For the new year I tried my hand at creating some Strava art. Strava art or GPS drawing uses a city as a gigantic Etch-A-Sketch, with a GPS device that tracks your movements as the stylus.

For my first attempt, I rode my bike between Mission Street and Escalona Drive in Santa Cruz to spell out 2014. You can find the Strava track here. Some people thought the elevation profile was interesting.

For my second attempt, I walked around the old Santa Cruz Skypark runway to scribble “Happy New Year.” I hope it’s readable.

I’m sure I looked like a fool walking back and forth across the runway making seemingly random turns.

I originally planned to scribble this on Main Beach in front of the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz where there’s more room (a half mile of beach vs 500 feet of pavement at the old airport), but I didn’t want to drag my bike through the sand.

The problem with the small space available at the airport – the default terrain map at maximum zoom reveals only illegible scrawls when viewed on Strava. I switched to the “standard map” view to reveal the hidden message here.

On my Facebook page I joked about spelling out 明けましておめでとうございます on my bike, but that’s not gonna happen. I do plan more Strava art through the year, though, and already have a couple of messages in mind for the cities of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara.

All the best to you for a great 2014.