This week I finally plucked up the courage to take Harriet’s GoPro waterproof camera out with us as up to this point I’d not felt confident enough to catch and ride waves whilst filming at the same time and to be honest I “might not have got round to” it if Alex hadn’t asked me if we should try it.
So off Alex and I headed to Doheny again (Harriet having flown back to the UK the previous day), this time in the late morning so the sun would have had time to warm up the water a wee bit. The waves looked good from the beach and so it proved, as we were now getting swell from the Southern Pacific, bringing warmer water from the equator and Mexico. The currents of the world’s oceans change according to the seasons and so up until earlier this week we had been getting waves from the North, but now they’re from the South and will be until the end of summer.
We paddled out to catch a few and get our eye in for the session then I went and got the camera, which is a really cool piece of kit. It’s cube shaped and roughly 4cm each side, fully waterproof (well we hoped it was!) and has a mounting so you can fix it to bikes, helmets, boards etc. However as the boards we’re using aren’t ours, I couldn’t really fix it to one of those, however I did have a lanyard which I attached and then decided that the best place to hold it was by gripping the mounting in my teeth – aye, I know, loss of teeth a possibility, loss of dignity a certainty – but I didn’t really have any other options as I needed my hands to paddle…
It turned out to be really straightforward. We got lined up, turned on the camera, paddled, caught a wave, rode it in, stopped filming and whooped (where appropriate of course…)
Back at the apartment and I uploaded the footage, as you’d expect there clips of us falling off and showcasing the wet side of the ocean, but in between there were a few gems which we’re both really pleased with.
Below is a selection some of the footage which shows us up and riding.
Mid-session – both on the same wave
Mid-session close encounter – watch for the young lad who comes into the top of the frame – he was really good, seriously good in fact. He was out with his dad who I think was a pro as he was doing all sorts of tricks.