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It’s always a pleasure to have a film showing at the UK’s premiere outdoor film festival, the Kendal Mountain Festival. ‘Tierra Del Fuego” had it’s world premiere there & was shown 3 times during the weekend. I got good feedback from the film with many people saying the really enjoyed it (including 2 of the judges). And Barry even showed up in the programme!

As a filmmaker who largely works on my own, it’s fantastic to see the latest & greatest outdoor films that are out now. I always get ideas for my next films & am inspired by some of the stories. I met Paul Diffley, director of “Wide Boyz“, a great film that picked up best climbing film and the people’s choice award. As the way in which people watch films is changing, he is offering people the chance to watch his latest film, Odyssey, for free on the internet. If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, then you need to do it TODAY as it’s a limited offer. Click here.

Other great films included ‘Crossing the Ice‘ & ‘Journey on the Wild Coast’. Alastair Lee continues to make climbing movies look more like Holywood films with great cinematography, soundtrack & special effects. His latest flick Autana won best mountaineering film. I also really enjoyed a film by Pete Astles from Peak UK which played on the wild water night. It told the story of his Nepali friend Babu who trekked up Everest, paraglided down and then kayaked to the sea.  It seems he did it with little fanfare – just because he wanted to. It was great.

We went to listen to the amazing Karen Darke. I already knew lots about Karen and all the wonderful adventures she has been on since becoming paralysed from the chest down; like hand biking across the Himalayas, skiing across Greenland, climbing El Cap and winning silver in the London Paraolympics.  But it was great to hear her talk about what drove her to do these things and her philosophy. You can’t fail to see right through all of your own excuses for not doing things when you see what Karen has achieved. I really enjoyed her first book, If you Fall, and I can’t wait to read her new book, Boundless. Barry gets a mention in the book as he kayaked around Corsica with Karen a few years ago.

Now, I’m home I’m back to editing ‘This is the Sea 5′ which will be launched in March 2013.

It’s always great when you make the effort to get up early and go paddling. Swellies wave first thing this morning was great fun. I took the Gemini SP which is great to throw around on the wave. I got a bit carried away with edging it as much as I could & edged it totally upside down – twice! I was certainly awake after 2 cold showers.

Unsurprisingly, Baz and I had it to ourselves & we were off the water by 8.

We are heading up to Kendal Mountain Film Festival this afternoon to present the world premiere of the “Tierra del Fuego” film. I’m excited – and a bit nervous to attend the first showing of the film outside of my living room! I hope it gets a few laughs, oohs and aahs. But first I’ve got to wash the salt water from my hair & face!

“Tierra del Fuego” will be released on DVD in ‘This is the Sea 5′ in March next year.

Our lunch breaks have started to get a lot shorter as the nip of Winter seeps into our drysuits, but I love this time of year for paddling. The sea is still warm & the light is beautiful on the clear, crisp days. There isn’t as much daylight but that makes me get out and appreciate what there is.

Today, Baz and I went to the Skerries and enjoyed a bouncy ride from Cemlyn into the wind. I smiled as waves bounced off my kayak and splashed me in my face. I love a lively sea.

At the island, lots of seals swam around looking at us curiously. Two of them started fighting just behind Barry – not realising I was behind them. I got an ‘almost great’ photo of it!

As we pulled our kayaks onto the beach, the sun disappeared and it started raining. We took shelter in one of the buildings on the island, and as soon as our sandwiches were gone, we headed back down to the boats.

The journey back was much calmer with the wind and tide – although typically the wind had also dropped now it was almost behind us! We took a detour to the Victoria Bank buoy before ferry gliding back to Cemlyn.

Britain’s premiere Mountain ( & adventure) film festival hits Kendal in the Lake District in a few weeks from 15th – 18th November. It’s a great chance to see the latest and greatest climbing, mountaineering, kayaking & other adventure films, hear some inspirational talks, & catch up with friends. I’m delighted that my film about kayaking around Tierra del Fuego is a finalist in the competition & is showing as part of the ‘wild water’ programme. This is the film’s world premiere & one of the only chances to see it before it’s officially released as part of ‘This is the Sea 5″ next March.You can catch it 3 times over the weekend.

Friday 16th, 1pm
Sat 17th, 5pm
Sunday 18th, 4.30pm

I’ll be there to introduce it on Saturday and Sunday.

Jim Krawiecki’s film about sea kayaking in Greenland also premieres at Kendal & I’m looking forward to seeing Jim following in the paddle strokes of Gino Watkins.

Amongst the inspirational speakers is Karen Darke – who I imagine will be talking more about her Para-olympics silver medal than her equally impressive kayaking exploits.

For those people wanting a pure paddling fix there is a ‘Wild Water’ evening on Friday, featuring paddling films & a talk from Adrian Durrant.

More info on the Kendal Mountain Film Festival here.