Nick Harding | @nickhdg | Sportscene - A celebration of action sports and the outdoors, a series of extreme kayaking and stand up paddling short films feature in the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.

Need a paddlesports fix after a particularly long winter season? (historically the most miserable ever in Europe!)

Sportscene has selected a few paddling and river edits from the countrywide tour to whet your appetite; here is the low-down of the best on offer:

One of our prize favourites is Kayak Free Kayaking (5 minutes) – the sport of paddling behind hedges, parked cars, rows of bins all without a kayak developed by World Champion Trip Deacon.

Extreme kayaking

Beyond the Drop (7 minutes)
Six pro kayakers from around the world meet up in the rainforests of Southern Mexico to run the Rio Tulijá. Also known as the Agua Azul, the river features impossibly blue water and a series of five large waterfalls.Led by Rafa Ortiz, the kayak team, including Rush Sturges, Evan Garcia, Aniol Serrasolses, Martina Wegman and Casper Van Kalmthout, have fun exploring the river and the local culture, showing us that when it comes to running waterfalls there’s a lot more to it than just the drop. [Clip]

Cascada (8 minutes)
An award-winning short film by NRS and Forge, with over 500,000 views on Vimeo.
Tangled vines. Endless rain. Dodgy hotel rooms. Mud. Biting flies. Aggressive viruses…Perfection.Is thisa vacation? Erik Boomer, Tyler Bradt, Galen Volckhausen, Tim Kemple, Anson Fogel, Blake Hendrix and Skip Armstrong hunt the remote Mexican jungle for the perfect waterfall…and the perfect shot. Paddler and cinematographer alike explore a world beyond the expected (Camp4Collective). [Clip]

Sensory Overload (8 minutes)
A simply-inspiring short film about the emergence and bravery involved with blind kayaking sport. Blind kayaker Erik Weihenmayer turns whitewater into a new form of braille. [Clip]

Stand up paddling

The Questions We Ask (3 minutes)
Adventurer Bruce Kirkby crosses the Pacific ocean from Vancouver to Victoria on a stand-up paddleboard. As he faces the elements and dodges container ships, he ponders exactly what it is that adventure means to him.[Clip]

Stand (23 minutes)
With a pipeline proposal always comes talk of what will be gained – but shouldn’t we be asking, ‘What do we stand to lose?’ A hauntingly beautiful examination of the people and culture of the Great Bear Rainforest– and the lives of those committed to defending its fragile ecosystems and fjords, one paddle stroke at a time. [Clip]

Other films of interest

Down the Line (canyoning – 22 minutes)
None of these deep slot canyons and magnificent waterfalls have ever been explored ‐ and once in, the only way out is down. [Clip]

I Am Red (Colorado River – 4 minutes)
A visual poem of the Colorado River delivers a simple yet powerful message. [Clip]

North of the Sun (Norwegian surfing - 46 minutes)
Tucked between the cold Atlantic Ocean and the rocky slopes of a remote, Arctic island, two young Norwegian adventurers discover their own private playground. They build themselves a cabin out of flotsam while clearing the beach of debris, then spend the long winter skiing and surfing in the haunting low light. [Clip]

Streams of Consequences (Chilean dams – 17 minutes)
One of the last remaining wilderness areas in the world is threatened as plans for mega-dams on the rivers of Chilean Patagonia are solidified. What is the outcome for these people and their struggle to keep their lands dam-free? [Clip]

A full list of films being shown during this year's world tour can be found here.