The legend that is Sir Richard Branson turned the grand old age of 60 in July and to celebrate his birthday he decided to try and set a few new World Records, as you do!
This is the man that is no stranger to word record breaking challenges – from the attempts in the 1980’s to make the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing (his first attempt in the “Virgin Atlantic Challenger” led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter), attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon, crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais in an amphibious vehicle and bizarrely In March 2010 trying for the world record of putting a round of golf in the dark at the Black Light Mini Golf in the Docklands Melbourne.
This time Branson planned to kitesurf across the English Channel with his son, daughter and various other kitesurfing friends (including 5 x World Champion Arron Hadlow and Course Racing World Champion Stef Bridge) breaking three records while doing so (largest group of kitesurfers to cross the Channel, oldest person to kitesurf across the Channel and the fastest kitesurf crossing of the Channel). Blue Juice were onboard to film and photograph the event for Virgin and we were honoured to be invited to take part in a record breaking challenge!
Conditions were favourable on the first attempt on 24th August. The attempt started well and the party were 5 miles into the crossing before safety concerns forced the group back. Whilst the conditions were favourable for the kitesurfers, the Channel swell was getting too large and the wind too strong for the safety boats to continue. Frustrated, and after some heated discussions, Branson turned back.
A second attempt was made the following day, but in true British style the weather changed completely with barely a breeze blowing on the coast at Dungeness. Just after lunch the attempt was called off and Branson took us all for chips and a pint as an alternative to the vino and frogs legs that were waiting on the beach in France.
We look forward to covering the next attempted crossing, hopefully within the next four weeks – thanks must go to Virgin Active and of course, Sir Richard Branson – an absolute legend.
We have just returned from a few days in Portugal, a location that at this time of year should deliver perfect kitesurf conditions and locations – wind, sun, lagoons and waves. Unfortunately this time round the Country was going to make us work extra hard to get the footage and photos we wanted in such a short period of time.
As a low pressure settled across most of Europe we were greeted each morning in Peniche with windless fog and drizzle and temps of around 16 degrees. The mornings were spent making calls to ‘those in the know’ and kite schools up and down the coastline, checking Wind Guru and generally cursing the miserable weather. Whispers of wind filtered through by lunchtime at locations that were generally atleast 200km way in either direction. The afternoons were spent driving up and down the A8 and realising that selecting ‘Do not avoid unpaved roads’ on a TomTom can leave you driving down a track that at points was so narrow it would be tricky enough to walk across!
But all this effort on a trip that should have been so easy made the times we finally found wind and sun all the more rewarding. We were lucky enough to enjoy these moments with Jo Wilson (Naish, Protest) and Jalou Langeree (Naish, O’Neill, Ben & Jerrys) – and the footage and stills are a testament to their dedication to make the most of what Portugal ‘didn’t’ chuck at us.
Video and pics to follow.
Posted on August 22nd, 2010 by admin | No Comments »
This weekend we were back on tour with the British Kitesurfing Association in Barrow, Cumbria as the second Kiteival of the season kicked off. Filming and photographing a Kiteival can be pretty hard work – there is so much going on at the same time, on the water and off, that it becomes a real challenge trying capture every key moment but we are pretty happy with the results! We broke our own editing record also, the 10 minute event video was online less than 48 hours after the competition was brought to a close on Sunday afternoon.
Round 3 of the BKSA Freestyle Kitesurf Championships took place in Hunstanton, Norfolk over the weekend of the 1oth and 11th July. Unfortunately the event clashed with the filming of the Cannonball Run Europe, but luckily James Boulding was in attendance to film the event and post the tapes down for a Blue Juice edit – cheers James!
The lack of wind all around the UK recently threatened to scupper the first BKSA Kiteival of 2010 this weekend in Redcar, Teeside. Whilst the wind conditions did put a stop to many of the heats, the sea breezes kept the course racers and landboarders happy and with a weekend of sunshine the event was a complete success. Check out our video of the weekend here:
Well the start of the UK kite surf competition season was blessed with clear skies and beautiful warm weather – its a shame the wind and waves didn’t turn up! We were down in Watergate Bay all weekend, full report, video and photos will be online soon but for now some of our photos are on the BBC Cornwall Website here.
While in Zaafarana, Egypt, we put together this Triple S Wildcard Entry video for Dan Sweeney, the UK Junior Kitesurf Champion.
“The Triple- S Invitational is the international free ride “world championships” of kiteboarding. 2010 marks the 5th year of the Triple-S Invitational, after four extremely successful Triple-S events, this has become a highly anticipated event on the pro kiteboarding calendar. Watch the world’s best kiteboarders compete in Surf, Slicks and Sliders in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 7 Parties, 7 Bands!”
Watch this space to see how Dan, and the video produced by Blue Juice gets on!
It’s been a pretty hectic start to 2010, and following a trip to Zaafarana in Egypt and Les Coches in France to produce a selection of video podcasts I started to realise I had to really put some serious thought to hardware and workflows if I was to make it through an already busy year of web and video production.
I consider myself pretty technically comptent, to many I am considered a techie geek – always one to embrace the latest gadgets and push them to their full potential in my work. The last two years in particular have seen real advances in the kit and technologies at our disposal – HD DSLRs, go pros, prores, proxies, LT, quad cores blah blah blah and if we are not careful we can all be at risk of going into digital overload – not seeing the wood through the trees, the creative through the technical. Technology should help take some of the pain away to let us be completely focused on creativity, it shouldn’t dictate it.
With hardly any time to catch my breath I am already making filming and web design preperations for the Cannonball Run Europe which kicks off on 4th July and three sizeable corporate web videocasts scheduled in May. Rather than think about what technology I have at my disposal first, I am instead going to bust out the pad and pencil. (NB not an iPad!)
Great concepts and ideas come from not being tied to a gadget, so after completing this post the iPhone is going off.
We have just returned from a week away in Zaafarana, Egypt, with Kitesurf Kings – a UK based Kitesurf School that specialises in Overseas Clinics.
Situated on the Red Sea, Zafarana Beach Resort lies to the south of Cairo and the north of Hurghada. The lagoon offers both perfect conditions for beginners and experts alike, there is plenty of room for everyone and with waist deep water with only sand under your feet there is no excuse not to try those new moves!
As well as the 4 students on the intensive week long course, we were joined by Dan Sweeney, current UK British Junior Champion, his brother, Oli Sweeney and John from Stormriders. The purpose of the trip was to produce a short promotional video for the Kitesurf Kings Overseas Clinics, and podcast and still image media content for Dan Sweeney as he enters the 2010 UK competition season.
We have been working hard over the last two months on the new site for Kamikaze Boarding. One of the most enjoyable projects we have worked on for some time, with complete creative control over the design and content of the site. As well as traditional design and e-commerce development, Blue Juice produced a short video for You Tube which included on set filming and green screen production. The green screen footage was also used in flash video banners in the web shop.
Check it out now at www.kamikazeboarding.com
Posted on February 6th, 2010 by admin | No Comments »
Conditions were favourable on the first attempt on 24th August. The attempt started well and the party were 5 miles into the crossing before safety concerns forced the group back. Whilst the conditions were favourable for the kitesurfers, the Channel swell was getting too large and the wind too strong for the safety boats to continue. Frustrated, and after some heated discussions, Branson turned back.
