May 2010
Record Number of Participants Take Part in the 4th Annual Maui Butterfly Effect, held on Saturday, April 17 on the North Shore: $1000 Raised for Women Helping Women
(Maui, Hawai’i) April 22, 2010 – Over 130 wahines showed up on Saturday, April 17th for the 4th Annual Maui Butterfly Effect, also raising $1000 to benefit Women Helping Women.
A worldwide water woman movement promoting women and ocean sports, The Butterfly Effect brings women together in a non-competitive gathering celebrating community and love of the ocean while instilling confidence in women of all ages and skill sets.
Novices and professionals alike joined together in support of each other, as the butterflies braved high surf advisories to windsurf, kite, stand up paddle and kayak along the North Shore of Maui. The group, initially planning to launch from Ho’okipa and land at Kanaha, adjusted launch to Sprecks due to the eight foot waves on the North Shore.
Professional athletes that participated included Ann-Marie Reichman, Annita Blanch, Junko Nagoshn, Talia Gangini, Tiffany Ward, Nayra Alonso, Tonia Farman, Tomoko Okazaki, Resi Stiegler, Tatiana Howard and many more.
The Butterfly Effect began in Hawaii in 2007 by water women, Tatiana Howard and Juliana Shelef. Since then, the founders have flown around the world to organize affiliated events in Brazil, New Zealand, France, Oregon, Germany, Tahiti, Dominican Republic and Australia, and hundreds of international women have joined the movement.
The main featured sports of The Butterfly Effect include, but are not limited to, windsurfing, stand-up paddle and kiting. Other participating sports include wake boarding, surf and kayak. The standard event agenda also includes group sessions, clinics, safety and stretching sessions, food and gear from local sponsors and fundraising for local charities.
The Butterfly Effect will be going on world tour this summer, with events being held in: Italy, Hood River (Oregon), Fiji, Dominican Republic and Brazil.
“Maui, being the home of Aloha, is the perfect base for The Butterfly Effect, an event that celebrates feminine values, camaraderie and self-empowerment rather than judging and competition,” says The Butterfly Effect founder Tatiana Howard. “Although it is an all-women event, I hope that the success and enthusiasm that each event brings will be an inspiration to all.”
Buckles and boots, ropes and reins the go get em’ gear of courageous cowgirl in a wild frontier.
Her home a land with open vistas of rocky peaks and rumbling creeks, cougars and cattle plus snakes that rattle.
Mounting her steed after coffee and a hearty feed, the cowgirl heads out riding the range on lookout.
Her spirit is strong finding a place here to belong, every challenge a lesson, every moment a blessing.
The courage of a cowgirl can be had by all, the key of course is to always stand tall.
Follow your heart this is the best place to start, embrace the wilderness and your instincts, then your fears will depart.
By Inga Yandell
Chief Editor Bare Essentials Magazine
Building homes from straw utilises carbon neutral methods of construction to create modern dwellings both efficient and environmentally friendly by design.
In Australia straw bale homesteads 60 years old dispute any bedtime story that a simple huff and puff will blow these homes down. Fine examples of straw construction are dotted throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne to see a few click here.
The prefabricated straw has also proven fire resistant by academic researchers at the University of Bath in the UK. Fire Safety tests exposing a prefabricated straw-bale panel identical to those used in building the BaleHaus (research home) to temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.
To reach the required standard the panel had to withstand the heat for more than 30 minutes. More than two hours later – four times as long as required – the panel had still not failed.
The BaleHaus is part of a major new research project into how these renewable building materials can be used for homes of the future. The research work has been funded by the Carbon Connections Development Fund and the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board.
Researchers Dr Katharine Beadle and Christopher Gross from the university’s Building Research Establishment Centre in Innovative Construction Materials will be monitoring the house for a year for its insulating properties, humidity levels, air tightness and sound insulation qualities to assess the performance of straw and hemp as building materials.
The “ModCell” system used to build the BaleHaus consists of prefabricated panels made of a structural timber frame infilled with straw bales or hemp and rendered with a breathable lime-based system.
ModCell is carbon negative in manufacture. Furthermore, because of the high insulating properties of the panels, the BaleHaus minimises additional heating requirements reducing heating bills in housing by up to 85 per cent, and CO2 emissions by 60 per cent.
For updates on the straw-bale house including a recent report on straws wind resistance capacity to withstand hurricanes click here!
