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A month or so ago, I was asked by Canoe & Kayak magazine in the US to nominate people for their annual awards competition. I was 1 of about 30 paddlers, film makers & writers they asked to provide names for paddler of the year, expedition of the year and film of the year. From those names they selected their shortlist which the public can vote on.

I would like to point out that I didn’t nominate myself or “This is the Roll“, but some other people did put me forward on account of paddling around Tierra del Fuego with Barry & paddling from England to France, & Russia to Japan with Sarah Outen. So I’m honoured to have been shortlisted for ‘Female Paddler of the Year‘. It’s very flattering to be nominated, but also quite strange to be in a ‘competition’, especially one that I didn’t enter! I’m up against Freya Hoffmeister, Emily Jackson & Adriene Levknecht – all very worthy recipients. You can read more about what everyone has done in the last year on the website.

If you have got good eyesight you might be able to read the female nominations here but if you want to vote for any of the categories then check out the CK Awards website here. I’ll be making sure my mum sees the link!

Kevin Callan is one of North America’s best known canoeists, authors & personalities. I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin while filming for “This is Canoeing” DVD & he’s incredibly funny, kind & genuine. He also loves wilderness & is passionate about sharing that love with as many people as possible. His DVD, “Wilderness Quest” sets out to inspire people with beautiful shots to get out into that wilderness; both to enjoy it and to help protect it. It’s set in one of Canada’s largest & most famous provincial parks, Quetico with plenty of breath-taking views.

There is a beautiful sequence of Kevin paddling at night under a full moon to the haunting sound of loons calling which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!  The DVD is full of information about the Park with snippets of advice from Kevin on things like removing ticks. But mostly it’s a celebration of wilderness, with Kevin’s take on it as well as interviews from dozens of visitors about what being self-sufficient in a wild and beautiful place means to them. And of course, no Kevin Callan production would be complete without lots of gags & misadventures. You will be giggling your way through a lot of it. A recommended buy for canoeists & people interested in wilderness travel or visiting Quetico Park.  Buy it in our store for £15.99.

For lovers of the single blade, we also have ‘Canoe Movie 2′, ‘This is Canoeing’ and ‘Canoeing’ book by Ray Goodwin in the new store!

Buy all 3 canoeing DVDs and save 25% with the discount code ‘3dvd’ at checkout. That’s a saving of almost £14.

(this code works for ANY 3 DVDs).

I’m excited to have got my hands on some fabulous ‘Axel-packs’ – which in my opinion are the BEST map cases for seakayaking ever made!

I’ve used one exclusively on trips for about 8 years – ever since they were invented. I’ve even been known to keep my passport in there because I trusted it’s waterproof-ness so much. Designed by Axel Schoevers, the map cases are usually snapped up as quickly as Axel can make them. We managed to prise a few off him last time he was in Wales & have a limited supply in the shop.

Made from a sturdy plastic and sealed by a removable slide-off tube at one end, you can roll the plastic around the tube before sealing it, to make the map case  your desired size – depending on the size of your maps or charts. Clips on both ends of the  map case allow you to attach it to your decklines.

The map cases are £29.95 each plus shipping at cost price (£2.20 in the UK). Say goodbye to soggy maps! See them in the new shop!

We have a new webshop! And it’s about time really! I can still remember roughly botching together my first ‘website’ with a fairly blank page containing a paypal button to buy ‘This is the Sea’ DVD. Not long afterwards, kayaker and webmaster Derrick Mayoleth saw my pitiful effort and offered to design a professional site. He’s been doing that job ever since & I’m very grateful for his talents. More recently, I’ve been adding more products to the webshop, including over 50 digital downloads & I realised I’d outgrown the existing patchwork of paypal buttons. This time I’m hugely indebted to Axel Schoevers, a Dutch paddling friend who is clever with computers. Luckily for me, Axel was upgrading his own webstore & hugely helped me to do mine.

There are still 2 stores –  a North & South American store with NTSC DVDs & a UK/ Europe / Australia store with PAL DVDs.  Now downloads are integrated into both stores, & in multiple currencies. Most of you will be able to shop in your own currency – so you can see how much you’ll be spending right from the start. If you can’t read this in English, I hope you have found the option to translate the website into dozens of languages (at the top of each shop page, & in the sidebar on the other pages). You can ‘like’ a product on Facebook, email it to a friend or write a review on the website. So please get involved!

You can now search the store for a film by keyword, or chose just to look at sea kayaking or canoeing films. You can even search the downloads by ‘expedition films’, ‘instructional films’, ‘action’ or ‘destination’.

“This is the Roll” is also now available as a digital download. You can buy the whole film, or just the films about the rolls you are interested in learning.

There are a few other new products. I’ll blog about them separately later on or take a look and see for yourself. Meanwhile, I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed that there aren’t too many mistakes in the 93 different products that I’ve put into the store! If you spot something then please drop us a line and let us know. Otherwise, I hope you find the store easier to use.