modern leashes comprise a urethane cord where one end has a band with a velcro strap attached to the surfer's trailing foot, and the opposite has a velcro strap attached to the tail end of the surfboard.

Jack O'Neill lost his left eye in a surf leash accident as the surgical tubing used in the early designs allowed the leash to overstretch, causing the surfboard to fly back towards the surfer. Subsequent cords were made with less elastic materials.

Nose
The front tip of the board. This can be pointed or rounded and can be made with a steep incline ("rocker", see below) or a gentle one.

Tail
The shape of the tail affects how a board responds. Tail shapes vary from square, pin, squash, swallow, diamond, and so on—each one in turn having its own family of smaller variants. A pin tail causes the board to move faster in the water, whereas the hip tail is created to help balance more than speed.

Traction Pad
Surfboard traction pads, deck grips, tailpads. There are several names for this piece of foam applied to the top of a surfboard to increase the grip and allow surfers to have more control and perform more high performance maneuvers. Traction pads are used on both shortboards and longboards, usually applied to the tail area of a surfboard.

Traction pads for the middle section of the deck, known as the "Mid Traction Pads" are mainly used on performance shortboards for increased grip. Unlike a tail pad - mid-deck traction pads need wax for added grip.

Rails
The edges of the board. A rounded rail is called "soft", while a more squared-off rail is called "hard", and rails that are in between are termed "50/50" ("fifty-fifty"). Larger, fuller rails contain a greater volume of foam giving the board increased buoyancy along the edge, while sharper, narrower rails have less volume, making the board easier to "sink" and "lean on edge". While riding down the line, one rail is always in the water while the other is suspended freely in the air. Turns are largely a matter of transitioning from rail to tail and over to the contralateral (opposing) rail.

Rocker
This refers to the vertical curve of the board between nose and tail. Rockers may be described as either heavy (steeply curved) or relaxed (less curved) and may be either continuous (a single curve between tip of nose and end of tail) or staged (distinct flat section in middle portion of board). The nose rocker or flip is the curve between the front tip and the middle or flattest portion of the board, and the tail rocker or kick is that between the tail and the middle/ flattest portion. An increase in flip helps keep the board from "pearling"; larger boards often require a greater flip. A larger kick adds maneuverability and lift to the tail at speed and provides tail sensitivity in critical turns. More relaxed rockers help the board to handle better on flatter sections of water, while heavy rockers increase the board's overall form drag but also give true lift when reaching planing speed and have a smaller turning radius.

The board's rails and deck may also be referred to as having rocker. A board with a v-shaped tail, for example, has had the lower/ outer portion of its rear rails reduced, increasing its tail rail rocker. Having a flat, even deck rocker will increase a board's flexibility, while a convex deck rocker creates a board that is thicker along the board's stringer and stiffer in the water.

Stringer
In board design, the "stringer" is a board's central plane of reflection, down the middle of its deck and its keel. In construction, the stringer can have no special parts, or can embed a stiff, thin, vertical slat, usually of wood but sometimes of carbon fiber, running from nose to tail. The stringer serves to increase the board's overall strength and reduce its flexibility. Some boards have multiple stringers.

Construction
To achieve positive buoyancy and a stiff deck, shapers have always reached for a foam, often hardened with a tensile skin, using toucan beak engineering concepts.

Delamination is a problem where the skin of the board (i.e. fiberglass) separates from the foam core. All surfboards made of foam and resin can face the problem of delamination. A common reason for delamination is excessive heat. Delamination often first appears around dents.

Modern surfboards are usually made of foam using one of the following construction materials:
 * Polyurethane (PU foam) with polyester resin have been used in surfboards since the 1950s, and is, therefore, the oldest of the modern construction methods. Many hand-shaped boards are made of PU since it is a brittle material, making it easy to form by hand using sandpaper, shortening the build time. Both PU boards made by hand or by machines are usually more affordable compared to other foam materials. Some drawbacks are the toxicity of the material, that it is non-recyclable and that the PU foam is more flexible than some alternatives, making the board less stiff so that it can bend and twist more during use. PU foam can also absorb water and yellow over time. It is also possible to build PU boards using epoxy resin. PU is still the most used material in surf board construction today.
 * Polystyrene (PS foam) with epoxy resin has a lower weight, but is not as strong as the more traditional PU foam. The PS foam core is therefore enclosed with a layer of epoxy to increase strength. Within polystyrene, mainly two types are used in surfboard construction; EPS and XPS. The reason epoxy resin is used exclusively instead of polyester resin on these boards, is that the polystyrene foam reacts chemically upon contact with polyester resin, causing the PS foam to melt. EPS and XPS have the advantages that they are more environmentally friendly, can last longer and are recyclable. However, they are more time consuming to shape by hand, taking for example 2 to 4 times as long to build. Often PS boards are not as stiff as PU boards, which may be the reason most professional surfers still prefer PU.
 * Expanded polystyrene is the lightest foam material commonly used to produce surfboards today, being lighter than both PU and XPS. A drawback to EPS is that it is difficult to shape by hand, and EPS boards are therefore typically made using machines where the shaping of the foam is near completed after the molding itself. It is possible to buy such semi-finished EPS boards (known as "pop out boards") to which the buyer can add glassfiber and resin themselves. Another drawback with EPS foam is that it absorbs water more easily. EPS has a structure consisting of individually closed cells, but there are air gaps between the cells themselves where water can enter. This gives EPS a higher permeability. EPS boards typically don't delaminate easily, but should be constructed using a vent to prevent delamination due to outgassing.
 * Extruded polystyrene (XPS foam) is somewhat heavier than EPS, and usually weighs as much as PU or more. XPS has a homogenous structure consisting of several layers of continuously extruded closed cells. XPS therefore resists water absorption very well, since there are no air gaps between the beads. Depending on construction, XPS boards may however be more prone delamination due to the closed structure preventing the epoxy resin getting a good grip on the foam. Improvements in manufacturing has alleviated some of these problems. XPS boards typically don't have a vent.

Fiberglass is the most common skin regardless of foam type. Other skin materials used are bamboo, carbon fiber, hemp kevlar and innegra.

EPS and XPS boards are sometimes erroneously referred to as "epoxy boards", while PU boards sometimes are erroneously referred to as "fiberglass boards". These designations are not correct. Firstly, fiberglass is the most common skin for all the mentioned foam types. Secondly, PU foam boards can also be constructed using epoxy resin.

Polyurethane (PU) boards
Surfboards have traditionally been constructed using polyurethane foam and it remains a popular choice. They are made stronger with one or more stringers going down the middle of the board. The foam is molded into a "blank", in the rough shape of a surfboard. Once the blanks have been made they are given to shapers. Shapers then cut, plane, and sand the board to its specifications. Finally, the board is covered in one or more layers of fiberglass cloth and resin. It is during this stage that the fins or boxes for removable fins are attached and the leash plug installed. Another method of making boards is using epoxy resin and prolapse polystyrene foam, instead of polyester resin and polyurethane foam. In recent years, surfboards made out of balsa and a polystyrene core are becoming more popular. Even solid balsa surfboards are available.

Although foam boards are usually shaped by hand, the use of machines to shape them has become increasingly popular. Vacuum forming and modern sandwich construction techniques borrowed from other industries have also become common. Many surfers have switched to riding sandwich-construction epoxy boards which have become especially popular with beginner surfers as they provide a durable, inexpensive, entry-level board.

Balsa boards
The Ochroma pyramidale wood's surfboard history originates in the Hawaiians, and the wood lead surfing's landfall on the US west coast in the 1940s. Being light and strong, balsa wood was long considered a perfect material for surfboards. Shapers could not use this fragile wood to make entire surfboards until after WWII, when fiberglass skins were invented.

Balsa wood boards are lighter, more buoyant and easier to handle than other boards. These boards have some disadvantages, however: they are not as sturdy as solid redwood boards.

Hollow wooden boards
Hollow wooden surfboards are made of wood and epoxy or oil (as a sustainable alternative to epoxy), and are a reversion to using wood after the foam became dominant in the 1950s. Hollow wooden surfboards specifically have no foam in their construction. (Boards made with foam and wood are commonly known as compsands or veneer boards.) Various construction methods are used to hollow the inside of the surfboard and lighten the weight of the completed board. Generally, a hollow wood surfboard is 30% to 300% heavier than a standard foam and resin surfboard. The main inspiration, apart from beauty, is that this is a more environmentally friendly method of construction (compared to epoxy and polyurethane methods) which uses fast-growing plantation wood such as paulownia, cedar, spruce, redwood, and, of course, balsa.

The current construction methods descend from the 1930s Tom Blake paddleboarding method, which favors a central stringer with individually shaped transverse ribs covered with a skin and rails. A modern interpretation of Tom Blake's work is the perimeter stringer method used by some manufacturers, utilizing laminated rails as stringers connected with a series of plywood ribs. This skeleton is then sheathed with 5mm-thick wood strips, creating a fast hollow board with good flex properties.

The parallel profile system was developed from cold molded (double diagonal) boat building, and uses at least four layers of material laminated over a male mold into a curved blank, including enough wood for rails, which are then shaped.

The chambering method follows a system in which planks of paulownia wood are selected and the rocker of the board is cut into each. The planks are then chambered to reduce weight, and then bonded together to form a hollow or "chambered" blank.

CUSH - skinned surfboards
One of the most recent modern advancements in surfboard technology is the creation of high performance boards which are wrapped in a stretchable soft skin which does not absorb water. The internal structure of Cush (cushion) boards is an epoxy surfboard with an EPS (extruded polystyrene) shaped foam core. The "skin", made of a gloss coated foam, is stretched and adhered while vacuumed over the surface of the entire epoxy surfboard. The purpose of the cush is for dampening of chatter, absorption of impact landings, airs, grip, and overall added protection for a light epoxy board. Jim Richardson, 25-year veteran shaper on the North Shore of Oahu, first pioneered this technology in the mid 1990s. And recently a few company's including Spacestick, Radiowake and CUSH (brand) have begun to market the advancements to the surfing community. Spacestick and CUSH surfboards are the current manufacturer for the various brands as of 2018.

Composite Sandwich Construction
The Composite Sandwich type of board construction became popular among garage shapers and later, major manufacturers, during the 1990s and 2000s. This construction method entails hand- or machine-shaping a foam blank from EPS foam and then vacuum-bagging or hand-laminating a more dense layer of foam, wood, or carbon onto the bottom and deck of the EPS foam core, usually separating the two layers with lightweight fiberglass cloth (2 oz pr. sq.yd, or 70 g/m2) or other composites cloths. This can also be accompanied with parabolic rails made of balsa or other buoyant woods, carbon, or other high-density materials. This blank construction is then laminated with epoxy resin and fiberglass or other composite cloth as any other surfboard would be, by hand or via vacuum bag.

The construction is referred to as a sandwich as it consists of the top skin, fiberglass or other composite cloth, the EPS core, fiberglass or other composite cloth, and the bottom skin, the cross section of which appears as a sandwich with the different layers. Firewire Surfboards pioneered this technology for the mass-produced surfboard market beginning in 2006.

Soft skin construction, such as Cush or Spacestick boards, adds an additional soft shell skin to the outside of a sandwich construction board. The soft skin is vacuumed to the cloth and epoxy so that the soft shell is exposed--- meaning the hard glass and resin are protected inside, and under, the soft cush skin.

Shortboard
Since the late 1960s when Gordon Clark found the optimum formulation of urethane foam, many of the surfboards in common use have been of the shortboard variety between 6 and 7 ft in length with a pointed nose and a rounded or squarish tail, typically with three "skegs" (fins) but sometimes with two or as many as five. Surfers generally find a shortboard quick to maneuver compared with other types of surfboards, but because of a lack of flotation due to the smaller size, the shortboard is harder to catch waves with, often requiring steeper, larger and more powerful waves and very late takeoffs, where the surfer catches the wave at the critical moment before it breaks.

A Bonzer is a surfboard designed by the Campbell Brothers that can have three or five fins and is punctuated with a large center fin and 2-4 smaller side fins(side bites). This, combined with deep double concave channels creates a distinctive board. The manufacturer has shown that these channels create versatile and controlled characteristics using the venturi effect which guides the water off of the surface of the board through a narrowed passage.

Hybrid
Modern hybrid boards are usually 6 to 8.5 ft in length with a more rounded profile and tail shape. Hybrid boards are usually used in smaller waves and can have any fin set up. They are more about having fun than high performance or tricks. They can be easier to ride for beginning surfers and generally perform well in surfing conditions where the more traditional long and short boards might not.

Fish
Usually a short stubby board under 6 ft in length developed from kneeboards in 1967 by Steve Lis. Other prominent fish shapers include Skip Frye, Larry Mabile and Steve Brom. Primarily a twin fin set up with a swallow tail shape and popular in smaller waves, the fish enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the early 2000s after legendary surfer Tom Curren rode one during an ASP event at Hossegor. Note, any type of board (such as shortboard or mini-longboard) can have a fish tail, and these are commonly referred to as a "fish", but they lack the other properties of a traditional, or "retro" fish as described here.

Mid length
A mid length surfboard is generally 177cm to 200cm (7' to 8') in length with a slightly more performance-focused shape than the similar-sized normal board. Narrow outline & thruster-fin set-up make it a close companion in size and performance to a round-outline single-fin mini mal. Mid length surfboards excel good in both small and weak & large mushy waves by light and heavy surfers. A mid length is one of the most versatile 'all-around' boards for fun and performance.

Funboard
The funboard combines elements of both shortboards and longboards and are generally midsized, usually have a length of 210 to 240 cm, thickness of 6 to 8 cm and width of 53 to 56 cm. The funboard's design allows waves to be caught more easily than a shortboard, yet with a shape that makes it more maneuverable than a longboard; hence it is a popular type of surfboard, especially among beginners or those transitioning from longboarding to the more difficult shortboarding. It is considered a good combination of the speed of a longboard and the maneuverability of a shortboard.

Gun
Big wave boards of length 7 to 12 ft are considered guns. These have a thin, almost needle-like profile with single, quad, or thruster fin set up. It has the appearance of a shortboard but at a longboard size. Guns are often used at big wave locations such as Waimea Bay, Jaws (Hawaii), and Mavericks.

Longboard
The longboard is primarily a single-finned surfboard with large rounded nose and length of 9 to 12 ft. Noseriders are a class of longboards that enable the rider to walk to the tip and nose ride. These are also called "Mals", a shortened form of "Malibu boards". They range from 9 to 14 ft long, or 3 ft taller than the rider in overall length. The advantage of a longboard is its substantial buoyancy and planing surface enable surfers to ride waves generally deemed too small to propel a shortboard. Longboards are more suitable for beginners because of the board's size and ease of catching waves. In the proper conditions, a skilled surfer can ride a wave standing on the nose of a longboard with their toes over the nose's edge: in this way, with the "toes on the nose", the surfer can "hang ten". Compared to the shortboards, longboards are considerably easier to learn on as they are capable of achieving stability, thus making the transition quite difficult.

Classic longboards
Longboards are the original and very first variety of board used in standup surfing. Ever since the sixth-century CE the ancient Hawaiians have used 9 to 30 ft solid wooden boards when practicing their ancient art of Hoe he'e nalu. Surfing was brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Polynesians and has since become popular worldwide. The ancient boards were carved and fashioned out of solid wood, reaching lengths of 10 to 14 ft long and weighing as much as 70 kg. Both men and women, royalty and commoners surfed. But the longest of boards (the Olo) was reserved for royalty. During the 19th century, some extreme western missionaries actively discouraged surfing, viewing it as sinful. Surfing almost died out completely. In recent times replicas have been made of Olo's and alaia's by experienced surfers and shapers wishing to explore the roots of the sport.

By the early 20th century, only a handful of people surfed, mostly at Waikiki. But there, it started to grow again. Beginning in 1912, Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian Olympic swimmer in the early 1900s, brought surfing to mainland United States and Australia. Because of this, Duke is considered the "Father of Modern Surfing". From that point on, surfing became an integral part of the California beach lifestyle. In Malibu (in Los Angeles county), the beach was so popular amongst the early surfers that it lent its name to the type of longboard, the Malibu Surfboard. In the 1920s boards made of plywood or planking called Hollowboards came into use. These were typically 15 to 20 ft in length and very light. During the 1950s, the surf trend took off dramatically as it obtained a substantial amount of popularity as a sport. The design and material of longboards in the 1950s changed from using solid wood to balsa wood. The length of the boards still remained the same at an average of 10.5 ft, and had then become widely produced. It was not until the late 1950s and early 1960s when the surfboard design had closely evolved into today's modern longboard. The introduction of polyurethane foam and fiberglass became the technological leap in design. In the 1960s, the longboard continued to remain popular as its material changed from balsa wood to fiberglass and polyurethane foam.

In the 1960s, the introduction of the shortboard, averaging 6 ft, allowed surfers to make tighter turns, quicker maneuvers, and achieve faster speeds, thus radically changing the way people surfed. This "shortboard revolution" nearly made longboards obsolete for all practical purposes. But in the early 1990s, the longboard returned, integrating a number of the design features invented during the shortboard revolution. Surfers rediscovered the grace and poise – the "glide" – of the longboard, and the fun of classic maneuvers that are not possible on a shortboard. In some circles, the battle between longboards and shortboards continues. But many surfers live by a philosophy of finding the joy of surfing a mix of boards and surfing styles to suit the waves of the day.

Modern longboards
The modern longboard has undergone many changes since its earlier models in the past. Today's longboard is much lighter than its predecessors. Its polyurethane foam and fiberglass design allows less drag on waves. Today's longboards are typically 8 to 10 ft long, although some ride boards up to 12 ft in length. Additionally, there is a revival of stand-up paddle-based surfing with boards up to 14 ft in length (for stability). The classic single-fin longboard retains much of its classic design including a single fin, weight, and considerable buoyancy. A longboard with a single fin allows the board to pivot turn in order to remain in the curl of the wave. Due to recent advances in technology, the longboard has expanded its family into different variations of the classic longboard.

The 2+1
The 2+1 longboard is the most versatile board of the longboard family, offering greater maneuverability. Sometimes referred as a "single-fin with training wheels", the 2+1's fins actually takes the features of the classic longboard and the Tri-fin. The fins of the 2+1 take the rigid stability of a classic longboard, and fuses with the strength and drive of a Tri-fin.

Mini Tanker
The mini tanker is basically a shortened longboard shape that utilizes the same longboard design elements and enhanced maneuverability due to the shorter shape. These boards are normally ridden by those wanting the feel of a longboard with the increased agility of a short board.

The Malibu
Named after Malibu, California, this racy longboard shape is a little narrower than most, with slightly pulled in nose and tail sections for extra maneuverability on Malibu's famous right hand point breaks. This classic shape has been ridden and praised by experienced surfers for its maneuverability and performance. Classic tricks that can be performed on a Malibu are "Hang Fives" and "Hang tens" whereby the surfer walks to the nose of the board and hangs 5 or 10 toes over the nose, the "soul arch", drop knee turns, head dips, switch stance maneuvers, and so on.

Olo
Originally reserved for Hawaiian royalty due to its size and weight, these wooden boards can exceed lengths of 24 ft and reach weights up to 90 kg.

Alaia
A traditional finless wooden surfboard, typically ridden by ancient native Hawaiians, not of royal descent. The surfboard typically runs 17 ft 90 kg.

However modern day Alaias can be much thinner. Many are a mere 3/4 in thick, and can be as short as 6 ft. Common woods used in current construction are paulownia, cedar, and other woods suitable for salty ocean waters. The tails come in different styles. The boards are notoriously difficult to ride.

Tandem
The first stand up surfboard ridden in Australia by Duke Kahanamoku and Isabel Letham is an oversized longboard with enough buoyancy to support two people, tandem surfing.

title: Surfboard


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Elbow Room (Dennett book)

Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting is a 1984 book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett, in which Dennett discusses the philosophical issues of free will and determinism.

In 1983, Dennett delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford on the topic of free will. In 1984, these ideas were published in the book Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting. In this book Daniel Dennett explored what it means for people to have free will. The title, Elbow Room, is a reference to the question: "Are we deterministic machines with no real freedom of action or do we in fact have some elbow room, some real choice in our behavior?".

Determinism does not make humans equivalent to animals
A major task taken on by Dennett in Elbow Room is to clearly describe just what people are as biological entities and why they find the issue of free will to be of significance. In discussing what people are and why free will matters to them, Dennett makes use of an evolutionary perspective. Dennett describes the mechanical behavior of the digger wasp Sphex. This insect follows a series of genetically programmed steps in preparing for egg laying. If an experimenter interrupts one of these steps the wasp will repeat that step again. For an animal like a wasp, this process of repeating the same behavior can go on indefinitely, the wasp never seeming to notice what is going on. This is the type of mindless, pre-determined behavior that humans can avoid. Given the chance to repeat some futile behavior endlessly, people can notice the futility of it, and by an act of free will do something else. We can take this as an operational definition of what people mean by free will. Dennett points out the fact that as long as people see themselves as able to avoid futility, most people have seen enough of the free will issue. Dennett then invites all who are satisfied with this level of analysis to get on with living while he proceeds into the deeper hair-splitting aspects of the free will issue.

From a biological perspective, what is the difference between the wasp and a person? The person can, through interaction with his or her environment, construct an internal mental model of the situation and figure out a successful behavioral strategy. The wasp, with a much smaller brain and different genetic program, does not learn from its environment and instead is trapped in an endless and futile behavioral loop that is strictly determined by its genetic program. It is in this sense of people as animals with complex brains that can model reality and appear to choose among several possible behaviors that Dennett says we have free will.

Both determinism and indeterminism seem to rule out free will
The deeper philosophical issue of free will can be framed as a paradox. On one hand, we all feel like we have free will, a multitude of behavioral choices to select among. On the other hand, modern biology generally investigates humans as though the processes at work in them follow the same biological principles as those in wasps. How do we reconcile our feeling of free will with the idea that we might be mechanical components of a mechanical universe?

What about determinism? When we say that a person chooses among several possible behaviors is there really a choice or does it just seem like there is a choice? Do people just (through the action of their more complex brains) simply have better behaviors than wasps, while still being totally mechanical in executing those behaviors? Dennett gives his definition of determinism on page one: All physical events are caused or determined by the sum total of all previous events. This definition dodges a question that many people feel should not be dodged: if we repeatedly replayed the universe from the same point in time would it always reach the same future? Since we have no way of performing this experiment, this question is a long-term classic in philosophy and physicists have tried to interpret the results of other experiments in various ways in order to figure out the answer to this question. Modern day physics-oriented philosophers have sometimes tried to answer the question of free will using the many-worlds interpretation, according to which every time there is quantum indeterminacy each possibility occurs and new universes branch off. Since the 1920s, physicists have been trying to convince themselves that quantum indeterminacy can in some way explain free will. Dennett suggests that this idea is silly. How, he asks, can random resolutions of quantum-level events provide people with any control over their behavior?

Indeterminism is not a solution to the free will problem
Since Dennett wrote Elbow Room (1984) there has been an ongoing attempt by some scientists to answer this question by suggesting that the brain is a device for controlling quantum indeterminacy so as to construct behavioral choice. Dennett argues that such efforts to salvage free will by finding a way out of the prison of determinism are wasted.

Control is the kind of freedom "worth wanting"
Dennett discusses many types of free will (1984). Many philosophers have claimed that determinism and free will are incompatible. What the physicists seem to be trying to construct is a type of free will that involves a way for brains to make use of quantum indeterminacy so as to make choices that alter the universe in our favor, or if there are multiple universes, to choose among the possible universes. Dennett suggests that we can have another kind of free will, a type of free will which we can be perfectly happy with even if it does not give us the power to act in more than one way at any given time. Dennett is able to accept determinism and free will at the same time. How so?

We have free will
The type of free will that Dennett thinks we have is finally stated clearly in the last chapter of the book: the power to be active agents, biological devices that respond to our environment with rational, desirable courses of action. Dennett has slowly, through the course of the book, stripped the idea of behavioral choice from his idea of free will. How can we have free will if we do not have indeterministic choice? Dennett emphasizes control over libertarian choice. If our hypothetically mechanical brains are in control of our behavior and our brains produce good behaviors for us, then do we really need such choice? Is an illusion of behavioral choices just as good as actual choices? Is our sensation of having the freedom to execute more than one behavior at a given time really just an illusion? Dennett argues that choice exists in a general sense: that because we base our decisions on context, we limit our options as the situation becomes more specific. In the most specific circumstance (actual events), he suggests there is only one option left to us.

 * "It is this contrast between the stable and the chaotic that grounds our division of the world into the enduring and salient features of the world, and those features that we must treat statistically or probabilistically. And this division of the world is not just our division; it is, for instance, mother nature's division as well. Since for all mother nature knows (or could know) it is possible that these insects will cross paths (sometime, somewhere) with insectivorous birds, they had better be designed with some avoidance machinery. This endows them with a certain power that will serve well (in general)."

Determinism does not rule out moral responsibility
If people are determined to act as they do, then what about personal responsibility? How can we hold people responsible and punish them for their behaviors if they have no choice in how they behave? Dennett gives a two-part answer to this question:

First, we hold people responsible for their actions because we know from historical experience that this is an effective means to make people behave in a socially acceptable way. Second, holding people responsible only works when combined with the fact that people can be informed of the fact that they are being held responsible and respond to this state of affairs by controlling their behavior so as to avoid punishment. People who break the rules set by society and get punished may be behaving in the only way they can, but if we did not hold them accountable for their actions, people would behave even worse than they do with the threat of punishment. This is a totally utilitarian approach to the issue of responsibility. Expressing moral indignation when people break the rules of proper behaviour is only useful to the extent that it contributes to dissuading such behaviour. Again, an argument from utility. Is it, then, moral to punish people who are unable to do other than break a rule? Yes, people have the right to come together and improve their condition by creating rules and enforcing them. We would be worse off if we did not do so. Again, an argument from utility.

Fatalism is destructive
One final issue: if people do not have real behavioral choices, why not collapse into fatalism? Again, Dennett's argument is that we may not have behavioral choice, but we do have control of our behavior. Dennett asks us to look around at the universe and ask, can I even conceive of beings whose will is freer than our own? For Dennett, the answer to this question is, no, not really. In Elbow Room, he tries to explain why all the attempts that people have made to prove that people have libertarian choice have failed and are, in the final analysis, not really important anyhow. As humans, we are as much in control of our behavior as anything in the universe. As humans, we have the best chance to produce good behavior. We should be satisfied with what we have and not fret over our lack of libertarian free will.

Some complaints about Elbow Room relate to our intuitions about free will. Some say that Dennett's theory does not satisfactorily deal with the issue of why we feel so strongly that we do have behavioral choice. One answer to this question is the result of selection on individuals to live harmoniously in society. But one does not have to be free to achieve that goal. Another answer is that it tells us (our brains) whether we are doing something or someone else is doing something to us (e.g. shaking arm). But, again one does not have to be free to make such a distinction. A final answer to this question is that our sensation of having behavioral choice has been carefully selected by evolution. The well-developed human sensation of having free will and being able to select among possible behaviors has strong survival value. People who lose the feeling that they can plan alternative behaviors and execute their choice of possible behaviors tend to become fatalistic and stop struggling for survival. According to Dennett, belief in free will is a necessary condition for having free will. When we are planning for the future and thinking about possible actions to take in the future, we are utilizing considerable amounts of biologically expensive resources (brain power). Evolution has designed us to feel strongly that all of our effort of planning pays off, that we control what we do. If this connection between our brains' efforts to model reality and predict the future and so make possible good outcomes is disconnected from our sense of self and our will, then fatalism and self-destructive behaviors are close at hand. However, the same effect is attainted if, despite not believing in the control free will gives, we believe that does not prevent us to live as fully as our bodies allow us to and to try harder to achieve things if we think we have agency. In other words, we do not need to have the feeling of free will to accomplish our full selves. Nor does it explain the reason we experience we are not acting freely in survival-related actions but we experience free will in other sets of non-survival situations.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Elbow Room (Dennett book)


text:
System software

System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. Examples of system software include operating systems (OS) (like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows).

Application software is software that allows users to do user-oriented tasks such as create text documents, play or develop games, create presentations, listen to music, draw pictures, or browse the web. Examples are: computational science software, game engines, search engines, industrial automation, and software as a service applications.

In the late 1940s, application software was custom-written by computer users to fit their specific hardware and requirements. System software was usually supplied by the manufacturer of the computer hardware and was intended to be used by most or all users of that system.

Many operating systems come pre-packaged with basic application software. Such software is not considered system software when it can be uninstalled without affecting the functioning of other software. Examples of such software are games and simple editing tools supplied with Microsoft Windows, or software development toolchains supplied with many Linux distributions.

Some of the grayer areas between system and application software are web browsers integrated deeply into the operating system such as Internet Explorer in some versions of Microsoft Windows, or ChromeOS where the browser functions as the only user interface and the only way to run programs (and other web browser their place).

Operating systems or system control program
The operating system (prominent examples being Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and z/OS), allows the parts of a computer to work together by performing tasks like transferring data between memory and disks or rendering output onto a display device. It provides a platform (hardware abstraction layer) to run high-level system software and application software.

A kernel is the core part of the operating system that defines an Application programming interface for applications programs (including some system software) and an interface to device drivers.

Device drivers and devices firmware, including computer BIOS, provide basic functionality to operate and control the hardware connected to or built into the computer.

A user interface interact with a computer. It can either be a command-line interface (CLI) or, since the 1980s, a graphical user interface (GUI). This is the part of the operating system the user directly interacts with, it is considered an application and not system software.

Utility software or system support programs
Some organizations use the term systems programmer to describe a job function that is more accurately termed systems administrator. Software tools these employees use are then called system software. This utility software helps to analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer, such as virus protection. The term system software can also include software development tools (like a compiler, linker, or debugger).

title: System software


text:
Ramón Arellano Félix

Ramón Eduardo Arellano Félix (August 31, 1964 – February 10, 2002) was a Mexican drug lord who alongside his brothers founded and led the Tijuana Cartel (a.k.a. the Arellano-Félix Organization). He was the leader of the enforcement wing of the organization until his assassination on February 10, 2002.

Biography
Standing 188cm and 100 kg, Ramon Arellano Félix was allegedly one of the most ruthless members of the cartel and was a suspect in various murders. Arellano Félix ordered the 1998 massacre of nineteen members of Castro Ramirez family outside of Ensenada, Baja California. The family was related to an alleged associate of the Arellano Félix Cartel. The Ramirez family oversaw the marijuana production and transport to Tecate and Tijuana, and was active before the Arellanos overtook the region. By murdering the whole family, the Felix Arellano Cartel eliminated the last bastion to the Cartel's full control of the area. The massacre broke an unspoken pact amongst druglords: "don't touch the children."

While in hiding in Los Angeles in 1995, Arellano Félix was unwittingly the subject of a televised prank when he was approached outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood by Rupert Jee, who was filming a segment for the Late Show with David Letterman.

On 18 September 1997, Ramon Arellano Félix became the 451st fugitive to be placed on the Ten Most Wanted list. Leading to his Most Wanted Fugitive listing in the United States, he had been charged in a sealed indictment in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, with Conspiracy to Import Cocaine and Marijuana in drug trafficking.

Kingpin Act sanction
On 1 June 2000, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Ramón under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act"), for his involvement in drug trafficking, along with eleven other international criminals. The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S.

Death and aftermath
On 10 February 2002, Ramón Arellano Félix was killed in a gunfight in Bugambilia Street, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, where he was stopped due to a traffic infraction by Mexican police officer, Ángel Antonio Árias Torres. Arellano Félix drew his gun and mortally wounded Árias Torres twice in the chest, who fired back and killed Arellano Félix with a single bullet in the head while falling to the ground and dying. According to Jesús Zambada García (alias "El Rey"), Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán ordered Árias Torres to enact the traffic stop and Arellano Félix' execution.

Arellano's older brother, Benjamín Arellano Félix, the cartel's mastermind, was arrested weeks later on 9 March. On 14 August 2006, the youngest of the Arellano brothers, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, was arrested with some associates at sea, by the United States Coast Guard. They were in international waters 25 km off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. Francisco Javier was extradited to the U.S. on September 16, 2006.

The only brother of the Arellano Félix cartel then at large, Eduardo Arellano Félix, was captured by the Mexican Army on 26 October 2008. At the time, the US State Department had been offering a reward of up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest. According to a Mexican official, at the time of Eduardo Arellano Félix's capture, control of the cartel passed to Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, a son of Eduardo Arellano Félix's sister Alicia.

At around 16:00 local time on 23 June 2014, Sánchez Arellano was arrested by soldiers of the Mexican Army and federal agents of the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) at a Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant in the Mesa de Otay borough in Tijuana, Baja California, while watching the FIFA World Cup game between Mexico and Croatia. Sánchez Arellano was wearing the Mexico national team jersey and had the team's colors painted on his face. The arrest was made without a single shot fired. The security forces also confiscated US$100,000 he had with him at the moment of his arrest.

In popular culture
In the 2017 Netflix and Univision series, El Chapo, Rolf Petersen plays Ramón Avendaño (a fictionalized portrayal of Ramón Arellano Félix).

Arellano Félix is portrayed by Manuel Masalva in the 2018 crime drama, Narcos: Mexico.

A 2003 Mexican film, "El fin de los Arellano" ("The End of the Arellanos"), featured characters supposedly based on the Arellano brothers; however, its plot bore practically no resemblance to the actual events.

The Arellano brothers were allegedly an inspiration for the two secondary characters of "the Obregón brothers", featured in the 2000 US film Traffic.

title: Ramón Arellano Félix


text:
Calisthenics

Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) (/ˌkælɪsˈθɛnɪk/) is a form of strength training that utilizes an individual's body weight as resistance to perform multi-joint, compound movements with little or no equipment.

Origin and etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary describes callisthenics as "gymnastic exercises to achieve fitness and grace of movement". The word calisthenics comes from the ancient Greek words κάλλος (kállos), which means "beauty", and σθένος (sthenos), meaning "strength". It is the art of using one's body weight as resistance to develop muscles.

The practice was recorded as being used in ancient Greece, including by the armies of Alexander the Great and the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Calisthenics was also recorded to have been used in ancient China. Along with dietary practices, Han dynasty physicians prescribed calisthenics as one of the methods for maintaining one's health.

Common exercises

The more commonly performed calisthenic exercises include:

 * Push-ups
 * Performed face down on the floor, palms against the floor under the shoulders, toes curled upwards against the floor. The arms are used to lift the body while maintaining a straight line from head to heel. The arms go from fully extended in the high position to nearly fully flexed in the low position while avoiding resting on the floor. This exercise trains the chest, shoulders, and triceps. An easier version of this exercise consists of placing the hands on a wall and then bending and straightening the arms.

 * Sit-ups
 * A person lies on their back with their legs bent. They bend at the waist and move their head and torso towards their legs. They then lower themselves back down to the start position. For people who find it difficult to get down onto the ground, a similar range of motion can be achieved by standing with the legs slightly bent, and then bowing slightly and straightening up again.

 * Squats
 * Standing with the feet a shoulder-width apart, the subject squats down until their thighs are parallel with the floor; during this action, they move their arms forwards in front of them. They then return to a standing position whilst moving their arms back to their sides. Squats train the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, gluteal muscles, and core. The height of the squat can be adjusted to be deeper or shallower depending on the fitness level of the individual (i.e. half or quarter squats rather than full squats). Since squats can be performed easily in most environments and with a limited amount of space, they are among the most versatile calisthenic exercises.

 * Burpees
 * A full body calisthenics workout that works abdominal muscles, chest, arms, legs, and several parts of the back. The subject squats down and quickly moves their arms and legs into a push-up position. Sometimes, people do a push up (not mandatory) before they finish their rep by tucking the legs in and jumping up.

 * Chin-ups and pull-ups
 * Chin-ups and pull-ups are similar exercises but use opposite facing grips.
 * For a chin-up, the palms of the hands are facing the person as they pull up their body using the chin-up bar. The chin-up involves the biceps muscles more than the pull-up but the lats are still the primary mover.
 * For a pull-up, the bar is grasped using a shoulder-width grip. The subject lifts their body up, chin level with the bar, keeping their back straight throughout the exercise. The bar remains in front of the subject at all times. The subject then slowly returns to starting position in a slow, controlled manner. This primarily trains the lats, and secondary muscles working are upper back muscles, as well as the forearms and core muscles.

 * Dips
 * Done between parallel bars or facing either direction of trapezoid bars found in some gyms. Feet are crossed, with either foot in front and the body is lowered until the elbows are in line with the shoulders. The subject then pushes up until the arms are fully extended, but without locking the elbows. Dips focus primarily on the chest, triceps, and deltoids, especially the anterior portion.

 * Front lever and back lever
 * A front lever is performed by executing a lateral pulldown of the bar with straight arms until the body is parallel to the ground, with the front of the body facing upwards. This exercise may be done on rings or a pull-up bar.
 * A back lever is performed by lowering from an inverted hang from rings or bar, until the gymnast's body is parallel to the ground and facing towards the floor.

 * Handstand

 * A handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand, the body is held straight with arms and legs fully extended, with hands spaced approximately a shoulder-width apart.

 * Hyperextensions
 * Performed in a prone position on the ground, the individual raises the legs, arms and upper body off the ground.

 * Leg raises
 * Lying on the back, hands in fists under buttocks, move feet up and down.

 * L-sit
 * The L-sit is an acrobatic body position in which all body weight rests on the hands, with the torso held in a slightly forward-leaning orientation, with legs held horizontally so that each leg forms a nominal right-angle with the torso. The right-angle causes the body to have a notable "L" shape, hence the name "L-sit". The L sit requires one to keep their core tensed and holding their legs horizontal, so that their body sits in a perfect 'L' position. This requires significant abdominal strength and a high level of hamstring flexibility.

 * Muscle-ups
 * An intermediate calisthenics exercise. Performed by a combination routine of a pull-up followed by a dip. May be done on pull-up bars or rings.

 * Planche
 * One of the most advanced exercises, which may be achieved after years of training. It is performed by protracting and depressing the scapula balancing the body on two arms. The planche requires a high amount of strength (particularly for taller individuals) as well as balance.

 * Planks

 * This is the name for holding the 'top' position of a push-up for extended periods of time. The primary muscle involved in this exercise is the rectus abdominis, especially if a posterior pelvic tilt is maintained.

 * Calf raises
 * Lunges
 * Jumping jack
 * The side-straddle hop is a two-action exercise. From a standing position, the subject first jumps slightly into the air while moving the legs more than a shoulder-width apart, swinging the arms overhead, and clapping the palms together. Secondly, the subject jumps slightly into the air once again while swinging the arms down and to the side, finally returning to a standing position. Both actions must be alternated per repetition.

Training methods
Calisthenics can be used as a means to pursue a number of fitness goals including, but not limited to hypertrophy (increasing one's muscle mass), strength, and endurance.

The training methods employed are often different, depending on the goal. For instance, when pursuing hypertrophy, one aims to increase the load volume over time; when pursuing strength, the intensity of the exercise is increased over time; and to improve endurance, one can gradually shorten their rest periods.

Co-operative calisthenics

Co-operative calisthenics refers to calisthenic exercises that involve two or more participants helping each other to perform the exercise. Such exercises may also be known as partner exercises, partner-resisted exercises, partner carrying, or bodyweight exercises with a partner. They have been used for centuries as a way of building physical strength, endurance, mobility, and co-ordination. Usually, one person performs the exercise and the other person adds resistance. For example, a person performing squats with someone on their back, or someone holding another person in their arms and walking around. Some exercises also involve the use of equipment. Two people may hold onto different ends of a rope and pull in different directions. One person would deliberately provide a lesser amount of resistance, which adds resistance to the exercise whilst also allowing the other person to move through a full range of motion as their superior level of force application pulls the rope along. A disadvantage of these exercises is that it can be challenging to measure how much resistance is being added by the partner, when considered in comparison to free weights or machines. An advantage such exercise has is that it allows for relatively high levels of resistance to be added with equipment being optional. On this basis, co-operative calisthenics can be just as easily performed on a playing field as in a gym. They are also versatile enough to allow them to be used for training goals other than simple strength. For example, a squat with a partner can be turned into a power-focused exercise by jumping or hopping with the partner instead, or even lifting them up on one knee.

Benefits
A 2017 study: "The effects of a calisthenics training intervention on posture, strength and body composition" found that calisthenics training is an "effective training solution to improve posture, strength and body composition without the use of any major training equipment".

History

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–1878) was an American educator and author who popularized and shaped a conservative ideological movement to both elevate and entrench women's place in the domestic sphere of American culture. She introduced calisthenics in a course of physical education and promoted it.

Disciples of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn brought their version of gymnastics to the United States, while Beecher and Dio Lewis set up physical education programs for women in the 19th century. Organized systems of calisthenics in America took a back seat to competitive sports after the Battle of the Systems, when the states mandated physical education systems. The Royal Canadian Air Force's calisthenics program published in the 1960s helped to launch modern fitness culture.

Calisthenics is associated with the rapidly growing international sport called street workout. The street workout consists of athletes performing calisthenics routines in timed sessions, in front of a panel of judges. The World Street Workout & Calisthenics Federation (WSWCF), based in Riga, Latvia, orchestrates the annual national championships and hosts the world championships for the sport. The World Calisthenics Organization (WCO) based in Los Angeles, California, promotes a series of competitions known globally as "the Battle of the Bars". The WCO created the first set of rules for formal competitions, including weight classes, a timed round system, original judging criteria and a 10-point must system, giving an increasing number of athletes worldwide an opportunity to compete in these global competitions.

Street workout competitions have also popularized 'freestyle calisthenics', which is a style of calisthenics where the athlete uses their power and momentum to perform dynamic skills and tricks on the bar, often as part of a routine where each trick is linked together in a consistent flow. Freestyle calisthenics requires great skill to control one's momentum and an understanding of the mechanics of the body and the bar.

Calisthenics parks

An increasing number of outdoor fitness training areas and outdoor gyms are being built around the world. Some are designed especially for calisthenics training, and most are free to use by the public. Calisthenics parks equipment include pull-up bars, monkey bars, parallel bars, and box jumps. Freely accessible online maps exist that show the locations and sample photos of calisthenics parks around the world.

title: Calisthenics


text:
Talk:Elbow Room (Dennett book)

(Just needs something on the books reception for B)

Copyvio?
This text is substantially the same as that at http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/System/8870/philosophicus/Elbows.html

Is the person who posted this here the person who wrote that webpage? Did the author give Wikipedia right of use of this? If not, this should either be deleted or substantially reworked to put it in your own word. -- Infrogmation

___ I am new to Wikipedia. www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/System/8870 is my GeoCities website. I adapted the information which I had posted at http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/System/8870/philosophicus/Elbows.html to produce the material that I posted at  http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbow_Room

I want this information about the book "Elbow Room to be freely available, edited mercilessly and redistributed at will.

I am not aware of the proper method to add material to Wikipedia that is derived from material I have previously posted on my website. JWSchmidt 20:27 Feb 27, 2003 (UTC)

POV/OR
This was pretty balanced for a book review, but review-ish nonetheless. I took out a bunch of references to "behavioral choice", because I think it's WP:OR and unfairly represents Dennett as denying choice outright as opposed to redefining it. I took out the whole POV/OR "conclusion" section and replaced some of the behavioral choice references with "libertarian free will" and similar language, which is the language Dennett uses. I provided a link to Libertarianism (metaphysics) in each section where I used the term, because obviously it is ambiguous (but important to the topic).

But I really like this book, so please make sure I'm not replacing one POV with another inadvertantly. Thanks. NickelShoe 19:51, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Alternative understanding of "Elbow room"
A section called Alternative understanding of "Elbow room" contains some rather nonsensical material which embodies a naive materialist PoV and a number of classic fallacies. If someone wants to restore it they could argue for the points or souce them NBeale 16:12, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Sections
I'm not sure if the sections are trying to summarize each of the seven chapters of the book or not; they look similar but not quite the same. I think this would be the best way to go about writing the article. Richard001 02:20, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:57, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Observations on article improvement
Greetings. For what it's worth, if I were working on this article, I'd start off by adding page citations from the book itself. Fortunately, at 172 pages (not including bibliography & index), it's not a particularly long book, although it is somewhat information dense, with a good index to aid navigation. Simply begining with that exercise - since the article is after all an attempted synopsis of a book - should automatically address some issues, and point the direction for solution of others.

For example, in the first instance, I would expect the point of view to reflect that of the book, with citations pointing to key comments, paraphrases or quotes from the book. Any commentary on the book by another party should of course have a citation, and perhaps be in a section of its own. Regarding sections, I generally agree with Richard001. If I were starting the article from scratch, I'd probably adopt Dennett's seven main sections and try to synopse what he's saying in each section.

If along the way I happened to create a particularly useful overall synopsis in my own head, I might add a section for that, but I'd be sure that the reader could readily trace my overall synopsis back to the main article. I.e., it should be possible for the reader to readily come to the same synopsis from the information provided. But that's just an 'if'. It wouldn't be my aim to create such an overall synopsis - it would either arise naturally, or it wouldn't.

Sometimes in synopsing a book one finds it more useful to collapse a section or two together, and/or expand on some other sections to a greater level of detail. But that tends to become clear as the exercise unfolds.

But no matter what, I'd start with adding inline citations from the book itself. Format-wise his can be simple. Since it's only one book being synopsed, placing the page or pages in brackets should easily suffice in the first instance. For example, (pp.9-10) if I was describing the Tyrolean Village that Dennett uses to illustrate a sleight-of-hand technique found in some writingsWotnow (talk) 03:43, 29 December 2009 (UTC)Wotnow

Dodging?
The article writes:

 * Dennett gives his definition of determinism on page one: All physical events are caused or determined by the sum total of all previous events. This definition dodges a question that many people feel should not be dodged: if we repeatedly replayed the universe from the same point in time would it always reach the same future?

How does this definition dodge that question? That question seems to be none other than: is determinism correct? We need the definition to efficiently discuss that question.

I think we should delete this claim that Dennett's definition dodges this question. Maybe Dennett dodges this question, but the definition can't possibly dodge it. John Baez (talk) 00:26, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Love
The whole world was so lovely Oritsejemine0147 (talk) 12:03, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Elbow Room (Dennett book)


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Volksmarching

Volksmarching (from German "Volksmarsch", people's march) is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe in the mid-late 1960s. By 1968, the International Federation of Popular Sports (better known as the "IVV") was formed by Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The national emblems of these four countries were placed in a wreath to form the symbol IVV. The IVV Headquarters is located in Altötting, Germany (Bavaria) and the official languages of the IVV are English and German, though French is also used unofficially.

Though walking is the primary activity, the volkssporting movement also includes bicycling, swimming, cross-country skiing or snow-shoeing, and other approved activities. Special provisions also allow for people with disabilities to participate in most events. Participants typically walk 5 km, 10 km, 20 km or longer, on a predetermined outdoor path or trail, with the aid of posted signs or markings, or a map and a set of written directions. Volksmarching associations offer incentive awards (including certificates, pins and patches) for participating in a certain number of events and for covering different cumulative distances over time. Volksmarching participants enjoy recording distances and event participation in international record books.

IVV members around the world organize more than 7,500 events each year for an estimated participation of 10,000,000 people. People of all ages and abilities participate. As of 2019, IVV Membership includes 29 National Federations (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland/Liechtenstein, Southern Tyrol, Taiwan and the United States) as well as 12 additional "direct members" in Andorra, CapVerde, Croatia, Ireland, Indonesia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain—representing 4,000 local clubs and making volkssporting available in at least 40 countries worldwide. Members are loosely organized under three geographic groupings: IVV-Europe, IVV-Asia and IVV-Americas.

Less frequently used terms are Volkswanderung and Volkswalk.

title: Volksmarching


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Harry Shields

Harry Shields (June 30, 1899 – January 19, 1971) was an American jazz clarinetist.

Background
Shields was born in Uptown New Orleans, the younger brother of noted clarinetist Larry Shields. He spent almost his entire career in New Orleans. He played with the bands of Norman Brownlee, Sharkey Bonano, Tom Brown, Johnny Wiggs, and others. Many fellow musicians regarded Harry as superior to his more famous brother, Larry. Johnny Wiggs commented that Shields was the only clarinetist he'd heard who could always play the right note without fail.

title: Harry Shields


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Talk:Volksmarching

terminology
As a summary of, confirmation of, and addition to what has been said by various parties below (August 2004; March 2012; June 2013):

The term "Volksmarsch" or any related vocabulary does not exist in German language usage. If someone would see the term "Volksmarsch", it would probably be associated with 19th Century brass band music.

The term commonly used on posters and flyers is "Volkswandertag" (= people's hiking/rambling day), and refers to the very date such an event is planned. Related terms ("Volkswanderung", "Volkswandern", etc.) do exist in theory, but are basically never used. Otto von B. (talk) 16:17, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

August 2004
Um, we seem to have a word of mixed languages. It isn't really an English word, is it? And the German word is Volksmarschung. -- Zoe

 * Zoe I am sorry, Volksmarschung is even worse, there is no German word like that. The German word would in fact be Volksmarsch, but as I wrote further down, this word does not exist in the German language. Sunstarfire (talk) 12:53, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah. Volksmarch is the term used by the American Volkssport Association which appears to be the United States branch of the IVV (I won't dare try to spell it.) The IVV actually uses just Wanderung although I see Volkswandurung used frequently (My German is a bit rusty.) Volksmarch seems to be a neologism (via the U.S. military) but it is the officially sanctioned neologism. -- Kirkjobsluder

 * I've only come across this page, and I must say that the very first sentence, "Volksmarching is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe", is as vague as you can get in terms of localizing the origins of that sport. And what do Americans understand by "Volksmarching"? A whole nation getting on their feet on a, well, Saturday or Sunday and walking around aimlessly? Please explain in some more detail. 16:01, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

March, 2012
Actually, as a german I think the whole term was overrated by some tourists that visited the south-western parts of germany.

The link to the DVV can act as a perfect example: dvv-wandern; _wandern_! (german for hiking) We say "Wandertage" ("hiking days" or "days of hiking"). And the all the bigger organizations in germany, austria and switzerland use the term "Wandertage". Search for it: you'll get a lot of hits on german speaking website. All the "Volkssport"-pages are using it too. A lot of announcements of "Wandertage", not a single "Volksmarsch".

Only some american and canadian sites are using "Volksmarch" (btw. sounds like an hiking activity relabeled by the Hitlerjugend... maybe that old nazi chum that crossed the ocean after WWII brought that term with him) and quoting again and again the Volksmarch entry in the english Wikipedia -- which doesn't make it right.

The Leipziger Wörterbuch knows it from the Passauer Neue Presse, were it qoutes an entry of a local club -- that doesn't make it common. Regarding the right-winged tendency in the countryside: I would even say _questionable_.

Neither the Duden of 1986, nor 2004 knows "Volksmarsch" -- so it's rather not common. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.35.141.147 (talk) 16:29, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

June 2013
I just stumbled over this. I must agree with the person before me. Everything "Voks" has this Nazi-atmosphere to it. There is not really anything in German we use which would be close to that term. A "Volksmarsch" would be something like a huge public gathering of lots of people with the purpose to hike somewhere. It has nothing to do with "for the masses" or "easy", which the term seems to try to imply in English. Actually, it's simply hiking, nothing else. Or maybe not even that, just leaving the house for a walk. That's what we do. And yes, there are different levels in that. You can hike in your city. Or you can hike up to the Hoellentalklamm or something like that. Apart from that, it is typically American to create a hassle around something which is supposed to be hassle-free. Sunstarfire (talk) 12:51, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Stub - comment
Cleaned up a bit, but this stub would probably be better off as short section or paragraph in a larger main article (maybe hiking or a similar article?). GermanJoe (talk) 23:43, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Volksmarching