tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16866792.post113659005100557230..comments2008-12-19T04:08:59.788-05:00J. D. Casnighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04002772202049088097noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16866792.post-1138332449752541262006-01-26T22:27:29.816-05:002006-01-26T22:27:29.816-05:00Great comments, <B>Anonymous</B> - if that <I>is</I> your real name! Your description of surfing leaves me thinking you get your feet wet.<BR/><BR/>Here's a quote from Answers.com that'll really congeals your points:<BR/><BR/>"The North Shore [of Oahu, Hawaii] is home to perhaps the best stretch of surfing waves in the world, including Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay, and the world's most renowned and revered wave, "<B>Pipeline</B>" (or "Banzai Pipeline"), so named for the <B>yawning chasms it regularly hurls over the heads of awe-struck surfers</B>."<BR/><BR/>This puts the surfer inside a pipeline, riding a surfboard and being powered by water. Among the other related surfing terms: "tube" and "tube ride" - which brings us right back to the London subway and pneumatic tube delivery systems.<BR/><BR/>---------------------<BR/><BR/>Personally, I find the emphasis of the word "ride" as it is spoken in the commercials seems too adventurous for a "passenger", while the visuals provide a sense of bordered self-destiny. To cap it off with the limited-offer/you're-in-control effect of "take a test drive" leaves me making comparisons to a "luge": down, fast, bordered, linear - but such comparisons are a slippery slope...<BR/><BR/>Thanks for writing in.<BR/><BR/>johnJ. D. Casnighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04002772202049088097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16866792.post-1138244217429784952006-01-25T21:56:00.000-05:002006-01-25T21:56:00.000-05:00A slightly more obscure meaning of "Pipeline" is that it's an Oahu beach legendary among surfers. It's also one of the more famous surf music songs of the '60s (tey http://ynucc.yeungnam.ac.kr/~bwlee/ventures.htm), which cemented the connection of the word "pipeline" to the activity of surfing. <BR/><BR/>Surfing, of course, is a well-established metaphor for using the Web, and a quite apt one, I think; a Web surfer, like a surfer in a wetsuit, is neither quite a passenger nor quite a driver. A surfer is dependent on the environment, adjusts to it, and follows its contours, but its an activity that requires skill and rewards the patient. Riding a wave is not as passive as riding a bus. <BR/><BR/>In that context, "ride your world" makes sense. But nothing in the language or the imagery makes the pipeline-surfing-ride connection. To me, it seems like one of those slogans that came out of a brainstorming session and made perfect sense to the participants, who forgot that a person seeing the slogan for the first time wasn't in on the thought process that led to it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com