Outdoor Recreation

Everest (Large Format)

Filmed in the IMAX format, this film had the luck (or lack thereof) to be shot during the same fateful and fatal climb of Mount Everest chronicled in Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, in which a group of rich hobby climbers found themselves trapped by a blizzard near the summit. The IMAX film contains footage of those people, but focuses on its own group, as they make their assault on the top of the world's highest peak. Some startling footage of the mountain and the approaches--and, as in Krakauer's book, the depiction of what is involved in this kind of adventure (particularly the pain and suffering)--makes you wonder exactly where the fun is. But documentary film is about showing you something you're not likely to see otherwise, and this movie certainly fills the bill. --Marshall Fine

Movie DVD

Riding Giants (Special Edition)

Riding Giants is more than another blissfulsurfing movie. It's an outstanding documentary about one era in American alternative lifestyles, when surfing was well-suited to a radical culture of social dropouts. Using an amazing array of amateur film clips, shot for the most part in Hawaii and California from the late 1950s and early '60s, director Stacy Peralta traces the rise of surfing's appeal to young men looking to test themselves in an unorthodox (and sexy) milieu--of "living life to the fullest," as former surfer-turned-screenwriter John Milius (Big Wednesday) puts it at one point. Lengthy chapters on the glories of Oahu's Makaha and the "superstition and dread" that accompanied the big-wave challenge of Waimea Bay are riveting and sometimes heroic, particularly told through the memories of surf legend Greg Noll. Great material, too, about the deadly wonders of surfing Mavericks, California, where the rocks will get one if the violent tides don't. --Tom Keogh




Stills from Riding Giants (Click for larger image)

Check out this action packed Surf DVD, 'Riding Giants Special Edition'..

Baseball Coaching:The 59 Minute Baseball Practice

During more than a decade of coaching youth baseball teams, Marty Shupak realized that he kept seeing coaches and teams put hour after hour into practices that became so repetitive that they served only to bore the Little Leaguers forced to endure them. He sought to remedy the problem by devising practice routines that can take less than an hour, and which consist of drills that the kids will not only find fun and interesting, but will help them consistently develop their baseball skills. In this video, Shupak and a band of Little Leaguers demonstrate more than 30 different drills that can be used on the practice field with an entire team as well as by parents and children in a backyard session. The drills focus on basics such as base running, hitting, and fielding, but they often provide a wrinkle designed to keep the kids enthused, such as a defensive drill in which fielders practice throwing from third to first while in a kneeling position, or hitting drills in which a very soft ball made of old rags and masking tape is used. This video is not flashy yet the camera work is very professional, and the practical advice is imparted in an engaging manner. --Robert J. McNamara

The best selling instructional video "the 59 Minute Baseball Practice" is now available in high quality DVD format.The Youth Sports Club is the national leader in instructional sports videos being the producer of such best selling titles as "48 Championship Basketball Drills", "Winning Baseball Strategies", "Championship Soccer Drills" and the award winning "Backyard Baseball Drills". This DVD format will enable parents and coaches to show the 34 drills right on a laptop computer at the playing field.

Morning Light

MORNING LIGHT (DVD/WS 1.85/SP-SUB/FR-BOTH)

Morning Light concerns the 2006 TRANSPAC, an annual, open-ocean race between sailing sloops crossing the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii. The film focuses on the team manning the Morning Light, 15 young men and women who undergo intensive training over months and then are left to their own devices racing against sailors far more experienced than themselves. Morning Light is divided between a competition section that resembles a broken-hearts-and-all MTV reality show (with a total of 20 people vying for the 15 spots) and the race itself. Neither is particularly fascinating: the former just feels like an extension of television, while the racing action is dominated by technical speak and visuals that will largely appeal to viewers who have spent a lot of time on boats. The rest of us end up sitting through large patches of documentary footage that don't provide a clear understanding of what's going on or what any of it really means to the individuals involved. Morning Light did not have to look and move like cable sports channel fodder. The film could have more closely resembled, say, a Warren Miller winter sports documentary, which is almost guaranteed to appeal to non-sportsmen. As it is, a viewer feels like a fifth wheel (or the sailing equivalent). --Tom Keogh

Thicker Than Water

Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 11/25/2003

Joan Wulff's Dynamics of Fly Casting: From Solid Basics to Advanced Techniques

A totally dynamic DVD adaption! Joan shows and explains the mechanics and techniques she has been developing and refining for more than 60 years. You will learn the important elements of great casting, vital hand and arm movements, practice routines that will teach you how to make almost all kinds of casts, along with some very special tips. You will learn everything...from Solid Basics to Advanced Techniques. DVD, 90 min.

Shock Waves

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 09/30/2003

Step Into Liquid [Blu-ray]

A POLICE DETECTIVE IS IN CHARGE OF THE INVESTIGATION OF A BRUTALMURDER, IN WHICH A BEAUTIFUL AND SEDUCTIVE WOMAN COULD BE INVOLVED.

Thanks to Dana Brown's delightful Step Into Liquid, the surfing scene in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, should get a healthy boost. That's because Brown, in the tradition of his father, filmmaker Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer), has captured dazzling images of surfers riding curls in some of the world's most exotic--and sometimes unlikely--places. Besides the action on Lake Michigan, Brown leads us to Costa Rica, where the sport's senior elite (including Summer star Robert August) prove they still have the moves, and Oahu's North Shore, where the legendary Pipeline inspires this quote: "It's so scary, maybe you die a little." Most entertaining is a segment in County Donegal, where the American Malloy brothers startle the locals and meet their Irish counterparts on the grayest ocean imaginable. Great personal stories here, including the tale of Northern California's Dale Webster, who has never missed a day on the waves in 30 years. --Tom Keogh

Jack Johnson - September Sessions

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: JOHNSON,JACK
Title: SEPTEMBER SESSIONS
Street Release Date: 12/17/2002
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP