Sports From Around The World

Snowboarding is one of those sports that can get expensive very quickly, so you want to make sure to choose the right gear for your style. By careful searching, you can save yourself from spending $500 on the wrong type of snowboard… and still enjoy the riding that you like to do.

A great place to find good deals on snowboards is at your local snowboard shop (if you have one in your area). You can also check shops near your favorite snowboard locations. It is also good to look on the internet to research prices and manufacturers and ratings of the various snowboards.

After snow season, mainly during the spring and summer, you can find good deals on snowboards (since they are not being used much). Oftentimes, during the off season, rental shops ugrade their equipment and you can find good deals on their used stuff. Also, you might be able to find a good deal on a snowboard by checking the classifieds at the local college or university school newspaper.

In snowboarding, there are three main styles. Freestyle, Freeride and Freecarve-Race. Snowboarders are fairly divided between Freestyle and Freeride, and Race boards are fewer, as you’d probably already know if this is your style. The manufacturers design these boards for an intended style of riding, so once you know what style you like, you can narrow you choices to that style of snowboard. Knowing this in advance can save you a lot of money.

One of the things to do is to try different styles by renting the various equipment for a day and try riding. See what you like… and if you want to invest in your own equipment… go for it!

Here’s a brief description of each style.

Freestyle

Freestyle riding is whatever you feel free to do at the time. It focuses on tricks, jumps, rail slides, halfpipes and switch riding. Snowboard videos usually show freestyle riding; since it is easier to film, it’s entertaining to watch and gives the snowboarder the chance to really showcase their skills. Also… the most popular snowboarding events are freestyle competitions. And… many places will have a snowboard park for the freestyle riders, with halfpipes, rails and some jumps.

Freestyle boards have a soft boot and are comparatively shorter. This helps the maneuverability for doing tricks, jumps and getting airborne. Some freestyle boards are designed for a speciality, such as the halfpipe. If you can afford a board for every occasion, these specialty boards will ride extremely well in the condition for which they were designed — but are not likely to perform well outside of that specific terrain.

Freeride Style

Of all the styles of snowboarding, Freeriding is the most general. Freeride equipment also uses a soft boot. Boards in this category are relatively longer and more directional in their shape. If you don’t know what kind of surface terrain you like, or you like everything, this would be for you.

This is where you get to experience all of the mountain for yourself. You can snowboard through open terrain, hit backcountry chutes, get the fresh powder, and manuever through trees. This is where the rider and the mountain can come together, with no one else to interrupt.

Freecarve - Race

Freecarving is done on hard pack or groomed runs and focuses on hitting the ultimate carving turn. Usually here, there’s not much jumping. In contrast with the other two styles, Freecarve equipment has a hard boot and the boards are narrow, long and stiff. This style can have competitions that are similar to skiing events, with the snowboarders going around poles.

So what type of snowboard should you get? In making a choice for the right equipment for you, if you are just starting out, get a general all-around design snowboard, setup for freeride or freestyle.

Try renting some equipment that is not highly specific to any one style. This will give you the chance to try out a variety of your skills, so you can see what you like before spending the money on any specific board (or if you like a couple different styles, and can afford it… get a couple different boards).

Just be sure to understand riding styles before you buy, then look for equipment that meets your needs.

From Jessica Deets. For a free snowboarding newsletter, see the website at http://www.GoodSnowBoarding.com

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When the warm weather of summer finally arrives most pond owners are faced with a very common problem called pond algae. Pond algae can strike any size pond at any time, but usually a few very specific things have to be present for it to spread rapidly.

Knowing what allows algae to prosper is the first step to treating it naturally. First though, let’s make one thing clear. Algae, or it’s presence in a pond is not always bad. A little bit of it here or there is actually a positive sign that the pond is healthy and balanced. When algae takes over the pond entirely however, things are not very balanced at all.

Algae is very dependent on excessive nutrients in the water to grow. Therefore this should be your first priority…to reduce or eliminate excess nutrients in the pond. These can come from decomposing organic matter like leaves or grass clippings.

Nutrients can also come for fish waste or decomposing fish food. With these things in mind, it’s best to remove any organic matter from the pond before it starts to decay at the bottom. Skimmers can help with this in smaller ponds. Also, if you have fish, be sure to not overstock them in a smaller pond. Generally 1 inch of fish needs about 10 gallons of water to stay balanced. If your ratio is over this, you may be overstocked. Be sure to not overfeed your fish as well. Provide them enough food to consume in about five minutes time.

Pond algae also needs adequate sunlight to grow aggressively so if you can minimize exposure to the sun, this can often help.

In some cases, you can’t always keep sunlight from entering the pond or keep all the debris from settling in it. Then it’s often best to turn to other treatments or options.

In smaller ponds adding plants is a very beneficial thing to do. Surface plants like water lilies help absorb excess nutrients and also help shade the pond. Water grasses are great at helping clear a pond as well.

Since it can take up to 60% coverage of a pond’s surface to keep algae at bay, some people like to also use a natural beneficial bacteria product to help consume some of the excess nutrients and assist in the breakdown of organic matter in the pond. Bacteria and enzyme products have been proven to be one of the safest and most effective ways to keep a pond clean. There are many varieties available on the market today.

All of the methods outlined above are highly preferred over using chemicals in a pond or water garden. Chemicals come with inherent risks and also don’t help much in cleaning a pond in a natural fashion. Over the long term they can cause many more problems than then solve.

Mark Washburn is an experience pond treatment specialist that uses natural solutions to keep ponds and watergardens clean and algae free. Learn how to keep your pond clean naturally by visiting http://www.algae-solution.com

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In climbing, there is an old adage stating that “climbing is the best training for climbing,” an adage used by many to make excuses for not training outside of climbing. I personally disagree with this philosophy as I will explain.

When we are speaking of the exact skills needed in climbing, how and when to step, climbing techniques and mental skills, there is no substitute for the activity of climbing itself.

However, in order to develop strength levels specific to the sport of climbing such as improving grip strength and upper body strength and endurance climbing will produce very limited or even no results or improvements.

One of the main reasons climbing isn’t good for strength training is because in climbing failure is not an option. If you have muscular failure while climbing, it may very well prove fatal. So the goal while climbing id to avoid this completely.

Alternatively, when one is strength training for climbing, one wants to reach and even pass the point of muscular failure as it is this very act that causes the body to respond with an increase in strength to adapt to the stress being place on it. So the two methods are mutually exclusive and you will never achieve maximum strength by climbing alone.

Another example that reinforces the disparity between climbing and strength training for climbing is the way in which you grip the rock. In climbing, the rock demands the climber to use a random variety of many different grip positions and, at times, you may even deliberately vary the way you grip the rock. As a result, it’s unlikely that any single grip position will ever get worked maximally and, therefore, the individual grip positions (e.g. crimp, open hand, pinch, etc.) are slow to increase strength.

This should help you understand why a full season of climbing may indeed improve your anaerobic endurance (i.e. endurance of strength), but do little to increase you absolute maximum grip strength.

Therefore, varying grip positions is a great strategy for maximizing endurance when climbing for performance, but it will never work for training maximum grip strength. Effective finger strength training demands you target a specific grip position and work it until failure, which can only be done safely in a non climbing environment.

Finally, it could be better for some climbers to participate in cross training with other activities that are not particularly sport-specific. As an example someone who needs to lose weight should spend the majority of their non-climbing time performing aerobic activity to burn off the excess body fat as it is essential that a climber be as lean as possible for optimum performance.

If someone is totally devoid of at least some modicum of fitness, they would be better off doing some circuit training that will give them both strength and aerobic benefits.

In closing I will say that regardless of your experience level in climbing, you will see a huge improvement by including specialized strength training in your regimen.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and has been involved in the fitness industry for over 25 years.
Get your climbing gear at http://www.ruggedsportsgear.com

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I have been an avid fisherman since I was a child, which was quite awhile ago. I have been fishing regularly for over 30 years and I have seen a lot of people who cannot properly clean their fish after catching it so I thought I might offer a little guidance.

First, it is absolutely crucial that you have a very sharp knife. I personally use an electric filet knife a lot, but you really have to have some experience to be able to use one properly. Using a standard filet knife, I prefer to use one with about an eight inch blade unless I am filleting a large gamefish in which case I will break out my “Crocodile Dundee” Alaskan Filet knife.

To begin filleting the fish, place it on a sturdy surface preferably about waist high for comfort. Take the tip of the knife and insert it along the dorsal fin of the fish and make small cuts towards the head keeping the blade against the bones of the fin. Now make a deep cut right behind the gill plate from the belly vertically up to the back of the fish meeting the cut you made along the spine.

Now, go back to the spine area where you made your fist cuts and now take deeper cuts following along the spine and ribcage and then work your way towards the tail. Stop short of the tail leaving that intact so that the filet you have is still attached to the rest of the fish at that point. Turn the fish so that the belly is towards you now and make any cuts to separate your filet in that area, then flip the filet over so that the scales are down and the meat side is up. This is where you really need to be sure your knife is sharp, starting near the tail hold the blade of your knife close as possible to the skin of the fish and begin to slide the blade back and forth towards the shoulder of the fish until you have completely removed the meat from the skin.

The final step for this side of the fish is to check the lateral line for small bones and cartilage and the bloodline. Some fish such as amberjack will have a large bloodline which you will want to remove for optimum taste. After you are sure all the bones and bloodline have been removed place this filet to the side and start on the next side. Doing it in this order is a personal preference, you can also complete the filleting of the other side first and then do the fine tuning of removing the bloodline and small bones.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For a sharp filet knife go to http://www.only-knives.com

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Even though your horse is a large animal, it has a very small stomach and intestines. They cannot hold huge quantities of food at a time. They require their food well spread over the day, may be four or more times a day.

Major problems with horses are that they cannot vomit. They have a group of muscles around the food pipe connected to the stomach. This group works as a one-way valve. When food passes down the food pipe into the stomach the valve relaxes, but the valve squeezes after that and does not let food go back up.
Hence, the food a horse eats, has to pass through the entire digestive system. Due to this reason colic is a common problem with horses.

Grain is a regular food for horses and the quantity of grain to be fed depends on the quality of grain, size of the horse and how hard working it is. Five to Ten pounds of grain a day is what a hard worked or a larger horse should get. Lesser feed can be given to a smaller or less worked one.

Among grains, oats are standard feed which helps in digestion. Corn is another grain that is a good source of energy and fat. Molasses are added to the feed mix for flavor and carbohydrate needs. The feed should be checked for traces of certain minerals essential for good nutrition like calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iodine, etc.

Salt is another important thing for horses similar to human beings. One to two ounces of salt should be mixed in the feed, if the commercial feed does not contain the same. It can also be given in a block form and left in the stable or pasture.

If the feed mixture contains all the nutritious goodness then the horse owner only has to monitor the quantity and time of feed.

Hay is another staple food for horses. The quantity of hay a horse should be fed depends upon its body weight. For instance, for 100 pounds body weight, a pound of hay is good enough. This quantity also depends on the quality of hay and the quantity of bodywork a horse does. Best thing is to let a horse to choose to eat throughout the day freely so that it improves its digestive system.

An adult horse’s body comprises of 50% water and the baby horse or foal has 80% water. Horses need water between 5 and 15 gallons in a day. Horse watering should be done very cautiously because if watered at the wrong time can take away its life. If a horse has undergone heavy workout, cold water should not be given immediately. The horse has to be first walked out so as to cool down. When the breathing and body temperatures become normal, it should be provided with water. It should not drink in large gulps too. So, the best thing is to let the horse drink water from time to time from the freely available source so that he is not overly thirsty at any point of time. Over watering at any time should be avoided since it cannot vomit. Otherwise, it would feel uncomfortable that might be the cause for choking.

Copyright (c) 2006

Jessica Deets loves horses and researches information to help people. You can find out more horse care information at http://www.horsereflections.com

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Imagine yourself flying. Well, not so much as flying, but being borne aloft, zooming in a straight line up and down hills, though woods, across fields, and back. The wind slaps your face and pulls your hair, the sun beats down, and all you can hear, bedsides the sound of yourself laughing and shouting with joy, is the sound of hooves pounding down on firm soil.

This is the joy of horseback riding. If you’ve never done it, it will be like nothing you’ve ever tried before. The speed, the freedom, the sense of adventure, few activities in the world can rival horseback riding for pure excitement.

To many people, this is a hobby that many have shunned, thinking it was the privilege of the rich, or the landed gentry, or those with a ‘Huntin and Fishin’ lifestyle.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and these days with the pressures of the modern world, hose back riding can be that escape route to sanity that so many of us aspire to obtain.

But, if one isn’t from the landed gentry, how do you go about getting into this, without spending a fortune. Apart from finding a local horse riding school, you could always start with a good book.

Now, many books have been written on the subject of horse back riding, but so many of them have gone into such depth, that the beginner or the aspiring rider very soon gets bogged down in the detail.

Although there is no substitute to proper instruction by an expert, if your son or daughter is nagging you into having riding lessons, or, more worryingly on the pocket, is asking you to BUY a horse, then this little book will be ideal for them and you.

In fact, anybody who is contemplating starting up this most exhilarating of hobbies will be able to pick up a lot of useful snippets here.

The book starts out by explaining the connection between man and this magnificent beast, from the days when the horse was the main means of transport, agriculture and so forth; it outlines how great advantages in technology and culture were spread and made possible by men (and women) sitting atop these handsome beasts.

It then goes on to describe what can only be described as ‘Horse Culture’, sizes, colors and markings, the difference between Walks, Trots, Canters and Gallops - and most importantly - how to ‘Think’ like a horse, to earn that bond which can go far and deep between man and horse.

Then, for those of you that are considering purchasing a horse, it gives a good overview of things you should consider - not least the financial issues.

After all that, when you have a good understanding of what makes a horses ‘tick’ so to speak, it goes on to describe different ways of riding, as well as basic instructions on saddling, grooming, and riding a horse.

By the time the budding equestrian has finished the book, they will be better prepared to take the next steps in progressing one of the most exhilarating and companionable hobby around.

Roger Bourdon has written several books on
Horse Back Riding, and is also an avid editor
of a whole series of Self-Improvement ebooks.
Visit http://www.anyhorsebackriding.com
and for his self improvement books at
http://imnosey.com/ei

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Movies like Deep Impact and Space Cowboys presented stories about major meteorite impacts on Earth. These movies discussed what might happen if a meteor or asteroid was discovered on a collision course with Earth. Both movies involved space ships going to the asteroid and trying to blow it up or deflect it with nuclear weapons. In the end, mankind was saved just in time.

Is an asteroid or meteorite impact possible? Could this really happen, or is it just “Hollywood” fantasy? If so, when will it happen?

We know in the geologic past that meteorites have impacted the earth. One good example is the meteorite crater left in the Arizona desert (Meteorite Crater). I took several photos of Meteor Crater in Arizona on a visit in the mid 1990s. Several of these photos are located on my website.

Roy A. Gallant, in his book Meteorite Hunter, ISBN 007137224-5, writes;

“According to NASA, a 10-meter-diameter cosmic missile passes closer to us than the moon’s distance each day. An object 100 meters in diameter crosses earth’s orbit at about the moon’s distance on average of once a month. In January 1991 a 10-meter-diameter object missed earth by only half the moon’s distance just 12 hours after astronomers spotted it. On December 9, 1994, Asteroid 1994XM missed us by 100 kilometers. It was 13 meters in diameter. The size of a house, the small asteroid would have completely wiped out the greater New York area had it made a direct hit on Manhattan. We can expect to get hit by such house-size objects about once every 100 years. Every 1000 to 3000 years we can expect to be hit by Near Earth Objects (NEOs) ranging in size from 100 to several hundred meters. Fortunately we don’t have to worry about those stoney objects smaller than about 50 meters in diameter because most burn up in the atmosphere. But if an object is made of iron, then some worry is justified. For instance, a metal asteroid about 30 meters in diameter carved out a crater 1.2 kilometers across in the Arizona desert 50,000 years ago.

Asteroids about 100 meters and larger deserve our greatest respect, and we know of some 100,000 of them that inhabit the Solar System this side of Mars. A direct hit by one of these would wipe out a continent. They visit earth once every 50,000 to 500,000 years. More troublesome are the 1,000 to 2,000 NEOs roughly 1 kilometer and larger in diameter that collide with Earth once every 300,000 years or so. There are real Earth crunchers that cause mass extinctions. Chicxulub was one, but that was 65 million years ago. If our numbers game is a reliable one, then where are all the more recent impact sites? In any case, as one writer put it, “we live in a cosmic shooting gallery.”

One thing that alerted astronomers to just how often Earth is targeted by bombs from space was a U.S. military report made public early in 1994. According the report, from 1975 to 1992 military satellites detected 136 high-altitude explosions with a force of 500 to 15,000 tons of high explosives -in effect, small atomic bombs. This report went on to reveal, to the astonishment of the scientific community, that the objects entered the atmosphere at 16 to 48 kilometers per second, that they exploded 27 to 32 kilometers above the ground, and that there probably were 10 times more events than were detected. If that were so, then there are about eighty such explosive events a year.

Currently, the University of Arizona’s Spacewatch program detects about twenty new NEOs a month. According to Spacewatch director Robert S. McMillan as many as nine hundred 1-kilometer-diameter asteroids capable of wreaking global havoc may pose a collision threat to Earth.

Just how much energy does a moderately sized asteroid - say, a 1-kilometer-wide object pack? Tom Gehrels says we can use the mathematical expression 1/2mv2 to calculate the kinetic energy. Let m represent the object’s mass and v its velocity of entry into the atmosphere. If the object has a density of 3grams per cubic centimeter, which we get from meteorites, and the entry velocity is 20 kilometers per second, then an asteroid 1 kilometer in diameter packs a striking force of millions of times the explosive forces of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Gehrels is reassuring when he tells us that the Spacewatch team knows of only about ten Chicxulub-size objects with Earth-crossing orbits.”

A list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) is updated by the Spacewatch project. This list is located on the Harvard University website and can be found by searching on the term Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.

According to the PHA website:

“… the mean distance of the moon is 0.0026 AU = 384400 km = 238900 miles. (1 AU is approximately the mean distance of the earth from the sun = 149597870 km = 92955810 miles.”

AU stand for Astronomical distance Unit: One AU is about 1.5×10^8 km, (roughly the average distance between the Earth and the Sun).

NASA and JPL have put together a Future Close Approach table. This table predicts close approaches between 2001 and May 2040, for projected approaches within 0.2 au. This table can be found on the JPL/NASA website.

From the studies that have been done, and the research that is ongoing, it is impossible to think that a major meteorite impact will not happen. Like earthquakes on major fault zones, meteorite impacts are part of our physical world. The only real variable is time.

H. Court Young is a writer, author, publisher and a geologist interested in meteorites. His Falling from the Sky A Meteorite Resource CD can be found at http://www.rockhardsoftware.com/Meteors.html.

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Many people today are taking it easy, as well we should. It seems that the hustle and bustle of modern life is becoming less and less worth it. After all, life is relatively short. We don’t need to rush through it. For this reason many Americans and people of other countries are doing all that they can to improve the quality of their lives by pursuing pastimes that nurture patience and knowledge.

One of the many ways of accomplishing this is by making or purchasing bluebird houses. While the bluebird was once a staple to the American skies, due to pollution and the encroachment of developers and humans in general, this lovely bird is quickly disappearing. Yet many people got the bright idea a few years ago to intensely build and buy bluebird houses to give the little critters a refuge away from the pressing realities of the new century.

Bluebird houses are usually small, like their targeted occupants. Yet often a series of these bird houses are placed along a trail to attract these beauties. This is an easy task not only due to the dwindling habitat, but also as this species is not very picky about where it lives, though it does tend to favor bluebird houses over other niches.

For those looking for that added touch, especially for bird watchers, many houses , but not all, are approved by the North American Bluebird Society. There are certain specifications that a bird house must have to be approved by this society. As well, some of the manufacturers will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their bird houses to this group that it may continue to raise awareness about ecological conservation. We do not want to loose the bluebird to extinction.

A few other aspects should be considered when purchasing a bird house for bluebirds or any other species. The first of these is the size in relation to one’s yard. A person owning several acres could easily have hundreds of bird homes, whereas the more realistic, common model of a bird lover would be happy with just one or a few houses. Also, for those less adroit with their hands (and conversely, those who like to work with their hands), the consideration of whether the house is pre-built or if it requires construction should be taken into account. The bluebird is a lovely sight to see and providing them a nice habitat is a sure way to entice our feathered freinds into visiting.

Keith Londrie II has been a fan of birds for nearly 25 years. I have put up a web site so that you can get more information. Please visit Bird houses

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Working with our hands is a sign of adroitness, scientists tell us. While manual labor and even simple prospects like craft work have been looked down upon in modern society, these days there seems to be a renaissance in the crafts field. This includes bird house crafts, which is also on the upswing, with good reason.

There are many reasons why the building of bird houses is making a comeback. These include the increase in stress in modern society, the drying of the waterways for many birds, and the simple desire to create. Each of these aspects will be covered in its turn.

Let’s face it: people are stressed out. As the world’s population increases jobs become scarcer and less secure, especially as technology and simple specialization are on the rise so quickly. This frightens a lot of people. Fear tends to make us look inside to our own inner-worlds, or the immediate world of nature around us. The appreciation of the simpler things is returning.

One avenue in this light is the making of bird house crafts. The construction of a little home for birds is not only constructive and stress-relieving, but also is an altruistic act which will afford birds protection during cruel winters whilst reciprocating back with a great satisfaction of accomplishment. In today’s high stress levels, people are seeking out stress “relievers” and building bird house crefts is one of those “escapes”.

Another situation today, just slowly leaking out to the masses, is that the waterways of many migratory birds are being destroyed by mankind and subsequent pollution. Further, many trees which previously afforded birds a refuge are no longer existent, as they’ve been felled for human purposes. While bird house crafts won’t rectify this problem outright, it may offer one minor solution. This is to say that a bird house will give a bird a place to rest along a flight path that may consist of many thousands of kilometers.

Finally, there is the desire to create. We are all gods in our own right, particularly when it comes to creation of structures, be they large as the Great Wall of China, or as humble as bird house crafts, the creation of a small home for our little friends in the skies. Whatever the reason, our tiny aviary friends thank us each time they settle onto a perch, or inside away from the wind and rain. There is much joy to be had with the watching of birds as they take shelter in a bird house esspecialy crafted for them.

Keith Londrie II is a well known author and bird expert as well as the owner of http://about-bird-houses.info/ - a unique collection of information about our fine feathered friends.

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There are a few crucial things to consider when being around the water, let’s explore them.

Learn to swim

Swimming is such a natural action for humans that many babies are born with the ability to swim! If you don’t already know how, take lessons! This should be common sense for any one that lives near the water, but I think everyone should know how to swim.

Never swim or dive anywhere except clearly marked areas with a lifeguard.
When a boat slides out into the lake on a sweltering summer day, a strong swimmer wearing easily dried clothes is heartily tempted to jump right in!

However, some lakes can be extremely deceiving, seeming bottomless, when in fact they are only 12 feet deep in the middle. Be extremely careful when diving or jumping into water. Although the bottom may not be visible, it also may not be very far away from the bottom of the boat. The best way to stay safe when swimming or diving is to go with a friend, using the buddy system, and swim or dive only in marked areas.

Always wear a lifejacket when in or around the water.

Even the strongest swimmers can get in bad situations and should wear a life vest when playing around the water. Although when conscious and calm they may be able to swim 5 miles, a person who is injured or upset may need the extra flotation to help them survive until help comes.

Be careful when entering or exiting the water from a boat.

When scuba diving, snorkeling, or water skiing, the sport often requires exiting or entering the boat from the stern. This can be an especially dangerous aspect of the sport. Be extremely careful of propeller blades, anchor ropes, fishing line, or any other items that might be beneath the water near the boat. Wait for your driver to come to a complete stop and shut off the motor before approaching the vehicle.

Learn CPR and First Aid.

It’s always a good idea to know how to help in an emergency. Not only may you be able to rescue another from a tough situation; you may also learn important guidelines for a calm and efficient reaction to danger. Take CPR classes and First Aid, whenever you have the opportunity. Knowing a few simple and logical steps may save a life.

Know which local water animals may be dangerous.

When swimming in the ocean in particular, there are many creatures to look out for such as jellyfish, stingrays, and of course sharks. Use common sense and stay out of the water at dusk and dawn when predatory animals are feeding and stay away from schools of baitfish.

When diving or snorkeling, look- don’t touch!

Many underwater accidents happen due to blind groping. Many divers or snorkelers use their hands while lurking through the depths, and mistakenly grab a poisonous animal. It is important to avoid touching the bottom when underwater for visibility reasons as well.

Take classes or go with a certified guide.

Whether you are white water rafting, swimming, or snorkeling it is important to prepare for the sport before diving in. Many sports require certification; and even if your chosen activity doesn’t, it’s still a good idea to find out more about safety before going.

Wear sunscreen!

The reflection of sunlight from water can be intense enough to cause nasty sunburns. Avoid painful sunburns and blisters by carrying a small bottle of waterproof sunblock, and protect eyes with sunglasses.

Go with a buddy!

Never surf, swim, dive, raft, fish, canoe, kayak, or Jet Ski alone. If a person is injured during their sport, having a buddy nearby can save a life. Find a friend who wants to play in the water as well, and work together to have a splashing safe summer!

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in the coastal Florida town of Navarre with his 16 year old son. Get your boating accessories from http://www.boatingaccessoriesplus.com

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