I met Jack Gillen while I was on my honey moon in Kona. It was a perfect, fast friendship. This whole site and everything else is actually all his fault. He taught me to stand up paddle and ever since- I have been hooked. One of my favorite Jack quotes is “I like things that work” and for him, it is Indian Club swinging and other types of alternative exercise.
This was actually not really supposed to be a shoot for this site. We were shooting a workout video featuring him and his Indian clubs. Jeff Smith of JBS Productions was running the production, I was coming over just to help out. Jack was nice enough to let me stay in his studio below the main house. It was awesome.
The night time paddle was the neatest. Paddling with Jack in his backyard at sunset was something I will always remember. The pictures that came as a result are amazing. Of course, he refused to get into the water- why – sharks! If there is one thing that I think gives Jack the heebee jeepies it is sharks. It then got me concerned “it is sunset, they are nocturnal” my mind keep saying as I dipped into the water to get the insane sunset shots we came away with.
Check out the photo gallery from the shooting:
How We Shot the Downwind Footage
The downwind footage of Jack was only possible because of his long time paddle partner, Ekolu Kalama. As Ekolu said the day we shot off of Molokai ” I get to be your motor”. I am not sure that anyone else has shot downwind footage from an Outrigger before. I actually had never been in one in my life. And I have to admit to being a bit anxious about the whole idea. I mean, really, paddle for 16 miles in an outrigger? These guys must have had me mistaken for someone with athletic ability. Well, I hardly had to do a thing. Ekolu took care of everything – he is just as amazing as a canoer as he is a stand up paddler.
The scariest part for me was when the canoe tipped. That my friends was freaky at first then funny. I keep the camera rolling the whole time, I’ll post those shots later. The fun part for me is seeing how quickly I am jumping to get on the canoe. All I could think of that that point was “get in the boat, get in the boat, there are big fish out here!”