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Video Review of Searching for the Pro-State, the latest video by Bad Lil' Monkey Productions (Riot Kayaks). Corran Addison et al. open the doors of the new moves to simple mortals like me ...

[ A film by TK Walker ]

The video...

... arrived from Canada in a very nice and funky box, japanese manga style. Not that I am really bothered what the box looks like but you can definitely see than some time has been spent on designing it. I guess if the box looks cool in the shop, more people end up buying it. I rushed to the video player, already thinking to all those new hot moves I would be pulling straight after ...

The video started with a series of trailers: `Operation : Zulu', `Searching for the Gee spot' and `Channel Surfing'. The trailers are a bit "in your face" with things like `the film that inspired a generation' or `there was only a handful of kayakers that good', but what would you expect from the Riot boyz ? Anyway, this series of trailers was ideal to remind me that the Riot/Bad Lil' Monkey videos have gone a long way since `Operation : Zulu'. I really liked `Operation : Zulu', the paddling was really amazing for its time, but I always thought that the video had been edited in 20 minutes in a dark garage somewhere in downtown Montreal. That is definitely not the case for the next ones and the editing in 'Channel Surfing' has reached a level that is quite uncommon for a paddling movie!

This is certainly the case as well for `Searching for the Pro State'. The editing is great! It combines sweet action, nice soundtrack and cool video effects. TJ Walker has done a great job:

• The image on the screen is highlighted according to Corran's speech. For instance, when he is describing the paddle position, the paddle is highlighted so that you focus on this specific part of the picture. The image on the left (out of the Clean Cartwheels section) gives you and idea of the technique used but there are much better examples in the actual movie where only a specific item is highligted like the paddle, the head of the paddler or one end of the boat for instance. Have a look at the clean cartwheel movie (Quicktime, 6 Megs), this is a fine example of the editing of the video.
• The moves are also stopped halfway through so that it is easier to understand 'who does what and how' in mid air blunt for instance. This is especially useful for wave moves where any move goes very fast.
• At the end of each move, the screen is split in two vertical halves. The move is performed in slow motion in the left hand frame and the key points are reminded in the right hand frame.

There are 6 minutes of trailers and the actual video lasts for about 45 minutes.

The Paddlers

I don't want to forget anybody and the whole list of paddlers is given at the end of the video but it is mainly Corran Addison and Steve Fisher. There are quite a few sections with some footage of Javis Grubbs but mainly, it is Corran and Steve for 45 minutes.

The moves

So what would you learn by watching `Searching for the Pro State' ? First of all, modesty... Watching Steve Fisher throwing ends or Corran collecting flyer air miles and all the other twisty moves somehow inspires respect.

I think most people can learn something from this video. It is not like `Searching for the Gee Spot' or `Play Daze' because you were likely to know somebody from your local playspot who can do most moves moves featured in those two videos. In the `Pro State', Corran Addison uses some footage of Steve Fisher to demonstrate bad carving technique for instance! I don't think Corran can do all the flat water stuff Steve is demonstrating either ... To summarize, it is about top moves and top moves only.

Well, let's name the moves then! By order of appearance you get: Clean Cartwheels on the flat, Bow Stalls, Whirly Birds, Party Trick, Zero to Hero (RealPlayer, 1.5 Megs), Carving, Aerial Flip Turns, Carving Air Blunt, Back Stab, Pumped Air Blunt, Super Moves, Pan Am, Back Alley Blunt, Aerial Screws, Clean Spins, Mega Clean Spins, More Ends, Clean Cartwheels (Quicktime, 6 Megs), Multiple Splits, Fisher King, Jedi, Matrix and SideKick ...

I wont't describe the video move by move because you might as well get a copy of the video but nonetheless, here is a quick description:

The video starts with the flat water. This is all very impressive. Steve Fisher can throw ends like crazy. The moves described go from known stuff like Clean Cartwheels, Stalls (only bow stalls) or pirouettes (aka Whirly Birds) to more advanced moves like The Party Trick and the Zero to Hero. Basically, a roll that ends up vertical either on the stern or the bow. The explanation goes smoothly although it looks much easier when sitting in the sofa that when you actually get to the water! Check the movie (RealPlayer, 1.5 Megs) of the Zero to Hero that TJ Walker sent to us. It is also a good example of how each move is tackled in the video with slow motion, different footage angles and then a summary of the key points. Note that the image on the video extract is only of average quality and does not really reflect the high quality of the actual video.

An interesting fact is that Corran is now describing flat water as a place to practice moves before trying them in the stopper. I remember Corran comparing FlatWater and "masturbation", the kind of thing you would do when there is no decent water around ... It is not the case anymore and 2 to 3 times in the video, he tells the paddler to get comfortable with the move on the flat before transposing it to the white water.

Next is the section about Carving. This is in my opinion the most impressive part of the video. I had seen loads of ends, blunts and other moves but for the first time, I saw how a whitewater kayak can rip a wave into pieces. There is also some footage of ocean surfing. This is a very impressive section. Corran paddles mostly a boat that I think is the `Riot Wave' prototype and also some prototypes of the `Riot Boogie'. This section will make you want to buy fins for your boat!

The whole of Corran's wave theory is based on carving and he explain that the time between moves to change your position on the wave for instance should be used with top turn and bottom turns to maximise speed and energy and have more explosives moves on the shoulders. You have to be committed and keep your edging. The higlight of the carving section is the Aerial Flip Turn, an aerial move generated by very VERY aggressive carving.

Corran carries on the different types of blunts for a while covering the Carving Blunt, Back Stab (reverse blunt), Pumped Air Blunt, Pan Am (cross between a pumped Air Blunt and an Aerial Pirouette) and the Back Alley Blunt, a move that is quite playspot specific as you need a wall to blunt along. The Pan Am is also a very impressive move: the paddler ends up almost upside down and airborne before landing in a back surf.

Then this is the Aerial Screw, a move that caused a polemic a while ago on PLAYAK when Brad Ludden sent us this picture from Rock Island. Well, what's an Aerial Screw aka California Roll? Just a kind of blunt into a kickflip and landing upright on the wave. You don't believe me? Steve Fisher does about 4 in a row on the video, check it out !

Follows a section about Clean Spins and Mega Clean Spins. Corran discuss the amount of edging/leaning you need to achieve consecutive spins on a green wave, with or without the paddle. To be honnest, I think that this is the most accessible section of the video, technique wise. I know, doint cleans 1080 as it is demonstrated is hard but the technique seems much more accessible than most other moves in the video.

The section about Cartwheels comes next. It basically starts by giving clues on what to do to get more than 4 ends in the hole. The examples vary from little flushy hole to big bouncy holes and are quite interesting. Sometime, I was convinced that it was just a fuck up though and that the paddler was just very lucky not to wash off ... Then it is about Clean Cartwheels (have you not watched the movie yet?). In chronological order, Clean Stern, Clean Bow and Super Cleans. There is an amazing ride by Steve Fisher where he links about 5 consecutive Super Clean Cartwheels in his Disco. Amazing. Last comes a note about multiple splits, a way of linking splits in both directions, especially interesting for competitors who want to increase their variety multiplier.

The video finishes with some new school moves. The Fisher King is an aerial entry move. The Jedi is a C1 cartwheel done in a K1, looking very far back to to do two ends with only one continuous stroke. Then comes the Matrix, one of the most twistey moves on the scene at the moment and the Side Kick, a Green Grind into a blunt.

And that's it ! I wish there were more new school moves, Space Godzilla, Tricky Woo or Orbit for instance. I am told the Fisher King has another name on the scene but to be honnest, I haven't got a clue ;-!

Conclusion

I really liked this video. I fand it quite frustrating first time as the level of paddling is definitely very high but I am convinced it is important to understand somehow how the top moves are done to progress at his own level. I think the editing is by far the best in any instructional video that ever ended in my hands. I just wish this way of editing will be used on video directed towards less advanced paddlers. To summarize, thumbs up TJ and Corran, you set a standard that will be hard to beat and I am looking forward to see what will come next!

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Review by [mail address protected from spambots with javascript] Renaud for PLAYAK.COM, July 11 2001

A big thank you to TJ Walker from RIOT/Bad Lil' Monkey for his cooperation and giving us stills and video extracts!

All pictures, video clips and logos on this article are courtesy of Riot Kayaks.