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Chris Ahrens

Articles by Chris Ahrens

The e-bike memorial at Santa Fe Drive and El Camino Real tells all

I would happily argue that electronic bikes, or e-bikes as they are commonly known, have changed the transportation of humans more than anything since the invention of the internal combustion engine. These vehicles, which combine …

Finn Madsen’s FlexWave: the next wave?

Forty-four-year-old Finn Madsen grew up two blocks from where I lived in Cardiff. I would see him around when he was a young man; he rarely spoke to me or anyone else, and I figured …

Foilboards fun but not cheap

Like skateboarding, snowboarding, sailboarding, and kiteboarding before it, foilboarding sprouted from the promiscuous seed of surfing. While foilboards and surfboards appear similar if observed from the deck, their bottoms differ radically. Surfboards have fins. Foilboards, …

November 29, 2023
Happiest places in San Diego: Stater Bros., Resilience, Taylor Guitars, Hansen Surfboards

It’s another dreary Monday morning in this, the summer of yuck. As what feels like the whole world races onto a single, dreaded workaday I-5 onramp in Oceanside, stress reaches the breaking point. Horns honk, …

September 27, 2023
Ups and downs living in San Diego's safe harbors

At 2200 square feet, the average American house offers ample ways of escape from the inevitable (if occasional) unpleasantries that accompany extended cohabitation. Each party can usually find a corner into which to retreat for …

June 21, 2023
In-Ko-Pah’s Desert View Tower, the edge of nowhere

Party at the snakes' place The joke is that nobody is from here, because we are on the edge of nowhere, but, sure as snake’s teeth, the right kind of folks will settle just about …

April 10, 2023
Reader writer puts repentant bad boys on YouTube

Video:You Don't Need a Record To Attend Set Free ChurchThe painter Michael Cassidy is either the least or most practical person I know. Least in that he doesn’t measure success in terms of money; most …

January 4, 2023
Reader writer tests alternative medicine on self

Alternative medicine has been defined as “Medical therapies not regarded as orthodox by the medical profession, such as herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture.” But while those practices may have been filtered out from the mainstream of …

July 13, 2022
Why Cardiff, Encinitas are vortex of world skateboarding

On the second day of the second month of the twenty-second year of the twenty-first century, a skateboarding legend and a future skateboarding legend discussed their chosen sport within earshot of a writer old enough …

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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