Book or Ark?

As you may already know, I'm working on a kayaking book at the moment. The details must, for now, remain shrouded in mystery, but it's not revealing any secrets to say that it'll have a lot of photos in it!

In theory, I'm on the home straight with this project now,  but the English weather is conspiring to make my photos brown and miserable. It's been raining and windy for so long now that I started to wonder if I should abandon the book and start building an ark instead. But perserverance is the only way, so we press on regardless. I take my hat off to my friend Pete Thompson for donning a T-shirt and trying to make a sea kayak skills shoot look as if the weather is, if not actually tropical, at least borderline tolerable.

photo © Bill Mattos

On strangers' tides...

A man whose house overlooks the estuary just stopped me in the street and asked what time high tide will be. By no means an uncommon event. The high tide, I mean. They come twice a day, and are never more than an hour later than yesterday, so it shouldn't be too hard to get a handle on the situation.

But difficult it clearly is, and especially so if you have just arrived somewhere new or perhaps haven't thought about the sea for a while. So there are at least three tried and tested ways of knowing where the water lies.

1. Tide table - you can purchase them in most seaside newsagents.

Looks confusing, really isn't. The only think you need to know is whether it's compensated for daylight saving time or not. And nowadays they usually are.

2. Tide clock

 Set it once at high tide and it will be right for ever more. Clever, huh? Because the tides aren't at weird random times. Who knew?

3. Tide app - obviously only gonna work if you have an internet connection.

4. Look out of the window and switch on your brain.

Personally, I think we should set our clocks to the tidal cycle instead of a 24hr one, and then people could come around asking me what time it's going to get dark, instead... Just a thought...

Pretentious but good, thought for the day...

photo © Corinna Fochler

"What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other travel. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature." 

Pierre Elliott Trudeau 

It's probably best if you read it in a French-Canadian accent though...

Big 'ole photo mission...

The brief was simple. I needed photos for my book, Josh needed photos for the Big Dog catalogue. What could be simpler than to put one of every boat in a van and go shoot somewhere the water is bubbly and the sun always shines?

Well, Josh arrived at my house in the French Alps with Hazel Wilson, (R&D @ Nookie) and after the obligatory wine and cheese, we took off to a local rapid near Annecy to check out all the new boats and equipment. And remind ourselves how to paddle and use a camera.

The hardest thing for whitewater adventurers is to remember that big action, spray, blood, sweat and tears are not always the best content, and that pretty water and good composition are often far more important. It's also difficult to think about photography and be creative when you are concentrating on your own paddling, logistics like food and shuttle, product placement for sponsors, and team dynamics.

Paddler Hazel Wilson - A slow shutter shot with fill flash to freeze the action.

But once we'd perused the snaps over some more wine and cheese, we concluded that we were good to head out to Val Sesia, a classic destination for all Brits and Euro boaters, renowned for its turquoise waters and granite slides. We had five days to shoot everything from beginner kayaking thru play paddling, technical whitewater to waterfalls. Oh, and squirtboat and lifestyle shots, too. What could possibly go wrong?

Josh Gosling from Big Dog in the Karma squirt boat

A lot of people stopped to ask questions about the Karma so we got Ruth to pretend to be interested for a photo

  

We met up with the Big Dog team at Campertogno, Val Sesia, and set off to shoot some classic white water on the Egua. Bob McKee and Toby Hüther styled it up in the OC1's, running great lines on tight technical rapids and waterfalls alike.

The rest of the team were mostly in Force and DropZone kayaks which performed equally well at delivering stylish moves in hard whitewater and even harder rock. We set up safety cover on a few of the tenser exits but generally this was fun in the sun and playing up for the cameras.

We congratulated ourselves in a restaurant over wine, and cheese...

Frankie at the lip of a big waterfall

Paddler Josh Gosling

Paddler Bill Mattos - overboof and GoPro

 There were a whole lot of boats to test and shoot, so we needed different types of water. Here's Josh in the Flux, which is a crossover boat for intermediate river running and cruisy play paddling.

Val Sesia is not known for its play spots - you wouldn't believe the trouble Josh went thru for this little wave!

Getting some downtime in a whirlpool in the Big Dog Havoc - paddler Bill Mattos

In the end the weather broke, but we managed to get some flat water time in the Storm kayak to shoot some instructing/entry level pics. Thanks to Ruth for pretending it was actually warm enough to dress for the beach ;)

 

After a mission to get across Europe in time for various commitments, and a worrying six hours in Calais (apparently ferry companies don't like rough water as much as we do) I'm now back in the UK.

Next stop, Cornwall for some kayak surfing and SUP action, then back to the French Alps. Check in again soon :)

 

Big changes for me, and at Nookie

Here's the official press release about some big changes concerning me and my former company Nookie.

Bill Mattos, CEO, and co-founder of Nookie with Helen Stewart in 1991, has stepped down after 21 years to pursue his increasingly busy writing, ranting and paddling career. Helen Stewart (design and production manager since the beginning) is being joined by two new directors, Dan Hawes (sales and marketing at Nookie since 2005) and Hazel Wilson (R&D at Nookie since 2006). Though Bill will no longer hold an executive position with the company he remains a shareholder and will continue to work closely with Nookie. Bill is currently developing a number of new projects that will feature in the Nookie brand in a big way.  The team at the UK based company are all very fired up about the future at Nookie and looking forward to some exciting times ahead.

Helen, Dan and Hazel with multiple decades of combined experience will continue to take the company forward with a host of interesting new projects and products in the pipeline.

Hazel Wilson, product testing.

 

Well, it looks as though the snow is melting all over Europe, but particularly in my neck of the woods. So I started to think about Lyon and Hawaii sur Rhone which is just a short drive from here, and here is Nookie Team Rider Leo Carpene's take on the big wave from a couple of seasons ago :)

So you may be aware that I'm working on an all-new book project, which I'm super-excited about. I've been writing short sections in fits and starts for a while, in and around doing Nookie stuff and other work, but sooner or later it has to get properly organised. So today has been page plan day. I haven't actually done that before - on previous book jobs I've written about all the different things I wanted to and someone else has organised them into some semblance of order, left out a bunch of stuff that they didn't like, and told me what was missing that I still needed to write. But since this time I am supposed to plan it myself, I've got a big spreadsheet which I am colour coding in the kind of artful procrastination to which only writers and students can truly relate. Yes, I can even procrastinate over the planning stage. I've washed the car, taken out the trash, called my mother, and drunk my body weight in tea... but finally, the page plan is complete.

It's with some trepidation that I've started to drop my draft pages, and more importantly word-counts, into the spreadsheet, but it seems to be making sense, so far. I'm roughly on schedule. Well, I have a sporting chance of ending up with the right number of words, pages, and pictures, at least. Now it's down to me to make sure that they're awesome. Or, start thinking about designing some sort of timetable for making them awesome, anyway...