All posts by Alistair Lattimore

About Alistair Lattimore

My name is Alistair Lattimore, I'm in my very early 30's and live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. I married my high school sweet heart & we've been together for longer than I can remember. Claire and I started our family in September 2008 when Hugo was born and added a gorgeous little girl named Evie in May 2010. You can find me online in the typical hangouts, Google+, Twitter & facebook. .

Whale Watching Gold Coast

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Humpback WhalesFriday morning I had the pleasure of going whale watching on the Gold Coast broad water with a group of work colleagues.

The whale watching tour was run by Tallship, we needed to arrive at the terminal for boarding at around 8:00AM and we departed from Marina Mirage at approximately 8:30AM.

After we set off, it only took a few minutes driving north through the canals before our whale watching host was telling us about different birds that were resting nearby and interesting facts about each one, which I thought was great. Soon thereafter we turned right at Wave Break Island and started towards the Gold Coast seaway. On the southern side of the seaway you have Gold Coast Spit and on the northern side of the seaway you have the southern tip of South Stradebroke Island. It was a little rough as we moved through the rock walls of the Gold Coast seaway but it only lasted for a few minutes and then it was smooth sailing.

We continued cruising out into the open water for five to 10 minutes and before we knew it, whales! I’d assumed that during the migration period that the whales pack up shop and start making their journey north, but it isn’t quite that straight forward. They leave in stages based around their age, we were seeing the middle group which were around 12 metres in length. In the next month as the whale watching season comes to an end, the largest of the whales will make their way north past the Gold Coast and are in the 16-18 metre territory.

Whale Tail Collection

There are rules and regulations governing how the sightseeing tour operators behave around the whales, such as only being able to go within 100 metres of them so they don’t feel pressured/crowded. It turns out that whales are a curious creature and once the boats come to a stop – if the whales happen to swim right up next to the boat – that is not a problem. In fact, the host was telling us that last week people missed their flights home because the whales were swimming around their boat for 2.5 hours straight and they couldn’t start their motors!

The whale watching tour went for around three hours and in that time, we saw countless pods of whales. Most of the pods were in groups of two or three but the host said from time to time, they see super pods which have over 10 whales in a single group which would be an incredible sight to behold.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any whales breaching (ie, diving out of the water and crashing back down) but we did get lucky enough to have a whale swim right up beside the boat, roll over onto his back so we could see his underside as he gracefully glided past the boat and disappeared back into the deep water again.

It was an amazing experience to see the whales in person up close and personal. If you’ve got a morning free over the next month, I would highly recommend you take the time to get out and see them, it’ll be an experience to remember.

Proximity Wingsuit Skydiving

Videos

Alexander Polli is an extreme athlete who loves skydiving but is part of an elite group of skydivers who jump in either a wingsuit or a tracksuit.

Skydiving wingsuits have fabric between the arms and legs like a sugar glider and also between the legs, allowing the skydiver to easily control his or her movement in the air. Skydiving tracksuits are basically what they suggest, special tracksuits that fill with air and provide less control than a wingsuit but more than a standard skydiving outfit.

Of course human ‘flight’ in a wingsuit is all well and good but to keep the adrenalin pumping, this group of extreme athletes are doing something known as proximity flying (wingsuit) or tracking (tracksuit), where they fall with style very very very close to things with little room for error.

If you’ve never seen footage of proximity flying in a wingsuit before, the video below will blow your mind – especially where Alexandra is narrowly missing the tops of mountains, tracking just above a treeline over top of a road.

Prepare to be amazed!

How Do Cats Land On Their Feet – Physics Edition

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Have you ever wondered why cats always land on their feet when they fall from a height?

It turns out that their ability to land on their feet is a result of a skill known as the cat righting reflex. It revolves around them having an unusually flexible back, no collar bone like a human does, along with precise timing with moving its front and back legs at a particular time.

A kitten begins developing this ability at about 4 weeks of age apparently and by 8 weeks of age it has it mastered. Our trusty feline friends can use their cat righting reflex to land on their feet from any height but it must be at least 30-40cm tall or it doesn’t allow them enough time to rotate in the air.

F1 Car Evolution

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Below is a fantastic animation by Rufus Blacklock showing the evolution of Formula 1 cars since 1950. The shape for each year is the design associated to the car that won that particular years championship. I love that you can see the engine move from the front of the car to the rear of the car and the number of cylinders changing across time as the regulations have changed.

Eating Vegemite By The Spoonful

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Watching this movie I was laughing so hard I snorted out loud and had tears running down my cheeks! I’m not sure what was more funny, the fact that an American was eating the Vegemite knowing full well that they don’t like it or that the notion of eating Vegemite by the spoonful is hard for me to deal with and I love the stuff.