Conversations with Nash: Luscious Starship

Submitted by Nash Laville

Nash LaVille, Second Life Surfing Association (SLSA) Director and long-time soul surfer, shares his enlightening, interesting and sometimes hilarious conversations in Second Life (SL). This post he visits with Luscious Starship, independent thinker, innovator and creator of the first mesh wave who does not follow the pack. Her unique approach and understanding of wave construction and surfboard design places Luscious in a league uncommon with any other.  Luscious Surf Design, LSD, takes fresh ideas and gives new meaning to California Sunshine.   Nash states, "On hiatus from SL for some time now , I had the extreme good fortune to appear at the same place at the same time on Bundy Beach during a rare appearance in SL."  

Nash: Hi Lulu.
Luscious Starship (LS): Well, hello there, Nash.
Nash: Long time. You doing alright?
LS: Yeah.  How are you?
Nash: I'm great thanks. Kewl!!!! Really nice to see you.

LS: Still watchin' waves?
Nash: Mmmmm, some watching...mostly surfin', but yeah, always watch before I get in.
LS: (Smiles.)  Still have your favorite SSi stick?
Nash: I do. A few.  One or two. They have gotten better.
LS: Oh? Hmm or you are getting better? (Winks).
Nash: Still tweaking the same old ones.
LS: Ahh, nods. Where do you buy them now?
Nash: Dee is the only place that sells. No mods.

LS: Is there a comp today?
Nash: Noon on Saturday SLT. Tomorrow. I'm so damn glad to see you. So you are doing ok?
LS: Working a lot, moving, boating. In RL.
Nash Laville: Ohhhhhhhhh. Moving is a chore. Very disruptive.
LS: Yeah. I think I'm going to finally be in one place for more than a year after 10 years of moving just about every year.
Nash Laville: That would get old, yes! lol.  You know I'm aching to get the Crying Tiger wave to work right...but ...won't say anything..I'm just happy to see you here. Can I have a picture with you fer old times?
LS: Lol, sure (smiles).

Nash Laville: What brings you here tonight? Just curious.
LS: Well, yesterday was the first time I logged in for probably months, and I noticed so many things changed. So I decided to visit a few beaches and see what they are like now/
Nash Laville: Defff changes. I'm still using SSi, though.
LS: Of course you are. That's how I know you're still Nash (smiles).  I still remember the epics on Bundoran the first time I went surfing (smiles).
Nash Laville: Yeah, good memories... and the 1.0 Pipes.
LS: And fluffies.

Nash Laville: Have you got a working copy ot the C.T.?  Crying Tiger.
LS: I dunno. I haven't rezzed one in years. I still have a bunch of them.
Nash Laville: I still like that wave.
LS: The Bells Beach one was my favorite, though. I dunno if the physics still support it. Prim size changing wave.
Nash Laville: Oh, yeah. That WAS a doozy!
LS: Different on every run.
Nash Laville: Yeah, yours are still around but Denise / Maoli are pretty much all there is. Hers are good. She learned well. Fun person, too.
LS: She did. Makes for great sales.
Nash Laville: Yeah, Denise is a kick
LS: I sold her a wave making kit.
Nash Laville: I know!
LS: I like her control panels.
Nash Laville: I just like Denise, period.
LS: Hee hee. Yeah, she's lots of fun, too. Experiments with lots of stuff.

(Lucious rezzes a board in the water).
Nash Laville: ALRIGHT~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LS: Found it! The first board I ever bought, hehe.
Nash Laville: Wow. A classic.
LS: Yup (smiles).
Nash Laville: I love my old boards, too. We had lessons....and I went to the LSD board one to learn how to use it. I had fun!  I know!!! After all these years.
LS: Yeah, you never wanted to try them when I abused them on your beaches, lol.

Nash Laville: Wow....It's so good to see you, Lulu. I can't believe you just popped out of the sand like that.
LS: Good to see you,too, Nash. Didn't know if I'd see you again. Of all the beaches we both ended up here today somehow.
Nash Laville: I know! I love it when it comes together without a plan. How long you been away?
LS:  Lol. I think a few years.  I log in every few months to either read a notecard or pay rent.
Nash Laville: What's the thing you notice most changed in SL surfing?
LS: I have no idea.
Nash Laville: Me, either.
LS: I guess the boards. There are like 10 different board makers now.
Nash Laville: Mmmm.... we got the C-3 ummmm..... yeah, I guess there are a couple. I ride the same ol' stick.
LS: It used to be SSi  was the only board in town. Well, SSi and Action. Ssi was and still is, I suppose, a marketing master.
Nash Laville: Nope. Can't hardly buy SSi except from DW.
LS: But there was a free script, too, right? That you could put into your own board.

Nash Laville: There was, and I suppose still is. I never did anything noteworthy with it. Japanese I think.
LS: Yeah. Those Japanese ones were kewl.
Nash Laville: Yeah. Nice kit. I have one some place. How did you start with your script? Pretty original.
LS: I started with a stretched sphere and a boat and just wanted to make it float.
Nash Laville: Good start.
LS: I would sit on the board in a default sitting position on the side of the board
from the beginning though.
Nash Laville: On the side???
LS: Yeah, because that's the default position and rotation for sitting on a sphere.
Nash Laville: Oh, ok. Right.

LS: From the beginning I did NOT want to have 2 objects. For the board, though, I just wanted one object and a sphere so it would be one prim and one script low lag.
Nash Laville: Dig. No invsiprim on lag sticks.
LS: Right. Super responsive.
Nash Laville: Always seemed like a bat out of hell (to me) when you were designing them.
LS: I figured once I got the single prim board working well, it would be easy to tack things onto it afterwards.
Nash Laville: Fins?
LS: Yeah, fins, splash particles. Remember the tow surf balls and the sharks?
Nash Laville: Sure do.... wait. Sharks?
LS: Yeah, the tow surf balls with a shark mesh around. Could make sharks follow each other  and 'circle' people. It was a menace.
Nash Laville: So much brain damage.
LS:  (Guiness Beer whispers: Mmmhh....refreshing!)  Hehehe, I'm drinking an imaginary beer on this chair.
Nash Laville: That's worse than O'Dools!

LS: Ahh, there it is.  I don't think many people know the board can tow surf and daisy chain. You can have like 15 boards following each other, lol.
Nash Laville: I didn't, but I got the tow board. What rev we talkin?
LS: The current rev of board still has the tow surf and following. I'm not sure when it started.
Nash Laville: 18 I think.
LS: Something like that. Maybe 26 is when I first labeled them tow-surf but 26 was really 260.
Nash Laville: Wow, I must have lost track.
LS: Since they were like 18.1 18.2 18.3 so version 83, lol.  82.3 is like version 823.

Nash Laville: I'm lost already! Man this is living! Hangin' in judges the platform with you drinking beer.
LS: I have 52,000 objects in my inventory. Half of which I think are boards, lol. The other half I think are waves.
Nash Laville: Man, I punch in LSD in my INV and lordy..... talk about a can of worms. It's amazing what's in there and What I find.
LS: The videos are the other thing. Have you seen the Youtube SL surf videos?
Nash Laville: Yeah, I have. I forgot you have vids on YouTube!
LS: Look at Bobbi Laval's or Bobbi LaSalle I should say, heheh. It has a soundtrack, fades, everything, lol.
Nash Laville: I'll check those out again...it's been a while.
LS: I still want Bobbi's shoes though. She always has the cutest shoes.

Nash Laville: Other peeps have SL surf vids on there, too. I was surprised.
LS: Yeah,.they don't exactly go viral but there are a lot more of them than there used to be (smiles).
Nash Laville: I was truly surprised.  And some very good ones. Earlier you were talking about Belle's Beach Wave.
LS: Yeah, droool. I made some videos with it.
Nash Laville: What happened to it?
LS: The physics changed.
Nash Laville: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
LS: It was a physical object that changed size and shape. I don't think SL allows you to do that anymore.

Nash Laville: Same as the Crying Tiger? Cuz I have not been able to get that to work perfect.
LS: Not like any other wave. Crying Tiger was a physical wave with a phantom wave shape. Bells Beach was a physical mesh wave. No phantom anything. That's why it felt so real and solid. You couldn't get stuck inside of it.
Nash Laville: Oh man...how I hate getting stuck inside. But it is obsolete?
LS: I don't know if current SL physics allows it anymore. The current SL wave is no longer a physical object so things run faste, I suppose.
Nash Laville: In theory.
LS: But then it isn't solid.
Nash Laville: Care to explain that?
LS: The tip of your board can sink inside the wave and it doesn't behave like an actual solid. So when you ride it, it's a little rough and jumpy. Not smooth, and it is an estimate of what the physics of the shape should be, not the real thing. The Bells beach wave felt exactly like how it was shaped. It takes more computation and resources to do that which is why they don't really allow it anymore.
Nash Laville: Interesting.
LS: I remember it would take the equivalent of sometimes 3,000 or 4,000 prims to render that one wave instead of the 30-50 equivalents in a current non-physical mesh prim.

Nash Laville: Any chance of you ever experimenting with a wave....I know but I have to ask (smiles).
LS: I dunno, probably not. The economics just aren't here both in time and money.
Nash Laville: It would be VERY cool. A guy can dream. My dreams come true.
LS: Dreams don't pay the bills, lol
Nash Laville: Nope. But you can dream in the dark.
LS: Lol. True, but I can daydream, too. What I really want to try is VR glasses in SL. I dunno if SL supports VR glasses exactly yet.
Nash Laville: I suppose it's only a matter of time
LS: But getting a whole VR setup with gloves tracking cameras and goggles, that would be a trip.

Nash Laville: You now..there is an SSi longboard comp here at Bundy tomorrow. If yer around.... might be interesting to....experience. I'll get you in for free. I'm doing security.
LS:  Hahahaa. I thought I'd be arrested at the entrance for wearing too many prims, lol. Yeah maybe I could meet Seb (Sebastian Saramago) or Heather (Goodliffe) or Leo.. Leogarto Burt is a dreamboat. Can you still buy HP5 rezzers?
Nash Laville: Sigh, yeah...Seb. I miss him. Takes a drink of beer. To Sebastian!
LS: I can't believe I never bought a rezzer. I bought all of his boards and no rezzer. Bought all his waves. No rezzer. Sniff.
Nash Laville: Yup.
LS: And I really miss that big tower he had when it was next to Bundoran.
Nash Laville: Ah, THAT one!
LS: I used to use the modified SSI 6.4 board and fly to the top of the tower on the board. That was my favorite thing about the SSI mod board. Yeah, you could tune it and make it literally fly thousands of meters into the air, and then I'd land it nice and gentle at the top of the tower before dropping off the tower and landing on the HP Teahupoo.

Nash Laville: Yeah.....nuthin' like a flying surf board.  Call me old fasioned but I still prefer a board that only works on a wave
LS: I definitely call you old fashioned. In a vintage kind of way, lol.  I still think they should have a "top of wave" contest where you see how long you can ride the top crest of the wave before falling off.
Nash Laville: Hey, that's a GREAT idea! On Top Comp!
LS: Yeah, you know you wanna, lol.
Nash Laville: You know I do. That would raise the bar a bit. Get peeps going.
LS:  That was my favorite thing to do at your beaches. Ride the tops of waves.  Because nobody else wanted me to destroy the environment on the other beaches.
Nash Laville: Great view.
LS: Lol, yeah.

Nash Laville: Man, so much I don't know about you, Luscious.
LS: hahahahaha.
Nash Laville: MAoli waves are good like that. Once yer on with an SSi it's like ....a free ride from there.
LS: That and on the LSD board you get 100% freedom of movement if you are that high above the wave. Plus you can "catch" waves from behind. If you use the right keys on LSD you can catch them from behind and then jump on top of them.
Nash Laville: That I have been showing peeps on the SSi.  I try to share anything with peeps but few people believe me.
LS: Yeah you probably know SSi boards better than almost anyone. Being old fashioned and all (winks), lol.

Nash Laville: I know nothing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Can you believe like 10 years surfing in SL?
LS: Yeah, endless beer. Can't beat that.
Nash Laville: I'm only here for the beer. How did you end up at Bundy tonight of all places?
LS: Well, I visited the surfslsa.org site, watched Bobbi's and Kantbe's videos.  Went to Chi.
Nash Laville: Excellent!
LS: And then saw a sign with Bundoran Reef on it and thought I'd pay a visit since Bundoran was the first surfing beach I ever visited in SL.

Nash Laville: Good timing, eh? Did you land under the sand or what? You were buried when I came upon you.
LS: Yeah, lol. Hmm, was amazed to find you here. I thought you had disappeared.
Nash Laville: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." I did leave SL. I deleted myself. But LL somehow brought me back.
LS: I miss your 90% water beaches. Bad reviews bring me back, hehe.
Nash Laville: OHOH!
LS: I know I have horrible customer service. Because I never service anything for weeks or months until I get a nasty review of some board that doesn't work or some wave that doesn't work
Nash Laville: Where did you / LSD get a bad review?
LS: Some of the boards in some really old vendors have faulty boards. I don't think there are any more of them.
Nash Laville:  Well... I could use a refresher so I could help other peeps set up your waves when you be away.
LS: I think I barely remember how to setup my waves. Maybe too much beer, lol.
Nash Laville: It's the proper version of The Waverator and controller. It wasn't that hard.
LS: Lol, yeah.I miss that, too, running 10 different waves at once, hahahaha.  That was a freakin riot!

Nash Laville: Lulu???  That Bisous sim rocked so hard!
LS: I know, right? That was my favorite sim.
Nash Laville: Fooking off the chart!
LS: Nothing but waves, hahahahaha.
Nash Laville:  Non stop on top. I miss it. You discovered..and me, too...a lot of things there. A lot of research.
LS: And strange contraptions, hahahaha. That scoreboard was hilarious, too.  Remember this thing? (rezzes huge scoreboard)
Nash Laville: WOAH!  That looks GREAT. Easy to use.
LS): Yeah, we were going to use it for spur of the moment competitions and have a random wave generator.
Nash Laville: Oh, Lucious.... you should ....leave one here with someone....I'd love to put that to use. Great reason to have a comp.  YEah .......this is all coming back!  Lets do it!!

LS: You talk to it like an amazon echo, hahahahahaha.  Ut makes my brain tired thinking about it. I just want to keep drinking this beer.
Nash Laville: Hands you a fresh one. Here. Yeah, this is real peaceful right now.........supercalafragilisticexbealidocious.
LS: Oh, weird. I just realized that we are actually right next to the Tai Chi Sim where I pay rent to keep my board servers in the sky.
Nash Laville: Yes, all 4 sims connect. I love Tai.
LS: Yeah, I'm glad they keep fluffies running there. Maoli makes nice fluffies.
Nash Laville:  Yeah...not too lGGIE. Laggy. I love Iggy though.

LS: Lol. Is Colleen Brennan still around or Kimmy (Jigsaw)?  Maybe they'll be here tomorrow.
Nash Laville: Saw Kimmy a couple few months back. Yes.
LS whispers: might have to stop by and see (smiles).
Nash Laville: That would be wonderful if they are.
LS: Well, time to catch some zzzzz's.
Nash Laville: Always! Life is short. Get plenty of sleep.

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