2005 NPFF running at high water!

Come to the 22^nd National Paddling Film Festival, February 26, noon until 1 am at the Lexington Convention Center, Lexington, KY. 

 

The 2005 National Paddling Film Festival is running at high water.  No eddying out at this year’s competition with continuous action from the likes of Eric Link with Twitch V, featuring Tao Berman, Josh Bechtel, Eric Seymour and Ben Stookesberry on rivers from Alaska to Argentina.  And Olaf Obsommer’s Sickline 3 which takes us to Italy, Norway and New Zealand. Perennial favorites and former Paddlers’ Choice winners Rick Gusic and Milt Aitken both have entries, as does the intrepid whitewater club PDX from the northwest coast. Vince Shay’s footage of surf kayaking in Indonesia has a poignant undertone when watched with the knowledge of the complete devastation wrought by the tsunami at the end of December. And those are just a few of the videos in the lineup.  It should be an incredible competition because many of the artists have won awards at previous NPFFs.

 

We had almost sixteen hours of entries which we had to prune to just under eight hours, and there was a lot of good footage left ‘on the cutting room floor.’ We want to thank all the film makers (and the boaters who participated in their entries) for their great efforts at capturing the excitement and beauty of boating, and for their contributions to the rivers through entering their projects in the NPFF.

 

In addition to all the great videos from amateurs, accomplished hobbyists and professionals, we have a still image contest which is accepting entries until February 18.  We encourage everyone to look through their archives for something to submit.  There will be on-line voting to pick the semi-finalists during the week before the NPFF, with the on-site audience picking the final winner the day of the festival.

 

Our special guest is expert paddler and quintessential whitewater instructor Kent Ford, who will entertain us with humorous anecdotes about whitewater instruction as well as tales of the Olympic course at Athens.  With his years of experience teaching, coaching and running rivers all over the world, he will be a great addition to this year’s festival. His talk should start at around 8 p.m. on Saturday, after the screening of the last entry in the competition.

 

Many of the film makers will be joining us in Lexington, as well as some of our sponsor representatives, including some members of Team Wavesport.  There will be lots of opportunity to mingle with these paddlers and artists at the competition and the Awards Party which begins at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. 

 

Sponsors this year have been very generous with their donations to the Silent Auction. We will have several boats for sale, several instruction packages including one from Madawaska Kanu Centre and a wide range of paddling and outdoor gear. The sponsors are too numerous to mention, but please check our web page for their names, and let them know you appreciate their support of the NPFF.

Your NPFF ticket gets you entry into the films, the Silent Auction, Kent’s talk, and the PARTY, all in one single venue for the first time in many years.  The newly remodeled Lexington Convention Center is an attractive, spacious venue where you can easily mingle with friends, where the Silent Auction will have plenty of room, and where you can visit whitewater industry booths and conservation exhibits.

 

The NPFF has been raising money for river conservation and access for over twenty years now, all through volunteer efforts and the generosity of the whitewater industry.  Who benefits from all the fun?  We all do, because the proceeds go to organizations doing good work to protect the rivers we love and our access to them.  American Whitewater has been a longtime partner and beneficiary of the NPFF, as has the ACA. Other groups which may benefit from the proceeds include the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the Chattooga Conservancy and Kentucky Waterways Alliance.

See our website for more information and details on attending

 

Tickets are available on-line.

 

The NPFF is produced by volunteers from the Bluegrass Wildwater Association.

 

 

NPFF would like to thank its great sponsors for the tremendous support: