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The cool guys at GoPro Camera were cool enough to send me their new wide angle GoPro Surf Hero digital camera. These are the same guys that made the original GoPro waterproof camera that straps to your wrist. I’ve been using a Pentax WP Optio camera for a while now but those only work when someone’s willing to take photos of you 🙂 It took a while before the Surf Hero was released but it was well worth the wait.

I stuck the GoPro camera base plate on my 9’2 Kimo Greene longboard and surfed in tiny knee high waves in onshore conditions (see video above). Definitely not the most idea conditions for photos/video by any means but I was dying to try the camera out. I got home and downloaded all of the video and I was stoked to see how good the quality of the videos came out. For a tiny little camera that’s reasonably priced ($150), I wasn’t expecting a whole lot in video quality but was impressed for what the GoPro camera could do. I have to say that the video quality is better than my Pentax WP Optio which always turns out cloudy/blurry in the water.

Buy Online at GoPro’s Official Site

Screen grab of GoPro with suction mount

Here are a few specs of the GoPro Surf Hero Camera:

• 170 degree wide angle lens
• 5 Megapixels
• Comes with stick-on base plate and FCS plug mounting system
• Takes 56 minutes of video or 5 megapixel photos every 2 seconds for 65 minutes (with 2 GB SD card)
• Waterproof housing
• USB cable
• Works on both longboards and shortboards
• You can purchase extra base plates for other boards

GoPro Tips:

1. Make sure you scrape all the wax off your board and clean the surface where your mount will be with acetone…any residual wax will weaken the adhesive.
2. On longboards (9’0+), you can position the base plate anywhere from the tip of your nose to a foot below. I made the mistake of sticking the base plate 2.5 feet below the nose on my other longboard and while the shots/video came out fine, the camera ended up being directly under my chin while paddling.
3. I would stick the base plate as close to the nose as possible (needs to be wide enough to completely adhere to the deck on standard shortboards). The camera also works on fishes (I used it with my 5’10 fish). Again, the shorter the board, the better it is to position the baseplate as close to the nose of the board as possible. You want to make sure the camera can fit your entire body in the frame as well as the wave.
4. The camera works best in larger and steeper surf. I think it’s best to take a straight line and try for the barrel. Any type of pumping or aggressive turning looks weird (when the camera is facing you) and makes for dizzying video. If you look at the GoPro website, you’ll notice that barrels make for the best shots.
5. Be sure to buy rechargeable NiMN or Lithium batteries (costs around $30 for batteries and charger) as GoPro advises against using alkaline. The camera takes 2 AAA batteries and you also need to buy your own SD card (2GB max).
6. You can also use RainX on the housing lens to keep water drops to a minimum.
7. For Mac users, when deleting video/photos off your SD card, be sure to empty your trash can. If you don’t, your camera will think it’s SD card is full and stop taking photos or videos. I struggled with this for 3 days thinking my camera was broken or something was wrong with the batteries.
8. Be sure to keep the rubber seal in the housing free of dust, hair, particles, etc to keep it waterproof. GoPro doesn’t warranty against leakage so you’ll want to pay extra attention. You can remove the rubber seal and wash it with water to clean it but be sure to fit the seal back properly.

GoPro Suction Mount

I recommend that longboarders invest in the suction mount. The problem with the base plate is once you stick it on it’s next to impossible to remove. I took a couple off and had to cut it up like a pizza with a hacksaw. The adhesive is so strong that it’s difficult to remove it without segmenting it into several pieces.

You can use the leash tie stick on (little piece that you string your camera leash to) from your base plate set and use that to tie down the suction mount. The suction mount will come off if you eat it on a bigger wave so I do recommend you tie it down. If you mount it to the tail of your longboard you can simply tie the suction mount to your leash plug.

Improvements:

This camera is definitely worth the money but it would be nice if GoPro could add a few more features:

• Provide SD card and increase storage space
• Provide rechargeable battery pack
• Provide preview screen so you can playback video while you’re surfing to check the angle of your shots

I know I’m being super picky with the requests above. On the whole I highly recommend photo enthusiasts to get a Surf Hero camera. GoPro will be selling a helmet cam attachment soon. You’ll be able to strap your GoPro to a helmet and take video or photos of your friends from all different angles. I’ll be sure to write more about that when I receive my helmet expansion kit.

I’m planning to move my base plate to the rear of my board and see how that angle looks. Hopefully removing the base plate won’t be too difficult.

Stay tuned for more video/photos in better surf!