Recreation

High in a misty valley in the Basque Pyrenees, miles from the ocean and surrounded by verdant sheep pastures, lies a prime surf spot. Its swells break with no wind or reef, and you can turn them on and off whenever you want. While a surf spot might form over hundreds of thousands of years, a team of Spanish engineers took the Wavegarden from concept to reality in just ten.

This month, more than 700 million people will watch the finals of the FIFA World Cup, the planet’s most pop­ular sports event. Soccer is mainly about stamina and coordination, but players rely on cutting-edge gear to help score (or save) more goals.

Skiing and snowboarding have always been cutting-edge sports, thanks to renegade personalities and high-tech gear. But this ski season, designers are stepping it up to a whole new level. Here, take a look at some of the finest in snowsports tech—and enter to win some gear of your own.

The Shweeb is a human-powered monorail system that makes use of a series of pedal-pods suspended by a metal rail. Easy to operate, Shweeb cars can move up to 25 mph, reportedly without excessive effort.

The Shweeb is still a standalone gimmick/prototype of sorts that sits on company grounds in New Zealand. But they see their contraption as something that would fit perfectly in natural parks for guided tours, or even adventure tourism destinations, where it could be used for racing games.

Question submitted by Ward Danekas of Franklin Grove, Ill.

The answer appears to be no. A bird will spend hours tossing a pebble in the air, but it's nearly impossible to discern if it's goofing around or honing its talon-eye coordination. Gordon Burghardt, an expert on animal behavior at the University of Tennessee, defines play as behavior that doesn't seem to have a survival purpose, is rewarding in and of itself, and is performed when an animal is fully fed and stress-free.

How do you make a bicycle that never needs lube, never leaves grease on your pants, and always delivers smooth pedaling? Simple: Ditch the chain.

For its new Soho commuter bike, Trek replaced greasy metal links with a dry belt. Unlike other attempts at such bikes, the Soho is silky smooth to pedal. And it’s the first to offer multiple speeds, using an eight-gear transmission inside the rear-wheel hub.

How do you make a bicycle that never needs lube, never leaves grease on your pants, and always delivers smooth pedaling? Simple: Ditch the chain.

For its new Soho commuter bike, Trek replaced greasy metal links with a dry belt. Unlike other attempts at such bikes, the Soho is silky smooth to pedal. And it’s the first to offer multiple speeds, using an eight-gear transmission inside the rear-wheel hub.

For years, the increased accuracy, smoothness and reliability of electronic shifting has been perhaps the ultimate goal for high-performance-bike designers. After several companies’ attempts failed—suffering from breakdowns in bad weather, poor battery life or unbearable complexity—Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 has finally delivered it.

The Atomic D2 Vario Cut is like two skis in one: It's straight and narrow for zooming downhill but expands to be wider at the tip and tail when you turn -- creating a curved ski that, like a sharply turned car wheel, carves through a tight arc.

The Atomic D2 Vario Cut is like two skis in one: It's straight and narrow for zooming downhill but expands to be wider at the tip and tail when you turn -- creating a curved ski that, like a sharply turned car wheel, carves through a tight arc.

This spring the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation released the draft environmental impact statement for the Fresh Kills Park Project, their plan to turn the Fresh Kills landfill—hitherto best known as a smelly Staten Island mountain—into a world class public park. The statement will be discussed at an open public hearing on September 4th, 2008, and work begins next year on the project's first small section—wrapping around the landfill's north mound and reaching down to the waterfront. This sliver should be finished within a few years, though the park in its entirety is expected to take around 30 years to complete, with $198 million in initial funding, but much more needed along the line.

Next: "New Yorkers filled Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill for 50 years..."

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Great ski gear is beneficial in two ways: It gives you a technological edge and makes spending a day freezing your tail off a heck of a lot more enjoyable. The latest ski accessories employ sensors, satellites and cutting-edge materials to keep you safe, warm, entertained and more informed about your performance. If you're looking for new skis, consider the Atomic Izor. Otherwise, surround your current pair with these four accessories.

The Accessories

Silva Tech4O ski speedometer

Pro skiers exceed 80 mph in World Cup downhills. Wonder how you stack up?

American motorcycles have a reputation for being low-tech machines stripped down for speed. But there´s only so much a bike can do without. So Confederate Motor Company (confederate.com) replaced every metal piece possible with a lightweight carbon-fiber one. The company hired industrial design firm Foraxis to help fabricate the new parts and produced a bike that weighs a mere 375 pounds: the B91 Wraith.

Most tents are designed to fend off the wind, but The North Face´s Spectrum 23 invites it in through the front door-and ushers it right out the back. Built with a conspicuous awning that funnels wind through vents in the dome, the Spectrum ($260; thenorthface.com) can withstand 130mph winds, making it the strongest in the industry (100 mph is the previous best rating).