Most folks in the sailing world have heard of Alex Thomson and his prolific racing career. However, his stunts seem to garner much more attention from the general public, especially in today's YouTube age.
His "Keel Walk" from a couple of years ago has garnered over 2M views. However, I believe his latest "Mast Walk" is even better:
As much as "drones" have been getting so much bad press lately (for military/spy reasons), we have to remember that there is usually a positive side to all technology innovation. Take the video below as an example.
Surfing is an amazing sport. Athletic. Dangerous. And stunningly beautiful. To truly capture the essence of it on film requires multiple angles. From the water surface. From the surfer's perspective. From underwater. And, yes, from the air.
Historically, this last angle has been difficult to capture, in large part because it required expensive (and loud!) helicopters and cameras.
Now, through the miracle of modern technology, a filmmaker can use a remote-controlled "drone" and a relatively inexpensive GoPro camera to capture footage that was previously extremely difficult to acquire.
Enjoy!
On October 31, 2013, I moderated a roundtable discussion at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, Austria. The "Explorers Panel" including Ariel Fuchs of SeaOrbiter and Bas Lansdorp of Mars One, both of whom are working on incredibly ambitious entrepreneurial ventures. The Festival was a 3-day celebration of technology innovation, with 50+ speakers, 25+ startups, and 2500+ attendees.
There were some technical glitches that prevented the introduction and conclusion from going exactly as planned, but overall the entire session went quite smoothly.
It consisted of 4 sections:
Here is the video:
Since the final edit of the public video focused more on me and the panelists than on the constantly changing slides, here is the entire slide presentation:
Someone recently sent me a link to this video, and I absolutely loved it. It contains some amazing footage of a huge glacier calving in Greenland. Truly epic. Enjoy!
Human history is filled with stories about fanciful ocean creatures that reach out of the deep to consume entire ships and drag sailors to their watery graves. Over the years, scientists have developed theories based on scant evidence that "giant squid" truly do exist ... living at extreme depths, sporting tentacles spreading wide enough to grab large buildings, and feeding on some of the largest mammals on the planet. However, no one has ever seen a giant squid alive in its natural environment. Until now.
A few months ago, an expedition funded by NHK TV in Japan set out to find these elusive predators. Several of our friends were involved in the project, most of them piloting the submarines carrying the scientists and filmmakers. They ultimately succeeded in their mission, and their story will soon be told to the world. Here is a video trailer previewing their amazing discovery.
I was recently granted the privilege of membership into The Explorers Club. Founded in 1904, this is "an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore." The membership roster is filled with historic figures, so I can only hope that someday I will measure up to my new brethren ... either with my current activities exploring the oceans in manned submersibles or ideally with my future endeavors exploring space beyond the bounds of Earth!
Over the years, I have been interviewed many times for print, web, and broadcast news outlets. Perhaps I have become jaded, but I am not easily impressed with the end product from most media or journalists. It is rare to end with a piece that is factually accurate, visually compelling, entertaining, and informative. Of all the stories I have appeared in, my recent experience with MSN's News of Main is probably my favorite. They were extremely professional from start to finish, the crew they sent to conduct the onsite interviews was a pleasure to work with, and their finished product was well-structured and edited. Below are the two stories they ran, one focused on me personally and one focused on OceanGate as a startup venture.
A friend pointed me to this cool site with some of the best photos of 2012 so far. Here are some of my favorites:
The innovative folks at Marine Advanced Research seem to be making tremendous progress with their manned and unmanned watercraft designed to ride smoothly on just about any wave or sea state. I wonder if they can carry, launch, and retrieve a submarine. Hmmm ...
Since she appreciates my passion for the connections between "inner" and "outer" space (see, e.g., Sea-Space Initiative), a friend of mine sent me this hilarious image:
Last fall I had the privilege of spending a fair amount of time in Monterey with Bob Talbot, who is a world-reknown photographer and a gifted film maker. He shared with our team his IMAX documentary, Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, which tells the story of two world record free-diving rivals: Cuban-born Pipin Ferreras and Italian Umberto Pelizzari. It is a fascinating story told through Bob's amazing imagery. You can enjoy it on Hulu or on YouTube below.
I love infographics, especially when they relate to one of my passions!
Created by: MastersDegree.net
My company's flagship submarine is Antipodes, so we get many questions about the name's origin. There are many historical answers, but here is my favorite:
The term "antipodes" comes from the mathematical field of geometry and refers to a point on a sphere that is diametrically opposed to another. For example, if you place the index finger of your left hand anywhere on a basketball and place the index finger of your right hand at the point on the basketball directly opposite along an imaginary line through the center, then your right index finger will be on the "antipodes" of your left index finger (and vice versa). Another way to imagine this is to look at a (now) old-fashioned desk globe that spins along an axis held by a stand at the North and South Poles ... they are each the "antipodes" of each other.
Enough math! What does this have to do with a submarine?!
Well, our planet is a sphere that happens to be mostly covered in water. Because of the geographic distribution of land mass, less than 4% of land has a land-based antipodal point. This means that just about every human settlement on Earth has its antipodes somewhere in an ocean ... which can be explored only in a submarine. Hence the name. Make sense?
Here is a map that helps visualize the rarity of finding land-land antipodal pairs:
For a fun interactive exercise, check out this Google Maps mash-up that allows you to find the antipodal point of any location on the planet!
I wrote an earlier post about the "Race to the Bottom" of the world's oceans. Well, yesterday James Cameron succeeded in his solo dive to the deepest part of the world. Very exciting times ahead for ocean exploration and manned submersibles!
Over the past few weeks, the global media has been making a big deal about a proclaimed "Race to the Bottom". This "race" refers to several individuals and companies seeking to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the planet's oceans, in a variety of different submarines. Of course, this is really not a race at all, since two men (Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh) already made the descent over 50 years ago as part of a U.S. Navy exercise. In fact, as Walsh likes to put it, this current frenzy is really just a "Race for Second".
That being said, there is no denying that this recent crop of adventurers and explorers is helping to rekindle a worldwide public interest in the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. Here is a brief overview of each participant in this "race":
James Cameron
The famed director of mega-hit films like the Terminator and Alien series, Titanic, and Avatar, has had a long-time fascination with the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. He is close friends with the recognized godfather of research submarines, Anatoly Sagalevich, he has made several descents to the Titanic, and he has produced underwater documentaries such as Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss. Overall, he has over 70 dives in deep submersibles. He leads a NatGeo-backed team that has spent almost eight years developing a one-person submarine specifically for the attempt to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench. If successful, Cameron will set the world solo diving record, and the team will boast the world's deepest diving active submarine.
Outlook. Cameron will likely make the full descent by the end of March 2012.
Richard Branson
In late-2010, sailboat racer Chris Welsh decided to honor one of his heroes, world-record aviator/sailor/explorer Steve Fossett, by taking up the challenge he was working on when he perished in a plane crash in 2007: the world solo diving record to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Fossett had commissioned Graham Hawkes to design a submarine specifically for the world-record attempt, but he died before the sub got to its sea trials. Welsh purchased the unfinished sub from Fossett's estate, hired Hawkes to complete the project, and partnered with Richard Branson, Fossett's long-time partner, to create Virgin Oceanic ("VO"). While Branson has garnered the media spotlight during this "race", VO still remains Welsh's passion project, expanded to include diving to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans.
Outlook. The sub has not yet passed its pressure tests, so it is unlikely that VO will make its dive attempt until late-2012.
Triton Submarines
Triton is a reknowned builder of submarines specifically tailored for use aboard luxury yachts. The company is fronted by master-marketer Bruce Jones and headed by acclaimed sub expert Patrick Lahey, and together they have delivered six submarines ranging in depth capabilities from 1,000 feet to 3,300 feet and carrying 2-3 passengers in different configurations. They have extended their unique sub designs to include a three-person Full Ocean Depth ("FOD") model 36000/3, which could reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Outlook. Triton is still looking for its first client to pay for the development of the FOD 36000/3.
Deepsearch
The brainchild of famed ocean explorer Sylvia Earle and initially backed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, the Deepsearch project is taking a unique "open source" approach to community-based design and development of a deep-diving submarine. The project is spearheaded by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, an ocean engineering firm headed by Sylvia's daughter, Liz Taylor.
Outlook. This project is still looking for additional financing to move beyond initial design stage.
When I co-founded OceanGate in 2009, my partner and I wanted to create a business that helped "expand humanity's understanding of the world's oceans" ... by using manned submersibles ("submarines") to support ocean exploration and marine research. One of the most common questions I get is "How deep can submarines go?"
Well, the deepest part of the world's oceans lies approximately 11,000 meters underwater. The Challenger Deep region of the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific is such a deep canyon that you could place Mt. Everest inside and still have 1.5 miles of water above the peak. Only two human beings have ever been to this remote location: Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh made the descent on January 23, 1960. No one has been back since (although there are currently a few individual efforts underway to do so).
In fact, the deepest diving (non-military) manned submersibles in the world reach just about half that depth (which still gives humans access to roughly 98% of the world's oceans). There are currently only 6 submarines in the world capable of reaching these extreme depths, and they are operated by 5 national governments. Hopefully, this will change in the near future (with OceanGate playing a key role), but until then here is the line-up:
One of the most common questions we get about our submarine, Antipodes, is this: how long can you survive in case of an emergency?
As with most submarines, especially those with similar A+1 safety classifications from the American Bureau of Shipping, the answer is 72 hours, or roughly 3 days. (Actually, the technically correct answer is 360 man-hours, so 72 hours is at our full complement of 5 people.) Of course, it is difficult for me to imagine what it would be like to be trapped in a small submersible with four other people for three days ... the whole time waiting to be rescued.
In 1973, two submarine pilots had the misfortune of living through this exact experience. At the end of an exhausting 9-hour mission 150 miles off the coast of Cork, Ireland, the Pisces III submarine became disabled and sank to the ocean floor at 480 meters (1,575 feet), trapping pilots Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson with no way out. They waited on the sea bottom for over 3 days while a massive global rescue effort took place with the entire world watching and holding its collective breath. Much like the Apollo 13 mission three years prior, it was a life-and-death struggle where hundreds of professionals worked feverishly to bring home safely two brave men from an immensely hostile environment. The outcome was a testament to the courage of the trapped pilots, but an even stronger affirmation of the ingenuity, resolve, and teamwork of the many people who made possible the successful recovery of the sub and crew.
Chapman later wrote a gripping book about the ordeal, and he appropriately entitled it No Time On Our Side. I think about this story every time I get in our sub, and I have made it required reading for all of our pilots and crew. I hope that someday someone will turn this into a major motion picture and associated documentary, because it is a dramatic human story that should be shared with a global audience and new generation of explorers.
Last October, we took OceanGate's sub to Monterey, CA, for a month of ocean exploration and education outreach. During that time, we connected with film-maker Bob Talbot, who was shooting a short film for the new visitor center for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Santa Cruz. The star of Bob's film was Kirk Krack, a freediving coach who also founded Performance Freediving. We shot several scenes with Kirk, including him climbing around the sub while it was sitting on the bottom at 50+ feet. He is an incredible talent and a genuinely "good guy", so our whole team enjoyed spending time with him and the rest of Bob's team.
This is an absolutely amazing video that features Kirk and some of his colleagues:
Defending The Vandenberg from Ren Chapman on Vimeo.
