UKC

An esoteric but most excellent adventure to the alluring Church Rock sea stack near Bosherston in Pembroke using an incongruous armada of sea vessels. Much to our suprise the stack was duly reached and no-one drowned, drifted half-way to America or required rescuing by a Sea King taxi. Consequently the photogenic "crag classic" VS called "Man Underboard" was climbed and filmed before putting up 3 new routes so happy daze!

Watch the video: http://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=2314

In reply to UKC Videos:

Of the routes we climbed "Man Underboard" is the one that seemed least likely to end up landing on the belayer.

In reply to UKC Videos:

The 'super classic' route on Mowing Word is called Heart of Darkness, not Heart of the Sun.

In reply to John2:


<laughs> Yep John you are right in all the excitement and guano I got my "Heart" routes mixed up!

In reply to UKC Videos:

Nice video.

In reply to UKC Videos:

Another great video, keep them coming. A few years ago I swam out to Church Rock out of interest to see if there were any good lines on it. I had no idea that there were actually some routes !
I had to make a hasty retreat though as some cormorants were dive bombing my head...

In reply to UKC Videos:

What a brilliant little video, thanks for sharing!

In reply to UKC Videos:

Hiya Dave.

Another really good little video. Again really liked the way you spend some time showing the area and the nature. Love the fact you were under tow on the way out and the fastfoward bit at the end capturing the setting sun.

ps are you a weather god? you always seem to be blessed with amazing weather!!

In reply to UKC Videos:

Always a pleasure to see another of these - thanks Dave. I knew I caught you humming the Love theme from Spartacus under your breath the other day. T'other Dave's timelapse at the end was beautiful.

In reply to Matt Smith:


Cheers Matt yeah there were 4 routes on the stack in the latest CC guide before we went out for a poke around and our group put up another 3 on our visit making 7 in total now. Anyway a couple more videos are in pre-production so watch this space...

In reply to highaltitudebarista:


Hey Mr K many thanks for the positive feedback and glad you enjoyed it!

In reply to SGD:




Hey SGD
Many thanks for the positive feedback and glad you enjoyed the film!
It was decided by the safety committee that the majestic HMS Bellend (£11.99 from Amazon) should be attached to the 2 seat sit-on kayak just in case the dinghy and I started drifting too far towards America due to incompetence and general lack of ability...
No jedi weather-god skills I'm afraid, just opportunistic smash and grab raids when our friends at the Met Office think the sun is going to shine!
Cheers
Dave

In reply to UKC Videos:

This is great ! What an adventure ! To set sail in a dinghy which looks like it might capsize in a swimming pool is a big E grade !

As with all Bald Eagle's videos it features a rock which looks really interesting and a day where everyone has a brilliant time.

As usual I'm looking forward to the next one !

In reply to Bobling:


Cheers Bobling and you are right about the theme from Spartacus, though it was also used as the opening music from the 70's Beeb classic "The Onedin Line" about the rise of a shipping line which I was "tongue in cheek" referring too! Yeah Dave's timelapse at the end is superb so well done him!

In reply to I like climbing:

The temptation to paddle up alongside and pull the bung out of the dinghy was almost unbearable

In reply to UKC Videos:
Three of us did just this in the early '90s, paddling out in a double and single kayak. The sea was far from calm on the way out and the swell made for a most interesting landing on Church Rock. While we were climbing the wind really got up and the swell became huge and with waves now breaking over the Rock, there was no chance of getting back in the kayaks in the normal way. So I held the back end of the Toppolino Duo while the other two got in and when they were ready I let go and they made a spectacular seal launch into the now raging sea. My only option was to chuck my boat into the sea, jump in and swim after it. The two in the Toppo managed to empty it and hold it steady in the huge swell while I climbed in.

The paddle back to the beach was epic; the sea was now so big that we couldn't see each other in the swell at times and the final coup de grâce involved some totally gripping surfing in on huge 2-3m dumping waves.

Over the years, the climbing on Church Rock has faded from memory. However, the epic of getting back to the shore definitely hasn't.

There must be a moral to this story somewhere ....

In reply to UKC Videos:

I really look forwards to Bald Eagles short films and this latest one is beautifully produced and didn't dissapoint at all.

You show the viewer a lot more than just the climb and the climbs you choose to film are never brick hard, even I can contemplate giving them a go which is pretty unique

cheers

Gaz

In reply to Dave Williams:
Sounds terrifying, Dave. I borrowed a Zodiac with a reasonably powerful outboard in the 80s to get photos of all the Castlemartin crags for the CC guide (never used them as they were crap!). The sea wasn't flat calm but it certainly wasn't rough, but even so I was scared shitless!7

Nice vid Bald Eagle!

In reply to jon:

The RIB trip on which we took the photos for the new guides was pretty exciting - the owner neglected to advise us that is was so powerful we would fall in if we didn't hang on tight. Fortunately no one did fall in.

In reply to jon:


It was utterly terrifying. The phrase 'rapidly spiralling out of control' comes to mind - and jumping into the boiling sea literally took a huge leap of faith. Definitely the most frightening thing I've ever done in a kayak (and I did some pretty scary things with Terry Storry in my time.)

Is it still summer in Provence?

In reply to Dave Williams:


No!

In reply to jon:

That seemed to be a pretty emphatic no.

Oh well, at least it gives you more time for visits to Mr. Bricolage.

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PS Apologies to everyone else for going way off topic ...

In reply to UKC Videos:

Another lovely down to earth video of people having fun. Nicely shot and made. Congrats to all involved, bring on the next one!

In reply to I like climbing:




Just a couple of quick responses as super busy so many thanks ILC for your kind comments. Yep even though it was quite a calm sea it was still quite precarious in the HMS Bellend and the safety committee had justifiably decided to tether the dinghy to the kayak so I would not drift out halfway to America if it all went a bit pear shaped...

In reply to Dave Williams:


Bloody hell Dave, like Jon said that sounded absolutely terrifying so top effort and glad you survived to tell the tale!

In reply to UKC Videos:

What a great video Dave, and glad you haven't lost touch with the true spirit of adventure and all round silliness !! I chuckled when I noticed you were getting a crafty tow whilst still occasionally plopping your oars in to make it look like you were actually rowing....what a larf !!.....

In reply to Gazlynn:





Hey Gaz really appreciate the positive comments and I'm far to lardy, weak and feeble nowadays for anything "brick hard"! However still always on the look-out for an adventure and a bit of a giggle with my mates...

In reply to James Rushforth:


Hey James many thanks for the positive feedback and a couple more videos in pre-production so watch this space...

In reply to HappyTrundler:


Hey Mr Trundler many thanks for the positive feedback!
And sorry to take you to task but I'll have you know that when sat in the HMS Bellend and not filming, I was rowing like a dervish and making little contribution + less than zero impact to our forward propulsion to Church Rock...
Cheers Dave

In reply to UKC Videos:

Marvellous! I really enjoyed this, and so did my (non-climbing) husband because we love the Pembrokeshire coast.

In reply to BALD EAGLE:

I know it's a while ago but I was wanting to watch again one of your very early videos: the one of Amphitheatre Buttress, in May 2012 I think - but I can't find it now. Can you post a link?
Lizzie

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Hi Lizzie and many thanks for the great feedback! You've got to love peerless Pemby!

In reply to BusyLizzie:



Hey Lizzie you can find Amphitheatre Buttress towards the bottom of the page on the following link of my video channel!
http://www.youtube.com/user/chdslDave/videos