Author: Justine

I am pleased to announce that you can now download your paddling inspiration directly from the Cackle TV website! No more waiting for a DVD to arrive in the post – if you want to watch a film then it can be on your computer within minutes. And you don’t have to buy a whole DVD if you are only interested in a few of the films. As each of our DVDs contains about 12 different short films, we’ve made most of them available to buy individually. Many films are just 99p (about US $1.65 or 1.15 Euros), which is cheaper than a cup of tea or coffee.

Our longer award winning paddling documentaries are about the same price as a beer, which is still very great value!

The prices are given in UK £s, but you can buy the downloads from anywhere. The price will be converted into your own currency when you make a purchase. Please don’t let the fact that the price is not in your home currency put you off ! You can click here for a quick currency converter.

You don’t need any special software to download a film but you will need a fast and reliable internet connection, a reasonably fast computer with a recent version of the QuickTime movie player. You will also need enough disc space available on your computer to store the file. A 10 minute film will need about  300MB and a 30 minute film will need about 1GB of space.

The format of the films is: Quicktime .mov file encoded with H.264 codec.

If you buy a film, you will be sent an email which contains a unique link. Click on the link and your download begins. Once it’s finished downloading, it’s ready to watch! The link is valid for 24 hours and you have several attempts, in case something goes wrong. If you want to buy more than 1 film then just add them all to your cart before checking out. You will get a separate email containing a link to your download for each film that you buy.

Increasingly our films will be offered as HD (high definition) downloads. These are higher quality than the DVDs (which are SD – standard definition). Our latest film, ‘Islands of Fire’ is available now as a HD download. It’s won 2 awards for ‘best seakayaking film of 2011’ but it’s not yet available on DVD, so if you want to see it first then now is your chance – click here!

We also have a couple of never-before-seen films! You can watch paddling under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in 2003, or a feature on Dutch seakayaker Axel Schoevers ( both for 99p). Click here for more info!

I think we might be the first paddling filmmakers to offer our films digitally, and I’ve uploaded about 50 of them  so please bear with me if we have any teething problems. Feedback is welcome & please tell your friends! Oh, and enjoy the films, of course!

Strong Easterly gusts last weekend didn’t prevent 60 participants from having a great time at Kari-tek’s first Midwest seakayaking symposium. The normally sheltered Tayvallich (close to the Sound of Jura) was subject to the full force of the Easerlies, but nooks and crannies were found, instruction was given and scenic paddles were enjoyed!

Barry & I joined other coaches to help out in this beautiful area – and I even saw an osprey! It was a great event aimed at beginners to intermediate paddlers.

Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson are staying with us now which is great! They have a couple of places left this weekend for a day of instruction with these world-class Greenland style paddlers and rollers! See here for details.

I’ve been making the most of the good weather recently with evening paddles or bike rides. The Swellies wave was working earlier in the week and Barry and I enjoyed an evening surf – joined by some local playboaters and even a C1 slalom paddler! Barry took the new Valley Etain to see how it performed. It’s a long boat so he wasn’t expecting it to be great on the wave but he was very pleasantly surprised and found it very maneuverable.

In the UK, people are already out on paddling trips. Roger Chandler from Coastal Spirit is leading a group of 3 people on a circumnavigation of Wales at the moment. They are doing brilliantly and have just a few more days paddle left to complete the circle. You can read their blog here. Barry and I will join them for a day tomorrow, paddling from Rhoscolyn round to the North coast of Anglesey and hopefully camp overnight with them too. I’m excited to spend a night in our tent!

Harry Whelan & Jeff Allen started their speed attempt at paddling around Ireland today with a 40-mile+ paddle. I think they have to average over 30 miles a day to beat the current ‘record’ of 33 days.

Remember you can still take advantage of our big April savings in our on-line store.

What great weather we’ve been having in Wales. So many warm, sunny days to entice us outdoors. Last week, Carol & Ross were down from Scotland staying with us. While Carol did her 5 star training, Barry and I took Ross around the Stacks on a lovely calm day… although we did take him against the tide both ways! Most of the time we were near to the cliffs and out of the strong tide, but going around South Stack against the flow was a fun challenge!

On the weekend, we scampered up Tryfan, one of my favourite Welsh mountains, before driving down the Llyn Peninsula for another treat; an overnight stay o

n Bardsey island. The sun shone on the car on the drive, until a few hundred metres from our destina

tion of Abadaron when we drove down into a thick layer of sea mist! It was a shame that Carol & Ross couldn’t see the island (or anything at all if it was more than 50 metres away!) but it was quite fun to do my first crossing to Bardsey in the mist. We chose our bearing but used a GPS for back-up. When we were about 200 metres away, we got a brief tantalising glimpse of the top of Bardsey briefly poking through the mist. We closed in on the north end of the island ferry gliding across a strong band of current off the headland. We could see the island now as we paddled against the flow (to keep a theme with Ross) to reach the harbour where we landed for the night.

As always we had a great time staying with the Porter family and enjoying farm life for a few hours. They have been busy lambing for the last month or so, and are now gearing up for the arrival of some more calves.

On Sunday, we climbed Bardsey mountain and were treated to a clear view of the mainland. By the time we crossed back the mist had crept in over the west side of the island and half way across Bardsey sound. We paddled on a bearing again, until we emerged into clear blue sky! Despite the poor visibility, we saw a porpoise & lots of seabirds including puffins. What a wonderful weekend!