"This is Canoeing" to launch at Canoecopia 2010
Friday, November 27, 2009
I finally have a name for my canoeing DVD. I'm not sure why it took so much agonizing over because as soon as Paul Mason said,
"Why don't you call it "This is Canoeing"?"
a lightbulb went on! I'd already thought of 'This is the Canoe' but it somehow didn't have a good ring to it!
Some people will be relieved ( or disappointed?) that the acronym is the very respectable TIC !
The other big news is that I'l be launching the DVD at Canoecopia in Wisconsin in March 2010. I attended this event once before 3 years ago when I launched "This is the Sea 3". I was impressed with the huge scale of it, there were so many stands and people there. At the time - as a seakayaker who had never tried canoeing - I was surprised to see that half of the hall was full of canoes and open boat stuff! Things I knew very little about!
This year, I'll be looking with interest at everything at Canoecopia, on the seakayaking and canoeing stands! The programme isn't finalised yet but aswell as launching the world premiere of "This is Canoeing", I'll be giving some salty and fresh water presentations. I'm excited that my good friends, Shawna Franklin & Leon Somme from Body Boat Blade will be there and we may even all give a presentation about our trip to the Queen Charlotte islands.
Back to now.....I only have 105 days left until Canoecopia! Realistically thats about 70 days left until I need to have finished the editing, graphics and cover! Plus letting customers, shops and distributors know about the DVD! It's a bit of a tight deadline but I'd like to launch the DVD at a big event at the start of the season, so the gauntlet has been laid down! Editing is going well and the stuff looks great! ( although I say so myself!).
The DVD is being sponsored by "CanoeRoots" and "Rapid magazine". The staff there have just launched new websites which you should check out. They will also be designing the DVD cover for me so thanks a lot to Beth and Scott for that.
Right, back to it! I hope to see some of you there at Canoecopia!
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I've been making the most of having use of a Valley Rush surf kayak and have been out surfing 4 times in the last 10 days! I really love the kayak and am trying to learn to do it justice. For the last 8 years I've been surfing a longer surf kayak without fins and feel my surfing hasn't really improved in that time ( although that could be mostly because I don't do it that often). I've had some great moments on the Rush .... I just need to learn to string them all together on 1 amazing ride!! Barry has been given a raider pro waveski by a kind man in Oxfordshire (thanks Ronny) and he's been enjoying trying to get to grips with that as it's a competition ski and not easy to even sit on, never mind surf! On Sunday, Barry and I left the surf boats at home and took out some seakayaks that we are borrowing from Valley. We tried the Avocet and the Avocet LV on a lovely paddle on the north coast of Anglesey. We managed not to break the carbon kevlar one, which was the first good thing about the day! I enjoyed manoevring the kayaks around the rocky coastline and through slots and gaps. We paddled out to the island of Middle Mouse & had a play in the small tidal race there, which was also great fun. I'm looking forward to getting out and trying the boats in a bigger tidal race, and trying out the Nordkapp LV and the Aquanaut LV.
Algonquin in the Autumn
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Doug is sitting happily in the bow of the canoe clutching Kitty the toy cat in one hand and his lego magazine in the other hand. His dad, Scott MacGregor, paddles their red canoe along the Petawawa river, one of the classic canoe journeys in Algonquin Park. Inbetween looking after his toys, eating snacks and casting his fishing rod, four year old Doug will pick up his small wooden paddle and help his dad propel the boat down the river.
It's a frosty October morning. It was hard to get out of our sleeping bags this morning and once we were up, the cold was biting. My thermometer says minus 7 and there is frost all over the gunwales and seats. Who's idea was this anyway? Scott was too cold during the night but Doug tells us how he was so warm in his double sleeping bag that he took his hat and socks off. Now he's happy because he's toasting a marshmallow over the morning fire.
Over the next 3 days we paddle some challenging rapids, admire some beautiful Fall scenery and enjoy a remote adventure! We don't see anyone else on the river. Doug is a trouper, surviving - enjoying - the cold temperatures and challenges of living from a canoe. Perhaps that's because he has his own small barrel full of his favourite toys!
Thanks a lot to Scott MacGregor for organising the trip down the Petawawa and for Paul Britain for paddling with me and providing a Mad River Canoe for us. And of course to Dougy for letting me come along. It was a great fun trip and I'm looking forward to editing the footage and telling the warming story of this father and son paddling down a beautiful river.
Helen Wilson has written an account of the Vulcano symposium that we both attended in Sicily. Read it here.
Filming with Becky Mason
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Becky Mason is known for paddling a heritage red cedar & canvas canoe using traditional strokes and for making the canoe dance on the water. I had the pleasure to film her on the beautiful ‘Lac Vert’, or Green Lake in Quebec, along with her husband Reid. The clear water and white cliffs on the lake made it easy to get some pretty shots, while Becky talked about her love of canoeing, how she has been influenced by her dad Bill Mason and how nature inspires her artwork. The next day she did some painting for me and we went to see her exhibition on ‘portages’, which shows her interpretation of different treescapes that she’s seen while portaging her canoe on trips.
It was the first time Kevin Callan had been paddling since a man dressed as a bear jumped on him and fractured his ribs! The accident happened while Kevin was filming a programme about bear safety and put the affable canoeist out of action for a month. When I came over to film with him, he was back less than subtly with his red canoe covered in white maple leaves, like a gigantic amalgamation of Canadian flags! The best selling author is a lovely funny chap who likes the canoe as a means to get into wilderness. He believes strongly that people should use it or lose it. We spent almost as much time driving as we did filming, and of course stopped for breakfast at that Canadian institution, Tim Hortons! it was cold enough at 9am to get some moody misty paddling shots on the Matawaska river before driving on to the famous Barons canyon in Algonquin park. We even paddled through some ice!
Kevin was kind enough to give me a copy of his latest book, 'Wilderness Pleasures' which I enjoyed reading on the plane ride home. He'll be featured in my canoeing DVD, out in 2010. Thanks to Kevin for the photo!
Grade 5 rapids with no spray deck!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
SPOT THE CANOE ON CRYSTAL RAPID!
Imagine running a grade 5 rapid without a spraydeck! That’s what the whitewater canoeists that I just filmed effectively do. I spent the last 3 days kayaking down the Independence and Moose rivers in New York state to film a bunch of talented whitewater paddlers with a single blade! I portaged around most of the grade 4 and all of the grade 5 rapids while they executed perfect lines in highly turbulent and fast flowing water. Former world champion Mark Scriver was voluntarily the probe on most of the hardest rapids and the only open boater to run a 45foot slide with a man-eating hole at the bottom. Martin Talbot also showed nerves of steel, picking a line through ‘Sureform’, a shallow grade 5 rapid described by fellow canoeist Andrew Westwood as a cheese grater! My favourite rapid was Crystal on the Moose river, it’s so beautiful and imposing with a series of ledges forming white wedding cake layers. Mark and Martin were the only ones to run the meaty line on that and I was more than happy filming from the safety of a rock!
I did gain in confidence in my own whitewater skills over the 3 days and on the last day I ran a 13 foot waterfall, and ‘double drop’, which is just as it sounds. I would have liked to have a go in one of the small whitewater canoes, but not on that river!! After the 3 days I have lots of great footage, and some exciting carnage and I’m looking forward to putting it together.
I had loads of help - thanks a lot to Eric for helping me get into position on the river and for carrying my camera in his kayak. Also to Mark Scriver for lending me a liquid logic kayak and a brand new Werner paddle ( sorry about all the scratches!). Thanks to Paul Mason for inviting me along to the weekend, for organising things and forgiving me for not watching his canoe and paddle when he went into rescue mode (he got them both back, fortunately!). Thanks also to Martine Amyot for helping with the filming and to all the other paddlers. Thanks also to Andy and Vanessa for putting me up in Chelsea.
South island circumnavigation wins another major award!
I just heard that the South island circumnavigation film won another major prize at an international film festival. It won the Thalassa adventure prize at the 8th Montreal Festival of Travel and Adventure.
Here are the comments of the jury;
"On behalf of the entire festival team, we wish to congratulate you for this remarkable film, the jury (and we) found there was a true authenticity to your film and a positive and enthusiastic spirit althrough the film and that we were able to share the emotion with you throughout the adventure".
I was relatively close to the event, being based in Chelsea, Quebec filming for my canoeing DVD, but I was too busy filming at the weekend to attend the event. What a shame, but I'm very happy to have won the prize. That's the 4th first prize that the New Zealand film has won at international film festivals. The other first place prizes are,
Best Adventure Film, Kendal Mountain Film Festival, UK Best Adventure Film, Reel paddling Film Festival Best Adventure Film, Waterwalker Film Festival
'South island circumnavigation' is also a finalist at the Graz Mountain Film Festival in Austria from 11-14th November, and was a finalist at the 18th Dijon International Adventure Film Festival in France last week. If you missed it at the festivals then you can always see this film (and many other good stories!) on 'This is the Sea 4' DVD!
I'll write a blog about my filming in Canada in the next few days, once I get home.
All work and no play...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
What's the point of working for yourself if you can't take an afternoon off when it's warm and sunny!? Yesterday was clear and bright with a slight wind and a small swell. Barry and I haven't been 'to the races' together for ages and decided to spend a few hours playing in an old favourite, Penrhyn Mawr. It was definitely play and not work, but i did grab a bit of video using my waterproof sanyo xacti camera. Conditions were lovely - it could have been a little bit bigger, but we're not complaining!
