Sleeping Giants

Online Sea Kayaking started out with a focus on high quality skills development courses. We still have quite a few courses we want to film and produce but we know that, in time, we will have a complete library of courses. The Bonus Material section of the Online Sea Kayaking website has proven to be a popular area and we have received numerous requests for more lifestyle/inspirational content. So in May 2022 we set out for Iceland to test out filming a new style of content for the OSK Library.  

Inspired by the many white water kayaking films, where groups of paddlers head off to a destination and drive around and paddle the best rivers they can find and document it, we thought, why cant we do this with a sea kayaking film. Rather than film a multi day sea kayak expedition we decided to do a 10 day road trip and pick the best sea kayaking locations a country has to offer. This approach allows us to be flexible with the weather and conditions and enable to us to get some epic shots. We discussed lots of places to try this out but the one location that jumped out at us as an incredible place to paddle was Iceland. We had both been to Iceland paddling, running assessments and leading expeditions but there was so much more of Iceland to explore.  

To test out this concept and to document it well we knew we were going to need an extra person who would be able to capture the action from the land. Sam Beaumont, a freelance videographer that we had worked with in Wales, was the perfect person to join us on the adventure. We could focus on the paddling and capturing the action from the water and Sam could focus on filming with the drone and from the land as well as the action in-between.  

When we sat around the maps in Reykjavik we had a rough idea of the places we wanted to paddle but it was so dependent on the weather and access. With the forecast for the filming period we decided to go for an anti-clockwise journey around Iceland with stops in the south, east, north and west.  

We hoped to get some amazing content to really showcase Iceland and the versatility of a sea kayak as a craft to explore this coastline in. We had high expectations which, by the end of the trip, were exceeded by far. The highlights were paddling with beautiful icebergs, surfing in a blizzard in the North and being circled by a pair of Humpback Whales for an hour in the West Fjords. We named the documentary sleeping Giants. The reason for this was whilst in the north we came across two Humpbacks fast asleep resting on the surface in flat calm conditions. We stayed away from them and observed them from a distance listening to them breath. After half an hour we then headed off to a whale that was feeding in the distance. As we were paddling away the two whales woke up and swam right over to us! Sitting still and floating for about an hour they circled us and swam right under our kayaks. They were so close that they were almost brushing up against the side of the kayaks and you could smell their fishy breath. It was a magical and intense once in a lifetime experiences that you will never forget. The amazing bonus was that we were able to capture the whole experience on camera. We had the drone in the air above us, Go pros on our decks, our main camera on the water as well as the big telephoto lens.  All the audio was captured separately so you can even hear the whales breathing like you are right there next to them.  

There were certain aspects of the trip that proved challenging and we learnt a heck of lot about this style of filming. Getting stuck in the snow on high mountain passes, trying to charge what felt like a thousand camera batteries, changeable weather and some very awkward access points to get on the sea. But for all the challenges there were many, many highs. Friendship bonds were tightened and many special moments were shared, which we hope the viewer feels in the film. 

We have taken our time to put the documentary together and to keep the quality as high as possible. We have kept the finished edit at 4k with surround sound so that you can see all of the detail and be immersed by the sound of the waves, birds and whales. Getting the edit looking right is a time consuming process, it's still just me and Simon behind the computers, but we managed to sift through hours and hours of footage. We really hope you enjoy the finished documentary and we are looking forward to creating more content for the new documentaries section to the OSK Library.