Wednesday 3 December 2008

Fly Another Day - DVD


Just in case you thought that we were putting our feet up after finishing Committed 2, we now have another DVD coming out.

View the trailer here


Fly Another Day
The Story of the Tip To Tip Paramotor Expedition

Six men set out on their quest to fly the length of Britain on paramotors. Like the earliest methods of aviation this is flying in it’s most simple form. Suspended beneath a fabric wing and with a small propeller on their backs they set off on the journey of a lifetime.

The range of flying conditions that Britain throws at them takes a heavy toll and one by one the pilots encounter their own personal disasters. There are mid air wing collapses and free falling through the sky, crashes on take off, wings sucked into the engines and emergency landings abound. This is no easy ride.

The tension rises and when the team are forced out of the sky over the Scottish Highlands it looks like the expedition is doomed. But with true British determination they gradually they inch their way ever northwards into the eye of the storm.
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The Tip to Tip expedition was created to raise funds for the Air Ambulances of England and The Forces Children’s Trust. £5.00 from the sale of the DVDs go to these charities.


When we went to film the Cornish Air Ambulance I was really surprised to find out that it wasn't publicly funded. It seems ridiculous that such an important emergency service should rely on charity. Each air ambulance and it's crew costs over £1 million a year to run. But I changed my mind on this one. The reality is that if the air ambulances were publicly funded, then they would be the first part of the ambulance service to be cut when funds are tight, so staying independently funded works.

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The DVD is released on 12th December.
You can pre-order your copy in our webshop now.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Indian Face - Johnny Dawes and Nick Dixon Interview


With all this talk about grades recently... we decided to publish a fascinating interview about what was the very first E9. This footage had been languishing in our archives for a while so it seemed like a good time for an airing.
Johnny Dawes and Nick Dixon were two of the most influential climbers of their generation - no less than climbing legends. In this interview they talk about their experiences on Indian Face. It is fascinating stuff.

Gordon Stainforth on UKC wrote 'PHENOMENAL! Possibly the most interesting climbing interview I've ever seen.'

This isn't an interview that will appeal to everyone, but to those climbers who have been kicking around for a while and remember the time when major climbing ascents made the centre pages of The Guardian, or film releases such as 'Hard Grit' prompted TV appearances from the stars doing one-armers on Breakfast TV - well, for this generation at least, this inteview might well raise the hairs on the back of our necks - two climbers talking frankly about their ascents of one of the most significant rock climb in recent history.

What is even more significant for me was the fact that this was the first time that these two guys had got back together for over a decade. They had shared so much common ground, experience and history. It is such a shame that so many of us drift apart and go our seperate ways.


That day back at the crag (The Roaches) and also later on in the pub - it was as if all the years hadn't passed by. The conversation was the same, but the benefit of all those years of hindsight had definately played a part too...

Check out the video in a UKClimbing.com video exclusive http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1481

One important hint - watch the last 60 seconds!

Dave B.

Monday 1 December 2008

VAT Price Reduction


Probably the dullest blog post I will ever write... but nonetheless we ought to mention it:

VAT is down to 15% today, so of course we are passing on that price reduction to our customers.That means that in our webshop Committed Volume II (and our previous DVDs) are all reduced to the nice round figure of £19.56 (£18.58 for E11).


On another more interesting subject, we are finalising another DVD right now. Should have a trailer up for it over the next two days. More on that soon.

dave b.