I recently bought and watched the climbing video ‘Sea Fever: Classic climbs of Pembroke’ – what a great production! Quite old now (2003?) I guess, but quality doesn’t age.
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was the sheer variety of content in and around climbing. The climbing itself was very varied – unusually it showed people climbing quite a lot of ‘easy’ stuff, or rather easy by the standards of a lot of climbing videos I have seen online. As such, parts of it felt like it was documenting everyday climbers just out cragging and enjoying themselves, rather than, say, people headpointing some ridiculously hard route – that is not to say that people don’t enjoy doing this or that I don’t enjoy watching these sorts of videos! Indeed, it was also really nice to see some people pushing it out on sea cliffs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dave Pickford climbing online before (apart from the clip from this film on youtube, which is where I learned this film existed). I think this part was possibly my favourite ‘hard’ section of the film.
It was amazing to see Hazel Findlay so young climbing at such a spectacular location – also really nice to see her climbing with her dad, there was something really sweet about seeing father and daughter climbing together. Steve seems like an interesting guy, and his section was a real pleasure to watch.
Really enjoyed the historical and ethical notes on the development of ‘the leap’; came across as quite in depth and I thought the Gibson/Littlejohn rivalry added some interesting spice to this. On a related note, I’m glad I found some footage of Pat Littlejohn climbing. My dad was a fan of his (I think he has a Littlejohn Harness in the loft) and it is nice to put a face to the name of the author for ‘southwest climbs’. He also has some interesting points of view on the state of trad and why he enjoys it so much.
The final reason I liked it was that it reminds me how awesome sea cliff climbing is! Though I haven’t climbed at Pembroke (though it is now even more on the list than before I watched the film), I had a great few days down at Swanage with a close friend (turned climber) last summer, and watching this reminded me of those sun drenched, salty sea sprayed, wave washed days spent adventuring round cattle troughs mainly. And on top of that, it makes me realllllly want to get back there and go get on some more great routes.
Here’s hoping for a season of cracking sea cliff climbing!
