Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Jon Bowermaster on BBC's The World


Our favorite ocean explorer Jon Bowermaster is off once again on another aquatic adventure, this time to French Polynesia, where he is filming a new IMAX film with Stephen Low and Kelly Slater. Jon was interviewed by the BBC on the new film and you can listen to what he's up to by clicking here.

In the interview, Jon reveals that they are in the process of making the biggest surfing film of all time off the coast of Tahiti. The film is not only being made for IMAX, but it is also in 3D as well. The team has mounted cameras on the end of the boards to catch the action up close and personal. The film should be finished up over the next couple of months, and we can look forward to it coming to an IMAX Theater down the line.

And be sure to check out Jon's dispatches from French Polynesia, where he's been posting his thoughts on a variety of topics including the impact of warming oceans on weather patterns and his travels through the Cook Islands.

The blog post that I personally found the most interesting however, was this one on Ocean Warming in which Jon talks about how scary it is to be swimming in the ocean, more than 12,000 feet deep at that point, without fins on. He ponders how long he could last out there under those conditions. Those thought mirrored my own when I dropped into the Pacific off the coast of Australia earlier this year, when I was snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. To protect the Reef you aren't allowed to use fins either, and when I jumped into the water, I was well off shore. There was a certain amount of panic that ran through me as I realized there was nothing below me, for hundreds of meters, and it was hard work to stay afloat without fins on. I eventually adjusted and swam into the Reef, where I proceeded to have a great time watching thousands of colorful fish, but those brief moments of panic certainly stuck with me.

As always, great stuff from Jon with very insightful commentary on the health of the oceans and the cultures that depend on them.

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