This film was composed over the course of the Spring of 2009 and edited shortly thereafter. Featured rivers include Wilson Creek, Watauga Gorge, Nolichucky Gorge, French Broad Ledges and Section 9, Lower Rocky Broad, Raven Fork & Green Narrows. Most of the footage was shot to show the beauty of run-of-the-mill rapids and the extraordinary kayakers paddling the rapids.
Several winters ago, as I skied down Deer Valley into the Mokelumne Canyon, the ideal of paddling these upper reaches stuck me. After looking at topos, and realizing how hideously steep this section is, my obsession waned. By June 1981 however, the gradient didn’t seem so ridiculous; Chuck , Richard, Don Banducci, Rick Fernald and I put in on a measly 300 cfs.
Finally we launch Cooper Lambla’s fourth and final edition from his 2008 New Zealand Video Journals. This time we have included the entire story in a feature length film, courtesy of Associate Producer, Shred Ready. If you have already seen Coop’s first three NZ video journals then you will be pleased to find the final 18 minutes of the film are totally new footage. Total running time is 47 min 17 sec.
What does kayaking mean to different individuals, from the untrained beginner, to the seasoned professional? A collective of kayaking filmmakers entitled Rapid Transit, all of whom share a common goal of telling fun, exciting and engaging stories through the lens of a camera, attempt to give an answer, or perhaps just a perspective regarding this query. Along the way viewers will plunge into North Carolina’s deepest and most remote gorge, the Linville. Onlookers will meet the kayakers who first attempted the Linville Gorge descent in the 1970s, and see the reality of paddling this river over 30 years later.
Spring 2008: March-June I shot a good handful of footage that never made it into any of our videos. Also, Daniel Windham and Chris Gragtmans contributed some nice footage from the Elk Gorge and the Fayetteville WV area. All in all this made for a fun Video-Podcast. The normal “edit-to-music” format wasn’t doing it for me so I decided to do more of a commentary style mixed with music. You’ll see once you get into the video.