Seakayak Cartwheel Tuesday, January 30, 2007

So I've been busy editing and all the other stuff associated with finishing off a DVD! I'm so close now and will finish the editing this week. ( I HAVE to finish the editing this week to get the DVDs made in good time for the launch! ) I've had a bit of time for play - Alun and I paddled around the Stacks in a bit of a blow last weekend and we've been walking lots in the hills.

A week ago, we went out with Aled and Gemma to film them 'testing' Rockpools brand new Greenland style rolling kayak. I'd already told Aled that I wasn't really interested in filming it if they were just paddling on flat water and it needed to be a bit exciting! Well, he made pretty good on that promise. Trearduur Bay in Angelsey was full of white sea spray and powerful breaking waves. We got some good shots of Aled and Gemma immersed in it all and Aled even did a very real storm roll! Then Aled set himself up for a pretty steep wave. And the whole wave broke on top of him - the front of his kayak went straight down and the back popped up vertically about the same time as the front was sucked down with the breaking wave. That flung the back over towards shore where it too dug in deep. The back hit the bottom sending the front shooting up vertically in the air. Is this the first seakayak cartwheel caught on film? Will this become roll number 36 in the Greenland kayak rolling championships?

Don't try to understand my description - have a sneaky look at it right here.

This clip is slow-motioned to 1/5 of the original speed - so it all happened pretty quickly! You can see a few minutes of the action in 'This is the Sea 3', out March 10th. You can pre-order it here if you want, or get it from your local shop at the time.

I'll be working on a promo clip for the whole video early next week and will post that on the website then.

Thanks to Derrick for putting this video clip on the website - he snuck the Rockpool logo on there... nothing to do with me!!