Welcome to the Candy Coated Diaries. These diaries will lead you on a journey following the life of professional kitesurfers Jo Wilson and Jalou Langeree. Jo and Jalou invite you to follow their kitesurfing, their off the kite antics and to offer you an opportunity to get to know them on a more personal level. This is the first of the Candy Coated Diaries stripping down Jo and Jalou to their origins stage by stage. Diary 1 filmed by Blue Juice Multimedia in Portugal during August 2010.

This is the man that is no stranger to word record breaking challenges – from the attempts in the 1980’s to make the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing (his first attempt in the “Virgin Atlantic Challenger” led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter), attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon, crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais in an amphibious vehicle and bizarrely In March 2010 trying for the world record of putting a round of golf in the dark at the Black Light Mini Golf in the Docklands Melbourne.

This time Branson planned to kitesurf across the English Channel with his son, daughter and various other kitesurfing friends (including 5 x World Champion Arron Hadlow and Course Racing World Champion Stef Bridge) breaking three records while doing so (largest group of kitesurfers to cross the Channel, oldest person to kitesurf across the Channel and the fastest kitesurf crossing of the Channel). I was onboard to film and photograph the event for Virgin and I was honoured to be invited to take part in a record breaking challenge!

Conditions were favourable on the first attempt on 24th August. The attempt started well and the party were 5 miles into the crossing before safety concerns forced the group back. Whilst the conditions were favourable for the kitesurfers, the Channel swell was getting too large and the wind too strong for the safety boats to continue. Frustrated, and after some heated discussions, Branson turned back.

My new mate

I look forward to covering the next attempted crossing, hopefully within the next four weeks – thanks must go to Virgin Active and of course, Sir Richard Branson – an absolute legend.

Richard Branson Channel Crossing – Images by Craig Sawyer

Searching for wind with Jalou Langeree

I have just returned from a few days in Portugal, a location that at this time of year should deliver perfect kitesurf conditions and locations – wind, sun, lagoons and waves. Unfortunately this time round the Country was going to make us work extra hard to get the footage and photos we wanted in such a short period of time.

As a low pressure settled across most of Europe we were greeted each morning in Peniche with windless fog and drizzle and temps of around 16 degrees. The mornings were spent making calls to ‘those in the know’ and kite schools up and down the coastline, checking Wind Guru and generally cursing the miserable weather. Whispers of wind filtered through by lunchtime at locations that were generally atleast 200km way in either direction. The afternoons were spent driving up and down the A8 and realising that selecting ‘Do not avoid unpaved roads’ on a TomTom can leave you driving down a track that at points was so narrow it would be tricky enough to walk across!

But all this effort on a trip that should have been so easy made the times we finally found wind and sun all the more rewarding. I was lucky enough to enjoy these moments with Jo Wilson (Naish, Protest) and Jalou Langeree (Naish, O’Neill, Ben & Jerrys) – and the footage and stills are a testament to their dedication to make the most of what Portugal ‘didn’t’ chuck at us.

Video and pics to follow.

This event was one of four kiteivals scheduled for the season, which include kitesurfing, course racing, land boarding and land buggying.  Many of these disciplines take place at the same time and this can cause a logistical headache for me, trying to be in all places at the right time, just as the action happens.  The event arenas are spread out on land and water making the most of the space to provide a safe competitive area and it certainly keeps me fit running up and down the length of a four mile beach for three days.

Although the wind did not show on Sunday, all events were run and completed in the first two days of the competition and this gave me a little more time to head back to the studio and get on with the edit, finished in record time, online and viewable to all by Tuesday evening.

Next up Ayr, Scotland, next month!

The biggest challenge for me was the incredibly tight deadlines and quick turnaround on my work throughout the week. Each day the event website was updated with photos and a blog from the previous day. Every evening the video tapes from two cameras where logged and transferred to the mobile editing suite. During the day I edited, colour graded and mixed an appropriately pumping soundtrack, all while travelling between checkpoints. In 6 days I covered 2500 miles, captured and processed 18 hours of high definition video footage, took over 1200 images and edited a 15 minute video which received a standing ovation when it was shown at The Grand Hotel, Brighton, during the final night party. Oh, and I got to party a bit too!

You can find out more information about the BKSA here.

Situated on the Red Sea, Zafarana Beach Resort lies to the south of Cairo and the north of Hurghada. The lagoon offers both perfect conditions for beginners and experts alike, there is plenty of room for everyone and with waist deep water with only sand under your feet there is no excuse not to try those new moves!

As well as the 4 students on the intensive week long course, we were joined by Dan Sweeney, current UK British Junior Champion, his brother, Oli Sweeney and John from Stormriders. The purpose of the trip was to produce a short promotional video for the Kitesurf Kings Overseas Clinics, and podcast and still image media content for Dan Sweeney as he enters the 2010 UK competition season.