How do you Breathe? A review on Breathe by Imago Fly Fishing

What do you know about Imago Fly Fishing? If you said nothing, you’re living under a rock. Imago is a Swedish based company that’s been around for 5 years now. They’re doing it right, making gear that works. I’ve been fishing one of their 5wgt rods for two weeks now and will have a post with my thoughts on it soon. This is about Imago’s movie Breathe.

RC Cone put together an awesome movie about fly fishing and work. I knew as soon as I saw the trailer for Breathe I wanted to see it all and I wasn’t wrong. Honestly work sucks. Most of the time at least. In Breathe, RC talks to some of the characters that head towards water to try and find themselves and some who use it for healing. Some people need to escape, some people are looking for answers, and some people have found that elusive balance between work and fishing. I’m still looking for all of the above and I doubt that will ever change. These are things I constantly think about. It’s interesting to see all of the different points of view other fly fisherman have. I know as someone in his 30’s I need to work. I’ve got responsibilities. A decade ago, I was some of the younger guys in this movie, but on a skateboard. I know how it seems like it will last and it’s all about finding that next spot, living off a dollar menu, and working just enough to skate more. Then life catches up as it is wont to do. Bills, significant others, jobs. I still think about letting it all go. Telling my wife I’m going to go find myself, but I’m fairly certain I’d be losing myself in the process. It’s something that will always be swimming in the thoughts going through my head, but when I’m on a river all of that disappears. I’m not thinking about anything beyond putting that fly down just right with the hope a fish will make his move. When I release that fish, I take a deep breath. That’s the sweetest breath. Breathing is important, go do it.

Breathe is a short movie, clocking in at 19 minutes but there is some sage advice packed into those 19 minutes.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/33355972]
One of my many favorite lines in Breathe was from writer Greg Thomas. “When I take my breath, I fish. It’s the best breath I take, it’s awesome. It takes me away from everything for a little while. And then when I return, I’m fucked.”
Oh and John has good taste in hats. Nothing beats a flat cap.

Here’s a little side note I think needed to be added. My friend Jeremy has on and off mentioned wanting to go fishing with me for awhile now. I always thought he was joking around. He’s a sXe vegetarian and he always said fishing wasn’t for him. Once I explained catch and release and all that fun stuff he decided he wanted to go out, to see how I relax from a sometimes stressful IT job. I took him out on a small creek near here last week and he caught his first smallie on a fly rod. He came over tonight and watched Breathe with me. I wanted to get his input as someone just scratching the surface of fly fishing. Here it is…

I was raised as a modern day outdoors man so to speak but walked away from it at 13, it just didn’t fit. I became a militant vegetarian and I’m still one to this day however with the idea of barbless hooks and catch and release it was always something in the back of my mind I pondered. Dave mentioned he received a dvd from Imago called “Breathe” and at first I didn’t get it. Life hit me really hard, my car was broken into, life with my fiancee’ wasn’t easy and daily job was saying 50+ hours next week on top of being a photographer. Life doesnt stop. the world turns and sometimes we dont feel it.
I told Dave “lets do this!” Going to a small stream, listening to the rush of the water, seeing the swallows flying by, and being in this peaceful element for an hour I suddenly forgot about life in that moment. It’s almost as if I felt whole for a short period. I watched Breathe this evening and it all made sense. It’s not something you can explain to anyone person until they’re in that moment.
-Jeremy-

Breathe is not available in the states as of right now, but as soon as it is, I’ll have info on where to buy a copy from.
Now for some links:
Imago Fly Fishing
Imago on FB
Imago on Twitter
The Breathe trailer on Vimeo
An interview with RC Cone from the recent This is Fly http://thisisfly.com/issue35_5.html?startPage=999&