A "Board's" eye view (Sunset Surfing Session)

Way back in June I stumbled upon a post by Holly Beck in her Nicaragua blog. It's only a video of her surfing, but what captured my attention was the camera angle, the sick soundtrack and composition of the video. It captures all the aspects of a great surfing session; paddling out, being stoked, getting shacked, rights, lefts and even wiping out! I was mesmerized and had to know what camera she was using and the song in the soundtrack because it rocks!

Turns out the song is "High Tide" by Still Time, a southern California band with a super unique sound (I bought a bunch of other songs from them and now have them in my iPod to jam out to on my long runs). The camera is a GoPro Digital Surf HERO 5. It's 5-mega pixels and can take video or pictures (normal shots, 2-per second and 5-per second). It comes with a couple of mounting options (an adhesive mount just of like a traction pad or an FCS plug). I was very glad to learn about this camera as I already own the GoPro HERO 3, a similar 3-mega pixel version that straps to your wrist while you surf that takes decent but not excellent photos (the banner to this blog was taken with the HERO 3).

I ordered the camera the week before the Hurricane Bill swell, but of course it arrived the day after the swell faded. I took the tiny camera to Puerto Rico and got some pretty sweet shots out of the water, but the surf was not worthy in my mind. I wanted another epic day like the Bill Swell for my initiation of the GoPro so I waited.... and waited some more... I wanted to debut my new camera with an awesome video and song like Holly Beck's video. I even came up with a few good song canidates, but still no epic surf. It was not to be.

Then motivation struck. A surfer friend of mine ordered his own HERO 5 and took it out the day it came in the mail, emailed me some sick pictures of him on little waves and seeing that broke my wait. We decided on a surf session with both cameras the next day no matter what the surf reports report! I find that there are major improvements to the camera. Everything from better quality all around pictures to faster response times and more acurate exposure metering. The most difficult thing is deciding to take pictures or movies! I've included a few pictures from yesterday's sunset session.We tried several times to get both of us in one frame on the same wave. This is probably the best that came out on my camera. I haven't seen my friend's pictures yet, but there was one wave where I went high and he went low and we crossed each other (keeping my fingers crossed that that one came out!).



As soon as we have another epic day I'll work on my own video with some sick soundtrack and if not, I'll get it for sure this winter while on one of my Puerto Rico trips! To thumbs up to the Go Pro Surf HERO 5!