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January 9, 2012 Photo: J. Chandler

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

April 9 & 13 in the L With The GoPro Hero 2

April 9 and 13, 2012. A couple Spring surf sessions in mixed conditions. I paddled out on the 9th mostly to try out the new options/settings on the GoPro Hero 2. I downloaded a firmware update that allows for shooting in 1080-30 HD with a "narrow" setting. This provides a 90 degree field of vision (FOV) which is much like (but not quite) what one sees with ones natural ocular vision. I'm not necessarily a fan of the wide angle, on surfboard shot unless it's used in a constrained way. The constant repetition of a wide angle shot is not what surfing really looks like so for me watching a vid or surfing in person is best done naturally.

Waves on the 9th were mediocre and I paddled out at a bit too high tide so it didn't take long for the spot I picked to swamp and swell as the incoming waves rolled across the reefs without breaking. Friday was a different story. There was a solid 9-11 ft. at 16-17 seconds in the water and the energy was showing. The previous three days in the week were wet, windy and stormy, culminating with a massive thunder and lighting storm at midnight that lasted two hours. It poured rain and the runoff was in full effect. Some spots looked like coffee with a lot of cream. One can only imagine the sinus infecting bacteria that were present. But my spot looked pretty clean and best of all, there was no crowd.

My buddy Ron was out on his knee machine, Daniel on his longboard and a very few others. There were plenty of waves and everyone took down their fair share. The wind was light and it was glassy on paddle out but that changed pretty quickly and the usual Spring winds cranked up about a half hour into the session. It blew side/offshore at a fairly steady 6-8 knots with gusts up to and even over 18 making paddling a challenge, especially back out into the line-up which was into a headwind. Two and a half hours later I took my last wave into the beach, sated, exhausted and sore from nearly non-stop paddling and surfing.

2 comments:

  1. Nice video... though I was hoping you would have gotten some of the bombs off the point that day (you were too busy surfing!).

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  2. I almost never get the best waves on video from the water. Either I'm too busy setting up for one of the waves in the set, or busy paddling like mad to get out of the way. If the surf is still good after I get out of the water (like on the 13th) I'll grab my Canon and hope for some good shots. Tweeners. Yeah!

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