A nude dude named David

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Stephen

Neoclassical GPS art – a great excuse for doodling GPS genitals!

Michelangelo's Statue of David by GPS artist Stephen Lund • Victoria BC Garmin GPS Strava art YYJ neoclassical art nude nudity statue

The nude dude that I doodled is David – Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece…but I was really just looking for an excuse to join the worldwide community of penis-doodlers

When Bicycling Magazine writer Molly Hurford interviewed me a few weeks back, she asked if I knew of any other people making GPS art.

I spoke of a couple of notables – England’s David Taylor (of giant New Forest bicycle fame) and Baltimore’s prolific ‘GPSerist’ Michael Wallace – and then I mentioned that a lot of cyclists and runners draw penises, which seem to be popular as a point of entry (no pun intended) into GPS artistry (see gallery of images below).

Little did I know this would end up in Molly’s most excellent article:

“I hear a lot about people drawing penises,” Lund says. “It seems weirdly popular. And maybe I would do that one day, but it would be on a statue of David, to give it some context.”

Well, ever since the article appeared on bicycling.com on August 31, I’ve been feeling a strange sense of urgency to join the worldwide community of penis-doodlers…with some neoclassical context, of course.

See it on Strava *

* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

For your amusement and viewing pleasure, I’ve put together a small gallery of GPS penises that I found on Strava.com…

Gallery of GPS penises genitalia Strava art GPS art

CREDITS
1. Heather Gow-Carey • strava.com/activities/116083006
2. Word Runner • strava.com/activities/94458006
3. Aston • strava.com/activities/18625394
4. Word Runner • strava.com/activities/114399403
5. Pete Rees • strava.com/activities/179637713
6. Eric Westcott • strava.com/activities/95165329

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Bicycling Magazine’s Primer for Aspiring GPS Artists

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Stephen

“The GPSdoodles.com creator reveals his secrets to creating Strava art by bike”

Become a Strava Artist with These GPS Tips Bicycling Magazine Molly Hurford– interview with GPS artist Stephen Lund • Victoria BC Garmin GPS Strava art YYJ how-to DIY

Bicycling Magazine‘s Molly Hurford interviewed yours truly – Victoria’s GPS doodler – for her excellent primer on becoming a GPS artist, “Become a Strava Artist with These GPS Tips“

Three weeks ago, my inbox lit up with giddy excitement on receiving an email from Molly Hurford – cyclist, author, turtle owner, comic book nerd and, most notably, contributing writer for Bicycling Magazine.

“We’re doing a quick piece on how to DIY Strava art,” she said. “Your website is so rad, I figured you’d have some good advice. Are you up for a quick interview?”

She had me at “rad.”

We talked. She wrote. And on Sunday, her equally rad article traipsed across my Twitter feed on the heels of my GPS stegosaurus.

You can read the whole thing here:

“Become a Strava Artist with These GPS Tips” By Molly Hurford

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Lazy sea lion soaks up the sun near Royal Victoria Yacht Club

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Stephen
Lazy sea lion – Strava art by GPS artist artist Stephen Lund • Victoria BC Garmin GPS Strava art sea lion Royal Oak Yacht Club marine mammals YYJ Pacific Ocean Salish Sea

My efforts in creating this 44-km (27-mi) GPS sea lion were interrupted with a couple of valuable reminders: watch out for debris on the edge of the highway, and always ride with a pocketful of cab fare

I sketched this big fella several weeks ago, on a sunshiny afternoon in mid-July.

It’s the type of GPS doodle I like best, where 100% of the picture follows the streets of the city and my ride follows one continuous line from start to finish. (That said, I did have to stop/start my Garmin twice and make a few kilometres worth of detours along the way – once to safely cross the highway to Wilkinson Road at the bottom of the tail, and again at the tip of the left flipper to get around a big fence between GardenWorks and the Galloping Goose.)

These detours underscore two important tenets of my GPS doodling:

  1. Safety supersedes everything else
  2. Cycling citizenship must be top-of mind; represent cyclists and cycling in positive ways (for example, by always respecting private property).

My sea lion ride on July 13 was my second attempt at this huge marine mammal. My first, five days earlier (lower image), ended when my front tubular sustained an irreparable gash on the side of the highway 13 km (8 mi) into the doodle. (That stroke of bad luck was offset by the fact that an available cab appeared precisely as I was pondering my next move.)

See it on Strava *

* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

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The one that got away

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Stephen

Enormous butterfly on the lam from Butterfly Gardens

Butterfly by GPS artist Stephen Lund in Victoria, BC, Canada GPS Garmin Strava art cyclist cycling creativity animals insects butterfly wildlife Butterfly Gardens

This GPS-art butterfly — doodled by GPS artist Stephen Lund — required 44 kilometres of cycling on the streets of Victoria, BC

It’s blustery in Victoria today. And those gusty winds, it appears, picked up the biggest, reddest specimen from Butterfly Gardens some 20 km up the peninsula and deposited it smack dab in the middle of the city!

Shifty winds notwithstanding, I had fun doodling this GPS butterfly as my route followed streets and paths in one continuous line from beginning to end. (In other words, there was no need for “dot-connecting” and all the stopping and starting that comes with it.)

Total distance cycled to create this lepidopteric beauty: an even 44 kilometres (27 and a third miles).

I rotated the mapped image 90º CCW for ease of viewing.

See it on Strava *

* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

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The GPS doodler’s TV debut • ‘CHEK’ it out

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Stephen

Last Wednesday, August 5, was a fretful day full of nervous pacing and nail-biting as the appointed time of my first-ever TV interview – 3:30 pm – inched ever closer.

Fortunately, CHEK News reporter/anchor Dan Clovis‘s easygoing approach put me instantly at ease, and the interview went off without any fainting, pants-wetting or even noticeable trembling…just the occasional nervous titter and a tinge of dry-mouth.

The spot aired first on CHEK’s weekly sports show, Game ON!, on Sunday, August 9. It aired again during the August 12 evening newscast with an added accolade – namely, CHEK singled me out as their “Athlete of the Week.” I’m duly honoured.

Huge kudos to Dan and the CHEK team for their excellent work in putting the story together.

Periodically, Dan Clovis does a segment called “Dan’ll Do It” in which he immerses himself in a variety of athletic activities…Zumba, dodgeball, that sort of thing. (Last week, he donned lacrosse goalie gear and endured a merciless pelting by the Victoria Shamrocks.) For a future episode of “Dan’ll Do It,” I’ve invited Dan to join me in creating a GPS doodle…and he has graciously accepted.

Stay tuned!

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The WordPress logo

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Stephen

Doodled as a huge thank you to WordPress for featuring a recent post on “Freshly Pressed”

WordPress logo by GPS artist Stephen Lund in Victoria, BC, Canada GPS Garmin Strava art cyclist cycling creativity WordPress Freshly Pressed University of Victoria UVic

The University of Victoria campus and its amazingly circular Ring Road provided the canvas for my GPS doodle of the WordPress logo – a show of gratitude for featuring one of my posts on Freshly Pressed

The exciting news came across my Twitter feed as I was winding down after my Saturday morning bike ride.

My July 9 post – “Six months. Two wheels. 50 GPS doodles.” – had been Freshly Pressed.

As WordPress explains, “Every day, we feature a few editors’ picks on the Freshly Pressed section of WordPress.com. Freshly Pressed posts can be about anything — and published today or years ago — but they all have a few things in common: they enlighten us, inspire us, entertain us, and get us talking.”

As a show of gratitude, I decided to doodle the WordPress logo.

The WordPress logo is a stylized W enclosed in a perfect circle. And as the only perfect circle on the Victoria map is University of Victoria’s 1.9-kilometre Ring Road, I knew right away what my canvas would be.

At a mere 0.3 km2, this was far and away my smallest canvas to date. (For most of my GPS doodles, my canvas is at least 10 km2 and as large as 60 km2 (for my Siren of the Salish Sea).

As I learned early on, a large canvas is far more ‘forgiving’ than a small one. If you stray slightly off course, overshoot a turn or miscalculate a maneuver, you may not even notice it in the finished picture. But on a small scale, precision is everything.

For my doodle of the WordPress logo, I had to rely almost entirely on my ‘connecting the dots’ technique. (Stopping my Garmin at point A and restarting it at point B creates a straight line that connects the dots.) I overlaid the WordPress logo on a satellite view of the UVic campus and plotted key points along the outline of the W; and as I pedalled around campus, I used my iPhone map app to zero in on the points I had plotted.

My first attempt at the WordPress logo (inset image #3) highlights the importance of precision on a small canvas. Adjusting some of the STOP/START points by just a few metres for version 2 made a monumental difference.

Total distance cycled to create my GPS doodle of the WordPress logo (including my failed version 1) was 29.8 km (18.5 mi).

See it on Strava

Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

Posted in bike-writing, gps art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Enormous orca breaches from Salish Sea

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Stephen
Orca breaches from the Strait of Juan de Fuca by GPS artist Stephen Lund in Victoria, BC, Canada GPS Garmin Strava art cyclist cycling creativity animals marine ocean orca killer whale Strait of Juan de Fuca

This breaching killer whale – another enormous GPS-art creation by Stephen Lund – required approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) of cycling on the streets of Victoria, BC

For recreational whale-watchers and serious marine researchers alike, the waters surrounding Victoria, BC, are a choice destination.

From spring through fall, southern resident killer whales from three pods comprising approximately 80 whales are frequently seen in the protected waters of the Salish Sea.

Members of another community of killer whales, called transients, also appear often in the Salish Sea. Numbering more than 250, transients tend to travel alone or in small groups up to five individuals.

Killer whales can grow to a length of nine metres (30 feet) – nowhere near as large as my GPS doodle, which measures more than six kilometres (20,000 feet) from the tip of its rostrum (snout) to its tail.

See it on Strava *

* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

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Another dragonfly

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Stephen
Dragonfly by GPS artist Stephen Lund in Victoria, BC, Canada GPS Garmin Strava art cyclist cycling creativity animals insects dragonfly

The second GPS-art dragonfly doodled on the streets of Victoria, BC, by Stephen Lund

On July 3, I doodled a dragonfly chillin’ in the summertime heat.

It was one of two dragonfly routes I’d designed. The other one – today’s GPS doodle – isn’t quite as elegant. Still, I felt it was worthy of riding and posting here at GPSdoodles.com.

Total distance cycled to create this GPS dragonfly was around 70 kilometres – 60.1 with my Garmin tracking and another 10 or so for a few sections that required “dot connecting” (most notably, the rear lower edge of the wing and the uppermost segment of the rear leg and the front leg).

See it on Strava *

* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

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Rio de Janiero’s “Christ the Redeemer”

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Stephen

Doodled as a huge thank you to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue by GPS artist Stephen Lund in Victoria, BC, Canada GPS Garmin Strava art cyclist cycling creativity Olympic Games #OlympicDay content IOC International Olympic Committee

With thanks to the IOC for selecting my #OlympicDay 2015 contest entry as the winner, I’ll be seeing “Christ the Redeemer” up close during my trip to Rio de Janeiro this December!

It’s been a very exciting week!

On Tuesday, the IOC unveiled the winner of their 2015 #OlympicDay contest.

And the winner, selected from among 21,000 #OlympicDay entries, was none other than my #OlympicDay GPS doodle!

The prize: a trip for two to Rio de Janeiro in December for a sneak peek of the Olympic Park ahead of next summer’s Olympic Games.

Emocionante!

In addition to the 25.8 km recorded for this GPS doodle were ~25 more for some behind-the-scenes dot-connecting.

See it on Strava

Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com

Posted in bike-writing, gps art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments