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I woke up this morning feeling really grateful. I’m so pleased to have finished the editing for “This is the Sea 5” & to see the launch of it going well so far. The US tour is shaping up – nearly all my flights are booked! – shops & venues are excited – it’s great to be involved in the buzz of anticipation. I’ve been so busy making sure that things are happening in time that it wasn’t until the weekend that I paused to feel pleased & thankful for the systems that are in place to make things run relatively smoothly so far. By systems, I really mean people. So I wanted to take the time to say thanks to everyone who has helped to get this DVD from an idea to a reality.

Thanks a lot to Valley Sea Kayaks & Kokatat who have offered financial support for the DVD & the tour & who sponsor me with great kit. Thanks to Matt from GRO kayaks (who imports Valley into the Eastern USA) who has organised the East coast part of the North American tour. Matt was always polite & helpful even when I kept failing to get back to him when my priority was getting the editing finished!

Thanks to all the individuals and shops who are organising the tour. Melinda Moree & Rob Avery have done a great job organising the Seattle show in support of the Washington Watertrails Association, with support from Shawna & Leon from Body Boat Blade. Valley Sea Kayaks are paying for the venue & Kokatat, Hilleberg, Body Boat Blade & Werner are donating raffle prizes. Petra Hilleberg will be there & we hope local Olympian Greg Barton will be too ( as long as he doesn’t have to leave town on business). Kate Ross has booked the lovely McMenamins Mission Theatre for the Portland movie showing, sponsored by Alder Creek. Cheri & Turner from Kayak Ways are co-ordinating a presentation in Maine, with help and support from all the local paddling shops. Every time I think I’m getting on top of everything, Cheri asks me another intelligent questions about a detail that I hadn’t yet considered!

A massive thanks goes out to 3 hard working & humble translators who have translated over 20 thousand words each so that French- Spanish & Italian speaking kayakers can enjoy the films with subtitles in their own language. Yves Thomazeau, Ivan Lamas & Gianfranco Liotta have completed a massive task over 6 months, diligently sitting in front of their computers for many hours. Gianfranco adapted all 60,000 words for subtitles – pasting the text into thousands of titles 2 lines long with no more than 68 letters per line – it’s a mind boggling job. If you live in Italy, please consider buying a DVD from Gianfranco to help him gain a little for his amazing effort.

Mark Bateman has done the DVD authoring for my last 3 DVDs and he does a great job encoding the films for DVD & making sure that the menus work & look pretty. He’s figured out many problems that are totally over my head. If you need a DVD authored then I thoroughly recommend him.

Beth Kennedy from Rapid Media has designed the last 3 DVD covers & the box set sleeve & does a brilliant job every time.

I continue to get most of my music from unsigned bands or websites and pay a small fee for it’s use. Thanks to all the musicians who provide me with the fantastic and varied sound track to the action. A newly updated list of the musicians with links to their websites is here.

And of course, a massive thanks to the lovely and talented paddlers who are featured in the DVD – many cool people gave their time and energy to be filmed. I always feel lucky that I get to meet and hang out with a log of great people while making these films. Behind the scenes, more people offered assistance with logistics and many trip helpers became friends – in particular Monica & Marcelo & Kiko who housed us (& so much more) in Tierra Del Fuego. Thanks to M. Teresa & Carlos from Menorca en Kayak, who lent Sarah Outen & I kayaks when we went for training on their beautiful island, drove us around and generally looked after us.

Thanks to various friends who watched rough cuts of films & provided feedback. Joe Glickman‘s journalistic eye was invaluable with final tweaks to the surf ski film. Big thanks to Barry Shaw for putting up with me going away a lot recently, and working pretty hard when I’m at home. Barry gave me valuable feedback many times & helped me figure out what wasn’t quite right in an edit.

And thanks to magazines, blog writers & hundreds of paddlers out there who have shared the film trailer on social network sites, bought a DVD, or told their friends about the films. Without people spreading the word, no-one would buy the DVD & I wouldn’t be able to make any more. Over all, this feels like not just my project but the cumulative energy of thousands of paddlers & I’m really thrilled to have it out there!

You all know the old cliche … you wait for ages for a bus & then 2 turn up at once.

Well, it’s kind of the same with sea kayaking DVDs. Not only is “This is the Sea 5” released in early March, but if you need a fix before then – “Sea kayak Essentials volume 2” is hot off the press.

In this DVD, BCU level 5 coach Nick Cunliffe teaches and demonstrates about safety and rescue. There’s 2 hours of footage on deep water rescues, towing, incident management, rocky landings, group management & some exercises and progressions to try out yourself.

The DVD is only available in PAL format, which means it might not work in DVD players in the US/ Canada & Japan. It will work on computers all over the world.

More information about Sea Kayak Essentials Volume 2 here.

If you fancy “Sea Kayak Essentials 2” & “This is the Sea 5”, you can take advantage of a 10% discount for 2 DVDs.

Actions speak louder than words…. here’s hoping you like what you see.

“This is the Sea 5” is released on March 8th – not long now. I’ll be at Canoecopia, the worlds largest paddlesports show, to show highlights from the film. Don’t miss the Saturday night launch party if you are going. For the rest of the world, pre-orders will be posted & shop shelves will be stocked. There can be a DVD in your hands on March 8th if you’d like one.

Meanwhile, the “Tierra del Fuego” film has won another award. We just heard that it claimed “Best Sea kayak Film” in the 2013 Waterwalker Film Festival. The news came too late to include the award on the DVD cover, but we’re really chuffed anyway.

In just 2 weeks, “This is the Sea 5” will be released around the world, with a launch party at Canoecopia. Justine will be touring North America for 2 weeks afterwards presenting highlights from the 3 hour DVD. Venues are Detroit, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Rochester (NY), Toronto, Ottawa, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and finally Jersey Paddler…. We’d love to see you there if you live near enough. Please see the poster for dates. Contact the person organising the showing for details.

Or buy the DVD from your local shop, or our webstore – US/ Canada webstore.  UK/ Europe/ Australasia webstore.