This Blog is officially archived. A new Effort.tv is up.

If I may please have the attention of my two readers. This blog has officially been archived. Since early this Spring Effort.tv has been all but nonexistent and I have been meaning to rebuild it. Alas, a new Effort.tv has been erected on wordpress at http://effortinc.wordpress.com/ The http://Effort.tv address will be forwarded to that same URL soon. From now on all my blog posts will occur on the front page of the new site. Use this old blog to stroll down memory lane.

Bye for now,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

Rapid Transit Video #13 - Vancouver, Whistler, BC local creeks

Rapid Transit Video Producer, Daniel Windham, has produced a really cool short film on some local creeks around the Vancouver and Whistler area of BC.

It's a really handsome video and I recommend subscribing to the podcast. Daniel's editing is mad stupid wack junk dat you gots to seez! He likes to get all crazy and carry two cameras in his kayak at once so he can film some actual film and then film some actual HD. One thing I wonder is if we are all incorrect saying that we are "filmmakers" and that we are "filming" when we are using digital cameras with these tiny tapes. I guess there is film in those tapes but isn't a film camera one that holds film, like an 8mm or 16mm camera? Well, that's what I think, and usually try not to say that I'm filming or that I'm a filmmaker because I don't use "film" the traditional way. Unless film accidentally slips out I usually just say that I am videoing, which isn't really a grammatically correct word, but that's just how I am... I guess.

See Daniel's rocket sauce inspiring video in Flash on the main Rapid Transit page at http://rapidtransitvideo.com/ and see what Daniel wrote about producing the video in his blog post http://www.rapidtransitvideo.com/blog/?p=63 where you can also view the video in Quicktime format or subscribe to the Rapid Transit Podcast.

Good day,

Spencer Cooke, Effort.tv (Not to be confused with Effort TV, which I don't know what is. My site is Effort.(dot)tv, not Effort TV. This is the internet, not TV. Maybe I'll get a new site called Effort.internet to keep everyone from misnaming my web site.)

Free IR Drysuit anyone? Just grow a Mustache.

There is a season just beyond the horizon where the talents of kayakers and lip hair farmers join forces to become one big idiotic mess all over the internet. This season is known as the Curt Davis Invitational Mustache Growing Contest of Paddlesports. This year IR has title sponsored the event to bring you The Mustache King 2008. As title sponsor IR will be providing their top-of-the-line DoubleD drysuit to 1st place as the grand prize. Yip, you read correctly. All you gotta do is grow a stache and you will be styling it up dry as a bone in a brand new drysuit. Check out the video for a little motivation.
http://themustacheking.com/vid/mustacheking2008.mov

Remember, only a mustache demands respect and is truly rewarded.


Enter while there's still time. Visit TheMustacheKing.com

A special gift to mankind.

I think we all know that this had to be done. Is it embarrassing? Yes. Am I completely humiliated? Not really. Was I proud to have documented such an occasion? Yes. After all, it's just nature doing what nature does. Please send thank you cards, snacks and money donations to the below address.

With love,
Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

Rapid Transit Video #11 - Morocco Surf Kayaking Adventure

Today is May Turd and as an ode to my former "News on the Turds" I give you the Morocco Surf Experience.

Click HERE to see the video, download the podcast, read the journal and live the experience... so to speak.

Our silly crew of surfing chalkies on the beach at Tafadna, Morocco

Joey and I experiencing life in Morocco.

This was incredible kayaking trip for me. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc.

Two new Rapid Transit Videos

Two new Rapid Transit videos have been posted in the past couple weeks.

1) Cooper Lambla's second video journal installment from New Zealand. This time, the South Island.
Click to view the video at Cooper's Rapid Transit Library
Cooper drops into a huge rapid at Nevis Bluff


2) I did indeed attend the 4th annual NAWF at Short Creek and the Locust Fork in Alabama, followed by an incredible trip down the Little River Canyon. The video event coverage is a little late but it's here nonetheless, featuring tons of happy paddlers.
Click to view NAWF/LRC video
Here I was NAWF morning, cooking breakfast in the snow. Twas freezin' ase cold. (photo Adam Motes)


As always you can subscribe to the Rapid Transit Video podcast via iTunes or at the Podcast page on the RT site. Enjoy and see you next time.

PS. The Magnum 80 and Thunder 76 by Riot are out now. These two new big boy creek/river boats are incredible additions to the lineup. If you're a biggy then give a try, you likey. You float high, go fast, boof drop, punch hole. You like.

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc.

Visit the Rapid Transit Library...

Dear bloggitizers or boatertalkitizers,

Some folks have made mention of "only three videos up on Rapid Transit." Au contraire, mon frère! If one were to visit the Library one would find oneself finding lots of other videos for one to watch. Recently added/archived in the Library are the Effort.tv 2007 Mion videos. Twelve videos to be exact, all waiting there to be watchitized by your eyezizz. Peruse the site and you might find warm lovely things that make you happy. So, please visit and please please enjoy.

Soon more videos come to Rapid Transit:
Cooper Lambla New Zealand S Island
Daniel Windham BC'faganza
Effort Inc/Deadman Morocco Surf Trip
Alabama Love Fest

... and more and more and more. Takes little bit of time to edit. We trying our hardest.

Love,

Spencer Cooke, Effort, Inc, looking my smoothest.

Mustache hair has been stalled out...

Face Hair Fans,

Due to some unforeseen circumstances the Mustache King will be postponed until June 1st. The new contest dates are June 1 - July 31. There is still room for competitor entries so please feel free to enter between now and then. Visit TheMustacheKing.com for more info.

Besides, Mustaches are way more fertile during warm, summer temperatures.

Thanks, The Mustache King

New Rapid Transit Video up from Cooper Lambla

Check out Cooper Lambla's first video journal installment on Rapid Transit. http://rapidtransitvideo.com


Notes: We have been having some major problems with the server we were using but we have changed the whole thing over as of today. It's a real bummer because the site has only been up for a month now, but I think it's all taken care of. It's loading way quicker now.

If you have trouble viewing Rapid Transit Videos via our site, please notify us. Some suggestions to help you view the videos if you are in fact still having trouble.

1) Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash. There is a link directly on our home page for the latest download.

2) If that does not work for some reason you can view some of the RT videos in quicktime format in a few different spots.

First, you may go to MionFootwear.com and view in quicktime from their home page.

Next, you may subscribe to the Rapid Transit Podcast. Right now all our featured videos are available there and we are considering just putting all our stuff up as podcasts. You can go to the iTunes music store and search for Rapid Transit and get the free subscription. You can also subscribe on the Podcast link on our web site.

Lastly, on the Blog or Podcast link on our site you can view the videos in a Quicktime Popup Window.

I hope this helps all the interested viewers have a more enjoyable experience on our site.

Thanks and enjoy the videos,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc

PS. everyone should abide by the NO FRUIT BOOT POLICY. Just do it for the love of humanity.

photo courtesy Drew Hayes

Mustaches start growing on Tuesday, April 1st

April fools? You be the judge of that. On Tuesday, April 1st a handful of the boldest paddlers from around the globe will show off their freshly shaven faces in hopes of becoming the next Mustache King.

Competitors start off skin to wind in hopes of having the finest stache on the planet two months from now, when the contest ends.


IR, the industry's leading kayak gear company, has put up the title sponsorship this year, setting the bar way up high. 1st Place wins IR's drysuit! People will do ridiculous things for an IR drysuit. Wait and see. Among the other prizes we have an Aquabound carbon 4 piece breakdown paddle, Shred Ready helmets, Mion shoes, Zeal Optics sunglasses, some Astral Buoyancy stuff. We also have a feed to WorldKayak.com for our blog, so you can keep up with the hairiness there as well, whatever makes you happy.

Go to TheMustacheKing.com to see all the details.

Please do enjoy,

Spencer Cooke, Effort.tv

New Rapid Transit Video - Heehaw Jones calls about the Green Race Movie

Recently Heehaw Jones left a voicemail for me regarding the Green Race Movie. He didn't seem all that psyched about it. Here's the link to the video. CLick HERE
Also, heehaw emailed me regarding the launch of Rapid Transit last week, and i quote, "WTF....I had the idea for this years ago."

I'd also like to thank Playak.com for linking me up on their page. I'd like to provide a link to them right here. 100% Independent Kayak & Canoe News

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc
Effort.tv

Rapid Transit: a new product from Effort Inc

Dear Blog Nerds,

I am pleased to announce a brand new video product from Effort Inc. It's called Rapid Transit. You may check it out at http://rapidtransitvideo.com

It is a kayak video site deriving from the collective efforts of various kayak video producers who I like to work with. You may watch lots of videos there, subscribe to the video podcast, read the blog and learn about the producers involved.

Mion Footwear and Riot Kayaks, two of the coolest and most progressive companies in the outdoor industry, are the sponsors of Rapid Transit, bringing all these videos to you for free.

Please enjoy and visit frequently.

May I also remind everyone about IR's Mustache King contest, beginning on April 1st? Please visit the official web site at http://themustacheking.com

Thanks,

Spencer Cooke
Effort Inc
http://effort.tv

Donkey Game

Everyone may have played a donkey game a time or two. Though, the below image raises some serious questions. Questions like, why is the kid in the picture wearing a pirate's eye-patch? Is this the son of One-eyed Willy? Does he think the donkey is a ninja, and what is he going to do with that paint brush near that poor donkey's butt? Lastly why is the donkey so happy? Even more lastly, why do I have a picture of this toy? I thought this was supposed to be a fun, child's game.

IR Presents: The Mustache King 2008

We are up and running. Officially, Immersion Research, Confluence, PA based gear manufacturer is the title sponsor of this year's Curt Davis Invitational Mustache Growing Contest of Paddlesports. That name has a whole history that can be found on the 2006 event web site. The new web site for this event is http://TheMustacheKing.com Aside from IR we have six other awesome sponsors giving out huge prizes for this year's event. This competition is gonna be great. You will be able to keep up with the whole thing at our event blog or at our blog feed at WorldKayak.com, coming soon. If you are thinking of competing please be aware that there are only 40 spots available on a first come, first server basis.

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort.tv

Mustache King 2008 Sponsors

New Heehaw Jones video I just discovered

I was just looking at Heehawjones.com and discovered this ridiculous new video .



This next part I was forced to put on this blog because of some legal stuff regarding Heehaw. Basically, we have to sell these shirts for Heehaw Jones due to what his lawyers called "defamation of character" regarding his appearance in Enter The Donkey and Night of the Living Donkey. So, here it is, $12.99 a pop.

Buy it here, I guess...
Effort.tv Store

Oh, I heard that Heehaw is going to make another public appearance at a Night of the Living Donkey & The Green Race Movie showing in Knoxville, TN. It's at River Sports Outfitters on Tuesday March 11th, 7:30 PM. I'm sure he'll be trying to sell more shirts and wanting to sign autographs for everyone. I guess that's what pro paddlers do.

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Effort.tv

Secret is out, defend yourselves

Now that the secret is out about the zombies it's time that every paddler knew how to defend themselves if faced with the horrible fate as all of the Night of the Living Donkey cast. My friend Damon Bungard was generous enough to pass on the following link about defending yourself against the undead. http://www.fvza.org/zdefense.html
This is obviously good information for any person, kayaker or not. Really, this should be part of swift water rescue training, aca instructor certification, cpr training, pre-algebra and a laundry list of other curriculum.

At the premiere last night some folks were asking about the video soundtrack. You can check it out at iTunes.

Keep an eye on the WorldKayak.com site for more premiere dates for the video. WK ambassadors will be hosting NOTLD showings and some of them will be in conjunction with The Green Race Movie.

NightoftheLivingDonkey.com for more about the video.

Heehaw Calls Us before the big Premiere

Night of the Living Donkey dot com for more info.

Some things I'm excited about - Oatmeal, Morocco, Donkeys and Zombies

Hi there to my two lovely readers! I have several bits of news on the tip of my tongue and want to share a little of all of it.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DONKEY is a new kayak/horror video I've been working on for over a year and it's finally complete. Special people like you may have the opportunity to attend the world premiere in Asheville NC this Thursday night, January 31 at 9pm. Not special people, not like you, may see it on DVD. Even more not special people will never see it and that does not hurt my feelings. Please go visit the web site for the video at NightOfTheLivingDonkey.com Otherwise don't go visit any web site at all. You can purchase the DVD via the site. Additionally you can buy the soundtrack straight from iTunes. Ten of the sixteen tracks from the video are available.


Secondly, I am really excited to announce a new album by my good friends, The Oatmeal Conspiracy. "Friends and Family" is out now and available on their myspace page. You can listen to most of the album there and purchase as well.
A quick view of the album cover...

I am a huge hard core and punk rock lover and those genres consume most of my music collection, though I love lots of other indie, 70s & 80s, hip hop, bluegrass and other music types. Oatmeal have described themselves before as a Jazz Pop band and that does cover some of their sound in my opinion, but not all. Here's my best description of The Oatmeal Conspiracy based on this new record. Ready?

If Steely Dan, Beck, Ween, Jamiroquai and Billy Joel made sweet, sweet, romantic, passionate, sweaty love... the kind that hurts the next day, and spawned a three headed, six legged, drumming, keyboarding, saxophone playing, singing child, it would be The Oatmeal Conspiracy's "Friends and Family" album.

Several of my online kayak videos over the past couple years have included songs from this album. These songs were in their metamorphic state at the time but have now reached full maturity on the album. If you have seen any of my Mion sponsored videos this year you will notice the little jingle at the beginning of the video as the intro to the track, Shady Shack. The most apparent song based on my description of the album is the brand new track, Stephen. Check it out on myspace and buy the album if you are so inspired.

Last, I just got back from a two week surf kayaking trip to Morocco and it was fannnnnntastic. If you can come back here and visit in mid to late Feb I'm gonna have a huge journal from the trip with tons of photos and a video highlight of the trip. I think it will be enjoyable.

I wrote in my journal on a daily basis to bring you the hard cold and explicit facts. It will take a while to transpose all of it to the blog.

Joey and I sort of hugged beside this camel.

We sort of hugged again on this beach.

I've never seen so many donkeys in my life. My hair was messier than this one by the end of the trip.

There were waves.

Tom and Nathan saw us off at the airport and began their journey home in the van, back to the UK.


Joey is now hard at work on his new surf kayak film, INTERFERENCE, and will plan on releasing it on DVD later in 2008. It will feature our Moroccan journey as part of its storyline.

One more note. New post at the Drug Free Lifestyle blog by Chris Brigman.
http://drugfreelifestyle.blogspot.com/2008/01/safety.html

Thanks for dropping by and I will hopefully be back to blog again.

Spencer Cooke
Effort.tv

Underwear Day

So, does anyone besides me know about underwear day? I'm not talking about dirty underwear day or clean underwear day. No, underwear day is the one day every month that I am forced, socially, to wear underwear. The way I see it you have two kinds of people in this world - Those who wear underwear and deodorant and those who don't. I happen to fall into the "don't" category and I know there are tons of dirty kayakers who share that title with me. Hey, I hate to use labels but I have to, sorry. Life can't go on without me first writing all of this. So, before I disclose why underwear day is what it is, let me serve you up an anecdote or two.

John Weld is weird when it comes to underwear. You know who John is? He's the guy who owns Immersion Research. He happens to be a good friend of mine. One of my favorite things about the guy is that he is so awkward about things like underwear, sleeping naked, hugging, etc... That is, he is a huge proponent of wearing underwear, he despises sleeping in the nude, and he's not likely to hug you, especially if you're a guy. I think a lot of his mental problems spring from the fact that I slept naked in his sleeping bag one time. Wellllll, maybe that was wrong, but I did it anyway. Really though, he was all freaky about this stuff even before the sleeping bag incident. He's just insecure with the lack of underwearage in the world. I don't know how many conversations I've had with him about sleeping naked. That totally grosses the guy out. And the hugs... oh the hugs. You ever tried to hug or kiss a little kid who is really busy and he kind of squirms when you get a hold of him. That's John. Hugging him is like trying to give a cat a bath. For John's sake let's hope that he never gets into a hypothermic state where I have to rescue him with skin to skin body heat transfer. While we're at it let's hope for my sake that never happens either.

John brandishes IR's latest underwear style via his stunning physique.


Joey Hall is one of my best friends and he is weird too. Though, he goes commando sometimes so I know he has the stomach for awful things like nude sleeping and hugs. The way Joey is related to this story is a little thing called Bathing Suit Day, which is sort of the inspiration and possibly the arch nemesis of Underwear Day. Bathing Suit Day is something I've heard Joey talk about, even documented on video, and I really believe it has happened to him. It's where all your underwear are dirty and you are apparently too lazy (I don't think you're lazy Joey) to do your laundry. Locked in a self-imposed dilemma you are forced to wear your bathing suit or soccer shorts (umbros) as underwear. That's bathing suit day, so you can see how it is the evil twin of Underwear day, right?

So, recently I started going to a chiropractor. It happens that I made it through several visits without having to strip down to my would be underwear (really my naked arse). That time came and I was caught with no underwear, oh lordy. Chiropractor gave me a hospital gown, the kind without an ass part (is there any other kind?). Directly after that appointment I b-lined it to the store and picked up some boxer briefs. Brief refers to the timeframe in which I wear the things. So far I've pulled two Underwear Day shifts in the same pair. Maybe I should go ahead and wash them now.

Happy Underwear Day people! Actually it was yesterday.

Spencer, Effort.tv