BUZZLE "Buzzlemania Productions" WEB PRESENCE

Buzzlemania Productions

Boasting 49 minutes of bone-crushing action, Thunderballs - The Return of Team C won the Paddler's Choice award at the 19th annual National Paddling Film Festival largely because it's boating for/by the Common Man, and the carnage is damn funny.

Rather than impossible plunges, paddlers get worked in pedestrian Class IV-V. Dialogue including "Hi, I'm Jim King and I'm about to get my ass kicked," and "It's not easy looking cool while you're swimming," complement a lineup of skills that show how to properly swim and, more important, how to come up with an excuse for doing so.

Then, it pitches modern-day heroes against one another, including Korn Anderson vs. Corran Addison, and Floyd "It's all in the Speed-o" Turbo vs. Eli Helbert. Throw in footage from errant Southeast schoolbus races, kayaking in urban wave pools and carnage from Pine Creek and the Green Narrows and you get a well-rounded, if irreverent, capsule of kayaking culture.