Friday, August 27, 2010

My Name is Earl, Meet My Friend Danielle

If you own a surfboard, wetsuit, or even a plank of wood here on the East Coast, you should know that the best swell of the summer is coming in as we speak. In fact, you shouldn't even be sitting at your computer reading this blog post, because you should be making your way to the beaches to get a piece of it!


For those of you who don't trust the 'Weed because of overly optimistic forecasts, trust me. Go to the beach, and you will have that goofy grin of joy on your face as you sit in the water.

-Connie

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Land and Water Conservation Fund - Let's Put it to Good Use


The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was established by Congress in 1964 to help fund state and local conservation efforts and to protect national parks, forests and wilderness areas. Funding comes from offshore oil and gas leases.

Over its 46-year history, LWCF has helped state agencies and local communities acquire nearly seven million acres of land and has underwritten the development of more than 37,000 state and local park and recreation projects. Federal LWCF project sites include popular recreational areas like Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, California's Big Sur Coast, and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Montana. Stateside LWCF project sites include New York City's Central Park, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and Custer State Park in South Dakota, as well as thousands of local playgrounds, soccer fields, and baseball diamonds.

LWCF is authorized at $900 million annually; a level that has been met only twice during the program's 46 years. The program is divided into State grants and Federal acquisition funds. In FY 2005, the federal acquisition pot received $166 million and the state grants program received $92.5 million for a total of $258.5 million. In FY 2006 the federal pot received $114.5 and the state grants received $30 million. FY 2007 a total of only $138 million was received between the two.

Efforts are now underway in Congress to ensure full funding for the LWCF and your voice is an important part of making full funding a reality. If you value open spaces to recreate in, contact your senators today. Legislation that would fully fund LWCF for five years was passed by the House as a part of the gulf oil spill reform package. Companion legislation will be considered on the floor of the Senate in the coming months. NEMO has signed their letter of support, we hope you'll voice your support, too.

~Kate

Hollywood Hits the Outdoors

The trailer for Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, The Beach, Slumdog Millionaire) new film based on Aron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place is out.



There was a good buzz coming from folks who saw a sneak peek of this at Outdoor Retailer. Read the book first!

-Connie

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

24 Hours of Fun, aka Great Glenn

A couple of weekends ago, Nicole joined up with Dakine/EMS team to partake in the 15th annual 24 hours of Great Glenn. She is still covered in bruises from the craziness.



According to Nicole, the race is nonstop action from the time the cannon goes off on noon Saturday til the final cannon blast on noon Sunday. Their team finished 29 laps of the course, finishing 8th overall in the 5 person co-ed class. Impressively, across all racers, there were over 3194 laps were completed, 26,510 miles traveled, and over 3,784,890 feet of elevation gained.



-Connie

Monday, August 23, 2010

Twist and Shout

We currently use Jake's Feet anchors on Espri, Losi, Losi Storm, and Asashi tents. These specially designed anchors lock each pole tip in place so one end doesn't come loose while you walk to the other end of the tent.

We put this 14 second video together to show the removal of end tips from Jake's Feet since, while easy, it is not necessarily straight forward.

The gist of it is twist, don't pull.



-Suzanne

Friday, August 20, 2010

Iceland vs. Tenshi


Around our office, Iceland is one of the top destination picks for adventure/travel. We all got serious envy when William emailed customer service earlier this morning with some pics of Tenshi from a five-day hike of the Laugavegur trail in Iceland. He weathered some storms near the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, and made out dandy.


-Connie

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Sticker Arrival


Congratulations to our buddies Mavic down the road for sending in the first stickers and getting prime real estate on our fridge.

Keep 'em coming!
-Suzanne

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Outdoor Retailer Summer 2010

A couple weeks after the the circus known as Outdoor Retailer, we have all had a chance to catch our breaths and contemplate the state of the industry. If you're looking for some sneak peaks at Spring 2011 Products, there are plenty to be found around the interweb.


Out of all the roundups and reviews, this summary by The Adventure Life perhaps best describes the universal question of "the coolest thing I saw at Outdoor Retailer".

-Connie

Monday, August 16, 2010

Calling all stickers

NEMO headquarters in Nashua, NH is the proud new owner of a stark white refrigerator. It was determined that the energy efficiency and cleanliness of our old fridge was beyond dubious. The new refrigerator was delivered last Wednesday and the old one carted off to fridge heaven...and along with it, NEMO's greatest sticker collection. I wish I had snapped a picture of the old one before it was taken away, but you can probably picture in your head a standard fridge covered in outdoor industry stickers from the very top to bottom.

For decency's sake, I'm not posting any naked fridge pictures, but here is one of it scantily clad in just eleven stickers. More stickers have already been added from private stashes...but we need some help.


If you send us (appropriate) stickers from your favorite outdoor company, guide service, national park, magazine, athlete, etc., we'll make sure they get their own piece of real estate on our fridge.

Stickers can be sent to:

NEMO Equipment
C/o Fridge Stickers
100 Factory St
Nashua, NH 03060

I'm looking forward to posting pictures of our full coverage fridge.

-Suzanne

August Beach Cleanup and Rocket Pops

We hit the beach last Friday for some baby waves (shin/knee-ticklers, I call them) followed by our August beach cleanup. We picked up 65 lbs of the usual sea debris (ropes, bait bags, trap parts, etc), and not too much land-based debris despite the summer crowds. The only semi-egregious item were the 82 cigarette butts that we picked up -- and no doubt countless others that blended into the shells that we missed.


Two interesting things to note: first, a big thank you to ice cream man Bobby D. who saw us picking up trash and gave us all rocket pops in appreciation. He's a fellow surfer too (of the Long Island/NJ variety), but promised he'd be out to join us in the waves next time.


We also saw this driftwood/beach trash memorial out there. After overcoming the guilt that there was so much trash still on the beach that someone was able to construct a whole display out of it, we were wowed by the details in the construction. Bobby D. told us a local fellow has been building them on the beach, and for homeowners who have beachfront property. Anyone have more info?



-Connie

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

NH Local Weekend Adventures

NEMO friend Ben sent this pic of himself from Mt. Washington Auto Road last weekend, as a precursor to a bigger upcoming trip... more on this soon!


-Connie

The Price is Right for August NPS Visit

Fee-Free weekend is coming up August 14-15 for U.S. National Parks around the country. We're not just talking about the big ones here (Yosemite, Acadia, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons), but also some of the lesser known gems like Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan or the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado.


Beat the crowds by heading to your local National Park Service location. I'm planning on bringing my surfboard for Cape Cod National Seashore (wishful thinking in the summer) and hitting the CC Rail Trail.

-Connie

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Long Treks on Skate Decks Episode 6: Gravel Roads

We're back with Episode 6 of the Peru y Bolivia long distance longboarding trip. Check out Episodes 1-5 in our blog archives.



Who says you can’t skate on gravel roads??? Getting deeper and deeper into the Andes, the Long Treks on Skate Decks crew tackles a 20-km gravel road winding down a mountain. Things are looking good and enjoyable until a nasty pothole sends Aaron flying, creating a hole in his elbow. Nasty wounds in S. America are bad news for infection. Luckily, the team stumbles upon a German doctor at a restaurant who has the magic potion to make Aaron better.


So for about 15km the paved road disappeared and there was a hard packed dirt road with so many pot holes and ruts leading down to Pucuio. Close to the city there was a hard right turn, locals were walking on the inside of the turn which had the best route with the least amount of bumps, but we had to take an alternate route which lead us into a huge pot hole bump. Aaron did not make it. The wound was deep and painful.


The road to Pucuio was one of my favorite skates, it twist and turns and goes around several mountains allowing you to look at a beautiful lush green valley below.

-Adam

Monday, August 9, 2010

Are You Happy?

There's a great NYTimes article explaining some of the ways that people are spending less on material goods, and finding more happiness. No secrets here -- most of the stuff you already know: less time at work, more time outdoors, more volunteering, experiences trump possessions.

New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.

Does this mean you should follow suit, move to a trailer to be able to surf 5x a week? It's certainly worth considering...

This TED talk by Dan Gilbert is worth seeing too. His research on happiness will blow your mind.



-Connie

Local Wildlife- Part 5


Hello everyone, I wanted to provide an update on the local osprey nest located right here in Nashua on the Nashua River. This amazing location is pretty easy to access and great views can be had right from the car. The chicks have grown up and are flying around but still rely on mom for regular meals. One easy way to tell the chicks from adults is the eye color, the adults have yellow eyes while the chicks have orange eyes. Enjoy the photos! To see more shots go here.





-Bill