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Technology is moving so quickly these days with high quality video cameras becoming smaller and cheaper. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time lately trying to adapt my filming techniques to make the most of these advances and to create a camera mount which will sit on a canoe, as opposed to a seakayak. My canoeing DVD, and future DVDs will all be shot entirely in widescreen High Definition which means that the minicam system I was using with a pencil-cam on a pole is OUT! That system is 4×3 and standard definition. Plus I can’t use the suction mount that has been fantastic for me on my seakayak because there isn’t a suitable flat surface on most canoes.

So I’ve bought a couple of new cameras and I’ve been working with Barry and a local whizz, Clive Hartfall to make a mount. The results can be seen in the pictures. We have 1 mount which can hold 3 different camcorders, depending on which is the most suitable for what I’m trying to film. The largest is the Sony HC3 which sits in the big clear waterproof housing. With a wide angle lens, this is the best quality footage, but it’s also heavy and bulky! The yellow camera is a waterproof and High Definition camera from Sanyo. Its not full HD but the picture quality is very impressive. I can check what I’m filming by looking in the screen and delete clips that I don’t want, but the downside is that the camera is not very wideangle. The tiny black camera is designed as a helmet-mounted camera, the Contour HD camera – this is full high definition and very widescreen but the camera isn’t waterproof which could be a bit of an issue!! And you can’t check the image before you start recording or play back your footage to check you haven’t just filmed 10 minutes of the sky! So all 3 cameras have plus points, but none are perfect!! The challenge now is to get good at playing to their strengths & getting some fantastic canoeing shots!! I fly to America and then Canada next Tuesday for 3 weeks of filming and canoeing.

CONTOUR HD CAMERA

ONE OF A GROUP OF SOLO CANOEISTS WE MET ON THE RIVER

Yesterday Jim and I went back to the river Dee to run a longer section by canoe. We paddled up the canal from the shop/ cafe to the Chain Bridge and then carried the boat to the river and paddled back with the aid of gravity!

I am really enjoying learning something new, and I’m finding that tandem canoeing is really good fun. We spent a couple of hours dropping just a couple of miles down the river, practicing ferry gliding, reverse ferry gliding, maneuvering and breaking in and out. We also ran the most fun rapids several times, usually picking different lines each time. Our route can be seen here on the Sanoodi website.

I now feel much more ready to go on a 2 week remote canoeing trip in the far Canadian north!! 

JIM WAITING FOR A HORSE DRAWN BARGE TO PASS US ON THE CANAL

PS. To the mint tea drinker who asked where Barrington Shaw was – he’s busy working – one of us has to earn a living! But he’ll be out playing at the weekend!

We spent the weekend at the tip on the Llyn Peninsula visiting various wonderful islands! On Saturday, Barry, Tara and I paddled into the wind to Bardsey island where we caught up with our friends the farmers, Steve, Joanne, Rachel and Ben Porter. It was a choppy, quite challenging paddle which we all enjoyed. We saw lots of birds, including a dozen or so puffins.

After a refreshing cup of tea and a chat, we headed back against the last of the flood, with the wind at our backs. The wind had dropped a bit but still gave us a bit of a push home. The current was still flooding out of Abadaron bay quite quickly with 1-2 metre waves forming a race off the headland. After one last exhilarating surf we were back in the bay and heading for fish and chips! That evening we joined Jim Krawiecki and Pete Astles on the beach as they camped overnight nearby. The rain drove us back to the van for the night and we even managed to sleep in!

On Sunday, John Dommony joined us and we headed to the Tudwel islands – the first time I’ve ever paddled there! We had a great day, exploring both islands, poking our noses into caves, listening to all the birds squawking and watching the seals. The was an exciting swell on the exposed sides of the islands. We even saw Bear Grylls bear bum…. but that’s another story!

Last stop was Porth Ceriad for lunch and enjoyed a bit of fun catching a few waves in the warm water. What a lovely weekend!

As the sun went behind a cloud and the cloud started leaking, Jim Bradley and I braved the grey afternoon and launched our canoe onto the Menai Straits. We had great fun for a couple of hours, breaking in and out of the tide which was flooding under Menai Bridge & practicing maneuvering the canoe in currents. Jim claims that open boating is his weakest paddlesport but he made me feel very comfortable in the boat as he steered it from the stern and gave me a tip or two. We even had a go at poling. At the end of the day, we paddled down to the white house on the island and tried to have a surf on a standing wave there. We didn’t get much of a ride, but we did stay upright, which was a victory as far as i was concerned!

The days paddle was training for a big canoeing trip I’m going on in August and that I’m very excited about. It’s a trip in the far north of Canada with Blackfeather. I’m filming the 2 week journey for the canoeing DVD I’m making. I’ll write about it all very soon!