The story of Martin Schaedel’s life is an extraordinary one. He learnt about SEO when he was 15; at 16, he had moved to London to work for a digital agency; by 17, his affiliate sites and consulting were providing him with enough cash-flow to be free; at 18, he began traveling the world full-time. He had no permanent address, flew dozens of times a year, advised hundreds of startups, and charmed thousands of people, many of whom called him a friend. Five years ago today, he died in a tragic airplane crash at the age of 23. Sadly, I first heard about him after he’d passed away and never had the chance to meet him. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been speaking to people who did know him—this is the story they told me.

Youth

Martin was born on October 15th, 1985 and raised in Lund, Sweden, by his father, Bertil, who’s an engineer at Tetrapak, and his mother, Charlotta, a doctor...

At my previous company, hoodeasy, we sold thousands of hoodies to groups of students in the UK. Over time, I became the obsessed with the details of the hoodies that we used. The weight of the fabric in the Gildan Heavyblend hoodies, the cut of the
American Apparel California Fleece, the color options for Just Hoods’ College Hoodie—all these things became important details of my business—as a result, I have always been searching for the perfect hoody. I think I’ve finally found it. The Atom LT Hoody from Arc'teryx feels like a piece of clothing from the future. It weighs just 375 grams (13.2 oz) and is easily compressible for packing and travel. It’s waterproof, windproof, and a great insulator of body heat. Most importantly, it’s incredibly comfortable. If humans were to try and create mithril, I would want it to feel like this.

The Fabrics

Each material used to create this hoody...

When Craig Federighi introduced OS X, he explained that the next 10 years of the Mac’s operating system will be named after “those places that inspire us here in California”. He then went on to unveil OS X Mavericks:

So for our first California-themed release we went just outside our back yard, just off the coast, to a place with some of the biggest waves and most extreme surfing in all of North America.

Millions of people are about to update their operating system to OS X Mavericks and will have a photo of a wave as their background. I thought it might be interesting to share the story of the man who pioneered this wave. His name is Jeff Clark.

Mavericks is a surf spot located just outside Half Moon Bay; the topography of the ocean floor beneath the water creates a big wave whenever there’s a large swell. The spot was originally named after a white-haired German shepherd called...

Over the last 10 years, I have been lucky enough to see kiteboarding make the transition from being the pastime of a few diehards into a mature and accessible sport that’s relatively easy to learn.

In the early days, there were small pockets of kiteboarders spread across the world. These pioneers didn’t work in isolation; they were able to share their ideas on sites like KiteForum.com. They posted clips of new tricks that they’d landed, improvements they’d made to their gear, safety tips, amazing new locations, and anything else they thought other kiteboarders should know.

Although the early kiteboarders were heavily influenced by wakeboarders and surfers, they did invent a trick that’s unique to kiting and its evolution has played out over YouTube.

The kiteloop

A kiteloop is a trick that involves spinning the kite whilst in the air to generate an enormous surge of power. This...