Walking on Water Monday, February 23, 2009

This weekend I walked on water for the first ( and probably last) time! I was visiting my friend Cheryl in the Lake District and went with her to 'have a ball' in Keswick. Cheryl is organising the 'Keswick Mountain Festival' this May, full of outdoor activities, speakers like Double Olympic champion James Cracknell, climber Leo Houlding, Doctor Mike Stroud, endurance athlete Jez Bragg, round the world runner Rosie Swale and round the world cyclist Mark Beaumont. This weekend she had to test out some giant inflatable balls which you climb into and which allow you to walk on water. I was only too happy to volunteer to be one of the testers! It was great fun, but amazingly tiring to try to make it go anywhere. And of course, it was really difficult to try to stand up, or to remain standing up. I found that kneeling down and trying to 'run' on it like that was a bit easier.

Al and Jase from 'Keswick Adventure Centre' will be manning the 'water wheels at the Keswick Mountain Festival and they blew up the balls using an electric pump. They then seal you in there with a huge 'dry suit' type zip. It's quite a strange feeling being 'locking in there' with only 5-10 minutes of breathable air but I soon forgot that as I tried to keep ( or get!) my balance in the ball. It's also a wierd feeling to fall into the water, but not actually to get wet! Not even my socks were wet inside the ball, which was pretty cool.

CHERYL INSIDE THE BALL, WITH AL AND JASE

More chances to see "This is the Sea 4" films Thursday, February 19, 2009

Chapters from "This is the Sea 4" are proving popular with film festivals. if you live near San Francisco this weekend you can see "Rockhopping in Baja" and "Dubside"on the big screen as part of the 6th annual Ocean Film Festival. Click here for details.

The following weekend, 27th February to 1st March is the 4th Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, known as Shaff. Here you can see the multi-award winning film of my New Zealand expedition. I also notice that they are showing "Solo", the film of Andrew McAuley's tragic crossing of the Tasman Sea.

From 6TH - 14TH MARCH 2009 is the Fort William Mountain Film Festival in Scotland. The shorter festival version of the New Zealand film is showing (approx 25mins) and perhaps one of the other chapters.


I've also entered the film into the Wanaka Mountain Film Festival in New Zealand from July 3rd-7th, and the Alaska Ocean Film Festival on June 6th. They haven't selected which films they are showing yet but hopefully one of mine will be in there!

The NZ film is also on tour throughout Canada and America as part of the Reel Paddling Film Festival.

Last ski Wednesday, February 11, 2009

MY DAD SKIING PAKALOLO ( DOUBLE BLACK DIAMOND)



Barry and I had our last day of skiing in Whistler today. The last 2 days were great, with fresh snow and some good runs. I went up for one last run down the Peak Chair, 2 minutes before it closed and I had the mountain to myself going down through some of the bowls spraying powder behind me. It was a great end to our time in Canada.

This is Barry's first time skiing and he's been whizzing down black runs and (sometimes reluctantly) tackling bumpy un-pisted runs.

BARRY WHIZZING DOWN THE DAVE MURRAY DOWNHILL

New Zealand film wins best Adventure Film at Reel Film Festival Thursday, February 05, 2009

The film of our circumnavigation of New Zealand has won another award - the best adventure film at the Reel Paddling Film Festival. This Canadian festival has been running 4 years and aims to be to paddling films what 'Banff Mountain film festival' is to Mountain Films. The festival is taking the best paddling films on tour around Canada and America over the next year so if you haven't already seen it then you might get a chance to see it at one of the locations. Check here! If you do go to one of the showings then please make sure you vote for us for the 'people's choice award'! Or, of course, you can always buy the film which is just one part of the 'This is the Sea 4' DVD.

The photos are of Tofino, just to prove we looked around a bit, aswell as surfed!!

Surfing Tofino Wednesday, February 04, 2009

We've had 3 days staying at a fantastic house right on the beach at Tofino. We wake up, check the surf out of the window, have a quick soak in the hot tub, eat breakfast and walk down to the beach with a surf kayak! After lunch, we do it all again.

On the first day it was raining and misty - the sea was 8 degrees and the air was 7 degrees so it didn't make much difference whether you were on top of the water or under the water! The last 2 days has been sunny and warm and it's great to be here. There is something about surfing which is hugely addictive. I think it's the energy and the power.

We're here with Shawna and Leon of Body Boat Blade, and Eric and Megan Schorr of Anacortes Kayak Tours.



Thanks to Johnson Outdoors and Necky for lending us 2 Spyder surf kayaks, which we've enjoyed trying out. Thanks also to Lendal for sorting Barry and I out with surfing paddles. Thanks to Kokatat for a fantastic hood which kept me warm!!

Thanks to Barry and Eric for the photos.