I think it's a fun think to watch in your spare time, but I rarely get any useful beta from watching these video guides. They tend to scale things down too much and I always think things look more runnable online (something that has got me in trouble before).

Also for runs like Robe that shift around so much you might need to make a new one a couple times a winter to stay relevant.

I like the idea and I think it would be useful on the staple runs, but some of the bigger class V runs that have wood on the move regularly it might be less useful.

Didn't know Tobin had a Cali run named after him! 

I'd definitely watch it. However, I do agree with Jed a bit about video making rapids seem more runnable than they actually are. To mitigate this tendancy, perhaps you could show a clean line and a carnage line through the harder rapids. Or you could get B-roll of the biggest rapid's hazards. My brother and I actually made a video guide back in 1999-2000. It was titled: "A video guide to the rivers of the Skykomish Valley." It had seven viewers--those who appeared in it (Tao, Gavin Murdoch, Brett Kerin, Josh Knight and me, as well as my video editing instructor and the guy to whom I leant the only VHS copy. He was an Index local. He lost the video, then found it, then lost it again. I still have yet to recover that piece of nostalgia. Hayven: If you're out there! Bring me back my video!).

Edited by ChristianKnight - 16 May 2013 at 8:57am

Dude, Christian, we need to watch that!

 

I guess in an area like this, with wood and rapids shifting as much as they do, it might be spitting in the wind.

 

Sometimes people bring up the fact that they video scout new (to them) runs. I do the same. While I was living in Virginia I would YouTube any run that was suggested because I was out of my comfort zone. I couldn't use my normal boating barometer; “so and so ran it? Ok, I think I can. Oh, Rob ran it? Nope, I'm good, I'll stay home and cry this weekend.”

 

Maybe this kind of thing is more suitable for smooth, bedrock river regions i.e. Cali and the South East. Oh well.

 

Just a thought.

 

I'd like to see one for:
Sunset Falls
Palouse Falls
Snoqualmie Falls



(On a more serious note, I'd love to see Dan do one of Ernie's...)

Edited by Travisimo - 17 May 2013 at 2:02pm

Ok. Back into "negative mode". I'm going to point out why that video utterly sucks and does absolutely nothing to inform me about that stretch of river.

But first I gotta to breifly qulify my experience. None of you know this about me but I have produced a handful of independently produced short films that screened in film festivals throughout the country and in a few other countries. My sh*t was even on Q-13 after midnight once, if you can believe that. It required a fundemental knowledge of video editing on a pretty hardcore software platform. I drew litterally thousands of drawings (yup- they were all animated films) and played and recorded all of my own music. I know something about video production.

So I watched the entire 4:33 minutes three times on my ridiculously large TV. From what I can tell, why drive to Cali for that run? It looks like Boulder Drop at 3300 or less. Hmm. Its probably quite a bit different. But from the POV camera, I could not tell. (Any attempt at a guidebook style video needs to include footage from the bank, as if scouting the rapid as well as POV).

The sound track makes it indistinguishable from the mountain of kayak porn infesting the internet. A bit of voice over would narrate what's happening better.

So they spliced in quick fields of text that are intended to describe the lines. This is inadequate. Half assed. I couldn't even read the short paragraphs fast enough before it cut back into generic Joe Shmoe Go Pro footage. Again, a voice over would better serve this, or a banner above the action at the top of the frame. Certainly the title of each rapid should be on display throughout the duration it appears on camera.

But here is the kiss of death for that poor attempt at a video river guide: there is absolutely NO INFORMATION about the run. How many miles is it? How steep is it? What is the ideal flow? Are there any mandatory or probable portages? It would only take a few seconds to rattle off those details in a voice over.

I never saw anything of consequence if I fu*ked up a line in the rapids portrayed by that lame ass video. Nothing was described either. So... Why do I need to watch this video?

Ok. That's my critique. They say critics are critics because they are failures. Sure- I'll cop to that. I'm a f**king failure. In this life, perhaps, when using the common metrics to measure success. But my kayaking career has largely been built on mostly success.

After some responses, my next posts will focus on what could be done to produce an AWESOME video guidebook of a run. And I'm sure a lot of you have a lot of good ideas too. Paddlers are a creative bunch, Mcquoid not least among them. He probably just has lots of other sh*t on his plate.

Edited by jP - 17 May 2013 at 2:46pm