I think it is just fantastic to see how technology advancements over the years paved the road for the paddlers themselves to take control of probably the largest piece of the pie of media image of whitewater kayaking.
This sport, seems to me, has always been marginalized in relation to some other extreme sports, like surfing, skating, biking and skiing/snowboarding. It seems a bit unfair, but for whatever the reason, kayaking always lacked good media representations. I have been a kayaker since I was five but I must say that living in Slovenia, where slalom kayaking had always been the world of kayaking, I never learned about the world of creeking, huge rapids, narrow gorges, the waterfalls and the adventures that come with it until I stumbled upon Kayak Session and some old playboating videos a few years back.
Next to these few sources there wasn’t much to learn from. But over the years quality filming and photo equipment gradually became more available to all of us and the internet offered a perfect platform for the kayakers to take the matter into their own hands. The dramatic increase of coolnes and respect that whitewater kayaking connotes over the last few years can in a large amount be blamed on an explosion of cool internet kayaking videos, which are made by kayakers for kayakers. New organizations and production groups are forming rapidly and following the footsteps of “new school” projects like Tribe and it’s Grand Prix especially, which blew most of our minds last year.
I find competitions like KS’s Short Video of the Year Awards a great encouragement to further progression. When I was asked by Philippe of KS why I didn’t enter my video to the competition I replied because it is nothing special. It is only a short video I made to remember the trip and to satisfy the sponsors. And I do have an intention of making a better one just to enter the competition. But he replied that you can enter more than one videos and that the goal is to get more talented video makers to make and publish their products. I believe even though quantity can mean less quality, we could find a hidden jewel among more videos posted. Not many have published their videos since the beginning of the competition so I want to encourage everybody to keep posting and to contribute their piece of the pie. So here’s mine, a bit redone video When Trolls Piss:
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