Justine’s Blog

Making a rolling DVD is a new experience for me, and for Cheri & Turner. In our search for clearer shots of the more advanced rolls, I had a crash course in diving from Trevor, who showed me how to breathe safely while diving straight down in shallow water.

After a short lesson on the sea, we headed to Comox Lake where the water is green and clear. Cheri put the scuba kit together for me, and I sunk down under the surface with my video camera in it’s waterproof housing. Co-ordinating things with Cheri & Turner was tricky – you can’t say ‘too close, or turn your bow 45 degrees to the right’ when you are a couple of metres below the surface (or at least, it wouldn’t be a good idea with breathing apparatus in your mouth, and no-one would hear you anyway!). But I was able to point the camera in the right direction and get some well-framed shots. Obviously whenever I breathed, a trail of bubbles shot to the surface in front of my lens so I had to time breathing in between rolls! Combine that with a brisk wind creating a current and kicking up a bit of sediment and all in all, it wasn’t as ‘easy’ to get great shots as we imagined it might be. But we did get some good images to go with some very clear water footage we already have from Sicily’s Aeolian islands last year.

“This is the Roll” is out November this year. Keep checking the blog or the Cackle TV facebook page for more information.

Technology today is so great that you can edit anywhere with a laptop and a small hard drive. Yesterday the already ‘moblie’ edit suite, moved again to an outside desk, so Turner could skin his new kayak, while being involved in the editing process! This rolling DVD is more work than any of us realised when we started out, but hopefully the end product will reflect all the hours we are putting into it. “This is the Roll” starring Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson, and featuring them teaching some of their students in Wales, Scotland and Canada will be released this November.

Sunny days, fine food & good company could sum up my first week on Vancouver island. In between working hard on filming and editing, it’s a great place to be. I’m based at Comox on the East coast finishing off the filming for an instructional rolling DVD that I’ve been making with Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson this year. We’ve already spent a couple of weeks filming in Wales & Scotland, aswell as getting some great clear underwater footage from Sicily last year. With another week to go filming on Vancouver island  so we are on the home straight. Well, it still feels like we have a lot to do but we’ve got a rough cut of about an hour so far which covers the standard Greenland layback roll in a lot of detail, aswell as some of the more advanced Greenland style rolls. Extras include a chapter demonstrating some stretching exercises to help with flexibility for rolling & a chapter on outfitting your kayak for rolling. We’re working on the forward finishing rolls right now.

I’m very grateful to the lovely Monica & Trevor Russell for hosting us all while we are here. Cheri and Turner have stayed with them before as they have run rolling classes in Comox for 3 years now, and have got to know Monica, Trevor and their 2 sons. We’ve all enjoyed delicious meals together every day- none yet prepared by me, as I’ve been glued to my computer quite a bit, editing things together. So big thanks to the Russells’ and Cheri for feeding me and for feeding me so well.

I have been on the water a few times – I had a go at some of the rolls one day, and went for a lovely local paddle with Monica, Trevor & Doug (followed by some rolling practice …. they LOVE their rolling here!).

The rolling DVD will be released in November this year and will be called….. you might have guessed……..

THIS IS THE ROLL!!

More details will be given out over the next couple of months.

For various reasons, I’ve not been kayaking much lately so yesterday Barry & I accepted an invitation for a mid-week play at Penrhyn Mawr tidal race. After a spell of torrential rain & chilly days, Wednesday dawned sunny and relatively windless. Perfect for playing out! We arrived at the race just before mid-tide and maximum current flow, so Penrhyn Mawr was quite fast flowing to start with. If you failed to catch waves and surf forwards then you were soon swept backwards behind the fun waves and were forced to head sideways to the eddy to make your way up to the front again. After an hour the flow eased off a bit and the waves seemed to grow and take on more shape… the surfing was great fun – just what the doctor ordered.

It was sociable on the water. Axel & Karien were there enjoying their last day paddling in Wales, and BCU Level 5 coach Nick Cunliffe, Matt Gilblin & Ulirka Larsson were filming rescues and towing for their next instructional DVD. Barry was drafted in to do some rescuing. Rather him than me, I’m involved in filming often enough and I was enjoying playing this time! Remember we have copies of Nick’s instuctional DVD “Seakayak Essentials” in our Stores. It’s just £19.99 or US $35, with free postage.

This is a year of a lot of traveling for me, and tomorrow I head to Vancouver  (and thanks to a lift with John Gamba) onwards to Vancouver island. I’ll spend a month there, initially finishing the filming of an instructional rolling DVD that I’m making with Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson. Then I’ll join good friends Shawna Franklin & Leon Somme for 10 days of their leisurely circumnavigation of Vancouver island. Bring it on!