I suppose most blogs and personal web sites are vanity projects at some level. Here we are trying to show the world that we are knowledgeable and clever. That wasn’t part of my conscious intent in setting this site up but it would be silly to dismiss the possibility out of hand.

Up until I decided to write the Einstein Series I had vague ideas of recording my journey as a casting pilgrim, a travelog for fellow travellers, and then along came a determination to cut the crap about physics and fly casting which finished up as the Series. Once it went live some intriguing things happened, new ideas came to mind; some of them more original than others; some of them pointed me in different directions and some affirmed my earlier choices. This thing is organic, it’s an expression of me and because money is not involved I am free to go where instinct and reason tell me to go.

So, with blessed technical help from a friend I get the Series live to air. My entire marketing effort consists of a heads up post to several bulletin boards and a couple of emails. Two things pleasantly surprise me. First, the Series is well received. Second the site goes from an occasional visit by some poor lost soul to nearly 500 people dropping by within a week or so and mostly they have a good look around the place. So I go from deciding to publish technical stuff which is relatively accessible to a niche within a niche market and hoping someone will find it useful to realising that if you publish good content, people will find it, read it, and appreciate it.

Don’t get me wrong and expect an equivalent Series to pop up every month. That’s not feasible and I’m not going exhaust myself trying to become an internet celebrity who becomes rich from being famous. Not going to happen.

Instead I’ve decided to learn from the experience. The experience says, “Write with your personal values. Write stuff that is accessible, practical, authentic and authoritative.”

So what’s next? Right now I am looking at the biomechanics of fly casting. It makes  sense in several dimensions. The mechanics of fly casting, as written about in “Physics FOR Fly Casting“, is about how we can put kinetic energy into a fly line to make it do what we want it to do. It tells anybody who will listen that efficiency trumps effort and exactly why it does so. If we follow the trail of kinetic energy it leads back to what we do with our body parts to get the optimal transfer of kinetic energy into the fly line so that it deposits our fly on target.

If kinetic energy is a bit ethereal for you then how about this. Bruce Richards’ six steps for sorting out casting problems are Line, Rod, Body; Body, Rod, Line. The line responds to the rod being moved by the body. Change your body movement, to change rod movement to change the line movement. The key point here is that the body is the middle two steps. It is both the problem and solution. It ought to be the centre of attention far more than the rod and the line but in the fly casting literature, including internet content, it seems to be all about the rod and the line.

Here’s the more poetic take. What do we notice when we see a seriously good caster in action? We notice the grace of their movements. “He/she makes it look effortless”. What’s that about? My partner is an ex professional ballet dancer. “Grace”, she once explained to me, “is economy of movement.” In other words, graceful movement is the result of efficient movement. My conceptual theme for fly casting excellence is that Art marries Science and Efficiency presides at the ceremony.

Stay tuned.