Max Bilbow and Rattle Media

Картини Ben Greaves’s song: A Life Less Igorant – The latest music video from Rattle Media.

Chris ‘The Man in a Hat’ Marting’ features in this Rattle Media production…

Rattle Media moves into the business of making music videos… Also downloadable via the podcast.

Make sure you look out for all the bonus features and deleted scenes on The NSR 2011: The Movie! Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/channels/nsr2011/ And if that isn’t enough, we’ve uploaded all previous NSR/Liquid Satisfaction videos to the following channels: vimeo.com/channels/nsr2008/ vimeo.com/channels/nsr2007/

мека мебел I know I haven’t posted much in a while…. So I’ll just let this new “NSR 2011: The Movie!” trailer do the talking. Subscribe to the NSR 2011 movie channel on Vimeo:http://vimeo.com/channels/nsr2011

кухненско обзавеждане As we all know, creating a top kayaking movie is a painstaking process. Part of this process is the long and laborious task for composing and performing music to fit the quick cut scenes of a fast-pace extreme sports film. In this episode of ‘The making of Mop2′, Ben Greaves from Hurricane Sunday is laying down another one of hie brilliant tracks.

Means of Production 2: Trailer

All the hard graft that goes into making a top kayaking movie is now in full swing. Just check out the new ‘making of’ documentary series, beginning soon…

So over the past seven months I have been trying to pass my induction year as a newly qualified Maths teacher. As a result of this –  in the seven Months since I returned from Russia – I have been burning the candle in a particularly inefficient way. I have there for decided that I will not likely find the time to write an appropriate story to accompany the following photos. However there will be more detail available for those of you who are following the development of Means of Production 2: New trailers will be available, in the near future, that will include footage from The Republic of Gorgia, Vietnam, Mexico, Iceland, Corsica and a couple of undecided destinations. A waterfall on a brilliant little tributary to the Choosman Anton takes a break I can’t remember where this is but it looks fun. That’s Anton before he broke his Diesel. The walk out of the Choosman valley is almost worth it for this view. However we would have preferred Vasilii’s van to have been able to drive us all out! Kostya is still learning the meaning of ‘homoerotic’. If you’re fed up of walking, you can always paddle the scrapey tree-infested source of the river… not all boats will make it down intact. A can’t remember what river we’re driving to. It was a 5 day trip and seemed bigger than the Zambezi at points! I just can’t remember what it was called. Our modest camp on day 1. Ivan and the Gray Wolf: my first Russian book… I’m still reading it. Watch out for potholes! Another fun rapid on the choosman. However I had to walk out after cracking my ribs on a awkward seal-launch. маси Anton on the earlier mentioned waterfall. After which it is necessary to portage the 35 metre fall that lands on rocks. The above picture is from (probably) my favorite river in Altai: The Majoy Gorge. It starts of with 10k of continuous, and slightly crucial, class 4-; this brings you to a short inaccessible class 5 canyon (portagable) leading into 10k of 4+. Brilliant. And this I believe is an angry fish. Top Tip: Write you blog entries as soon as you can; not seven and a half months later! Coming soon (really): Some vaguely exciting waffle about our recent jolly in Corsica.

The award winning National Student Rodeo 2008 Movie has now long since sold out. In light of this, I have released the 24 minute extravaganza on the Liquid Satisfaction podcast: http://www.maxbilbow.com/?feed=podcast Download the movie or watch the trailer in the videos section.

It’s 3am UK time and I’ve had little-to-no sleep since I left. However I am in Irkutsk and Vasiliy is telling me (in what he calls Monkey English) that my journey begins now. So I try to assemble all the things I might need for a 10 day expedition on the Kitoy River, where we shall be hundreds of kilometres from any notable civilisation and surrounded by mountains. Fortunately for me, a couple of the 9 Russians on this trip have a fairly good grasp of the English language. This makes it possible for Vasiliy and me to improve our understanding of each others’ languages without too much frustration. So after only a couple of hours of class I/II (Thank God!) we make it to our first camp and, while our food supplies for the trip get divided between everyone, I am able to brush-up on some basic Russian. Nye Prosto. That night, before I pass out from exhaustion, I am handed a cup of Vodka and a piece of raw onion. Drink the Vodka then eat the onion… Like a Tequila slammer I guess, but more oniony. Day 3 and I was all geared up and ready to film 9 indiscriminate Russians toss themselves down the first class V of the trip when Vasiliy says, “Come Max. We go now”. At this stage, I have not developed the linguistic skills to refuse, so off we go. The rapid is short, not too dangerous but pretty hard to nail. However, after a quick natter about the line, we both get it spot on, chicaning around the cushions and holes that lie in wait. Now it’s into the main gorge section. There may have been some chatter but I missed it and all the Russians pile over a horizon-line leaving me a little bemused. So I follow anyway, making my best guess at what the pour-over will look like and which direction to aim my boof… I am mistaken but fortunately I am in the mood for a little freestyle and am able to work my way clear to the whooping of many cheery Russian kayakers in the eddy below. Every day the trip seems to get progressively harder. Today we seem to spend a lot of time paddling a fairly continuous class IV gorge. Water levels are high and the enormous amount of equipment is making kayaking feel a little more like raft guiding, with technical decisions being made much earlier than usual. But I’m used to it now and, having moved my seat forward and mastered the art of using Russians as hole-bait, I’m even enjoying the extra challenge. Then we reach the main gorge. Most of it (class IV+) can be paddled. However we must first portage a big class VI section that could not be inspected or portaged once inside the canyon. In the evenings I attempt to brush up on my Russian… even if everything I say is still a sort of comedy show for everyone else. Getting naked on this trip seems to be something of a daily ritual but well worth it after hours of hiking through wilderness… It turns out my mosquito spray is some kind of horse-fly aphrodisiac. Not impressed! I’ve never really tried fishing before so I was quite keen to have a go. I find it interesting that fish always look so surprised when they are caught. Vasiliy leaves me on my own and I catch the biggest fish of the day. But what do I do with it now? After some gruesome amateur fish wrestling, Vasiliy is there to show me how to gut it, skin it and eat it raw. The fish was flabbergasted. Later that night, someone hands me a cup of Vodka and a raw fish. It’s a bit like a Tequila Slammer… only more fishy. This trip involves running two tributaries of the Kitoy, both of which involve a hike up to the put-on. The first of these tributaries, The Ehe-Gol, has some good class III/IV technical creeking  which culminates (just below our camp) in the following… A 16 metre high waterfall that is not for the faint hearted, especially considering just how far we are from any form of civilization. So with that out the way, it’s off – via some awesome class IV/IV+ Kitoy big volume canyon paddling – to our next camp for a big meal and some [...]

It has been a long year, stuck in the UK all winter. But with my PGCE course over and a job secured for September, I have a bit of time to play with…  So before my 5 week jolly to Russia, Emily and I decided a 2-week warm  up holiday in The Alps would be just lovely. Rory Woods (above) paddles a particularly narrow and fun slide on the Sorba. After a bit of a ‘chossy’ start in the French Alps, we headed over to Val Sesia, in Northern Italy, where we were told to expect high levels; even quite late in June… We were not disappointed! After a quick look at the Sorba Slides, on the advice of a friend, we drove a few kilometres upstream on The Grande – a tributary to the Sorba – to find the gem pictured above. A 10 metre waterfall with an exciting run-in and a clean landing.  What more could you want? 2 hours of steep creeking back to the car? Snap! Nothing but tight drops and slides all the way to the take out. I haven’t felt the need to wear elbow pads in a while but this run seemed worthy. (Above: Me on the lead in to the waterfall) The above shot is the drop just below the fall. I opted to leave my cameras in the car for the rest of the run, hence why there are so many pictures of me. Every time we reached the horizon line above a drop (which was usually at the foot of the drop before) our internal clocks would tell us that we had underestimated the descent time of this run. But with a bit of look down stream we were amazed to see that yet another tight drop or slide contained a perfectly navigable line. Sometimes the lines were less orthodox than others, as Matt (above) demonstrates. And of course it would be rude not to paddle the well-photographed Sorba Slides at the end of the run. But it’s not all about the steep creeking. We had a great time paddling a few sections of the Sesia with Sheffield Uni. And back in France, Triple Step (on the Guil) was going off with the massive water levels. (Above: Rory Woods, Below: Max Bilbow) Though that is all well and good, The French Alps wouldn’t be The French Alps without the statutory trip to the Fornel for a boof and hammer work-out. (Below: Jake Holland throws his weight) Too late for the Student Boater X (in more ways than one), we had a little race of our own. Textbook shenanigans, really (Below: Max Bilbow, Jake Holland). All in all, a fine Alpine holiday that wouldn’t have been as great if it weren’t for all the lovely Brits we hooked up with over the duration: Students (and old boys) from Sheffield, Leeds, Warwick, Southampton and Bath University clubs; Jake and Danny and others. I’ve got a big old sticker in my passport and am heading off to Russia on Saturday. So until next time, play safe and enjoy my latest podcast (below). - SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST - Photos: Emily Bayne, Jake Holland, Danny Malkin, Rory Woods

Download the Means of production trailer as a Podcast. More coming soon, iTune users can subscribe using the following link: http://www.maxbilbow.com/?feed=podcast

The official NSR 2008 DVD is set to be released at the beginning of April, at a price to suit students, and will be chock full of extra features. Somehow we managed to cover every event and not break a single ankle running about the place! See www.NationalStudentRodeo.org.uk for more information.

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