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Blog Archive - 2011 - Heason Events

Blog Archive - 2011

20th Dec 2011 The End Draws Near

So it's been a long haul this year, choosing the films that will screen at ShAFF 2012. I've watched in the region of 200 of them and had to whittle that down to something a little more manageable....

2nd Dec 2011 Women In Adventure Films

 In the light of criticisms levelled at the BBC for the fact that there are no women on the shortlist of the Sports Personality Of The Year this year I thought I’d take a look at the films...

28th Nov 2011 What Makes A Great Adventurer?

So the National Geographic are running a competition again this year for the adventurer of the year. http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2012/vote/ It got...

21st Nov 2011 Perseverance

 I’m in the throes one more of watching a lot of adventure films as part of the selection process for next year’s Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (9-11 March). Each year the number of...

18th Oct 2011 Tickets On Sale For Alone Across Australia & Like A Lion

Tickets have just gone on sale for these two events. Both are well, well worth watching. Nov 10th - Coast To Coast & Alone Across Australia (AAA gets 7.8 / 10 on imdb) Nov 29th - Like A Lion -...

14th Oct 2011 The Broady To Be Re-Born - Refreshing

I received an interesting email a couple of days ago from a pub landlord in Sheffield who owns a bunch of successful pubs in town. If you’re from Sheffield, or ever visited Sheffield climbing...

13th Oct 2011 Nice To Get Feedback

When you work for yourself it's not often that you get any genuine feedback other than bums on seats at an event, so it was nice to get an email this week from the author of a book I recently...

3rd Oct 2011 What?s Happening?

8.20am on Saturday we pulled up to the car park at Pen Y Pass to head up for an early morning run of the Snowdon Horseshoe. We figured we’d be among the first setting off and therefore not have...

26th Sep 2011 Viral Video Boom

The past couple of years has seen a massive boom in viral videos, but plenty of people are not really sure what they are. To put the record straight, and introduce this article: A viral video is...

20th Sep 2011 A Roundup Of Fontainebleau Guidebook Reviews

Over the years I've reviewed quite a few guides to Font. Thought I would round them all up in one place: Font A Bloc - Jacky Godoffe Fontainebleau Off Piste - Jacky Godoffe 7s & 8s (Vol II) -...

13th Sep 2011 On Top Of The World

 Go back 3 or 4 years and one could argue that the UK was not really on the biking world map. Sure, Steve Peat was pretty special (and still is), but then along came the 2008 Olympics where Great...

12th Sep 2011 A Dangerous Bog

A friend in the village recently asked me if I would support him on a part of a long run he was planning around the Peak District. Having been on a few runs with him I was pretty wary. He moved to...

8th Sep 2011 Books Vs Kindle

A friend of mine recently bought a Kindle and has been raving about it. I had a go, but even though I can see it’s an impressive bit of technology, I just can’t get excited about it. There are...

7th Sep 2011 An (Un)Happy Customer

Received an emai today in response to a mail-out and thought I'd share it:   Hi Matt May have mentioned to you that watching the film about the Leadville 100 MTB race at Shaff inspired me to...

5th Sep 2011 A Silly Rule Change

 So Usain Bolt makes a false start and is disqualified from the final of the World Championships 100m. When I was a teenager the false start rule at athletics meets was fairly lenient. Each...

30th Aug 2011 Misuse Of A Word

I was on holiday in France a couple of weeks ago and was a little surprised to see a sign up outside a fast food joint (part of a national chain) advertising a 'Festival Of Bruschetta"! I'm...

23rd Aug 2011 Festival Programming - Your Thoughts

The next few weeks I'll be spending setting the wheels in motion to programme the 2012 Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. It's a great job. I get to watch all manner of adventure films and decide...

25th Jul 2011 Reel Rock Tour 2011 / 2012

Last year the Reel Rock Tour trailer was a massive internet hit. To date it has had nearly a quarter of a million hits on Youtube! This year's trailer is due out on August 15th. The tour...

25th Jul 2011 Stanage Challenge

 Mid summer challenges are something I’ve always enjoyed. A few years back when I worked with planetFear we actually ran a competition to encourage people to take up the mantle and rise to the...

14th Jul 2011 Another Year, Another River Race

Another year, another river race. I try not to call it a raft race as that encourages people to think that the rive in question (the Derwent) is navigable by rafts made of oil drums and planks of...

27th Jun 2011 Kids vs Adults

 Feedback from Cliffhanger 2010 told us that some people were a little miffed that there weren't enough activities aimed at adults. It's a tricky dilemma this. We obviously take feedback...

17th Jun 2011 Grindleford Fell Race

 It’s a cool and breezy evening. Somehow the local cricket team have allowed a couple of hundred cars to park on their hallowed turf and the passengers from said cars are part socialising,...

16th Jun 2011 Skyler Weeks Interview

King of the Dyno" Skyler Weekes will be competing at Cliffhanger for the 5th year in a row - having broken the world dyno record for 4 years running. Lissa Cook asked Skyler what draws him back to...

DSC 0005-1 6th Jun 2011 New Cliffhanger Website Poses Twitter Conundrum

Hammer Design have done it again! Gone and designed a lovely new website for one of my events again. Last time it was www.shaff.co.uk. This time is is www.cliff-hanger.co.uk. Check it out. It's...

13th May 2011 Things Were Different Back Then...

My Dad sent me this yesterday. It's a word for word copy of his diary, written aged 14, in 1952, of a solo bike trip from Nottingham to North Wales. Apart from the fact that he was cycling massive...

6th May 2011 Old Articles

Thought I would reference a few old article that I wrote for planetFear a few years back. Most are still as relevant today as they were back then. Enjoy. Turkish Delight South African Climbing...

20th Apr 2011 Electoral Reform?

I just spent an interesting half an hour reading up on the proposed electoral reform, from First Past The Post to Alternative Vote. I've pretty much always voted tactically due to the places I...

19th Apr 2011 A Very Depressing Day

The sun is shining and we have some lovely friends visiting from Nepal, but I've just read a thoroughly depressing article on the Guardian website about Greg Mortenson. A few months back I blogged...

18th Apr 2011 Weather Patterns

For years whenever I have been abroad and talking to foreigners about the UK I have told them that the best months to visit are May and September. To my mind they get the best of the weather, the...

11th Apr 2011 Grandad and Grandson

What a gorgous weekend in Wales. Normally we drive over in nice weather on the Friday night and get all excited, only to be gutted the following morning when it dawns wet and cold. Not so this...

25th Mar 2011 Scottish Midges To Be 800 Times As Numerous in 2011

Ok, so it's a fairly well known fact that statistics can be portrayed and manipulated to skew a message, but the title of this blog post, even if you reduce it by an order of magnitude is enough...

22nd Mar 2011 Guidebook Trust

A warning. I have just reviwed the latest publicaton from Rockfax, a great guidebook to sport climbing and deep water soloing in Mallorca.  On page 287 there are 3 DWS routes listed at Santanyi...

21st Mar 2011 A Lady With Vertigo

A few months back I posted news that I had taken on a PR specialist to help promote Heason Events events. Lissa Cook is her name and she's be doing good things! I've just done the number crunching...

18th Mar 2011 Giving Of Time

I just got an email from one of the volunteers from ShAFF 2011. Not only was she a star at the festival, helping out for nothing more than a Tshirt and some tea and coffee (she did get to watch a...

14th Mar 2011 Oscars

I can never quite get my head around the Oscars. In the past few weeks I've managed to watch a fair few of the nominated films and I reckon they are a mixed bag. True Grit (just can't say or write...

10th Mar 2011 Grants & Awards

 Reasonably regularly I get emails from individuals heading off on expeditions and looking for money to help them on their way. I always send a polite response - I have been in this position...

2nd Mar 2011 Sheffield - Tha Adventure Capital Of The UK?

Adventure Capital Of The UK. It's a phrase that bugs me a little really. How do you qualify as an adventure capital? It's basically a marketing ploy. Lot's of places lay claim to it. Fort William...

11th Feb 2011 Celebrity Fundraisers

I received an interesting bit of mail (in the post strangely enough!) a few days ago from Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Last year he was named the UK's top celebrity fundraiser by JustGiving. That piqued...

8th Feb 2011 Self Publishing

Johnny Dawes is writing a book. He's decided to self-publish it. Sounds a daunting task, but a little detective work on Google brings up plenty of options for self publishing. My Dad and my...

7th Feb 2011 Red Bull

I went for a run last night with some mates. It's the 5th Sunday evening in a row I have made it out. The more Sunday's I do the greater the pressure not to miss one it seems! Yesterday afternoon...

4th Feb 2011 Blown Away

I broke a rule this year. Every year I make sure that I have watched every film that we screen at ShAFF so that there are no surprises. Sounds obvious, but when you are watching over 200 films and...

3rd Feb 2011 Night Running

Am doing a reasonable amount of night running at the moment and experimenting with different lighting methods. I reviewed the LED Lenser P7 recently which has been my favourite option for a while....

31st Jan 2011 Frustrations of Training

I was training at the Works the other day and sat, somewhat humbled, when a young lad I'd never seen before nonchalantly climbed up and then back down a pretty hard looking tufa problem on the...

25th Jan 2011 Are We Climbers Selfish?

So over the past couple of months I've watched in excess of 200 adventure films in preparation for ShAFF. It's very interesting taking the different genres of adventure sport and looking at the...

13th Jan 2011 Tardy Mountaineers

I'm not going to name names and shame anybody, but am somewhat surprised by the tardy nature of British mountaineers. I administrate the Nick Estcourt Award - a grant awarded annually to a...

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