I always love to see a film made locally about local waters. I was scrolling through Instagam and noticed an old friend’s post saying something about fly fishing. Justin Bardenhorst, @justinbardenhorst is the old friend and as far as I was aware he’s not a flyfisherman. An amazing man who I met through a friend and immediately struck up a friendship. I hung out with him on most Saturday mornings while he manned his wife’s stall at a local market called the Biscuit Mill in Cape Town before it became super popular. A few beers and laughs always ended up with me having an afternoon nap.

Justin is a good looking lad, even coming from a straight guy, and worked as a model. We ended up working together on a couple of shoots I was producing that he was acting in. I’ve followed him making his way behind the camera in stills and now I see he’s moved into motion. Sadly, Justine left the country with his family but comes back for visits every now and then.

Watching the video, I realised it was about another friend Stuart Tappe @stonewooky from the film industry whom I met on a shoot with my buddy and producer Andre van Wyk, also a blogger for The Mission.

Stuart was new to fly fishing and Andre was telling me how obsessed he and his buddies were always asking questions and showing me photos of some of the amazing fish they were catching. Stuart would often slide up next to me on set and chat flyfishing and to be honest I didn’t know that much about him. When I watched the film and understood some of his obsessions and that he has ADHD so much made more sense. Having been dragged into the spectrum world through my son and understanding ADHD and the various levels it became apparent to my wife and I that I probably have ADHD which was officially confirmed and made so much sense about my personal struggles through life, only if I had known.

Anyway, check out the film, it’s intimate and there are no fish, something that often makes a fly fishing film more intriguing.

CHALK & FLIES – A STORY ABOUT FLY FISHING, ROCK CLIMBING AND ADHD.