Pacific Horizons & Sea Kayak Navigation

Christmas has come early! Two exciting new sea-kayaking goodies. If you feel a rectangular shape in your Christmas stocking, you should hope it's one of these. Or both.

Franco Ferreros' updated version of Sea Kayak Navigation looks superb. Click the cover in the right-hand column to buy your copy. However, it will take longer to digest.

So I first turned my attention to Bryan Smith's DVD Pacific Horizons. The format is uncannily identical to This Is The Sea, only not quite as good as Justine Curgenven's latest TITS3. Podcast with Justine Curgenven.

The best chapter of Pacific Horizons is a profile of commando-kayaker Dubside, who drags his folding boat onto busses and down logging roads, looking for a launch. The road-trip around some British Columbia's top tide races combines a journey with the all important mucking-about-in-waves shots. There are features on Oregon Surfing, Orcas in the San Juan Islands, but the big feature, a tour of the Bunsby Islands, was a little disappointing.

The best bits of the DVD were edited into a single 34 minute film which was one of 21 finalists at Banff Mountain Film Festival in the category Best Film on Mountain Sports. This cut-down is among the extras. Definitely a great contribution to the growing pile of sea kayak DVDs.