The Global Paddling Community

Review of "Adventures in Loonerland", the first production by Simon Westgarth.

Simon 'Paddy' Westgarth has long been a friend of PLAYAK and we were all too happy when we got a copy of his debut film 'Adventures in Loonerland' to review.

Two years in the making, this video chronicles the members of the European Palm Pro-team on some outstanding rivers in Norway, Africa and New Zealand. There is also some sneaky footage of some top playspots in the UK (Shepperton and FlowerPot).

The video is organised as a series of short biography for each of the featured paddlers: former world champs Mark Birkbeck, Paul 'Cheesy' Robertson and Deb Pinniger, as well as Ed Cornfield, Andy Phillips and Katrin Prasse.

It is nice to finally have a video where this depth of European talent get to shine, some of the language is colourful, but if you are in any doubt as to the skill of junior 'Boy' Birkbeck, arguably the best female boater in the world Debs and C1 to K1 Guru Cheesy, then watch this video and be amazed as they wheel, boof and grab air in some truly sic places.

The section with Ed Cornfield is really good too. Ed might not be as famous as the three other guys but he is definitely a very good paddler and a nice guy overall and he can thank Simon for the section in "Adventures in Loonerland". [video extract, Real video format, lo-fi (134kb) - hi-fi (1.7Mb) ]

With footage from so many locations this video can at times be hard to follow, especially if you are trying to work out where some of these huge holes, waterfalls and playspots are. The soundtrack is however superb and runs really smoothly with the boating sequences.

The only negative aspect of this video is that with such good footage of the world champs and Ed Cornfield, it does seem that the sections on Andy Phillips and Katrin Prasse have been 'added on'. Certainly having the 'Cork Boy' Phillips pull loops at Nottingham doesn't really highlight his all round boating skills (you can see him running some gnarly stuff with the Whitewater Warriors on Liquid Lifestyles 3 for instance). However this is just a small point in an otherwise well rounded film.

After the credits there is some more footage including a crazy trashing on number 9 on the Zambezi and a good advert for Rough Stuff Paddles as one is used to smash up a wooden pallet, with no obvious damage.

As a debut film this is a good start for Simon Westgarth. He has more films planned for 2002, firstly a video aimed at Beginners to whitewater, filmed on location in Soca, Slovenia. Secondly 'Destination Nowhere', a 2002 action flick featuring new faces and places due November 2002.

For more details and information on local dealers visit loonerland.net.

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Review by [mail address protected from spambots with javascript] Sadler for PLAYAK.COM, February 2002.

Sorry for the rather poor quality of the picture/sound in the video clips.