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I’m locked away in a dark room right now, busy editing “This is the Sea 4” so it can be on the shelves of your local kayaking store in time for Christmas. I’ve done an amazing amount of kayaking in the last 18 months – over 7 months worth of trips and symposiums in fact!! All in the interests of giving you an action packed DVD full of fantastic locations. In fact, I’ve got so much great material that “This is the Sea 4” is going to be a double-disc set, and the good news is that it will still be the same price as the others, $29.95, £20 or Euro 29.95. If making these DVDs were purely a business venture for me then I would be crazy to give you so much good stuff in one DVD when I could hold over half of it for a later date, but I can’t help being passionate about what I do and I want to share it all and inspire everyone else to get out on the water.

Editing is going well, it’s not over yet and things may change a little bit but here’s the line up so far. Or read about it on the webpage here.

There are 3 fascinating expedition stories; Haida culture & humpback whales around British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte islands; island hopping from Australia to Tasmania across the Bass Strait, & a 2400km trip around the stunning South island of New Zealand complete with intimidating surf & a helicopter evacuation.

Rough water rolling, Greenland rope gymnastics & commando kayaking with DUBSIDE, Kayak fishing in San Diego, Rock hopping in Baja, kayaking fun with father and son in Norways stunning fjords, paddling the Dead Sea in Israel, Seakayaking the Grade 4 Ottawa River, Lake Superiors Apostle islands AND MORE….

You can read more about the DVD on it’s own dedicated webpage.

There is a preview clip of the New Zealand expedition, and soon there will be another preview clip on there.
I hope you like the front cover, designed by Derrick Mayoleth from www.kayakquixotica.com

The exciting news continues, Barry and I are going ‘on tour’ with the DVD across North America. Thanks to sponsorship from “Lendal”, we’ll be presenting an hour long version of the DVD at about 8 different locations including Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Florida & New York. Details are still being sorted out, but if there is one near you then I hope to see you there! You can see the details of the tour on the webpage.

We’ll also be presenting the DVD in the UK at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival on 18th October, and at the Scottish Canoe Show in Perth on 25th and 26th October.

And if you can’t wait to see it then you can also now pre-order the DVD to make sure it arrives as soon as it’s ready. Go to the shop here. Shipping is free for a limited time!

BARRY AT SPRAY FALLS, PICTURED ROCKS
SARAH AT DEVILS ISLAND, APOSTLES
DAMON AT DEVILS ISLAND, APOSTLES

I’ve just got home to Wales after a fun week on Lake Superior. Barry and I were guests at the Grand Marais symposium, organised by Riverside Kayak Connection, which was a lot of fun. We spent a day before the event kayaking alongside the amazing Pictured Rocks – steep sandstone cliffs with a few fun caves to paddle into, through and under, with amazing multi-coloured stripes on the rocks where the different minerals have leached through. We paddled about 10 miles along the cliffs and then back. At the furthest point was Spray Falls, an amazing waterfall which cascaded off a sheer 40foot overhang, which we paddled under to get a powershower. Thanks to Sarah & Damon Smith and Danny Mungo for taking us, and to Kelly Blades for lending us some kayaks.
ME AND BARRY AT THE APOSTLES
DEVILS ISLAND CLIFFS
BARRY IN THE CAVERNS AT DEVIL’S ISLAND

We met lots of fun people at the symposium and gave a talk about our New Zealand trip on the Sat night. Then Tiffany and Pat from Riverside Kayak Connection drove us west to Lake Superiors Apostle islands for a couple of days paddling which we really enjoyed. Lake Superior is an amazing feature – it’s easy to forget you aren’t on the sea as its the worlds largest lake and it seems to go on forever – you certainly can’t see any land on the horizon. It was a nice change to paddle in freshwater without salt getting everywhere! The Apostle islands are a group of 21 sandstone islands in Wisconsin which is a great paddling destination with many options depending on the weather and time period. We headed out to Sand island and Devils island because they have fantastic sandstone caves, arches and caverns. There are loads of tiny little gaps that we could just squeeze through, and tunnels that we had to lean right back to travel through. We were grateful for a calm day so we could get in close. We camped overnight on Bear Island with Sarah, Damon and John before heading back via a couple of shipwrecks to Gail Green’s Living Adventures near Bayfield on the mainland. Gail and her husband Grant run seakayaking tours of the Apostle islands from here. It’s an impressive operation and thanks to them for putting us up for a night.

So now it’s back home and straight into editing ‘This is the Sea 4’. Well, OK, maybe I need to get a bit of sleep first but tomorrow I’ll be working hard to get the DVD finished by mid October. I’ll be updating the website soon with details of what you can look forward to seeing – and also writing a blog or two about the DVD in the next couple of weeks.

DOUG VAN DOREN HAS BEEN WORKING OUT FOR THE SYMPOSIUM
THE APOSTLE ISLANDS
ME FILMING A BALD EAGLE IN THE TREE TOP, APOSTLES

I’m in Scotland, filming the 3 Peaks yacht Race where teams sail from Barmouth in wales to Fort William in Scotland but stop off to send runners up the 3 highest peaks in Wales, England and Scotland. over 2 days in, I’m a bit sleep deprived having been on board one of the leading boats from Barmouth to Whitehaven, filming events as they unfold. We got almost 3 hours sleep at Caernarfon when the runners were racing up Snowdon, and very little last night as we filmed the lead yacht trying to leave and getting stuck on a sandbank at 1am, then really leaving (neck and neck with another boat) at 5am. Tonight, I’m at Crewhaven eating a pub meal before being taken on a boat in the middle of the night out to the Correvrekkan area where we hope to catch up with the lead boats in the early hours and get some shots of the battle for first place. I’m one of several camerapeople filming for “DreamTeam TV’ and the final programme will be shown on TransWorld sport.

Thanks to Arran Cartwright for the photo from the land.

BARRY AND I PADDLING THE DOUBLE TODAY

In June every year basking sharks are often seen feeding around the Isle of Man. These amazing creatures which can reach up to 12 metres long often feed on the surface with their dorsal fin and tail wiggling menacingly above the water. Thankfully they only eat plankton so there’s no fear of becoming dinner, just the exciting possibility of looking down upon one of these amazing creatures if they chose to swim up to your kayak. I’ve been hoping to get over to the Isle of Man to film them for a few years and finally on Monday evening, Barry and I flew over for a few days with our fingers crossed. Keirron, from Adventurous Experiences looked after us and tried his hardest to make us and the sharks meet but alas, it wasn’t to be this time. On the positive side, we had a lovely sunset paddle on Monday, and saw a lot of the beautiful west and south coasts on Tuesday as we walked the cliff paths, scouring the water for any sign of a black fin. Today was pretty windy, a force 6 SWerly was whipping the sea up so we decided there wasn’t much chance of spotting sharks and we’d just go for a fun paddle. Keirron took us to Port Erin and we surfed north to Peel Castle. Barry and I got to paddle the double which we paddled over to the Isle of Man from Anglesey about a year ago!

In a way, it’s good that the sharks are so unpredicatable and we can’t just plan to go and film them – after all the unexpected, untamable aspect is one thing I love about being out in nature….. but hopefully next time the sharks will give us just a little peak! “This is the Sea 4” needs you!
KEIRRON