We’re having to take a short break from the Progression Mobile videos this week but instead we have the whole of the Blind Judge 3 chapter from the Progression Professional DVD, available to watch online.

Watch Aaron Hadlow, as he demonstrates the Raley to Blind, Blind Judge and the Blind Judge 3, a full 15 minutes worth on in-depth instruction that should open your eyes to some of the core freestyle tricks.

Whether you’re looking to be learn these tricks or simply understand what the difference is between them, this sample chapter from the DVD should give you a great insight into fast and furious world of freestyle kitesurfing!

We’ve had the Progression Mobile podcast accepted with iTunes so you can now get your mobile videos directly into your iPod easier than ever:

iTunes link

Another week, another batch of Progression Mobile videos:

• Beginner - Riding Toeside
• Intermediate - Aerial Transition
• Advanced - Hook-In Kiteloop
• Professional - Front Mobe

I just came across this fun web app called Wordle. You give it a load of text and it creates a word cloud of the most popular words – check out the one below created from the new Kite Landboarding script:

Pretty clever stuff, and interesting to see how important kite skills are!

Check out the next batch of Progression Mobile Videos:

• Beginner - Launching the kite
• Intermediate - Forward Loops
• Advanced - S-Bend
• Professional - NIS

So far we’ve had over 5000 views/downloads of the first week videos, so hopefully kiters are finding them helpful.

Planned for next week:

• Beginner - Riding Toeside
• Intermediate - Jump Transition
• Advanced - Hook-In Kiteloop
• Professional - Front Mobe

The Boys editing away...

For a long time Progression has primarily been me, Rob Claisse, writing scripts, filming and editing, and so its can be pretty slow to get things done. (I’m talking actual production here, where as Chris has been the lynch pin of the office dealing with customer support, retailer sales and all the other distribution stuff).

The success of the Kiteboarding Progression DVDs has allowed us to start thinking about lot of other content and services all based around the Progression ideals. And getting all this done is too much for one man so we’re happy to announce some new additions to the team…

Will Milne – www.williammilne.com

Some of you will know of Will either by name or by the stunning photos publish in all the best kitesurfing mags. Will previously was staff photographer / assistant editor for KiteWorld magazine, his filming skills can be seen in the latest Andy Gordon masterpiece and his last trip away was with Mr Hadlow (filming and some amazing photos that you’ll see in print very soon!). So we’re pretty stoked to have Will on board filming and editing the upcoming Progression DVDs –  he’s hard at work at the moment stitching together some Kite Landboarding footage…

Interns

This summer we were able to offer some unpaided work to a summer intern – yep free labor is always good, but hopefully we offer a lot in return and give some great experience back – no tea making and photocoping at the Fat Sand office! Danny Morrice has been the first to get involved! A local Shoreham lad, Danny has been dropped in at the deep end, learning about editing, Macs and Final Cut Pro, along with dealing with my annoying attention to detail when it comes to “The Way”  to edit Progression content! But he’s listened to it all and come through with flying colors - check out the mobile videos to see alot of his hard work.

We’ll be looking for more interns later in the year, so let us know if you fancy getting involved (thought there is a bit of waiting list at the moment – there seems to be a lot of people who want to work for free – woohoo!)

Lets not forget the rest!

Along with Chris Kyle , running the office we also have a thriving Video Production business that has nothing to do with Kitesurfing or instructional video! But what it mean is we have a great team of people to use on Progression if we can find some time between all their projects – Jon and Ed complete the editing/filming/motion graphics team whilst Joe Coyne is our New Business Manager extraordinaire, so if you’re in need of video for your event, product, service, internet, dvd or tv give Joe a buzz and see what we can do!

Just to let you all know that we also have the Progression Mobile videos available through our new YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/learnwithprogression

We’ll also have the videos available on KiteForum.tv and KiteWorld.tv very soon!

UPDATE: Videos are now available on KiteForum.tv

RECOMMENDATION: By default your videos on YouTube will probably play in standard quality – clip through from the channel page to the individual video and then click the “watch in High Quality” link at the bottom right of the player – and enjoy the vastly better video quality

And one final thing, with the videos on YouTube you have an easy way to embed them in your own website or blog – just grab the embed code and away you go!

We’re really excited about the release of our new website for Progression Mobile.

For a long time our customers have been asking for a way to easily view their Progression DVD content on their mobile devices. Though it has been possible to extract videos from the DVDs, this content is not optimised for the smaller screens and viewing situations of these mobile devices – iPods, iPhone, mobile phones etc. 

When you are trying any new trick or technique you always want a few pointers from an experienced friend just before you leave the beach, but for many kitesurfers there isn’t someone who fits that bill. Enter Progression Mobile – load a video on to your mobile device and watch the short, 1-2 minute video down the beach before you hit the water. The videos offer 4 or 5 precise tips, accompanied by repetitive video clips to hammer home the points, so you can easily recall and visualise them once you are on the water. They aren’t trying to teach you how to master the whole trick, but simply the elements you must remember if you have any chance of pulling it off on your first attempts!

These videos are a FREE download available in a variety of formats from the Progression Mobile website and each week we’ll release 4 videos, one for each of the Progression Skill Levels – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional.

We’re launching with the following:

• Beginner – Waterstarts
• Intermediate – Backloop
• Advanced – Riding Blind
• Professional – Back 2 Wrapped

Then coming Next Week:

• Beginner – Launching the kite
• Intermediate – Forward Loops
• Advanced – S-Bend
• Professional – NIS

We also are excited to hear your comments and suggestions on both the individual videos but also what you think about the Progression Mobile concept – leave comments under each video or drop us an email.

And we have lots of features planned, here are just a few of them:

• Feeds for each skill level so you can download them easily each month
• How-to videos and an FAQ with help on how to get the videos on to your iPod or mobile phone (or any mp3/video player).
• More video formats – what formats do you think we’re missing?
• Mobile phone website, so you can download directly to your mobile phone in the best format for your phone
• iPhone website, so you can watch videos online from your iPhone
• More videos!!!

With the new domain name for all things Progression – www.progression.me – we now have a blog where we can keep you all up to date on everything that is going on with Progression, and its not just Kitesurfing and DVDs – lots of interesting stuff coming soon! Full post coming shortly…