While this was pleasure rather than work, it was a great opportunity to do some GoPro video work and also keep my skills sharp over the lazy season. Just like musicians and athletes I believe you constantly need to practice your technical skills if you do video for a living. Natural talent plays a very large and undeniable part in the production process, but so do technical skills. And those do not come naturally - you do actually forget how to do some of this stuff if you haven't done it for a while!



Above: My aging GoPro Hero 2 mounted on the stern on a GoPro surfboard mount. Thanks to the crazy adhesive on these babies the mount will probably be there forever, so make sure you stick it in the right place the first time!

The cameras were mounted on GoPro surfboard mounts when they were on the boat. This is the first time I really used my GoPros in rough water and the surfboard mounts never moved an inch. The heavy duty 3M adhesive patches GoPro puts on these things are truly from another world and much better than the weak stuff that holds your bathroom mirror to the wall! For the reverse angle "cockpit view" I used a GoPro head strap. In some of the bigger rapids I rather took this off and secured it in a pocket on the front of my PFD (or "lifejacket", for non-paddlers).



To keep both GoPros running over three days I took a few extra batteries as well as my trusty PowerMonkey Extreme solar charger kit. This was also great to keep my Android phone charged. The phone was essential to take stills and also to set up the GoPro to film sunsets and static camp footage through GoPro's improved Android app. I've found that if you start out with all your devices fully charged, the last few rays of sunlight in the afternoon after you've made camp is usually enough to top up batteries with the solar panel and keep everything charged at around 70% capacity.

To keep all the fancy electronics safe and dry on a rough river trip I took two small Pelican cases and an Otterbox cellphone case. I'm a huge fan of both these brands and they truly are bombproof. The small orange 1120 Peli held my GoPro batteries and accessories while my phone rode in the Otterbox for quick access. Both were tied to the boat with paracord in case I dropped any of it in the Orange river. Both boxes had a rough and wet trip in a mesh storage pocket on top of my kayak and never leaked, even when I flipped the boat rather violently in a large rapid. The 1300 Pelican case held my PowerMonkey kit as well as a few other essential pieces of camping gear and it too survived drowning in the back cargo hatch when I took on some water after two days of river paddling. I believe you can never have enough protective equipment for your camera gear and electronics. Pelican cases have become vulgarly expensive locally thanks to the poor Rand/USD ROE but it's still cheaper than having to fork out the extra cash for drowned electronics.



Above: protective gear - Pelican and Otterbox cases kept everything dry and in one piece. No electronics were harmed during the making of the film. 

So while this wasn't a work project, it was a great opportunity to keep my production skills sharp and also have a lot of fun along the way. If you'd like to get involved in paddling, visit Robbie Herreveld's Canoe and Kayak World at www.canoekayak.co.za