Wet House DVD

by Erik Olsen on

Paddle hounds might like to know about a
new DVD that is out called Wet House, an award-winning paddle film by Filmmaker
Ammen Jordan.

The film showcases the kayaking skills of some of the top and most diverse names in
the sport including Bryan Kirk, Andrew Holcombe, Nikki Kelly, Tanya Shuman, Jimmy Blakeney, and Steve Fisher. The DVD
took three years to pull together and, while I haven’t yet seen it, apparently features some wickedly cool paddling
scenes. The film won the National Paddling Film Festival Paddler’s Choice Award and was selected Paddling Film of the
Year and Best Whitewater Film at the Reel Paddling Film Festival. You can watch the trailer here, which shows some pretty slick short boat moves. 

Keyed Up

by Erik Olsen on

The one trip I ever took to the keys I made in a blood red Ford Mustang convertible. A couple of buddies and I
blew out of Miami and headed due South on the reckless whim that we’d be able to find a place to stay when we shoed up.
It wasn’t that  easy, and we ended up in a rather grungy hotel in a cheesy part of town in key West. Strike
that….cheesy part of town is too limiting. ALL of Key West is cheesy. But hey, cheesy can be OK. And Key West was
fine. It was warm, the beer was cold, and I ate my own weight in conch fritters.

Now all of this is a lead
up to the piece I read
this morning over at the Washington Post about the keys. Now the writer here is far more adventuresome than I was
those years ago. She does some diving, ruminates on the hundreds of tarpon hanging around a place called Robbie’s
Marina, and generally explores many of the lesser known keys…something I wanted to do, but simply had no time for.
She also checks out the dolphin shows and runs into a charming 70-pound loggerhead turtle named Bubblebutt. So she
covers an immense amount of round in just four days in the Keys, which kinda made my trip those years ago seem kinda
weak.

Travel on Regis' Dime

by Erik Olsen on

I saw this over at Travelpost and then looked around a
bit, and it turns out its true. The opportunity of a lifetime…if in your lifetime you’ve always wanted to travel to
one of the 100 best places in the world on Regis’ dime. Yes, if you go here, you can find all the details on how to win
a free vacation.

As someone who has spent maybe a total of ten minutes in his lifetime watching Live with Regis and Kelly, well, you couldn’t get me to do
this, but others may not be so snotty and list. The rub is this. You watch the
show (predictably, during sweeps week – i.e. beginning January 16th) and each day The Reeg and Kelly will give out a
clue as part of the Secret Wild Travel
Trivia week. Over the course of the week that will be five clues…write them  down on a postcard and send it
in with the pertinent information and viola you win…no wait. You will then have the chance to win. I mean, they will
pick your card from among the quintillion others and you will win…no wait, a dog will sniff for the best-smelling
card and that will win. Um, well, I too am a bit befuddled by he details, but I can assure you this is the chance of a
lifetime, and you should tell your bosses you are not coming in that whole week so you can watch this marvelous show.

Hawaii Panoramas

by Erik Olsen on

The Washington Post has been dong a lot of great interactive stuff lately, from video to panoramas. I keep an eye on the
stuff they do pretty often and was really interested in this series of panoramic photographs that they posted from Hawaii.
nothing too documentary or newsworthy here, just a solid collection of portraits from a tropical nook of the country.
Definitely worth a few clicks. Of course, to be really amazing, they would have done a couple of underwater ones, but I
guess you can’t have everything.

Chicago Exhibit on Tsunami

by Erik Olsen on

Chicago’s small The Notebaert
Nature Museum is running an interesting
exhibit on last year’s Tsunami, with photogrphs and maps meant to convey the extent of the damage and devastation
wrought by the horrible natural disaster that left at least 216,000 people dead or missing in 12 Indian Ocean
nations.

It’s not a massive exhbit, you have to salute them for the effort. it contains photos and several exhibits
that examine the scientific underpinnings of this particular tsunami as well as others that have occurred in history.
There is also a detailed map showing the locations of the few tsunami warning systems that currently exist, mostly off
the coast of the northwestern United States. They have, of course, with some of the money donated over the last year,
now built one for the Indian Ocean, which might have saved thousands of lives if it had been bult prior to the
earthquake. Worth checking out if you live in or are planning a visit to Chi-Town.