LSD 1/2 Birthday!

From OG:
“Wow, I can’t believe it has been 6 months since the creation, birth, launch of Live Sail Die. It all started back in late November when Johnsee and I were randomly chatting about developing a sailing website. I wanted an avenue where I could write stories / articles for the world to enjoy and Johnsee well… just likes creating websites.

It was a match made in heaven because we both love sailing and are pretty much considered geeks or nerds who are always doing something computer related.

I have another website for an online boat brokerage known as Open Ocean Marine which is currently being re-jigged and will possibly be interfaced with LSD once completed, and Johnsee has a side project known as Sandstorming which is basically just random news and interesting stuff from around the world.

So there we were one night perched at our respective PC’s chatting over MSN. We decided that we would start the website, Johnsee would build and I would write. When it came to picking a name for it we came up with a short list then showed that to our friends to helped in making the final decision.

Live Sail Die was born! And it all kind of fell into place from there!!! We came up with the phrase, “We Live, We Sail, We Die” and “Sailing is my drug” with reference to LSD! We thought it was kind of funny, and so did the majority of others!

Our first launch into the sailing media world was due to an original article I wrote on behalf of a Mr. Fred Gans. He wanted to try out for the Skandia Squad, but wasn’t too sure how to make it happen. Freddy approached me to write something for him and it was the article titled “Triumph Over Tragedy” that not only gained him entry in the Squad as Skandia Courage, but also opened a window for LSD as we gained media accreditation for the event. Sitting in the media room with some of Australia’s best known sailing journalists was definitely an experience I will remember forever.

The only real indication that you’re on the right track is when other sites link back to you from their own. Heaps of sites have added a link to LSD and a special mention must go to Tillerman at Proper Course because not only does he rate us as one of his favourites, but he also refers to LSD articles in many of his own. Tillerman was the first international recipient of an LSD sticker, and since then over 30 more have been sent to various corners of the USA.

So there you have it! That’s how Live Sail Die came to be, and expect to see many more stories / articles from me in the future. There are some hot topics coming up, however I can not disclose the content at this time. We now have a US correspondent known as Stan who is originally from Australia however was transferred to the Northern Hemisphere by his employers, whom are the “big cheese” in the marine industry.

This whole thing is pretty exciting for Johnsee and I, and we are glad to see that many of you are enjoying what we have offered! So as I blow out the 1/2 birthday candles, I will hand you over to Johnsee (because let’s face it, I say enough as it is!)”

From Johnsee:
“I don’t write many articles mainly because reporting and story writing isn’t really my thing. Web design however, Is. The original site you are using now was created by me in about 48 hours, released within a week of when we even had the idea. A lot of the site is based on some pretty crude hacks. So we took this site, added in some forums, a gallery and a directory and released it to the world.

I’ve learnt a lot in the past 6 months. I originally believed the directory would be the hub of the site. A place where people would come to get links to other marine related sites. I was wrong. The next incarnation of the site will probably see the directory removed. Oh wait, I haven’t mentioned the next incarnation yet. Read on… I’m doing a redesign that’s going to make us one of the best marine sites on the net. We don’t want to have a few featured articles and some breaking news like we do now. We want too:

• Host your blog, or link to it. If you write a blog, let US help you drive traffic to it.
• Have the latest news, the second it is released. We want to syndicate the best news sources around the net direct to you via LSD.
• Deliver a new site that uses breaking edge web technology like AJAX. If you don’t want to see certain content on the page, a click will remove it!

Sound good? We think so. It’s not going to be another 48 hour job though. It’s probably going to be more like a 6 month job. Maybe longer. I’m going to ask few of our avid readers to test a few things soon though. Comment if you’re interested and I’ll let you know. Why so long? Cause OG and I have gone into business together. The web business. We’ve got our own web server and you’re going to see a lot of marine related websites from us real soon. We’re calling ourselves The GlobeCast, and we’re going to specialise in Marine Related website. Expect to see some more news on this in the coming weeks and months.

So in conclusion, this site is just the beginning… and what we have planned is going to blow this site away like an ocean liner over an optimist.”