Thursday, January 3, 2013

One Fine Day

First the video, then the details...

Turn up the volume for a remake of an old classic and watch in full screen...


One Fine Day from WaterTurtle Media on Vimeo.


I got the new GoPro Hero3 camera for Christmas and this is my first use of it. I love the wifi remote control feature.  In this video, I used my older GoPro Hero2 camera as the helmet cam and the Hero3 mounted on the boom in two different spots (front of boom and clew end) to get three different shot angles.  I strapped the remote control next to my mono harness line and was able to power the camera on and off, record and stop recording of the boom mounted camera without having to reach for the camera itself.  The Hero3 is smaller and lighter weight. There are more features and capture options I'm still exploring.

It was fun editing the split screen and picture in a picture formats using the dual angles of the same windsurf timing.  Note in the video split screen that when I look in a certain direction, it also happens in the other angle at the same time.  Yeah, I definitely geeked out big time with the helmet cam but it was fun capturing that footage.  I geeked out in those Sun Specs too, but you can see in some of the video scenes there was a serious glare on the water.  Those Sun Specs are lifesavers for the eyes.  By the way, I usually wear the life jacket (That's the Neil Pryde logo, not Target) when its cold and windy and/or when I'm sailing alone in high wind.

Most of our lake windsurfing involves short reaches...maybe a few hundred yards at the usual spots.   But we have a little known secret - an actual 2 mile reach.  This particular reach is only possible in the lake's main channel (D5 - D8 area) in a WNW wind direction.  You can see in the Google Earth Map below that we have to actually shlog our way upwind from the "launch cove" about 1 mile to get to the good wind line (depicted with the white line in the channel) between "Treasure Island" and "Bird Island" (my personal names for those islands).  Once out to that wind line, we get the long open fetch for WNW wind and can sail all the way from the Mooresville side to The Peninsula on the Cornelius side of the lake.  NW wind works too, but we've found WNW is best and more consistent.  When the wind is really good, as it was on Saturday December 29th, we can get fully powered reaches between 1.5-2 miles.




Our launching spot in the "launch cove" is private property and not my place, hence why I can't divulge its exact location.  The upwind 1 mile shlog requires a floatier board and bigger sail than you would normally need out in the main channel.   Once out in the main channel, I want my smaller gear.  We did in fact go back in to re-rig smaller but could have been on even smaller boards and sails after that.  There are a couple spots between Bird Island and The Peninsula that serve up BIG swells and chop with this wind direction.  Next time, I'm thinking of taking a boat out there with our smaller gear, anchoring leeward of Treasure or Bird Island, rigging up on the island's beach and windsurf my smaller board and sails to my heart's content.  Next time it looks like we'll get another good WNW blow, we'll have to organize a locals' boat outing with our gear.

We windsurfed for 3+ hours that afternoon, hootin' & hollerin' the whole time...an absolute blast.   And a gorgeous sunset as we de-rigged.  The video kind of says it all.  One fine day...and a memorable one for sure.

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