Tuesday, July 06, 2010

never a dull moment

In case you were wondering if the lack of updates was due to lack of things to post or boredom, here's a hell lot of stuff that I just didn't have the time to post.

"Never look down on the board!", I used to tell my surfing students...






These gopro photos were taken on 6 24 (the same day of the those Oahu photos of last post) on the south shore. Funny how the wide angle makes the big waves look small and the small ones (they were waist to chest high) look big!
Unfortunately, I keep having a major droplets problem. I tried many photographer tricks, but none worked, since the screen of a water housing is flat and lets the drops run easier than the very convex screen of the gopro.

Fortunately, I didn't have any droplet problem for the photos I took during the short walk on the beach between surf spots. My stalking has gone to another level.






It was the first time I used the gopro on a shortboard. That was when I found out that kicking with my feet when paddling for a wave is bad for my foot.
As a consequence of that, I'm trying to put together my broken 8.6. Unfortunately, the way it broke made the two halves not match at all and I tried filling the gap with some pour resin. Kind of got the rocker straight, but the pressure of the expanding foam made the two pieces end up not in line.
Tried this (went up to three bricks) for a few days, but it's not moving.


Plan B will be to cut three inches of the board around the break and try to stick together the two parts... I'm going to have an 8.3!
Since I'm not too confident about the result, I'm also planning on going to Oahu and getting myself one of those Tanaka mini longboards from the Town&Country factory.
7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 8.0... they all look pretty good to me.

In the meantime, I filled a hole in my SUP quiver. After I sold the Sea Lion, I was missing a short board for summer time waves. Looks like I found it...


Lately, I've been lazily trying to understand if the Canon 20D I bought on eBay is a keeper or not.
I'm not a photographer, so pretty much I don't know how to use it. But the other day I met Francky, who is an awesome photographer and does know how to use it. He took a couple of photos focusing on the mailbox of this house and I did the same with my old, cheap and trusty point and shoot Sony.

Here's the shots and here's what I sent via email to a bunch of friends that are helping me figuring out this atrocious dilemma...

I'm attaching a couple of those photos we took the other day.
Don't even know how to download the raw files (the sw didn't see them), but it's a jpg at the highest quality. Res is 3504x2336, file size is 3.8 MB. I cropped the Sony shot to have similar frames. The Sony shot is 1094x818, file size 329 KB!!!

Sure, the Sony shot looks over exposed and kinda bleached (can't see the tiles on the white wall... that's something that I can try to fix in future shots), but it also looks way sharper!
We were both focusing on the mail box, but even that is sharper in the Sony shot.
The Sony shot is taken at f3.5 and that should give it a narrower depth of field (compared to the canon shot taken at f6.3), nonetheless everything looks more in focus in it (I don't even know if that's a good thing or not).

I'm really perplexed...


Canon.


Sony.


FYI: Francky is doing an exhibit at the Green Banana cafe in Paia. The opening party is Friday 9th at 7pm. Can't wait to see the photos he selected.

Also, my buddy Chris sent me this email:
GP,
I would love it if you could give a shout out on your blog to my summer project which was initially inspired by your Oahu trip last year. Branded 60 Days of Summer. The aim of the 60 Days of Summer project is a simple one; to show that there is far more to Hawaii than winter surf and that with the right attitude, the right equipment and enough time you can find waves, wind, surf, freestyle, slalom, SUP, skate, kite, hike, bike, you get the idea, tons of action and have a whole lot of fun too – after all isn’t that what it’s all about?


Check how Chris does on his blog. My guess is that he's going to have a blast, also because it looks like he's going to get lucky right away!
In fact, I just saw on the weather maps a pretty deep storm that will send an overhead NW swell by Sunday/Monday.
This map is forecast to happen Thursday... not a bad fetch for summer time.


This south Pacific one instead is forecasted for Friday 9th. And that means that the weekend after that will see waves on the south shore. How come south swells always happen on weekends?


I saw this great gopro video on beachtelegraph.com. Fabrice Beaux and Rob Stelhik in Oahu.
I like the way they hold the paddle while filming.


And I saw this on Facebook.
Congrats to Bruno Andre for pushing the limits. My only hope is that whoever will feel like trying that, will do so in an absolutely deserted lineup. That's one board you don't want to be run over by!

FOIL STAND UP PADDLE from Surfsailing Team on Vimeo.



SUP Downwind racing season is about to peak. This sunday July 11 there's a Maui Molokai race, then July 18th the Naish Maliko Kahului and after that the Molokai Oahu.
If the wind will be forecasted to be strong, I may enter the Naish race with my 50 pounds, six years old 12.6 and wooden paddle and show them all the effort they put into making more technologically advanced gear was... worth it!

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Dave Kalama for this inspiring post on his blog. After I read it, I stopped using the bus to go to the launching spot for my downwinders. Now I do that on the bike. If the wind is strong is not exactly a piece of cake on my old shitty bike, but sure it's a hell lot easier than paddling for five hours against the wind from the harbor to just past Peahi... you got to be kidding me!!!!

Thanks Dave. With the first five bucks I'm going to save on bus tickets, I'll buy you a beer.

15 comments:

Chris Freeman said...

Cheers for the shout out, does look like it is going to start well, to be fair I deserve some waves I have been stuck here in the desert for 10 months! See you at Flatbread on Friday night if you are about and on the water. Chris

Dave said...

What up G, That girl in the first photo was checking you out. Hope you stopped to talk to her!!
For the sake of the planet please do not post anything regarding SUP foiling again. Actually, you should delete that before too many more people see it. You know there are some fools out there right now that cant wait to try it after seeing it. And those type of people will not go to some out of the way uncrowded spot. They will paddle right out a main break.
Aloha, Dave

Catapulting Aaron said...

Fucking hilarious stalker photos, GP!!!

meesh said...

Your blog is like a newspaper for the waterman/woman GP. Your stalking tactics, bloody hilarious!

Pål Rype said...

Regard the camera,the 20D is great ! have had one for 2 years. the thing with a dslr is that the camera provides the filesize,frames pr.second,whitebalance stuff and so on. its the LENSES that provides the eyecandy.a cheap slow zoom wont be that much better than your sony. a dslr will be a bit more demanding to get the full potential out of. you just have to figure out how to get good exposures and sort out a good easy workflow with the files. On my blog www.paalrypesurfandmore.blogspot.com all the photos are made with a 20D and different lenses. the surf stuff is a Canon 300mm F4 L the discontinued version (cheapish)

TonyWind said...

That's awesome (I mean the stalking) GP! But, are there only single chicks on the beach in Maui? Can I get the email address of the 4th girl from the top?

Anonymous said...

Love the latest stalking pictures -it's the look of innocense I love!

Cannot comment on your photography as I didn't understand a word (same goes for the weather) but yours is still my favourite site:-)

"Tenaka mini longboard" an oxymoron if ever I read one.

Anne

Nord_Roi said...

I really like your "hypocrite" face while snapping Pics on the Beach! LOL. Is there any nice swell over there(hope my angle is good for the Go Pro, she's pretty!!) Show me the money Gerry!!! ;-)

cammar said...

Yo Chris,
Friday night stop by at the Green Banana Cafe to check Francky's exhibit... he's got some amazing shots!

Yo Dave,
you're right, the girl WAS checking me out. I got the whole sequence (the camera was taking photos every two seconds) and she had her head down originally and turned to her left after I passed by to check me out!
Problem was that I didn't see that and I found out only at home...

I'm very scared about the SUP foiling too. But the stuff is online already. Not posting it on my blog won't save the planet.
Fortunately the thing will completely suck when paddling BEFORE catching the wave and I don't think it will be a great success. For sure we will see some in Maui too. If I see one while I'm surfing, my strategy will be to immediately tell the rider that it's a way too dangerous thing to do between other surfers. And if he/she doesn't leave, I'll leave before I get sliced.
It's the way it is.
We keep inventing new ways of riding waves (which is cool). Some of them are dangerous for the others, but between facebook, blogs, forums etc, they immediately become known worldwide.
At least, I didn't just post the video saying:"hey, check this out! So cool!!!"
I posted the video and asked for caution...

Aaron and Meesh, thanks a lot.

Hi Pal,
thanks a lot for your contribution. I know there's a learning curve. I'm not scared by it, but it will take me a very long time, 'cause it seems that I always find something better to do (downwinders, fixing boards, etc...).
I'm not giving up yet, but I'm not buying a telephoto lens, until I try one. Fortunately my neighbor has a Canon 100-400 and eventually he will let me try it. We'll see.

Tonywind,
good eye (and good taste). That girl was the hottest of the bunch (can't really tell from the pic). Unfortunately the presence of an extra towel wasn't a good sign...

Anne and Nord_Roi,
I didn't know that innocence hypocrite were synonyms! ;)

Anonymous said...

you've graduated to a whole nother level of stockerdom. Congratulations...

TonyWind said...

GP, glad we have the same taste actually that might be a problem if I ever come to Maui and we hang out together..;)
Why do you want to deal with the SRL business, do you want to sell your pics to magazines or become a professional photographer? You clearly do not seem to care about technical details as vignetting and color saturation so why don't you stick with a decent point and shoot camera? You just have to get one with decently-sized lenses and I'm sure the quality you'll get will be close to the SLR especially in the telezoom applications. It will also be a camera much easier to use and carry around. Finally, I would say that often is the composition that makes a great pic, not the camera.

Anonymous said...

Cammar- I love to take your professional advice on windsurfing (surfing) matters, so please let me help out with some professional photographic advice. I have had a couple of 20Ds, so do know that camera (have basically had most every digital camera Canon has made). It's not a bad camera (way out of date), but I don't know if it is really what you want. DSLRs are big and the lenses are pricey (for anything good), and you don't make big prints (that we know about), so I would stick with a superzoom. The Sony is ok, but out of date itself. If I were you, I would dump the 20D and get a Canon SX20 IS - more pixels, very telephoto, image-stabilized (this is what you really need), and not $$$. You have the luxury of shooting is good light - the 20D is good at shooting in bad light, but only better for good light with very big and expensive glass. That's not your style.

If you don't like the Canon SX20 IS, try the Panasonic FZ35. Either of these 2 cameras will be a big step up for you. Back to eBay with the 20D.

cammar said...

Tonywind and Anon,
the reasons I want to try the DSLR world are:
1) take better photos for the blog
2) have fun learning something new
3) EVENTUALLY make some money selling private photoshoots (this one is very low priority).

So far, EVERYTHING that is related to using a DSLR sucks in my world.
I'm just waiting to have the chance to borrow a canon 100-400 before I put it back for sale on ebay.
And if I do that, I won't look for a better point and shoot... I'm more than happy with my old Sony.
I played with a Canon SX10 of a friend and with the 1.7 extender that I have, the Sony was taking much better photos and way more close-up.
Also, the Sony has a digital zoom with a quality that I have not found in any other camera.
For me, digital zoom and cropping are two very different things. I may be able to achieve the same result by cropping, but that implies post processing and I don't like that.
I like to shoot (between my sessions in water), select the best ones, download and slap them on the blog. That takes very little time (and disk space). Then I spent a lot of time adding comments and descriptions and that's why so many readers like my blog... pure photos galleries can be boring.
So, in other words, I'm 99% convinced myself that I should stick to the Sony. Just let me have a go with the Canon with a proper telelens and see if all the disantvantages of a DSLR are worth the better quality.
Thanks for your opinion!

Anonymous said...

Dude - hate to say it but none of those girls seemed to notice the Italian Stallion.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the droplet issue with the GoPro camera, have you tried 'Rain X'?

http://www.kulingvarning.nu/?p=6510#comments

cheers
Henrik