Expert Commentary
Rick Shema - Weather
Rick Shema, President, Weatherguy.com
Meteorologist and Oceanographer
Rick is a unique weather guy. He combines over 35 years of yacht racing and cruising experience with forecast skills learned as a U.S. Navy meteorologist and oceanographer. He received dual Master of Science degrees in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA and Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University. While serving in the Navy, his responsibilities included serving as Chief Meteorologist at sea onboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group with accompanying cruisers and destroyer escorts. His tactical skills optimized the employment of naval sensors and weapons onboard ships and aircraft. Ashore, Rick provided forecasts to support safety at sea of Department of Defense assets including ship routing through hazardous weather.
Since Rick’s retirement from the Naval service in 2002, he began full time operations of his company, Weatherguy.com in Hawaii. He provides his clients worldwide with a unique service by giving back to the civilian community his expertise acquired in the military. Rick continues to develop tailored support products and services to meet the ever changing needs of his clients. The company motto: “Predict, Provide, Protect” emphasize his commitment to safety at sea.
For the past 14 years, Rick has enjoyed racing and cruising sailboats in the Hawaiian Islands. Sailing various types of boats since childhood, he grew to appreciate the value of a good weather forecast. He currently owns HEAT WAVE (J/110) and has raced in West Marine Pacific Cups, Transpacific Yacht races, and local club races. He lives by the beach with his wife, son, and dog.
Aenor J. Sawyer, MD - Physiological
Dr. Sawyer has spent much of her 30 year career caring for athletes. For 10 years she was involved in sports medicine as a Physical Therapist and was selected to the Olympic Sports Medicine Team providing coverage at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In 1989 she received an MS in Physiology (exercise and cardiac emphasis) at University California Davis. Also at UCD, she completed her MD in 1993. The next 6 years were spent at Stanford University where she served as a resident in Orthopaedic Surgery. This was followed by her fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital in Pediatric Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Program. In her current practice she utilizes her experience in physical therapy, exercise physiology, medicine and surgery as she cares for adult and childhood athletes from many disciplines, ranging from recreational to Olympic and professional levels. In addition to AAOS and AMA, she is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the FORUM, a national association of women surgeons specializing in sports medicine. As well as a clinical practice, Dr. Sawyer maintains an active role in research with emphases in sports injury prevention, overuse injury, anterior cruciate ligament repair, stress fractures and bone health.
Aenor has always been an avid athlete with a focus on endurance events including marathons, open water swimming and cycling. As a cancer survivor, she is no longer able to run but has found a similar joy in open water rowing (not to be confused with trans-oceanic rowing!!!). As a member of the team supporting Roz, Aenor has overseen the compilation of the onboard emergency medical supplies and provided basic first aid training with an emphasis on acute illness, wound care, injury splinting and nutritional needs. During the row, she will serve as a member of the “on call” emergency medical team and will also collect, interpret and discuss (by blog) medical and physical issues as reported by Roz.
Dr Neil Weston - Psychology
Dr Neil Weston is a Principal Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, UK, with research interests in the psychology of high risk endurance sports and performance profiling.
Neil is a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Accredited Sport Psychologist. Currently he is working with local elite youth tennis players and has been a consultant sport psychologist to a world top 50 England badminton player, a world top 100 trampolinist, and the English Senior Mens Volleyball team. He has also provided sport psychological support in a variety of other sports including rugby, netball, golf, football, athletics and hockey.
His recent research interests have centred on the psychological changes that occur in extreme environment endurance sports. These include examining the psychology of single handed sailing in the 2006/07 Velux 5 Oceans Race, single handed ocean rowing, and a Fuch’s Foundation sponsored Antarctic exploration. He will be commenting on the psychological aspects of Roz's row.
Dr Margot Gerritsen - Sustainable Energies
Margot Gerritsen is a professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. She works with her colleagues on new technologies to help satisfy the world's energy demands.
Her areas of expertise include computer simulation of fluid flow processes, energy processes and coastal ocean dynamics. She has a wide variety of interests including sail design, paleontology and mathematics, but also literature, music and sports. Margot thoroughly enjoys teaching in many areas including computational and mathematical engineering, energy resources and physics. She regularly advises NGOs and VCs on energy issues and runs a podcast show on energy issues at www.smartenergyshow.com
Dr Curtis Ebbesmeyer - Marine Debris
Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer is an American oceanographer who has studied the movement of flotsam. He came to public attention through his interest in rubber ducks, a consignment of bath toys washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992.
Educated at the University of Washington, where he gained a PhD in oceanography in 1973, Ebbesmeyer monitored ocean currents by tracking buoys and markers dropped at sea. Stories vary as to the origin of Ebbesmeyer's use of flotsam as markers. In May 1990 80,000 Nike sneakers were released from a container washed off a ship. He says that from this he saw the opportunity to monitor ocean currents from the distribution of the shoes washing up on the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
He established links with beachcombers and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this and other spills. Using OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation), a computer simulator developed by oceanographer Jim Ingraham, Ebbesmeyer tracked the oceanic movement of all kinds of flotsam.
Ebbesmeyer founded the nonprofit Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association in 1996 for which he writes and publishes the magazine Beachcombers' Alert.
He will be making comments on marine debris.
Rick Shema, President, Weatherguy.com
Meteorologist and Oceanographer
Rick is a unique weather guy. He combines over 35 years of yacht racing and cruising experience with forecast skills learned as a U.S. Navy meteorologist and oceanographer. He received dual Master of Science degrees in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA and Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University. While serving in the Navy, his responsibilities included serving as Chief Meteorologist at sea onboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group with accompanying cruisers and destroyer escorts. His tactical skills optimized the employment of naval sensors and weapons onboard ships and aircraft. Ashore, Rick provided forecasts to support safety at sea of Department of Defense assets including ship routing through hazardous weather.
Since Rick’s retirement from the Naval service in 2002, he began full time operations of his company, Weatherguy.com in Hawaii. He provides his clients worldwide with a unique service by giving back to the civilian community his expertise acquired in the military. Rick continues to develop tailored support products and services to meet the ever changing needs of his clients. The company motto: “Predict, Provide, Protect” emphasize his commitment to safety at sea.
For the past 14 years, Rick has enjoyed racing and cruising sailboats in the Hawaiian Islands. Sailing various types of boats since childhood, he grew to appreciate the value of a good weather forecast. He currently owns HEAT WAVE (J/110) and has raced in West Marine Pacific Cups, Transpacific Yacht races, and local club races. He lives by the beach with his wife, son, and dog.
Aenor J. Sawyer, MD - Physiological
Dr. Sawyer has spent much of her 30 year career caring for athletes. For 10 years she was involved in sports medicine as a Physical Therapist and was selected to the Olympic Sports Medicine Team providing coverage at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In 1989 she received an MS in Physiology (exercise and cardiac emphasis) at University California Davis. Also at UCD, she completed her MD in 1993. The next 6 years were spent at Stanford University where she served as a resident in Orthopaedic Surgery. This was followed by her fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital in Pediatric Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Program. In her current practice she utilizes her experience in physical therapy, exercise physiology, medicine and surgery as she cares for adult and childhood athletes from many disciplines, ranging from recreational to Olympic and professional levels. In addition to AAOS and AMA, she is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the FORUM, a national association of women surgeons specializing in sports medicine. As well as a clinical practice, Dr. Sawyer maintains an active role in research with emphases in sports injury prevention, overuse injury, anterior cruciate ligament repair, stress fractures and bone health.
Aenor has always been an avid athlete with a focus on endurance events including marathons, open water swimming and cycling. As a cancer survivor, she is no longer able to run but has found a similar joy in open water rowing (not to be confused with trans-oceanic rowing!!!). As a member of the team supporting Roz, Aenor has overseen the compilation of the onboard emergency medical supplies and provided basic first aid training with an emphasis on acute illness, wound care, injury splinting and nutritional needs. During the row, she will serve as a member of the “on call” emergency medical team and will also collect, interpret and discuss (by blog) medical and physical issues as reported by Roz.
Dr Neil Weston - Psychology
Dr Neil Weston is a Principal Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, UK, with research interests in the psychology of high risk endurance sports and performance profiling.
Neil is a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Accredited Sport Psychologist. Currently he is working with local elite youth tennis players and has been a consultant sport psychologist to a world top 50 England badminton player, a world top 100 trampolinist, and the English Senior Mens Volleyball team. He has also provided sport psychological support in a variety of other sports including rugby, netball, golf, football, athletics and hockey.
His recent research interests have centred on the psychological changes that occur in extreme environment endurance sports. These include examining the psychology of single handed sailing in the 2006/07 Velux 5 Oceans Race, single handed ocean rowing, and a Fuch’s Foundation sponsored Antarctic exploration. He will be commenting on the psychological aspects of Roz's row.
Dr Margot Gerritsen - Sustainable Energies
Margot Gerritsen is a professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. She works with her colleagues on new technologies to help satisfy the world's energy demands.
Her areas of expertise include computer simulation of fluid flow processes, energy processes and coastal ocean dynamics. She has a wide variety of interests including sail design, paleontology and mathematics, but also literature, music and sports. Margot thoroughly enjoys teaching in many areas including computational and mathematical engineering, energy resources and physics. She regularly advises NGOs and VCs on energy issues and runs a podcast show on energy issues at www.smartenergyshow.com
Dr Curtis Ebbesmeyer - Marine Debris
Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer is an American oceanographer who has studied the movement of flotsam. He came to public attention through his interest in rubber ducks, a consignment of bath toys washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992.
Educated at the University of Washington, where he gained a PhD in oceanography in 1973, Ebbesmeyer monitored ocean currents by tracking buoys and markers dropped at sea. Stories vary as to the origin of Ebbesmeyer's use of flotsam as markers. In May 1990 80,000 Nike sneakers were released from a container washed off a ship. He says that from this he saw the opportunity to monitor ocean currents from the distribution of the shoes washing up on the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
He established links with beachcombers and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this and other spills. Using OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation), a computer simulator developed by oceanographer Jim Ingraham, Ebbesmeyer tracked the oceanic movement of all kinds of flotsam.
Ebbesmeyer founded the nonprofit Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association in 1996 for which he writes and publishes the magazine Beachcombers' Alert.
He will be making comments on marine debris.
