Surfing Waves

Hey now y'all check this out,



I've been meaning to get back into video production, this last round of hurricanes was the kick in the ass I needed. The spot is a reef break over mussel shoals inside a Rhode Island 'Harbor of Refuge,' and only breaks when the swells are sizable . . . as you can see it makes a nice long left-handed 'logger' wave.

After surfing it first during Gert, when Jose and Maria came along I rearranged my schedule to spend two days each, and brought my Pixel with its waterproof case and Aukey 3x clip-on telephoto.

The brave bikini-clad surfer (Katie) is back in the water after some years in the urban jungle and snowy peaks. Some of the background commentary is hers too, you can hear the stoke. She said she wanted to skip the wetsuit since it was her last chance for a while, but admitted she turned a little bit blue before it was through.

Get back into it, you pick good music for the mood, but I feel you may have lost a lot of detail in lens fogging, I always put several smallpacks of silica gel in the housing after wiping the lens an inner housing lens with antifog.

I don’t know if quality of the Pixel and the telephoto do justice for what you shot.

I‘m fussy but your work deserves better!

My main comment is that if that is hurricane surf whats it like when there is no hurricane? Also I enjoyed it.

Hey thanks, guys . . .

you nailed the very caveats I decided to skip, in the intro:

The 'lens fog' effect is a combination of actual fog, the waterproof case I keep the Pixel in, after its predecessor went into the brine, and a 'filter' applied in editing that tied it all together and accentuated the bluish look of the foggy days. The phone was having trouble with its focus due to the fog. I had to keep reminding the phone to focus on the surfer, while shooting.

Also the clip-on telephoto was prone to slippage.

All that said, I'm so pleased by the result of a 'first try back' with janky gear, and it was so fun putting it together, that I'm looking to invest in some real equipment. I used to be handy with a 'real camera' and Adobe Premiere, 10+ years ago when I was a language teacher (I could improve the kids' French and German accents with editing).


As far as the size of 'hurricane' waves, remember this is half the coast away from where the hurricanes touched land. Also these aren't the big ones; when it was bigger, I was surfing not filming. As far as the shape, they were steeper everywhere else; this place is always soft, at least at this lower part of the break; soft but with a nice loooong ride. When there's no hurricane, this place basically doesn't break.

The length of the ride has been great for letting me fine-tune steering my 9'8" log, and starting to work on the cross-step biz. Now the swell's dead and it's back to the skateboard.

I liked the video a lot (although the music...). I think some of the foggy parts could look good as openers or closers to the video if you did a bit of a sepia effect; rather than look foggy they just look retro. But nicely done. I actually quite enjoy watching videos of 'average' surfers (not to knock your surfers, but obviously they arent pro level); its more relevant to my level and I can see what they are doing well and what they arent in terms of learning from them. Plus the surf and surfing perfection of many pro surfers is a bit artificial

anyway - post some more

Leinosaur, thanks. Enjoyed that. You've got some really nice video footage.

Hey thanks for the encouragement. I do plan to keep rolling with the fun of editing, try to up the quality of the footage a bit and ease back into some 'real' video/audio editing software . . . as in this case, I liked the music pretty well as the best of a several 'canned' choices within Google's movie editors, but when I get around to micromanaging the details, an eclectic mash-up will be more likely. Give me a chance to over-think things like the music, and my chronic sleep deficit only gets worse.

As far as the surfers, I do like the mix of styles, skills, shapes and sizes. None of these are 'pros' that I know of, though some are pretty damn smooth if you ask me . . . many I don't yet know, and may never, but what little I know of their various backgrounds is fascinating. I have. a project in mind that will enrich a full range of surf footage, with a bit of biographical detail.

Wave quality will likely remain sub-optimal for my movies, as I would rather surf the best parts of the swell, than film them...

For this one I was happy enough to just put some of the stoke of a couple nice swells into a project I could share.

Hey thanks for the encouragement. I do plan to keep rolling with the fun of editing, try to up the quality of the footage a bit and ease back into some 'real' video/audio editing software . . . as in this case, I liked the music pretty well as the best of a several 'canned' choices within Google's movie editors, but when I get around to micromanaging the details, an eclectic mash-up will be more likely. Give me a chance to over-think things like the music, and my chronic sleep deficit only gets worse.

As far as the surfers, I do like the mix of styles, skills, shapes and sizes. None of these are 'pros' that I know of, though some are pretty damn smooth if you ask me . . . many I don't yet know, and may never, but what little I know of their various backgrounds is fascinating. I have. a project in mind that will enrich a full range of surf footage, with a bit of biographical detail.

Wave quality will likely remain sub-optimal for my movies, as I would rather surf the best parts of the swell, than film them...

For this one I was happy enough to just put some of the stoke of a couple nice swells into a project I could share.

Ah the age old dilemma , shoot or surf! Pray for a daylong swell in just right for both:

I was wondering where this was. K38/39, right?

I dig

I was wondering where this was. K38/39, right?

You got it. For some reason I like the name 'mussel shoals' better, since that's what it is. "harbor of refuge" is also accurate and what the map says.

oldmansurfer wrote:My main comment is that if that is hurricane surf whats it like when there is no hurricane? Also I enjoyed it.

Here's a fresh vid from two states north (new Hampshire), but here's what it's like on a small but nicely-shaped non-hurricane day.
This was a Monday morning, overcast, not really chilly but the first non-warm in a while so the pedestrians are all bundled up . . it later turned sunny and the next morning I saw the mist coming out of the river, so I chucked it in . .

also this was still on the Pixel phone with awkward Aukey telephoto; I have Sony 4K vid in the works, but meanwhile just please forgive the lens distortion; some of the jumpy zoom effect on the leaf-peeping shots, happened in rendering or something . . .

Well put together video

If those are the usual waves, I imagine there won’t be too many locals coming over and saying ‘I want to go from my 9ft to a 6’2 shortboard’