My old coach, Shiro Tanaka, brought Japanese friends to Canada for a gymnastics study tour. They are visiting clubs in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary — and holidaying in-between.
Hardy and Cynthia hosted them at their place on Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island. I was chauffeur.
It’s paradise.
Next morning Hardy skippered the group to local highlights.
Great start to the Canadian tour. 🙂
See more and higher resolution annotated photos on flickr.
I’ll be picking up one of my old Gymnastics coaches, Shiro Tanaka, today. He and his party from Japan will be flying into Vancouver and traveling directly to Vancouver Island by ferry.
I spent a couple of days last week shooting video with a pro, Chris Hutchinson, from Tumbl Trak. And learned a lot.
For a BIG upcoming project, here’s my intended work flow:
Canon XA10 and tripod capturing in .MTS file format.
Save those clips to 2 high speed Lexar 16 Gb SDHC class 10 memory cards, swapping them as needed.
USB card reader used to import them into iMovie 11 on a new dedicated MacBook Air.
Edited video files will be exported as H.264 in .MOV container, most likely 1280 x 720 pixels.
Those files will be stored on ADAM, one of two WD 1 Tb portable hard drives. Adam is IT. The MASTER repository.
I’ll store the video clips in a simple folder structure called DRAFT, indexed in a single spreadsheet called VIDEO INDEX. (A Google doc spreadsheet as it needs to be shared with a group.)
ADAM will be copied to EVE, the second WD 1 Tb portable hard drive. Adam and Even can meet but must separate immediately after conjoining.
ADAM will also be copied to the Cloud. I’ll try DropBox. But uploading and downloading to the cloud is very slow. I won’t do anything with the Cloud copy unless both ADAM and EVE somehow run away.
The FINAL video clips will be distributed by USB thumb drive.
Questions? Suggestions?
I’m still at the brainstorming stage.
CBC SASK:
Mike Mintenko and Warren Long are two Saskatchewan residents who know exactly what it feels like to be in the Olympics. Mintenko is a former Olympic swimmer, while Long is the first ever Canadian gymnast to be a finalist in the Olympics.
Listen to it HERE.
Thanks Peter.
How many TV shows and films have mentioned Jewish summer camps in the Poconos?
Hundreds.
But what are the Poconos?
The Pocono Mountains is a region located in northeastern Pennsylvania …
The wooded hills and valleys have long been a popular vacation area …
The Poconos is and has been Pennsylvania’s most popular tourist destination. It is also known for its brilliant color during the fall. The region contains over 80% of the state’s resorts …
I was there FINALLY visiting famed International Gymnastics Camp.
Both IGC … and the Poconos … are impressive. 🙂
I was happy to visit gymnastics friends from Regina, the Nestmans and Dimas’, holidaying while their daughters were at Camp.
Grilling in the Poconos.
I’m starting to coach the children of kids I coached.
🙂
Debbie Broderick’s daughter Lily
How many times have I had the pleasure?
Many times.
Driving south on 99, the full moon bright, 4th of July fireworks exploding overhead, listening to NPR.
This doesn’t suck.
California is a paradise for motoring.
I celebrated the 4th with Debbie Broderick Rodriguez and her family. 🙂
Destination — Woodward West Gym Camp.
I was one of Debbie’s coaches back in the day at Altadore Gymnastics.
In 2012 she and her husband Eli own one of the top rated clubs in the States, Byers Gymnastics, Sacramento.
I visited her at the gym yesterday.
… Today, July 4th, I’m meeting her for Crossfit training. (Wish me luck.) And then a family get together for the holidays.
Later today I’ll head into the Sierra mountains via Highway 108, a road I’ve never visited before.
I KNOW it. 🙂
San Jose, California is poor cousin to San Francisco. But I love the place.
San Jose is the largest city within Silicon Valley …
… 300+ days of sunshine and an average daily high temperature of 73 °F (23 °C) …
The weather is often excellent even when it’s raining in San Francisco.
It’s the home of Adobe, Cisco Systems, eBay and many other high tech leaders.
Google and Apple are nearby.
Yet it’s kept quite rustic. … Or perhaps that’s the lack of tax money for maintenance. Stockton, California just announced they were insolvent, becoming the largest city in U.S. history to declare bankruptcy.
There are many outdoors-men like myself who’ve settled here. A few are quite entrepreneurial.
Some like to sing. Or talk. … To themselves. Non-stop.
… San Jose lies between the San Andreas Fault … and the Calaveras Fault. San Jose is shaken by moderate earthquakes, above four on the Richter Scale, on average of one to two times a year. …
From here I’m headed to Woodward West Gymnastics Camp.
My 3 month stint coaching at Gymnastics Adventure in Regina ended yesterday.
Thanks so much to Tammy, Darcy, Mary Lou and everyone at GA for treating me so well.
My good friends Dana Brass and Frederick Nicolas will be taking over. Dana arrives July 7th.
I’ll be back to visit as quick as possible.
Next stop — Red Deer. Then San Jose, California for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Rick McCharles 