This weekend we had 100% outdoor adventure home movie auteur-geek saturation on the trip roster. However, instead of a little waterproof camera like Luc and Forrest have, I use a non-anythingproof S90 about whoose seemingly inevitable demise I am very paranoid. So I stuck to shooting stills of the pretty trees, and only pulled it out a few times on day two. Which creates a new experience: me and my red boat center stage.

http://www.youtube.com/v/N9RFmNOGJ_w?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

It’s gratifying to see that I don’t paddle like a total fred. Note me almost getting bandersnatched (back ender’d in packraft speak) at the 3 minute mark. The auto-fight reflex engrained in climbing works well in all realms, from skiing to biking to boating.

Forrest and Luke both have interesting systems for action videography.  Forrest floats minor rapids backwards, with the camera handheld.  He got hung on plenty of rocks, but never problematically so (impressive given the river).  Luc uses a small gorillapod with the legs bent 90 degrees together and held in his teeth (the denticam, apparently pioneered by Dial).  Both are effective, though having the discipline to get out and set up bank shots would be best.  I’m not yet ready to work that hard at this stuff.  The hazard with the McCarthy/Mehl approaches are that for a spectator, both look ridiculous.  I was concerned that every shot would have me straining not to laugh at the characters doing the filming.

One final catalyst of the trip is that I have major paddle envy.  Forrest has a top of the line, all carbon four piece Werner.  About 8 oz less than my all fiberglass Aquabound, and three times the price.  But while using it I was convinced it weighs half of what mine does, and is a good 300-400 percent stiffer.  Of course, I couldn’t beat on it in quite as dedicated a manner.  Tradeoffs everywhere.