Diagonal Downwind

I made this video a little while ago... It may be of interest simply because the wind was pushing offshore so we had to work quite hard diagonally on the runs.

It is my experience that the perfect, fastest line on any downhill always points directly to a reef or islet. This is the case no matter from where I start the downhill run.

[email protected] wrote:

I made this video a little while ago... It may be of interest simply because the wind was pushing offshore so we had to work quite hard diagonally on the runs.

NIce one Robin.

This one from the wayback machine has some diagonal at the end.

I got my Vega Arc a few days ago. Super light and red. Anxious to get some high wind, going to be a blast.

Hi Rob, haven't been on your forum for ages, among other things away touring Oz on motorbike, but hey just love your clip! What camera and what settings? Superb! Also clip resolution YouTube sensational - tips? Previously YouTube clips I've uploaded have reduced in quality significantly.

Watto

Watto - I'll take a shot at at least part of an answer about greater video resolution. Youtube shows the highest available rez for Rob's video as 2160p60 which means Rob uploaded at least a 4K video (3840 X 2160) to Youtube - 1080 isn't too bad, but 1440 and 2160 typically will look really sharp. Youtube compresses everything for streaming, but those higher resolution modes should look pretty good on any decent current vintage monitor. Action video cameras of recent vintage typically support 4K recording (or even 8K which is overkill for typical Youtube viewing). If you have a fairly recent camera and your video editing software supports 4K video then you should be able to create and upload 4K videos to Youtube.
The "60" in 2160p60 is the framerate. 60 is decent for action. typically you would not want to bump the framerate up on you camera (to 120 or 240) unless you want to get some serious slow motion shots in your edited videos. And bumping up your fps will make bigger files and deplete your camera battery more rapidly. Some video software these days can also do a decent job of smoothing out slow motion without you having to shoot in those ultra high fps modes. (for what it's worth my gopro is typically set at 60 fps, but my editing software shows my edited video file output as 59.94 - I don't know why but once on youtube, youtube says my videos are 60 fps) When I google online about this, I find something about 59.94 being some artifact of NTSC broadcasting which is outdated, but I am not familiar with those standards.
When you watch videos on Youtube, Youtube throttles up or down your viewing resolution depending on how good the current downstream throughput over the internet is to your computer (or to your smart TV or whatever you are watching the video on) so sometimes if there is an internet slowdown or you have a crappy connection to the internet you will only be able to view Youtube videos in their lower resolution forms even though higher resolution viewing may be available on youtube for the same video when you have a better internet connection.

Watto wrote:

Hi Rob, haven't been on your forum for ages, among other things away touring Oz on motorbike, but hey just love your clip! What camera and what settings? Superb! Also clip resolution YouTube sensational - tips? Previously YouTube clips I've uploaded have reduced in quality significantly.
Watto

Hey Watto! How are you, my friend?!

Thanks Reavley for your answer.

The camera was a borrowed GoPro 11 I think set to 4K as Reavley said. I was really impressed with the stabilisation - a real game changer I think.

I found the mast perceptibly changed the trim of the boat and made it a little less stable, so I don't think I'll be doing many of them.

But it was fun.

I agree with Robin that Horizon Leveling is a game changer.

A larger, square sensor allows a barrel roll of the camera, with a stable horizon. Available on the 11 and up.

Sensor will do up to 5.3k resolution. (I use an 11 at 4k/30 to extend battery life).

Gopro also has a superior GPS chip. It communicates with the Chinese BeiDou constellation. (Far superior to the US, Euro and Russian satellites available to consumers via Garmin watches. Gopro sample rate is 10Hz, Garmin is 1Hz.

One comment about the high rear camera mount. - If you see video of someone else's high mount on a downwinder you can see how much cameras roll around with these mounts. There are a number of surfskiers who post downwind videos who use the extra high mounts - several in Sydney, Darryl Khng in WA, and Tim Traynor on Lake Superior - among others. Even with the excellent stabilization of Rob's camera you may notice that there can be a slight jerkiness in the video. In my opinion really good stabilization such as the Gopro (11 or higher, and maybe the 10 which even without the square sensor has pretty good stabilization also ) has or a couple of the other brand's latest action video cameras have helps to make such high mounts produce markedly better video. Poorer stabilization can leave videos from these high mounts pretty jerky.

Cheers Rob. Yes all good mate, thoroughly enjoyed a month and nearly 9,000kms touring South Australia on my ZX9 Kawasaki. Great be back on the water though - interesting similarities - very much in-the-moment fast and furious as well as contemplative, in the zone immersed in one's own world plus out there in nature haha.
Great tips too, and thanks Reavley and LaPerouseBay.
Rob, notice your mast bit higher than head height. Have you tried a lower version? Personally not keen as fair bit of my paddles coming ashore in swells. Even yday ashore at Sorrento which you know, a piddly 2-3 footer breaks and lost grip of boat in a foamy for it to do a rolly-polly up on the sand, enough to snap a mast. (My bad though.) City Beach which you'd also know from Doctor race week can be brutal. Embarrassing clip below but swear to God it was only a minor surge I was coming in on which suddenly lipped up and smashed onto the sand. I abandoned ship the moment the back end just popped up out of nowhere and despite the spectacular footage no boat damage! Stop the video at 17 secs, there's a young bloke in knee deep water at the break, just behind me water about chest deep. Just an unusual day, high tide and that gutter. No boat damage either, not a scratch on the NK - in fact I don't think it even touched the sand, just water-bounced nose-up into the air! No mast going in there for just in case. Also as it's pivoting note zero breaking waves behind as strong southerly on our north-south coastline.

vimeo.com/936906500?share=copy

That's a spectacular video, Watto.

I seem to recall that quite a few WA beaches have those 'sand ledges' that trip the waves. Seem to occur where the sand is very coarse.

Cheers mrcharly. Longer clip here, some nice runs that day. Compared to many other coastlines paddlers around the world skirt we’re fortunate in Perth as you know with predominantly sandy beaches and reasonably friendly shore breaks.
vimeo.com/784998582
Amusing postscript to that, having a beer with a non-paddling mate talking about downwinders and he laughed about seeing a bloke coming ashore at City Beach his boat spearing up into the air and him being thrown out (I bailed) and the crowds loving it at Clancy’s Bar. Haha we pinned it back to that afternoon - c’est moi!

This clip from the weekend is more about the camera and mount; conditions were hardly exhilarating. Is 360deg footage a game changer for our sport?
The mount is about 75cm off the rear deck.

360 degree Gamechanger? - I'm not sure. For me it will depend greatly on the video edit.

Dratz - I'm assuming you're Alex because that video link is currently unlisted on youtube - Good job with your video - I particularly like the side shots of other paddlers. I generally do not like fish eye style views in surfski videos (obviously I am aware that is purely my subjective preference). My other concern about the 360's besides how well the editing is done is how much the video file size impacts video handling, uploading, etc. If you produce 360 videos that allow the viewer to adjust the viewing angle (something I really like) how big are such files and how long/easy are they to upload to video streaming services. If you flatten the video and take that option away, then I assume we are dealing with more standard video file sizes and then the ultimate quality of result depends on the footage quality (as always) and the choices the editor (you) makes about which shot angles to use.

Nice editing Dratz! Really captures the group feel. What camera are you using?
I love a 360 camera for group paddles. I really like being able to follow another paddler with the camera as our paths cross. For example the shot in this video starting at 30 seconds:




I don’t like how much time it takes to edit the 360 footage. I also don’t like the loss of resolution that happens with cropping and editing. At least with my gopro max, the resultant flat video is about the equivalent of 1080 resolution, which looks ok on a phone but not on a bigger screen. Also, even on a little phone screen the fine texture of the wind on the water is lost.

X4: produces 8K files which are fat and slow to upload. The studio software is relatively intuitive though for a 360 newbie. Output is flat 4K post editing. I agree also that framing choices if done that way are entirely dependent on editor’s choice; but isn’t that common to all modes of photography?

" ...that framing choices if done that way are entirely dependent on editor’s choice; but isn’t that common to all modes of photography?"

Yes, but in regards to a "game changer", my suspicion is that the more choices and time required for editing - the fewer surfski videographers who are going to invest that time. I have seen quite a few try their hand at videos of their downwinders only to be discouraged by some of the technical hurdles or just the time the whole process requires - particularly if they imagined personalizing their videos or making something somewhat different than everyone else's.

So I imagine 360 may only appeal to a fairly small segment of current surfski videographers. My inclination in terms of looking for a game changer (at least in terms of what would work for a larger swath of potential surfski video makers) would be to look in the direction of something that simplifies and speeds up the whole process while still allowing some creativity. In the mean time there will probably be some surfskiers who enjoy producing personalized output who will take advantage of 360. And if what they produce sparks my imagination, I will probably check it out also. I look forward to seeing more of what you come up with using the camera.

And I agree with Zach, one of the major advantages of 360 cameras is for group paddles, races, anything where there is a lot going on around you that you want to capture.

Dratz wrote:

X4: produces 8K files which are fat and slow to upload. The studio software is relatively intuitive though for a 360 newbie. Output is flat 4K post editing. I agree also that framing choices if done that way are entirely dependent on editor’s choice; but isn’t that common to all modes of photography?

I am contemplating an x4 to get better resolution. How do you manage the battery life? Are you paddles short enough that it lasts the whole time? Or are you turning it on and off, and if so how do you do it? A remote? Thanks!

Hi,
I really have not had too much experience with the X4 yet. So far though I’ve been taking shorter clips, using the gps remote mounted on my footstrap. One trick with using the remote is that with quick capture turned on the camera will start recording from “off” within several seconds, however the screen on the remote doesn’t register this for about 25sec for some reason.
In addition, several smaller clips are probably more reliably uploaded compared to one humongous file!
I figure if I wanted to do a long continuous shoot I would probably switch to single lens mode which gives about two hours of 4K 30 and more at lower res. So still a lot better than my GP9.

With my gopro max I strap the remote to my paddle shaft. The button is right next to my thumb and it is easy to see the screen. I can operate it on the fly without really missing a stroke. A little piece of foam between strap and paddle keeps it from rotating, though I am not sure that it is really needed. Maybe that would work better foot you than the footstrap if you are taking lots of short videos.

Watto, that's the best surfski video I've seen in many years, Holy smokes that was a close shave with no damage!

Dratz, I think your new X4 is a game changer. That's how ski videos should be. It allows the viewer to see the others and the surrounding water. That's a gigantic improvement.

I did not know that there was a 360 action cams that good. Reviews say the X4 has excellent hardware, software and the horizon lock. Excellent battery life too. Fantastic.
The fisheye effect isn't that bad, it's usually one of my pet peeves - I've been fighting it since before the Gopros had numbers. Your video is far more informative than a linear view FOV.

Nice short mast too. I always assumed cams were swinging around on tall ones. Nice setup.