Why Adventure?

You could say the adventurous spirit runs strong in my family. Setting goals and taking risks, be it physically or mentally, is in my blood.

I have enjoyed and learnt much from the amazing adventures I have undertaken in my life – like spending three months in the Arctic, setting up my production company Sundog Pictures and getting married to my beautiful wife Bellie.

But setting yourself a goal and working out how to achieve it can be the biggest adventure of all. By achieving your goals you keep yourself motivated and positive – as well as enjoying a sense of fulfilment and pride.

Knowing you have pushed yourself and refused to take no for answer to achieve something is such an important life skill. But it's one I believe sadly isn’t been taught enough at school. Big Change, a charity I co-founded with friends, is focusing on life skills and helping to develop programmes that will give young people around the UK opportunities to learn and develop the so called ‘soft skills’ they need to become healthy, happy and productive individuals.

Young people today are leaving school and having to navigate a complicated world of new challenges and new opportunities.

While they may have been taught academically, they haven't always had the chance to develop the communication skills, teamwork, confidence and resilience that they will need to rely on over the years ahead. These are the skills that help you overcome obstacles and get the best out of life.

This is why I wanted to come up with an idea that created a vehicle to talk about these skills and raise funds for projects around the UK that are enabling young people to grow them… and so the Virgin Strive Challenge was born!

Virgin STRIVE Challenge is a mass participation ultra-endurance event that will see a core team, including myself, Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed and paralympian gold medalist Ade Adepitan, travel from London to the summit of the Matterhorn (the most iconic mountain in Switzerland), entirely under human power.

That means three back-to-back marathons from London to the coast, rowing the English Channel, cycling 900km to Verbier, hiking seven days over the iconic Haute Route to Zermatt and then climbing the Matterhorn, all of which will take just over a month (August 2014)... Phew!

By using these incredibly important life skills to help us tackle this challenge, I’m hoping that it will show people that you can achieve your goals, if you really set your mind to it and you can also learn a hell of a lot in the process.

All proceeds raised by the Virgin STRIVE Challenge will go to Big Change to support young people all over the UK.

Hundreds of others will be joining us along the way.We hope you join us too and become a part of our story!

We must change drug laws if we want to save lives

There has been a lot of talk on drug laws this week, mainly due to the tragic passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

His death came as a shock, equalled by the cause of it. A middle aged and incredibly lauded actor at the top of his game is not the stereotypical image that we attach to heroin addicts. 

Cue a shocked media and a frenzy to bring those who dealt to him to justice - a fast track way to make us all feel better again and gloss over the root of the real problems of the war on drugs.

As Russell Brand says, in his recent opinion piece ‘There is a predominant voice in the mind of an addict that supersedes all reason and that voice wants you dead’.

If drug addiction is such a mental minefield for those that are in its grasp, why do we still treat them as criminals and not in a compassionate, humane way that we would expect if we were at our lowest and desperate for help?

The answer is simple - our drug laws make it impossible to treat drug addiction the way we should. We criminalise them and demonise them, but seem unable to care for them. In a way laws are in place just to help the conscience of those in power instead of getting right into the toxic subject and finding better solutions. 

The reason I made my first feature documentary Breaking The Taboo was because I couldn’t believe that the War on Drugs was still going on. The more I learnt about the topic, the more I realised it is an issue affecting everyone on the planet, whether you realise it or not. It is a forty year plus battlefield of misery and despair, where the only winners are criminals, who are getting richer and richer and spending their profits on organised crime and tearing at the very fabric of civilisation. 

The film paints a picture of international drugs policy and how the War on Drugs has failed in every possible way - how drugs are more prevalent than ever and that people are still dying. We looked at countries who treat drug addiction as a medical issue rather than a criminal one and how their progressive and tolerant drug laws have seen a positive impact in reducing drug related crime and deaths. 

In any other walk of life, if things were going this badly one would adopt a different way to tackle the problem. We are not talking about 'addicts', we are talking about people. Fathers, sons, mothers, sisters etc. Real people. They are not a stat on a piece of paper. We must try to find better solutions to this huge problem and find a smarter fight. 

Please sign this petition here and help end the war on drugs

Hard to Watch, Harder to Forget

It’s easy to get wrapped up in your problems, and while it’s something you should never apologise for, it’s always worth noting what other people are facing in the world. A popular hashtag is #firstworldproblems - making light of the things that we complain about compared to the other real problems in the world. 

And there definitely are other real problems in the world. The Human Rights Channel made this unbelievable short film from real life footage filmed by real people living around horrific scenes in 2013. 

It’s hard to watch, but it’s something we should never forget as we begin 2014. One of the great things about social media is that there is a voice to those who have been previously been unheard. We must continue to listen and make sure their voice is amplified by shouting alongside them. 

Have a watch and let me know what you think 

Why I Set Up Sundog Pictures

I set up Sundog Pictures because I believe that the medium of film is one of the most powerful tools in the modern era to create positive social change. It has the ability to take huge complex subjects and put them across in an easy to understand form. Changing peoples views and in turn changing the world itself. 

We aim to tell stories that matter and start conversations around important subjects. Not in a worthy or preachy way, but in a way that engages, inspires and entertains, bringing new audiences to important subjects. The best stories are ones that create discussion and leave you feeling inspired or fired up to make a change.

Our first feature length documentary Breaking The Taboo focused on the failed War on Drugs and was watched by nearly a million people on YouTube within four weeks. It was an incredible success and it did what it set out to do - get people talking about a futile 40+ year war that has caused nothing but endless suffering around the globe and put pressure on governments to find better solutions.

In our critically acclaimed TV documentary Turtle Boy we looked at the amazing human spirit of a young boy in Columbia and upped Channel 4's slot average by 75%.

In our touching film 'Becoming Me' (a piece of branded content for a recruitment agency Randstad U.K.) we gave people who are looking for career fulfilment a voice and in 'Wind For Prosperity' we are telling the incredible story of Danish wind energy company Vesta’s, who are in a bid to end energy poverty around the globe.

That’s just some of the amazing projects we have made and are making here at Sundog Pictures. They are all different types of content on different types of media - be it TV, internet or on the big screen - but one thing connects them all. They all have the Sundog imprint, our DNA that runs through everything that we do. They are stories that matter. Inspiring, informing and entertaining. 

Thanks for the support!

Sam :)

Come see me at the Adventure Travel Show

I have a passion for adventure, which, I guess, means I ultimately have a passion for life. An adventure doesn’t have to be something extreme or death defying. Seeking a new job, trying out a new environment or learning a new skill in your free time - these are all new adventures and challenges in your life that you need to push yourself to achieve.

That is one of the key themes I will be talking about at the 2014 Adventure Travel Show on Sunday (26th January) at Olympia London.

I was very honoured to be asked to speak at the event, and to be on the same platform as the awesome Sir Ranulph Fiennes is such a buzz. It's been a great opportunity to look back on my life so far and reflect on the things i have done. 

Arctic - beautiful but deadly

In my life I have always tried to push myself. I have been to the Arctic three times, attempted to break the Trans-Atlantic sailing speed record, which was the arguably the most dangerous trip of my life and have managed to break several records, including the fastest crossing of the English Channel by Kiteboard.

And this year I am going to undertake two of my biggest challenge yet - attempting to get from London to the top of the Matterhorn in Switzerland entirely under human power and being the youngest man in space flying on Virgin Galactic’s maiden voyage. Quite a surreal thought. 

But, while I am passionate about pushing myself, I am equally, if not more so, passionate about showing the new perspective that adventures gives people. It inspires them to push themselves more in their lives, set new goals and generally refuse to be cowed by obstacles. By seeking a new adventure, you are already asking the best question in life. It’s not ‘Why?’, but ‘Why not?’.

I hope to see you guys on Sunday.

All the best,

Sam :)

Get tickets to The Adventure Travel Show 2014 – Olympia for only £6 – saving £4 off the door

price! Just quote ‘SAMBRANSON’ when booking online at www.adventureshow.com or when calling 0871 230 7159 (calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras).

A Year On And We’re Still Breaking The Taboo

A documentary is all about the story. It should be something that engages, inspires and creates discussion. I set up my production company Sundog Pictures because I wanted to tell the kind of stories that provoke thought, and for our first documentary I couldn’t have hoped for a better subject.

Breaking The Taboo tackled an issue that many not dared to touch. The drug prohibition issue around the world is something very few politicians would talk about in fear they might become labeled as being soft on drugs or soft on crime. In the words of Ruth Dreifuss (Former Prime Minister of Switzerland), ‘Who wants to campaign with a junkie by your side?’.

But I found The War on Drugs such a compelling subject. Ever since then president Richard Nixon infamously started the War on Drugs in America over 40 years ago, it has become the longest running war in history.  That’s over four decades of the very thing that you can alway rely on in war - casualties. The human toll of this needless war is unbearably high and the laws have failed in every respect to do what they were set up to do. Forty five thousand deaths in Mexico in the last few years weren’t caused by drugs… but the war on drugs. That’s why I decided to make a film about the issue.

The film, which is an international adaptation of the Brazilian documentary Quebrando o Tabu, focuses on painting a picture of International Drugs Policy around the globe, the reasons why it has failed and looking at countries that have successfully experimented with other forms of tackling the issue. It calls for an educated debate on the issue and follows the members of The Global Commission On Drug Policy on its mission to tackle the taboo surrounding the United States-led War on Drugs.

Narrated by ‘The Voice of God’ Morgan Freeman, and featuring former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Breaking The Taboo looked with great detail on the human aspect of the the failed War On Drugs. It also shows how the countries who treat people with drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one are succeeding in curbing the dramatic violence and suffering associated with this war. They are realising that drug prohibition has only been worthwhile to the criminal underworld.

Breaking The Taboo was released a year ago, and it’s astounding how much of a positive reaction and support it  has received from those who have watched it.

It wasn’t just the subject that we took a risk on. Myself and others behind the movie didn’t just want to take it around the festival circuit, We wanted to share it with the wider world as soon as possible, so that people could watch it and demand change. A good documentary should not only fire up something inside of you and prompt you to look at the world differently, it should also inspire you to act.

To get the subject as much exposure as possible, we decided to release it for free on YouTube for a month. Doing this was a huge risk, but we felt the film should be seen by as many people as possible, and we felt that releasing it online was such a perfect opportunity to make it as accessible as possible  and start a much needed conversation on the issue.

There has been so much support from activists, celebrities, film fans and many others, that I couldn’t have hoped for a better response.

I was so close to the subject that it wasn’t something I could leave behind once we released it to the world. We still have regular screenings and panel discussions around the world, and I recently went to Hong Kong to show the film and engage in a Q and A afterwards. The film was just the first part in trying to change global drug policy, and we still encourage debate and conversation on several Breaking The Taboo social platforms.

While making the film I began to realise that there are so many organizations out there that are trying to make a change and urging governments to look at other solutions than outright prohibition. And it seems that we are slowly being heard. Behind closed doors many politicians agree with drugs policy reform but don’t feel the political confidence to stand up. We as the public must pave the way for this conversation to be had and for them to be heard.

I was encouraged to hear that in America, following Colorado and Washington State legalising marijuana last year, a recent poll suggested 58 per cent of Americans favoured ending the prohibition against the drug - a 10 per cent increase from the year before. Uruguay are also set to become the first county in the world to legalise Marijuana in a bid to reduce drug crime.

I’m sure we will all be keeping a close eye on how these situations develop. There are positive steps forwards. Many people who are uneducated on the issue think that drug regulation would create a free for all. Actually it is the opposite. A free for all is what we have now. Regulating the market will put more control into an area that has none. We obviously need to be careful in the way we change our drug policies, but without doubt, they need to change.

And while I hope that our film played a part in breaking the taboo  on drugs and I’m delighted to be celebrating its one year anniversary, I’m not one to look in the past. It’s all about the future, and on the horizon there may just be another taboo that we are going to break!

Watch this space!

Rest In Peace Madiba

Like many of us, I was saddened to hear the news of Nelson Mandela's passing. He was a man who lived life knowing that the only way to heal and move forwards is to live a life of forgiveness. That was his biggest strength and should never be forgotten.

Madiba  has been an idol of mine for years. I’m not the only one, I know, but in a world that can be tainted by cynicism and apathy, here was a man that lived his life to make a difference and to show that harmony can be made between individuals, no matter how seemingly different. He knew that beyond our perceived differences, we all really value the same things in life and equality is the first step in gaining them.

He was an incredibly compassionate man, with a highly infectious personality and a yearning to always see the positives in the world. But make no mistake, underneath his joyous character was a will of iron and a steely determination to unite a torn nation that had been wounded by racial segregation.
The fact he did so by preaching reconciliation and forgiveness is the measure of a man, and the reason why he touched billions of hearts and minds around the globe.

I had the unbelievable good fortune of meeting him in South Africa  when I was a teenager. I remember being slightly nervous meeting such an impressive person, but he had this wonderful ability to put you at ease and soothe any nerves. His charm has been widely recognised and he certainly didn’t disappoint. He had a real humility when meeting us all and seemed to be naturally curious and amused by the charm of life.

He was a leader in the best possible sense. He used the power that he had for good, to heal and change things for the better. I will never forget my meeting with him, but my abiding memory of him won’t be that day, but what he achieved in his life and what he stood for. I can only dream of having a fraction of the positive impact he has had on this planet, but I’m going to give it one hell of a try and we can all play a part in making this world a better place to live in.

Nelson Mandela has had an extraordinary impact, and I hope that the world he has left continues to grow and flourish. I already see that there are fears that racial tensions will re-surface in South Africa following his death, but I believe the impact he had in life is so strong that the world will feel it forever.
Because of Madiba, social peace and equality in South Africa became more than just a dream. His ideal of the Rainbow Nation will forever be a fitting legacy to a quite simply remarkable man.

R.I.P Madiba - the man who brought together a nation and inspired a world.