Archive for the ‘rolling’ Category

It seems like years ago that Cheri, Turner and I thought it would be a good idea to make ‘a rolling DVD’. That’s probably because it was half a decade ago! I think we all imagined it would be a fairly simple affair. I’d film them doing the roll from a few different angles, we’d come up with a few words and wham bam – there it would be a few months later.

How naive we were! It turns out that there’s a lot more to each roll that I’d realised and it’s not always easy to capture the key movements on camera. I wanted to take advantage of the medium of film to ‘show’ key points which meant that Cheri & Turner had to get used to ‘presenting’ to the camera which caused some laughs, and a few frustrations all round at times! While reviewing the footage, Cheri & Turner realised that they don’t always do what they think they are doing 🙂 and they didn’t always agree on the key points of how to succeed at a roll. Then of course, I always had an opinion, whether I could do the roll – or not! And we are all perfectionists with different visions of perfection… But our hours of debating and reshooting and rewriting the scripts are behind us, and I hope and think that the end result – both “This is the Roll” and now “This is the Roll 2” are better products because we took so much time to try to get it right.

That’s not to say that it’s perfect. Greg Stamer kindly reviewed all the footage as the DVD was being created and he pointed out a few things that we might have changed if we’d had time – for example, on some of the rolls we didn’t stress that in the Greenland competition, you should come back to the starting position to get full marks. The way we have said to do the ‘Cross Arm Storm Roll’ isn’t the way that the current competition rules say to do it, although we asked other prominent Greenland-rollers and they also do it the way we have shown. We also used the word ‘boat’ instead of ‘kayak’ a few times, which Greenlanders may take offence to. No offence was intended, so sorry about that.

Despite these points, we are really pleased with the result and feel confident that “This is the Roll 2” offers incredible value for money. Cheri & Turner have been teaching rolling for many years and are recognised world-wide for their abilities. There’s over 3 hours of high quality instruction on 22 different rolls. The rolls are split up into four families – for example ‘the Standard Greenland Roll family’ and ‘storm roll family’. Each family has an introductory chapter which demonstrates the common body motion. There’s a land drill you can do to practice the motion and develop the flexibility needed. We could have easily spread the rolls over 2 DVDs but we decided to put it all in one DVD, partly for environmental reasons.

Because there is so much material, the download price is not much different from the DVD. However, with the download you will have the option to buy just the rolls you are working on, or you can buy a whole family of rolls.

The DVDs are being made right now. Both DVDs and downloads will be released on 25th September. You can pre-order the DVD and the download. Or please ask your local shop to stock the DVD and we’d be delighted to sell to them.

The official publicity information and ordering information are here.

A few more reviews are appearing on “This is the Roll” DVD.…. most comments I’ve seen have been on Facebook which is a very easy way to leave feedback. This has all been really positive – many people are impressed with how thoroughly we have covered the roll, as well as the pace & the filming.

One comment simply said, “Your Rolling DVD is the best ever. Clear and concise“. Another said, “It’s entertaining as well as extremely clear and informative.”

Simon Willis – creator of sea kayak podcasts & the filmmaker behind the “Sea kayak with Gordon Brown” DVDs – has written a review as detailed as “This is the Roll”. You can read it here. It’s the most comprehensive review I’ve read so far so if you want to know more about the DVD from an outside perspective then please take a look.

A shorter, positive review from Denmark can be read here in English – or here in Swedish.

In separate news, David Johnston, an kayaker and blogger from Canada recently interviewed me for a series on him website called “I want your outdoor job”, asking me about the business side of making paddling films. You can read the interview here.

Other filmmakers have also been busy. Nick & Matt at Kayak Essentials – makers of the popular ‘Sea Kayak Essentials’ DVD – have just introduced digital downloads of the individual chapters of that DVD. If you prefer your movies instantly delivered to your computer then check out this page on their website. There are short previews of all the chapters so you can try before you buy. And if you prefer to buy the whole DVD then we sell it in the Cackle TV store – click here for our US / Canada/ Japan store. Click here for UK/ Europe/ Australasia store. Don’t forget we have special offers – if you buy more than 1 DVD you can save money…. Or check out our inspirational digital download films.

Finally! We have the cover of “This is the Roll” AND the subtitles are ALL done!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered for your patience. Making a DVD is already a long process but having subtitles in 3 different languages added a huge amount of work. This is the first DVD that I have subtitled, & is the first paddlesports DVD that I know of to be subtitled in 3 languages.  I am forever indebted and hugely grateful to Gianfranco Liotta who translated 150 minutes of video – close to 20,000 words –  into Italian & French and created the subtitles for all 3 languages. He did all this while studying, changing nappies of his young daughter Sara, being a husband to Claudia & drinking strong Italian coffee or fine Sicilian wine! Gianfranco – along with Francesco Petralia – offers seakayaking trips & kayak hire in the warm turquoise waters of Sicily. If you fancy a relaxing seakayaking holiday then check out Maremotu (otherwise known as Seakayak Sicily). I’ve been twice! (so far!). Gianfranco (amazingly) also says he would consider other subtitling jobs in the future if anyone needs his services.

I’m also really grateful to Iván Lamas, who emailed me at exactly the right time to ask if I would consider putting subtitles on my DVDs. When I told him we would have French & Italian subtitles on “This is the Roll” he immediately offered to translate it into Spanish. Iván has translated everything quickly and with great attention to detail. He responded gallantly to my desperate email last night when we realised we were missing a Spanish translation of ‘the standard greenland roll with a euroblade’ chapter! Thanks to his quick work – everything is complete on schedule!

On the other side of the Atlantic in Canada, Beth Kennedy, the very talented designer for ‘Rapid Media‘ & ‘Adventure Kayak’ magazine has been creating our DVD artwork. I’m delighted with the result and I hope you like it too! Look out for an article by Cheri & Turner about the 3 rolls we feature in “This is the Roll” in the next edition of ‘Adventure Kayak‘.

And of course huge thanks to Cheri & Turner, the stars of the DVD, who are not only excellent at performing all the rolls, but are fantastic teachers. It’s a pleasure to be able to share their skill & grace, and their unique style of teaching with so many people through “This is the Roll”. It’s the first time I’ve collaborated with other people so much on a DVD & agreeing on the best way forward has sometimes been challenging for all of us. However that dialogue has created a better product and ultimately been very rewarding!

We hope to have the PAL DVDs ready to ship in the first week of April (for the UK, Europe & Australasia). The NTSC DVDs (for America, Canada & Japan) may take a week longer as we need to ship a master DVD from the UK to America – but we will have the first “This is the Rolls” in the post, and in shops as soon as possible. You can pre-order from us, or make sure your local shop has put an order for some!