Videos Give Basics in Foreign Languages, Sailing, Riding

When the summer heat gets too hot, people retreat to the movies--either to theaters or to the VCR. But, when it comes to videos, there’s more to watch than films.

Here’s just a sampling of tapes that can enhance your summer fun.

TIPS FOR TRIPS

What pleasures and horrors await us on vacation? Guidebooks give us a good idea--but in supplying a real look at where we’re going (and what we want to avoid), they can’t compare to a good travel-tips video.

One of the most highly regarded video-travel series is Laura McKenzie’s, and for many Southern Californians her “Mexican Beach Resorts” will come in mighty handy.

In this classy production’s brisk, fact-filled 55 minutes, the chirpy but savvy McKenzie takes us on a breezy tour of the best beaches, restaurants, shopping areas and historical sights in Acapulco, Puerta Vallarta, Baja, Cancun and Mazatlan.

McKenzie covers most of the bases--one moment touting some restaurant as among the world’s best, then issuing blunt warnings. For example: “(Taxi) drivers will cheat you if they can.” She also lists 20 foods to avoid if you don’t want Montezuma’s Revenge. Although not all of McKenzie’s tapes are as brightly produced (much of her London guide resembles a dull travelogue), her strong reputation may be justified. The other travel-tips series we’ve seen, Fodor’s, is ill-constructed and riddled with commercial spots.

Many video stores carry some of the Laura McKenzie travel tapes ($24.95 each). For the complete list, call Republic Home Video, (800) 826-2295.

PARLEZ-VOUS VIDEO?

Far-off places can be a lot easier to explore if you know a few fundamental phrases, like “Are there any exotic bacteria in this entree?” Especially if you’re in France, whose inhabitants have considerably less patience with anglais than citizens of most other Western European countries.

Vidmark’s “Joy of Talking French” comes to the rescue with 79 minutes of basic language instruction--a male instructor with a French accent speaks a phrase, an American woman (representing you and me) repeats the phrase, sometimes getting brusquely corrected. The phrase appears in written form at the bottom of the screen.

Not exciting, but helpful, the tape is traveler-oriented, divided into sections on hotels, restaurants, etc. Also included is a booklet of phrases and an audiocassette of the video’s sound track for playing in your car.

The “Joy of Talking” series ($39.95) is also available in German, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish. The tapes are available at several outlets including Tower Video, telephone (213) 829-4359. HORSING AROUND

Even if you’ve trotted a steed around Griffith Park several times--in fact, even if you already own a horse--”Stefanie Powers’ Introduction to Horseback Riding and Horse Care” probably will teach you several valuable techniques about the art of horsemanship . . . or horsewomanship.

You’ll learn everything from how to get the horse out of the gate (with you attached, if you heed Powers’ warnings) to getting the horse into the desired gait.

None of the demonstrators actually gets on a horse until halfway through the 52-minute cassette, and weekend riders may want to skip a lot of the material on feeding, washing and grooming horses.

Powers (former star of TV’s “Hart to Hart”) is a confident teacher who guides two pupils--a boy and a girl--onto the saddle and beyond. Aided by a male voice-over narrator, Powers explains everything from how to hold the reins (make a tepee with your thumbs, then drop them and pretend you’re holding a horizontal stick that you’re using to steer) to how to get the darn nag--oops, we mean magnificent creature--to respond to your every riding whim.

“Stefanie Powers’ Introduction to Horseback Riding and Horse Care” ($39.95) is available from M. R. S. Enterprises, telephone (800) 451-0303.

SMOOTH SAILING

“We like to toss off a lot at you,” instructor Steve Colgate tells actress Audrey Landers (“Dallas”) near the beginning of the fact-packed 106-minute “Learn to Sail.”

He’s not kidding. Landers and actor Sam Jones (“Flash Gordon”) get a full course in boat-handling in this excellent how-to tape. There’s so much to learn that it may make novices a little seasick: What every part of a boat is called, how to tie a square knot, that a mainsheet is not a sheet but a line, the most acceptable pronunciation of leeward (not lee-ward , but something like loord ) . . . and about half a zillion other fine nautical points.

“Learn to Sail” is nothing if not thorough. Fortunately, it’s also clear and superbly produced (right down to the pretty, unobtrusive guitar music in the background) and hosted with command by Colgate, who’s been doing this sort of instruction for more than 20 years.

Made for beginners, the tape covers these basic subjects: parts of a boat, sailing terms, sailing knots, running and standing rigging, getting under way, setting the spinnaker, points of sail and emergency procedures. On-screen graphics reiterate most of the Colgate-voiced terms.

“Learn to Sail” ($39.95) is available from Bennett Marine Video, 730 Washington St., Marina del Rey. Telephone (213) 821-3329. Bennett stocks tapes on a variety of nautical subjects. HOME SWEAT HOME

Now to work. Is this the year you fix up the house?

Videocassettes can lend a hand here. The outstanding Hometime series will help you do a bang-up job. Drawn from the PBS shows of the same name, these tapes (ranging from 38 to 101 minutes each) cover everything from “Common Home Repairs” to specific subjects like “Underground Sprinklers.” There are 28 entries.

If you’ve seen the PBS show, produced by WHYY-TV in Philadelphia, you already know that hosts Dean Johnson and JoAnne Liebeler not only know repair techniques but are good at communicating them to others.

Unfortunately, the newest tape (“Home Security”) emphasizes two faults found on previous series entries: commercialism and a rushed feeling. A truck company is touted twice during the introduction; viewers might feel that the step-by-step instructions are a little rushed. Fortunately, you can always rewind and re-view.

Enough griping. These otherwise excellent tapes are very reasonably priced--$9.99.

The Hometime series is available at many hardware stores and home centers or can be ordered by telephone, (800) 345-8000.

FOR BIRD WATCHERS

“Audubon Society’s VideoGuide to Birds of North America” will help prepare bird-watchers for the woods and fields. It wings along faster than a hummingbird--the five volumes cover no fewer than 505 species. That means everything from loons and hawks to cranes and cuckoos and sparrows--even the dreaded Tyrannus tyrannus (don’t worry, that’s merely the Latin name for a kingbird that tenaciously defends its territory).

The VideoGuide provides more than Latin names. For each species, we’re shown a still picture while a narrator points out markings, then film of the flapper so that we can see how it looks in flight, plus samples of the bird’s calls and a computer-animated map locating its habitat in various seasons.

Occasionally Audubon’s camera people don’t zoom in on a bird well enough to do the amateur ornithologist much good: Those scissor-tailed flycatchers in Volume 4 are so far away that we can only tell one thing for sure--that they do, indeed, have scissor tails.

Fortunately, most of the birds are displayed up close and personal. Divided into numerical chapters (a card insert lists them), the VideoGuide is an excellent, pre-spotting primer. However, serious summer birders are still going to want to buy a field guide to bring into woods and fields--a VCR would be a little cumbersome.

Audubon VideoGuides ($29.95) are available at many Waldenbooks stores or from MasterVision, telephone (212) 879-0448 .