November 21st, 2007
Amazon.com has teamed up with The Surfrider Foundation to raise money towards Surfrider’s mission. If you go through the link below, Amazon will donate 5% of all purchases to Surfrider Foundation. There is no cost to the user, all the money comes out of Amazon’s pocket. It’s super simple:
Anytime you want to purchase something from Amazon.com, instead of going directly to Amazon, visit www.5percentblue.com and then click the link to shop on Amazon.
November 9th, 2007
The Freestyle Auido DMP is billed as a waterproof MP3 
player you can take surfing. While there are many arguments against surfing with a distraction such as an audio player, we aimed only to review the gear, and let you decide on the moral implications.
First Impressions
The FA player is pretty small and lightweight, but not as small as many other players of similar storage. There are 4 waterproof buttons that are big and easy to access yet a little Frankenstein looking. There is an LED light that tells you info on charging, uploading, and playing which does the job well. There is no screen, it works like the iPod Shuffle, but there is no shuffle.
We used a PC, and without installing any software the player showed up as a drive, where adding and removing tracks is a breeze. The USB cable also allows the player to charge (it takes 2.5 hours to charge which is said to last 35 hours of play time). The USB cable plugs into the same port as the headphones and this allows the player to have only one input where water could get in. If a cable isn’t plugged in all the way, it knows and will shut down. It’s a smart idea but you’ll have to carry the special USB cable around with you if you ever want to update your collection at a friends house.
Dry Run
We first took it for a spin on land by going on a jog. We used the land headphones and were not impressed. It is hard to fault a player for bad headphones, since everyone has their idea on what headphones feel good. That said, these headphones stunk. Good news here is that you can use any pair of headphones you’d like when used on land (in water you need the special waterproof ones). The armband works cool and the player is easy to navigate on the run. However the buttons are aligned across from each other, and you need some force to push them. So sometimes you try to increase the volume and you’ll end hitting the opposite button, thus skipping a track. Besides that the player worked great.
While Swimming
We gave the player to Kyle who went swimming at the UCSB pool with it. He said the headphones didn’t sound too good either underwater or above water. He was a trooper for showing up in his speedos and headphones though.
Surfing With Music
Alright, we’ll admit it. We never got out in the water with it. We just couldn’t overcome the cool factor. I mean, we’d have to go all the way down to County Line to surf somewhere we wouldn’t be seen surfing with this. We stammered for a few weeks trying to get the nerve to surf with it, and then Freestyle wanted it back to give to the next reviewer. However it’s performance on land and while swimming gave us enough of a clue to know that Freestyle has some work to do still.
What You Get
- Audio Player with built in battery
- Normal headphones
- Waterproof headphones
- USB cable that doubles as the charger
- User Manual
- Armband
- Installation Disc
Where to Buy:
February 6th, 2007
Surf Drops is 
billed as ‘a nasal protection solution created to prevent contaminated waters from causing illnesses like throat, sinus and ear infections.’ It comes in 1.5oz bottles that retail for $5.95. We aimed to see what all the fuss was about.
Surf Drops Science Claims
- Maintains optimal environment for nasal passage hair to flourish and filter.
- Dilutes thick stuff and shrink membranes for better drainage.
- Flushes out moisture and bacteria to prevent post nasal drip and infection.
The Testing
We’ve had our fair share of sinus problems related to surfing. Whether this is related to contaminated water or just too much time in the water, we don’t know. What we do know is after many sessions in a row, our sinus’s would get pretty bad for a few days. Would Surf Drops fix this? We aimed to find out.
We tried Surf Drops in January and February during some dawn and dusk sessions in cool water/air with average wave heights. Not one to enjoying putting drops in my eyes, ears, or nose, it was a little funny at first sticking some drops in the nostrils after surfing. However, there was no question these drops work their way in your sinus’s passages. As soon as you drop them in you can feel them trace a salty path all the way down into your throat. Somehow, that alone is a good feeling, just getting the confirmation things are flowing nicely in there.
It is tough to review if these will keep you more healthy when surfing because it isn’t as if we did a very scientific study. We did however notice that our sinus’s were not clogging when logging in multi-session days multiple days in a row. Previously, if a good swell came in that had us surfing 5 sessions in 3 days, our own mom wouldn’t recognize us on the phone because of our stuffed up sinus’s. Surf Drops seems to prevent that. We didn’t get sick during any of our testing and the annoying post-nasal-drip, “I think I’m getting a sore throat” feeling never came up either. Based on that, we’re keeping Surf Drops as part of the post-surf ritual. If we can pull all the way through winter and still claim the above, we’re pretty sure we’ll be thanking the Surf Drops creators for a long time to come.
Where To Buy
More info at www.surfdrops.com
