About to break free from my straitjacket! 6 weeks after a shoulder surgery to fix the two tendons torn last summer doing the sports I do, the day after tomorrow my left arm should be free from the confinement. While I have, on one hand, quite enjoyed slowing things down physically and just sitting still, such prolonged forced confinement can be a bit frustrating for someone who likes to MOVE too. Of course, I’m lucky that in time the shoulder will be as good as the original - the physiotherapy and training towards that goal starts as soon as I get the all clear from my fine Dr. Heliö. Patiently 😊 #injury #recovery #emotion #frustration #joy #strongereveryday

The Artist (that would be me) signed his work. As part of the June Sigil #kesäkuunkuvio challenge of #fssfsupremoterace2022 , I drew my name on the waters of Lake Isojärvi by standup paddling a path of around 700m. This is lots of fun and harder than it seems! I have lots of ideas for these, and I promised to do ”Lips” this year, but that great work of art will have to wait until next June - at least I already have it beautifully signed 😉😄 #sup #supsuomi #suppailu #standuppaddle

Start of the local 2022 SUP racing season in Finland. Good times! The full-length video on my YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/lake74 , link also at my website www.extremebrilliance.com (link on the bio) First time paddling with my brand new Starboard Lima 2022 paddle (size L blade, 29mm shaft, stiffness S35). It feels really good and will be my weapon of choice for years. I will go with a combo of this size L blade for sprints and shorter technical races and another Lima with a smaller size M blade for longer distances. As a pretty small dude, I nowadays like to keep my blade sizes relatively small, in favor of a style with a nice, effortless cadence on longer distances, and a bit more power with a larger blade on shorter distances. I know many people are perfectly happy with a single blade for all distances, but for me this combo feels perfect. Now, let’s paddle and splash around! #sup #supsuomi #supracing #supracingfinland #standuppaddle #starboardsup #starboardlima #starboardallstar #starboardfinland

Celebrating the recent start of the local SUP racing season here in Finland, I just put together this paddler’s view video from the SUP Finnish Open 2021. Check out the full-length video on my YouTube channel, www.youtube74.com/lake74 , link also at my website (link in the bio). Enjoy the splashing! This summer’s footage coming soon. #sup #supracing #supsuomi #supracingfinland #tuomiojärvi #jyväskylä #watersports #lakepaddles

A halo in the sky - like a giant eye looking down on us. Probably wondering about the brutal and senseless destruction and killing going on. Yes, it’s nothing new in the human history, we have the same aggressive tribal and territorial instincts as our cousins the chimpanzees. But we should have learned better by now. Sad, very sad. The light in the dark is that the vast majority of humanity does know better. The ordinary people want to live in peace and freedom, not to kill and be killed at the whim of rotten leaders. Humankind is better than this. #halo #sun #sky #light #dark #lauttasaari #helsinki #stopwar #peace #freedom #westandwithukraine

Ahh, the awesome diagonals of the newly renovated Helsinki Olympic Stadium, a 1952 classic. The first impression a few weeks ago, on a football World Cup qualifying match between Finland and Ukraine with a nearly full house, was that while the stadium looked gorgeous, the need for toilets had been severely underestimated. Today I arrived early for the women’s WC qualifying (pun intended, sorry!) match between Finland and Ireland, and strolled around the stadium. And, lo & behold, once you go downstairs, there’s a whole funky underground world of toilets! Having seen the queues above and the vast emptiness below, I guess the world needs to know about this hidden secret 😉 By the way, that dude icon with wide hips and narrow shoulders looks confusingly girly to me. I guess menly men are not in vogue these days, but hey, now I know 😊 Ok, enough ranting about toilets. It’s a beautiful place and a perfect home for Finnish football. And it just gets better when we all learn to use it. #helsinkiolympicstadium #olympiastadion #toilet #architecture #helmarit #huuhkajat

Sieravuori SUP Masters 2020, part of the EuroTour SUP racing series, was quite an adventure with weather conditions ranging from downwind to battling it out against driving rain, howling headwinds, and man-sized waves, before a brief moment of calm sunshine close to the finish line. Every year is different in this sport - looking forward to the race this weekend! 🌊 Same video available in easier big-screen glory on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/lake74 #supracing #eurotoursup #sieravuorisupmasters #supracingfinland #water #inclementweather #wind #rain #lakepaddles #gopro #gopromax #standuppaddle

I have created Art. This work is called Star, and it was drawn by standup-paddling 3km around an islet in Lake Isojärvi. The couple of seagulls living on the islet serenaded and flew over me throughout the 30 minutes of paddling it took me draw this, finally settling down when they figured I was harmless. Inspired by the #kesäkuunkuvio #junesigil challenge, part of the #fssfsupremoterace2021 . This is great fun and much harder than it seems, visualizing a shape in your mind and drawing it on a seascape or a lake. I have a bunch of ideas, and a handful of unpublished doodles and sketches, left over and ready for next year - I tried ”Lips” but it needs a bit more work 😄 #standuppaddle #watersports #gpstracker #garmin

First outing with my brand new Starboard Allstar 2021, 14' by 23". Good first impressions, easy and effortless glide and cuts through chop like a warm knife through butter. Has a really lively and responsive feel, due to the rather emphasized double concave bottom shape with a pronounced middle ridge, I guess. After experimenting with my stance, I got a strong feeling of effortlessly gliding on water, lifted by and balancing on that center ridge. Certainly a different kind of beast compared to my previous weapon of choice, Allstar 2017, as expected. Felt a bit wobbly at times during this first paddle, but already on my second go a few days later I felt comfortable with the more lively feel of the board, pretty effortlessly balancing on the center ridge, and trusting the board not to fall over when I put my weight more to one side. Much like new football shoes, feel a bit weird at first, but from the second match onward fit like a glove. Eagerly awaiting to do both easy seafaring and intensive racing with this bullet. This was also my first very relaxed stab at the 2021 FSSF Remote Race, almost by accident. Didn't mean to, but at some point I realized I was paddling my traditional 5km + 5km back and forth out to sea from my home island Lauttasaari in Helsinki, and figured I might as well make it my first remote race run, just for fun, as always, with photo breaks and such along the way. Some nice interaction with other (out of camera) seafarers, human sailors, kayak hikers, and some sea animals too :) #fssfsupremoterace2021 #supracefinland #standuppaddle #starboardsup #starboardfinland #starboardallstar2021 #rautiosports #lakepaddles #sea #helsinki #lauttasaari

SUP Indoor Finnish Open at the Vene 2020 boat fair. Check out the full story on my YouTube channel youtube.com/lake74 Lake view GoPro record of the traditional and seriously fun pre-season SUP racing event at the Vene 2020 boat fair in Messukeskus hall in Helsinki, 15 February 2020, hosted by @rautiosports and @erimoversup @erimover . In 2017 I was inches from winning the indoor title, and here was my second chance in the final (pretty close again... splash! 💦😄)- congrats to 2020 champions Tumppi @tgustavof & Väpä! #supracing #indoorsup #vene20båt #supracingfinland #lakepaddles #splash

Cross-country skate skiing at Oittaa, Finland, on 19 March 2021 - the day I learned to skate ski - proudly shared for your viewing enjoyment 😊 The full epic 10+ minute skiing drama is available on my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/lake74 Link to the video and channel also on my website www.extremebrilliance.com (link in the bio) #crosscountryskiing #xcskiing #skateskiing #winter #snow #woods #fallingdown #drama #upanddown #downhill #downandup #lakeskiesvideo #actioncam #gopromax

Lost at Sea. Last Saturday I decided to do my usual cross-country skiing routine on sea ice. It has been a wonderful, good old cold & snowy winter throughout Finland, and snow conditions were great for skiing. Now southwesterly winds had brought warmer air to these shores, raising an immensely dense fog that blanketed everything. Intrigued by the otherworldly seascape, I set out from my home island Lauttasaari towards the Mellsten Beach in Espoo, figuring I would bump into familiar islands along the way. So I thought. I happily skied for quite a while, thoroughly enjoying my psychedelic trip in a sensorily deprived sphere of white, surrounded by slowly morphing brighter and darker shapes in all directions. It started to dawn on me that I had not seen a sign of the Käärmesaari islands I had aimed for, followed by the realization that I had no certainty of where I was and only a vague hunch of the cardinal directions. I took a guess, then remembered my #garminfenix5 sportswatch has a compass, which told me my guess had been more than 90deg off the mark. I pondered my predicament for a while, figured I must have skied out towards the open sea (correct!), then decided to trust my watch more than my instincts, heading towards North and the mainland. The otherworldly scenery brought to mind scenes from the North of the World of Ice & Fire as seen in the Game of Thrones, so I prepared myself for an epic battle with a dead bear as I saw a whitish four-legged creature running towards me out of the mist. Not a bear though, a slimmer shape, perhaps a wolf... nope, a playful white Labradorian doing a couple rounds around me, then disappearing back into the Wall of White when a human voice called for her/him. After a while the densest fog lifted, and I spotted an island with a couple of skiers near it. I went to say Hello, and asked them if they knew where I was. They did and I set out towards Lauttasaari, and made my way back home, to a warm sauna & a cold beer. It’s good to get thoroughly lost every now and then! Small changes in direction can have a huge effect on where you end up. 😉 #xcskiing #sea #seascape #winter #ice #snow #lost #fog #white

My left knee. Looking good & strong! A bit of targeted training will likely remove the recent minor hiccups from a hit I took last winter - no need to rest or operate. Thank you, Knee, for steadfastly taking all the punishment and loyally supporting me through the years - hang in there for a few more decades and I will give you a bit more rest 😉 #knee #bones #kneecap #kneecartilage #magneticimaging #sports #health #football #surfing #supracing #dancing #yoga #running

Santa Claus is coming to town... Yes, that’s the way the Real Santa likes his hats, pointy and wizardly, just like Gandalf. No worries, your presents are in safe hands, and at 400+ years of age, I... he is immune to pretty much anything. So just relax, eat loads of chocolate and be nice, boys and girls! ✨Merry Christmas! ✨ #merrychristmas #santaclaus #magic #wizard

An epic SUP battle! Laine vs. Laine! Jari @jlainefin555 vs. Lake @lake888 lake888 ! We had some serious fun with #fssfsupremoterace2020 , doing 1km GPS remote racing at the same location. Rules in short: start at point A, paddle like hell 500 meters to point B, turn around, paddle back to A as fast as you can, and try to avoid passing out from lack of oxygen if possible. Record your time. If you’re faster than everyone else, you win. If you have fun, you win. Jari, a SUP pioneer and a bit of a legend in the Finnish SUP scene, was a favorite for this duel, with a season best of 6 minutes and 13 seconds against my 6:30 so far. But I’ve had my moments too, and felt confident I could pull another surprise and beat my kid brother. (To be honest, I’ve never beaten Jari before.) To make things even more interesting, Jari, without his usual racing gear on this summer trip, paddled with my old Red Elite 14’ inflatable and my new #starboardsup Lima Tiki Tech adjustable length hybrid carbon paddle (I had my usual Starboard Allstar 14’ and Quickblade carbon fiber paddle). While quality inflatable SUP boards are surprisingly close to hard boards in speed, with this gear the duel was going to be really tight. So who won the Laine vs. Laine duel? We don’t know. It was really close, and we haven’t downloaded the data from our sport watches yet. We will publish a video of this epic battle around 30 July, along with our times, when the whole remote race is ending. Before that, feel free to place your bets for the winner: 1) Jari X) Tie 2) Lake, and the winning time. There was some wind (headwind/downwind ~4m/s) and chop. According to the rules of the remote race, drafting was not allowed, but close contact did happen. And if you haven’t already, participate in the remote race - you don’t even need a board, I’ll lend you one! #sup #standuppaddleboarding #standuppaddle #supracing #suppaus #supracefinland

Had an absolute blast at the Sieravuori SUP Masters, part of the SUP EuroTour. A thoroughly enjoyable and memorable paddling experience, with Mother Nature throwing pretty much everything she had at us. First, nice downwind surfing, crisscrossing paths with @ville.v_sup and @ellelaakso but then we had to come back and things got a bit nasty and hilarious... At one point I pretty much gave it all I got for 10 minutes just to keep from moving backwards with driving rain, howling winds and man-sized waves hitting me like a battering ram, full in the face. Then, like a miracle, the wind suddenly died down, the waters calmed, the Sun broke through for a while, and I was in Paddling Heaven. I love this kind of stuff. Happy I survived too 😊 The atmospheric photos by @eevamatildah (thanks!) inspired me to do some post-processing. I might have some pretty cool onboard actioncam video of the race to share later, stay tuned 😉 #sieravuorisupmasters #eurotoursup #supracing #standuppaddle #lakepaddles #inclementweather #underthebigsky #nature #soakingwet #cantfeelmylegs #ecstatic

Persistent rumors connect me to Him, claiming that we sound alike, even look alike, me and this 400+ yo big-bellied elf with a huge beard and a rumbling voice. Well, I cannot comment on that, but I do wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Photo assistance: @jlainefin555 #revelation #merrychristmas #santaclaus #santalake

Hey I won! (thanks @levykauppax ) Yeah, I won two tickets to see these guys, with the rest of the Monroe Band @michaelmonroeofficial , on their record release gig at the Tavastia club in Helsinki, tomorrow, Sat 19 October, 21:00. One ticket for me, one for - you?! Yep, the first one to scream ”Hell yeah!!!” gets to see them too, in my enchanting company - I mean it, don’t be shy folks, let me know if you can go. Currently spinning the new album #onemangang for the first time - rocks like fuck, I like it! 😊🤘🏻Features an interesting guest apperance, Nasty Suicide, a stylish guitarist and an old football mate of mine (probably better known from #hanoirocks though 😉) playing lead guitar on a song called Wasted Years. By the way, this shot is from June 2018, when the Monroe band opened for the Hollywood Vampires, the Alice Cooper side project with Johnny Depp and Joe Perry. Seems like everybody is putting out some insanely good rock music these days, raw and real - good times! 😊 #michaelmonroe #samiyaffa #michaelmonroeband #liverock #rocklives #redhat #bass #saxophone

Stand up paddling can be many things, from surfing in raging autumn storms and battling it out on technical courses around buoys with your fellow racers, to... this: a highly meditative experience, calmly paddling in a gorgeous seascape as the light changes from dusk to twilight, fish jump in the water around you, and stars start to come out above you. Check out the full video in YouTube at: www.youtube.com/lake74 https://youtu.be/Y8cT7dCJ3DY #sup #standuppaddling #balticsea #lauttasaari #helsinki #calm #meditative #seascape #duskcolors #starboardsup #starboardfinland #relive #garminfenix5 #garmin

My alter ego is on the move again, so be nice boys and girls! Someone said that there are four phases in a man’s life: 1) He believes in Santa Claus, 2) He does not believe in Santa Claus, 3) He is Santa Claus, 4) He looks like Santa Claus. I’m very much enjoying (3) now, think I might have skipped (2), and I’m working on my beard and belly to one day get to (4). Happy holidays folks! Photo assistance: @jlainefin555 #santalake #santaclaus #merrychristmas #lantern #warmlight #coldlight

Got flowers! (Got booze too!) Heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in the festivities of 9 November when I successfully defended my multidisciplinary doctoral thesis crisscrossing in fields such as imaging technology, color science, visual perception, and experience-driven design. Afterwards, my kitchen/livingroom was literally flooded with flowers, and I spent a good portion of the following week simply basking in their sensuous beauty. Then I decided to entertain myself with a late-night photoshoot with the flowers. Just for the fun of it, I spent hours building different moods with a couple of @elinchrom_ltd flash heads and a dozen of light modifiers - nothing beats playing with light, shadow, and oh-so-beautiful lighting gradients. Here you can see two versions, and a few of the different lighting setups (some pretty cool flower closeups coming later). In the end, it was a golden reflector on camera left, candles, and a very thin slice of scotch whisky, that made the picture 😉 What a day, what a night, what a week - thank you so much folks! Feeling blessedly grateful, somewhat tired, and very inspired right now 😊 #doclainefestival #flashphotography #flowers #dark #light #shadow #contrast #lightgradient #twilight #candle #candlelight #extremebrilliancephotos

This is the cover picture of my recently published doctoral dissertation “From Visual Perception to User Experience: Measurement & Modeling”, also featured on the flyer for #doclainefestival - the public defence of the thesis and the post-doctoral party in the evening. The big day is Friday 9 November, exactly 1 week from now, but for me the festival has already started and will last for two weeks at least - gonna enjoy the hell out of this one! Be there if you can, and follow the hashtag, mainly in Instagram and Twitter. The picture is also a part of my ongoing the Eye Project exploring the wonders of (human) eye and vision - let me know if you would like to participate, as a model for example. #doclainefestival #theeyeprojectbylake #eye #vision #closeup #reflections #mind #perception #art #craft #science #extremebrilliancephotos

Thomas Fagerström @tgustavof quite literally gave all he had on the 22km race in Lahti, which was enough to win the @rautiosports SUP Endurance Tour event just ahead of Lauri Palmroth @lauripalmroth (2nd picture), followed by Jari Laine @jlainefin555 (3rd picture). In contrast to the calm of the sheltered finish line, most of the race was paddled in very challenging wind conditions. Those 3 guys are among the favourites for the podium places also in the Finnish SUP Championships in Sieravuori this weekend, along with Tomas Lelovits @tomas_lelovits who probably enjoyed a good rest while the others were destroying themselves in Lahti. Full gallery of photos from Lahti available at my web site extremebrilliance.com #supracing #suprace #supracefinland #suppaus #rautiosportssupendurancetour #rautiosports #vesijärvi #lahti #standuppaddle #standuppaddling

After being away from SUP racing for a year and a half due to health issues, it felt insanely good to put on the number 4 paddling shirt at the Rautio Sports @rautiosports SUP Endurance Tour event in Lahti (featuring @kitetirri ) last weekend. While the more competitive guys and girls paddled a very tough 22km race in challenging conditions, I took it easy and shot some photos & video on the more relaxed 10km expedition of the open series, having fine time with fellow paddlers. I finished the trip just in time to shoot the grueling final moments of the 22km race - photos coming soon to Instagram and my website extremebrilliance.com - stay tuned! 🤙🏻 #rautiosportssupendurancetour #rautiosports #kitetirri #vesijärvi #lahes #starboardsup #starboardsupsuomi #standuppaddle #standuppaddling #suprace #supracefinland #lakecomeback #returnoftheking #gopro #goprovideo #goprosup #goprosurf