NEWBRIDGE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - HotAches Productions, producers of the new climbing movie ‘Committed, have decided to release some video interviews containing a “series of ‘extras’ to accompany the new movie Committed, due out next week.”

First up is James Pearson discussing his successful ascent of Grit’s hardest E10 to date. Podcast can be found here

Image: courtesy of HotAches Productions. James Pearson

- Neal :) -

NEWBRIDGE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - O.k., I normally don’t post specifically about these sort of things but having received an email from Dave MacLeod today promoting it, I thought it would be worth giving a mention. As it’s about to enter winter, we’ll all need some inspiration to keep us sane when the weather isn’t playing ball and we’re stuck indoors.

The makers of E11, last year’s classic and winner of numerous awards, have released their latest movie, Committed.
Basically, the official press releases sum up the movie: “A year at the cutting edge of hardcore trad climbing……
One theme is consistent: Committed.
Some of the highlights include James Pearson on Grit’s hardest route, The Promise E10, Sonnie’s visit to Rhapsody E11, myself repeating Divided Years, Blind Vision, Trauma and other E8s and E7’s onsight. There’s Katherine Shirrmacher doing her first E7, Jude Spanken cruising E6 onsight. Oh yeah and what about falls? Alan Cassidy hitting the deck from the crux of Yes Yes, rolling around in eye watering pain afterwards (you’ll see what I mean!), Neil Mawson taking a harrowing groundfall from Meshuga “the route you are not supposed to fall off”, Adam and James throwing themselves off the last move of Angel’s Share E8. Adventure, fear and inspiration. 78 minutes plus DVD extras.”
And of course, Dave himself, cranking up some hard routes of his own :)

Anyway as an added bonus (and the reason behind Dave’s email) was to let me know that Dave is bundling an e-book with the DVD if you purchase it through his own personal site.
In short, “I’ve put together a free E-book to go with the Committed DVD to add a little extra to the film. The film is about hard trad – the E-book is about how to go out and do it yourself. How to Climb Hard Trad is a 5 chapter printable PDF e-book…..It won’t be available anywhere else.” (Quote from Dave’s site).

Direct link to the Dave’s page is here

Trailer for the movie can be found here on Hot Ache’s website

- Neal :) -

WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - Another DVD but this time of a different sport.
I’ve been trawling Burton’s website in the hope of finding this and have had no luck through Google, but since I’ve just been to the world premiere, I thought I’d post a quick entry.
The Burton Open is currently being held here in Wanaka, New Zealand and as part of the event, they premiered this year’s new DVD of their pro team in action, ‘Thanks in Advance’.
Considering some of them hadn’t even seen the footage before it was shown, it made for interesting viewing! And with all the big names of snowboarding in the room, there was a great buzz.

In short, the DVD has no real order to it, but the footage is pretty incredible covering exotic locations from the usuals of France, Canada and New Zealand to more exotic locations like Chile and Iceland. As always with a snowboarding DVD, the footage was stunning and proves what is possible on a snowboard. With the original footage of the 9.9meter jump on a quarter pipe and the boarder in question almost crashing heavily after over-rotating, this DVD will easily keep you occupied for the 45minute duration.
Unfortunately I’ve no idea when it’ll appear as there’s no record of it on Burton’s website yet!

- Neal :) -

Direct link is here
- Neal :) -