Using Facebook as an organiser

Admin on 06/11/2013

Facebook is the second most visited website on the internet with 700,000,000 people using it every month. Personally, I’m probably on Facebook more than I’m not, so I wondered if there was an effective way to use Facebook as a bit of a To Do List / Project Management Tool / Life Organiser. I’ve used lots of different To Do List and Project Management Apps in the past, some really good, most that didn’t quite do what I needed. I didn’t expect Facebook to work particularly well for this purpose but I thought that as I use it so much already it makes a certain amount of sense to give it a try.

Create a group

I started by creating a Group and giving it a name. I called mine ‘Life’. Even if you want to be the only person who sees this group you’ll still need to add a second person in order to create the group but you can remove them later like I did if you want. Of course, you might want to use it as a way to organise what your family is doing, or a group of friends or colleagues, in which case add whoever you want. Then select Secret so no one outside those you have invited can find your group.

Creating Events

Events are probably the main use of your group. If you are the only person in your group then Events are the best way to keep track of what’s going on in your life so you don’t forget that important hair appointment.

Creating them is easy, just go to the Events tab and click Create event.

Give your event a name and date, and whatever other information you want to add. If you want to invite all the members of the group, tick the corresponding box, if not you can add members after the event has been created.

Then go back to your events list to see all the events listed in chronological order with the next event at the top. All members of the group can add events, and their profile picture is displayed next to the event. It’s easy to see what everyone in the group/family/team/whatever is doing and when they are doing it.

Adding Documents

Groups are also able to create, and upload and store documents.  If a document relates to an event I paste a link to the document in the event posts to make it easy to find. If I want to create a to do list for a particular project, I create a document, title it something like ‘To Do – Project name’, and write a list of all the things I need to do.

The good thing about these created documents it that they are editable and so easy to keep up to date. And the Documents section of your group is a easy to access place to keep a copy of files you might need later.

Documents can also be added by email. Just attach the document and send it to your group email address.

Set up email address

We can use standard posts to the group as reminders or notes, and to make them as easy to add as possible we’re going to set up an email address so that we can create posts simply by sending an email.

Go into the Group Settings (little spiky wheel ) and then Edit Group Settings. Click on Set Up Group Address:

And then select the group name for the email address (it needs to be at least five characters long):

Click Set Address, give it a couple of minutes and then send a test email. It’ll show as a post in the group and any attached files will be listed in the Documents section.

Add to Favourites

Make your group easier to find by adding it to your Favourites. It reminds you to use it and check it regularly. Just click on the spiky wheel to drop the setting menu and click Add to favourites.

Clicking on the link to your Group takes you to the first section of your group which lists all your recent activity and makes it easy to see what is current.

So, does a Facebook Group work as a life organising tool? Well, actually it does pretty well. It has a few shortcomings, such as not being able to sort or search Documents, but it has some benefits too, such as when viewing all your events in Facebook, your group events will show up with all the public events and birthdays, making it easy to see if you have any clashes, or need to post a reminder to yourself to prepare for an upcoming event. It works for me, so I think I’ll be continuing to use it.

Planning Ahead

Admin on 08/10/2013

I realised last night the cause of the discrepancy between what I know the AGM is about and what some of the riders seem to think it’s about.

For me, the AGM is a legal requirement. We do it because it is a requirement of the Companies Act. For the riders, it’s a chance to talk about next season. They don’t realise that we’ve been planning next season for the past five months and already have decided what’s going to happen. I assumed it was clear because we announce the dates and locations for next season at the AGM. It’s obvious to me now that I’m wrong, and that riders (the few that are interested) still think that the AGM is the time and place to put ideas forward for next season. We need to change that.

At next year’s AGM (2014) we’ll provide more time for discussion, but the discussion will be about the 2016 season. It’ll need a well-managed agenda, which could include things like the name of the series and entry fees, but it will hopefully be a better way to source the riders opinions and meet their expectations.

And it fits the ATBA-UK’s community-building business model, so it must be the right way to do things.

How to make a Nompa

Admin on 23/09/2013

A Nompa is a hybrid mountainboard made from a Nosno and a Trampa. Mix them together and you get a Nompa, which brings together the best elements of both boards; the stability and toughness of the nosno trucks and the customisability and indestructableness of the Trampa deck.

Why would you want a Nompa?

The answer is ‘Adaptability’. You build your Nompa the way you want it. If you want a downhill board for going really fast on firetracks you build it one way, but if you want a short, agile freeride board for getting between trees you build it another way.

Roger's Nompa

I built mine for exactly that. It’s light, short, has pretty good torsional flex in the deck, and hardly any turn in the trucks. I built it because I needed a board for riding steep singletrack with lots of trees around (and in the dark). It’s probably as far out on the extremes as Nompas get, and yours doesn’t have to be anything like mine.

So, how do you you go about making your Nompa? First thing is to decide what kind of riding you want to do with your Nompa and how you want your board to ride. Then you can select the parts you’ll need to make your Nompa and put them together in the right way for you.

Deck

Nompa’s are made with a Trampa deck. The advantages of the Trampa deck over any other kind of deck are that you can shape it make it ride how you want it to. If you want a stiff board for BoarderX racing you might choose a 17 ply 35 Long deck and only shape the nose and tail, but if you wanted your Nompa for freeriding you might go for a shorter deck and cut loads out from the middle to make the deck twist more.

Your three options for decks are: 35 Long, 35 Short or 15 Short. Let’s look at the 35 degree decks first. Having a 35 degree nose and tail means you’ll get plenty of turn from your Nompa, making these the right decks to choose for most people. The only difference between the Long and the Short is the length of the nose/tail tips. The length of the decks between the creases are the same on both. So, if you know you want the extra ground clearance and increased stiffness that comes with having your trucks closer together, you can get a Short 35 decks. If you want your deck closer to the ground for more stability, or you want to be able to decide which way to have the trucks after you’ve bought the deck, go with a Long 35. Short 15

Trampa Decks are available in 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 ply. The more ply, the stiffer the deck, but also the heavier. You can reduce the weight of the deck by cutting away parts. Trampa Holy Pro decks have holes cut into the footbeds, which is an ok way of reducing weight if you aren’t using snowboard board or nosno soft bindings, or if you figure out where the bolt holes are going before you cut big holes in the wrong place.

Wherever you cut the deck, think about how reducing the weight will affect the ride. If you will be mainly downhilling then you’ll probably want some weight over the wheels to help with traction (of course the nosno trucks will give you most of that weight). If you want to make the board easier to jump you might want to take the weight from the ends and keep the stiffness in the middle of the deck.

Trucks

There are three options for trucks; Nosno Alloy axles, Nosno Composite axles or making your own flexi axles from Trampa deck material.

Nompa

Nosno Alloy axles are the easiest to get, easiest to work with, and the toughest trucks available. Nosno Composite axles provide a nice ride with extra absorption over the rough stuff. They also have the advantage of having an off-centre axle which means you can give you board more or less ground clearance just by turning them around. I haven’t made any Trampa flexi trucks yet, but Brennig has. The hardest thing about them seems to be accounting for the curve in the material and how that affects the wheels (and what direction they point).

Placing the trucks closer together makes the deck stiffer (even if you’ve cut loads out to make the deck have torsional flex) and raises the deck height. Having the trucks mounted as far out on the nose and tail as possible will give the deck more flex, and so more absorption over rough terrain, and put it closer to the ground which will make it more stable at speed. It’s all about adaptability.

Bindings

You can pretty much put whatever bindings you want on your Nompa. Snowboard Bindings, noSno Soft Bindings or even MBS/Trampa/Scrub Ratchet Bindings if you really want to.

Brennig's Nompa

You can set up your bindings however suits you. And you can adjust them to suit how/what you’re riding. For Downhill you might want to set you bindings for getting into a speed tuck, and if you’re freeriding you might want your bindings set duck-feet to make falling leaf and riding switch easier.

Want to make your own?

There are a few Nompas out there in the world, made by people experimenting with building the right boards for the way they want to ride. If you want build a Nompa get in touch and we’ll chat through some ideas about what you want and how you can do it.

Seeing more – back out night riding again

Admin on 22/09/2013

Its autumn. That means no more ATBA-UK competitions and the evenings get darker earlier, both of which means its time to get back out night riding.

I nompa’d up and headed out to my local woods. I taped a head torch to my helmet and did my usual warm up run. I then switched the torch off and headed down a new run I’d never ridden before.

To ride in the dark you need to be able to switch off your brain, stop thinking, just let your body feel what’s happening and respond. You can see, just not much. The trick is to not try to see in the same way you see in daylight. During the day you use the rods in the centre of your eyes to see in colour and in detail. In the dark your rods no longer work, which means you have a blind spot in the centre of your field of vision, and instead, you use the cones around the outside of your eyes which see in blurry black and white.

So, if you ride through the woods in the dark and try to see with your rods you’ll get freaked out by the blurry black spot in the middle of your field of vision. Instead, you need to accept that you can only see the blurry grey blobs either side of where you are riding. And then, as you know where the sides of the track are you can orientate yourself and stay on the right line. You just have to stop your brain from thinking so it can orientate you quickly when you’re riding at speed.

Riding a track you’ve never ridden before in complete darkness is an awesome way to experience the leading edge of reality. Its direct experience with nothing getting in the way. Totally here and now.