This is The Roll

Having heard that Justine Curgenven's latest film was to be titled This is the Roll, I was looking forward to what I assumed was the first in a series of films about baked goods, and I eagerly thought of possible follow-ups: This is the Bun, This is the Croissant, This is the Baguette and, my personal favourite, This is the Gluten-Free Pizza Crust.
Culinary jokes aside, there is probably no one better at making sea kayaking films right now than Justine, and her first foray into the realm of kayak coaching DVDs features well-known Greenland-style paddlers Cheri Perry and Turner Wilson. There's almost three hours of material on the DVD, all of it well presented. The DVD focuses on three rolls: the standard Greenland roll, the reverse sweep and the storm roll. Cheri and Turner are excellent presenters and they cover the material in great depth. Having watched a few "how to roll" DVDs over the years, this is certainly the most in-depth one I've ever seen. Heck, it was more in-depth that most rolling lessons I've had. Of course, there is no substitute to having an instructor right there in the water telling you what you're doing right (and wrong), but this may be as close to that as one may come with a DVD. It's dense; there's a lot of material here and repeated viewings will be required. For instance, the number of rolls shown during the film must be in the hundreds, and I'd swear that none of them are repeated during the course of the film.
All the members of our little viewing party were impressed and think it's probably the best instructional video any of us have seen.
Will it make you a better roller? I imagine it will, along with lots of practice, of course. Despite an absence of breads and pastries, This is the Roll is an excellent DVD.

This is the Sea 3

The third in Justine Curgenven's series of sea kayaking DVDs, the aptly named This is the Sea 3, continues the fine tradition of excellence of the previous volumes, and features segments ranging from some short light-hearted segments of kayaking in crazy surf, to longer segments exploring expedition paddling. In between, Justine offers up profiles of well-known kayakers, and in an interesting coincidence, not only does this DVD feature a profile of Paul Caffyn, the first person to kayak around Australia, it has a segment on Freya Hoffmeister who would later become the second person to kayak around Australia, and another segment features Stuart Trueman who is currently vying to be the third person to kayak around the same continent. But I digress.
Although the shorter segments are worthy of your attention, I'm always drawn to the longer expedition films, and this DVD is no exception. In one, Justine and her partner make a crossing in the Shetland Islands during a thunderstorm, while another is a lovely travelogue through the Faroe Islands. The jewel of the DVD is a 40-minute film following Trueman, Laurie Geoghegan and Andrew McAuley on an extensive kayaking expedition to Antarctica. It's occasionally difficult to watch knowing the fate that would befall McAuley only a year after this expedition, but clearly the three paddlers were enjoying their thrilling (and chilling) trip where few have ever been...well, maybe Laurie not so much when he got ill. Their love of life and adventure shines through.