I spent way too many inebriated degrees last evening over at Rider Jeden’s bunk, poised between beach and harbor gurgeward of Teacher Town. He’s one of our…more eccentric members, a math, physics, and engineering genius that long ago outstripped the patience of others to live with his sometimes-explosive ongoing experiments. He seems to enjoy spending most of his time creating theoretical–or actual–sailing design improvements. Some of what he was demonstrating to me last night seemed beyond what I thought possible in terms of stresses placed on the construction materials, but he had rambling, equation-filled explanations for my expressed concerns–none of which I really have the head for understanding, and certainly not after he’s forced three of my namesake shots on me. My last coherent memory of the visit was spending who knows how long staring at the wall opposite his harbor-view windows. It was completely covered with incredibly detailed charts of Gurge currents and fluctuations, beautifully and precisely scribed. I seem to recall he’d measured some potential long-span patterns after looking back across hundreds of years of data, though of course only the last few hundred have enough information to inspire meaningful empirical deductions.
I digress from my point, unsurprisingly given my current state of recovering mind. For my Rider friends, what sorts of alterations or enhancements do you like to Ride with, if any? For others, once you get to a certain point in your art, you feel confident enough to start experimenting with the established conventions of the technicals. How have you brought innovation to your chosen art fields lately?
– Mikasa Rider
