Ages ago now, from the front of a windsurfing magazine, I got a free DVD called Escape from Pressure. It must have been 7 or 8 years ago, maybe 10. Before I started kitesurfing anyway. It was one of the best DVDs I ever got, even though it was free. It should be on MPORA here if you’re interested and some of it is on Youtube here with a link to a download . There were a couple of things; there was very little talking and a lot of windsurfing. And some great music – it was the reason I signed up to iTunes to track down the title track, Escape from Pressure which I couldn’t find anywhere.

I’ve a bunch of watersports DVDs that I have, some of which came free with magazines and some of which I bought. Apart from the Whitelines snowboarding one which was average, I really like all of them, because they are pure escapism. When you’re sitting in a freezing cold Dublin, there’s a lot to be said for dragging out a Cabrinha DVD and watching Andre Philip ripping it up in Antigua, or the guys on Escape from Pressure ripping it up all over the world including the one place I really want to go which is the Cocos Islands. In the sunshine. You could be negative and feel jealous or you could be positive and say feckit, I’m going to go there.

If people have surf/windsurf/kitesurf DVDs that they got free from the front of magazines that are functioning as coasters, gathering dust that they don’t want any more, send them my way. I’ll more than make use of them. Don’t really care how old they are provided they are predominantly action and not so much interview. The best surf DVD I own is probably the Customs DVD that came “free” with the Billabong Odyssey DVD. Yeah, the big waves were cool but still….