Northwest Surfriders

For shooting video of the freerides it seemed important to
to get in the surf closer to the riders. I was able to borrow a very nice
scuba enclosure for a video camera. The problem is that it is designed to
be weightless underwater and we plan to use it out of the water. Out of the
water with a video camera it weighs 24 pounds. This wouldn't be fun to hold
in front of you and shoot video as the surf pounds on you. I made some crude
and rude "camera rigs" out of PVC pipe and hardware from Home Depot.

The skicam rig below is designed to used sitting backwards on the back of a three passenger
"Sea couch" PWC. I plan to add some straps to go around the user's thighs that would
have velcro patches on top to connect to velcro patches on the bottom of the rig.
This would keep it from sliding around on the thighs yet could be easily thrown clear
in a wipe out.

The surfcam rig is designed to used standing out in the surf. The ocean drops off slowly
where we ride. Hip deep is like 50 feet out. We tried using it at the March freeride.
It wouldn't turn like a tripod turns. It was impossible to follow the riders. It has
be re-engineered as can be seen after the picture of the original version below.

After the issues of the surfcam not turning I added a bearing mechanism so it can rotate.
It has been pointed out that salt water would be bad for the bearings. The bearing
is a $4.97 caster from Home Depot. It is expendable.

Click here for the Surfcam version 2 video

Here are some close ups of how the video camera connects to the rigs. It takes about
five minutes to change rigs.