Hello again adrenaline junkies,

I have not forgotten about you. I just got a little distracted by technology and economic theory. I am not being pompous. Although I do admit I enjoy The Economist. I also enjoy action sports and adrenaline rushes… just a little bit more.

So on this note, I am catching you up on the new technology that combines the two glorious rushes of action sports and innovation.

I start by introducing industry famed kiteboarding photo and videographer, Bryan Elkus’s new technology project: Sessionalert.com.

SessionAlert is an app to alert friends and fellow riders on conditions while making a one stop app for organization for riding together (to weed out the all day text conversations). Here is what Bryan and his technical co-founder have cooked up so far. For comments, head to Bryan’s website at: bryanelkus.com

Next up, Gary Benet of Maui with BestSessionEver. An app to help you track progression, share sessions with friends, as well as all your best surf, skate, snow, kite, and other adrenaline media.

The app is just getting started but is an exciting step forward to bringing technology into our sports. I am excited to have been given some photo realestate as an ambassador. Thanks Gary! I am stoked to play around with the app.

Share on folks… and get your fix today.

-Jenna

Earlier this week I heard from my friend Julien Fillion, a fellow Canadian kiteboarder, regarding his music. I am always blown away by his ability to be one of kiteboarding’s ‘gnarliest’ wave riders, yet at the same time a contemporary musician with the incredible ability to capture our deepest of emotions. I caught up with Julien for a few questions about the new video and influences.

Black Swan inspired? Everybody asks this. It’s funny, maybe because of the darkness of the our video. I had the vision of this music video about a year ago (before I even watched the Black Swan).  In Montreal, being the promise land of contemporary dancing, I frequently go see dance shows.

What inspired this album? I’ve been doing music since I was 12 years old. Although,  no one really knew about it. I would always hide to play. Since I didn’t play any popular covers, I thought that nobody could relate to my playing and I would annoy people.  Three years ago, my good friend Sheldon heard me play and told me it sounded really good and I should really pursuit this. So I started writing and I finished the 30 something songs that I’d started. I then teamed up with one of Montreal most notorious music producer Toby Gendron, and together with the band we recorded “Nowhere is Now Here“. The album is a gathering of several of my thoughts from the past 3 years.

Does kiteboarding influence your music? Of course it does! Without kiteboarding, I wouldn’t travel the world the way I do, and I wouldn’t share all those amazing experiences with all my travel buddies. For example, the song entitle Tsunami was inspired by my feeling of big wave surfing, especially the first time I standup paddle boarded Peahi (Jaws) un assisted.

What 5 songs are repeating on your Ipod as we speak? I rarely listen to only 1 song, but I will listen to the same album for months at time. I would say the last 5 albums would be : Clara Furey – Live, Karkwa – Chemin de vere, Pearl Jam – Vitality, Winter sleep – 2003, and this week I started Crooked Fingers – Breaks in the Armor

THE SOUND
Julien Fillion’s vision and the musicians’ collective came together under veteran producer Toby Gendron’s masterful direction. Gendron gave the collective the room it needed to play, the guidance not to get lost, and the setting to have fun in his notoriously relaxed yet professional Montreal studio, the Gypsy room. All songs are at once melodically ethereal, sometimes almost explosive, and always shifting slightly as they progress, unpredictably, along with Julien’s acoustic guitar. The end-experience: a passionate, honest, masterful, playful yet intense debut album with a complexity of musical and lyrical layers that make you want to listen over and over again. In terms of sound, for fans of Jeff Buckley. Arcade Fire. And Radiohead in the early days.

TRUSTEDWATERS.COM

I am apprehensive to admit that I am ever-so-slightly addicted to Facebook’s new dating (or shall we say) networking game, Shaker (currently in Beta). Shaker is a chat room that allows you to mingle with your outside network (friends of friends) in a game-like virtual environment.

I say game-like as I am referring to the different actions available, such as buying them a drink or inviting them to conversation, although in full spectrum we really aren’t there for points, badges, stars, or awards of any type (but this is a matter of time). We are taken out of our usual Facebook api experience and into a virtual world to connect in a different way. Is this the new way our world is accepting social? Have we moved on from the traditional profile?

As I log on to Facebook in the past few days, I can’t help but notice the ‘hate’ conversations due to the drastic platform changes that have spawned. In my mind, adapting to user’s needs seems like an obvious positive. To the more common Facebook user, it is a sign that we should be looking “on to the next.” Seems contrary to me. Yet, I can’t help but notice my Facebook Friends chattering about new tech platforms they are enjoying— which, all offer a subtle reward. Yes, I am talking gaming mechanics.

Gaming mechanics are behind many of our favorite mobile social applications from Foursquare, to Gowala, to Words with Friends, and the list goes on. We like to socialize, but we also like incentives.

A few weeks back I wrote a post on social being dead, and I do not relinquish this statement. I still feel we are tired of niche social networks although, we can be convinced of them if we are being rewarded. We don’t just want to connect, or even stalk anymore, we want to get something out of it.

My thoughts on the shift to gaming mechanics were brought about by a follow-up email from Per Anderson of Kitesurfkings.com. I mentioned their social website in my ‘Social is dead’ article when commenting on the bombardment of specialized social networks. Per’s follow up corrected me in my initial description of them, in that the website was actually an online competition for kiteboarding tricks through a social platform. Why yes, it is gaming mechanics. Before I found myself with little or no motivation to even register, now I was intrigued.

Which brings me full circle to my obsession with Shaker. I could network on Linkedin or I could virtually buy a potential connection a drink to chat. Or Foursquare, I could check in on Facebook or I could get a badge for the same action on Foursquare. What about music? Will Soundtracking create incentives for sharing your music? I know some of the music sharing apps just did exactly that. We can’t just connect and chat, we must be rewarded dammit!

-Jenna #blondtechgeek