surf-matic

Her co-worker just told her a joke as she was sewing mast bags.

Recovered from jet lag, I hit the gym with my dad this morning at 5:00am. While he biked for 99 minutes, I rotated between the treadmill and the elliptical. On the treadmill, I thought “wow, I’m really in good shape; this is so easy.” And then I realized that it was in kilometers per hour instead of miles. So my 5 minute miles were actually 8 minute miles. Too slow!

Now we’re at the Ezzy Factory. The 2012 sails are going into production, and everything needs to be checked and double-checked before that can fully happen. Part of that process means making sure that the measurements printed on the sail match the actual measurements of the production sails. This involves a lot of rigging. But every sail is rigged after it’s made anyway, so this measuring process goes quickly.

This girl measures a Quantum Optimist sail made in the Ezzy Factory.

The fruit here is phenomenal. For lunch I had a plate of papaya, pineapple, and a banana. In Hawaii, the fruit is good, but this is a step above in terms of juiciness and sweetness. So good!

The people here are also really cool. The literacy rate of Sri Lanka is 92%, the highest in South Asia and one of the highest in all of Asia. Education is important culturally. This sophistication of the people is one reason why they can do such high quality work– surpassing that even of American sail lofts. And it also makes everyone interesting to talk with and be around.

A cultural note: The locals do a head wobble gesture that means “yes”, “no”, “I don’t know”, “continue talking”, “see you later”, and probably more things that I don’t know. It’s like a perverted version of the Hawaiian word “Aloha,” which means “hello”, “goodbye”, and “love”.

David during the measurement checking of all the sails, and the new Ezzy Cheetah behind him.

Sails lined up!

More Sri Lanka updates coming regularly! I can’t wait to delve into some of the history behind the factory.

Check back tomorrow.