6 months on...

It is six months since I had a stroke on Christmas day and although most of the feeling has returned to my right side I still have the occasional "bad day". Most bad days are compounded by having to work in man made environments in front of a pc. After six months of tests the probable cause appears to be a hole in my heart that showed up in an echo. This hole allows small clots to short cut a path to the brain rather than being filtered by the lungs. I will be on asprin daily for the rest of my life. The best therapy I find is time outside with my wife and 2 year old and of course windsurfing.

My hope for the next six months is for my health to keep on improving and my level of strength and fitness to increase. I am currently 110kg(which is great for speed sailing) and hope to get down to 105kg which will suit my new focus of slalom and marathon racing. There are 5 events in the pipeline for this summer and since we will be losing a lot of our speed locations in the lower lakes(flow restricters will be utilised to raise the lower lakes to pre-drought levels) I am really excited about the buzz of racing and the burn of marathons. It is less a case of the lucky gust and more a case of best man wins! I still love speed sailing but I dont want it to headline my sailing menu as much as it has in the past, I want to taste a few more dishes!

Light Wind Cruiser - JP Slalom IV 134

I had a light wind cruise on the JP Slalom IV 134 at Goolwa on Monday(8/6/09) in about 10-15 knots. Man I love this board, it is just so much fun in light breeze and is the only floater I have. The other great thing is that I could be out on the 7.8 with either the 92 or 104 with the wind dropping out - whack in this baby and you are going again in a few minutes, no 15+ minutes to rig another sail. Also gybes like a smaller board with relatively thin rails and stays or hovers above the water if it does pick up again.
I also tried the new Select Proslam 47 for the first time, and although I wasn't powered it showed nice speed off of the wind(~30) and still held a reasonable angle heading back upwind. I look forward to more time on this big gear with some slalom & marathon events that are in the pipeline.



I also caught a bit of footage tailing Carl & Joe. At least the water is flat when it is this light...
I looked at the camera after the run and noticed condensation inside the housing and thought the video would not turn out at all. In the end it is slightly blurred but still shows the action.

Gear for Sale

I have the following gear for sale:

Select SL7 - 27cm - 2008 - $120

Neil Pryde X3 UXT 28 - $45 each

North Sails base (offset~15mm) - $50

Will allow longer range than mast track!

Gun Sails Downhaul Winch - $30

Garmin GPS 72 - $150

Includes Data/Power cable

Video Camera - GoPro Hero Wide

First impressions...
I can remember seeing some photos of this camera as a wrist mount a few years ago and thought it was a bit of a toy - a tiny little box that was not as stylish as others on the market but when I looked into it further I realised that it was so compact that it could not be any other shape!

The GoPro Hero Wide is powered by 2xAAA batteries which take up the whole rear of the camera, as with most cameras it is best to use Lithium(3hrs) or NiMH(2hrs). There is some onboard memory(16Mb) but it is definately best to put a 2Gb card in straight away. It can shoot TV resolution(512x384) video and 5Mp stills with a range of auto shoot options such as a burst of 3 shots or continuous shooting every 2 or 5 seconds.

Special attention has been paid to the point of sale presentation, the camera packaging is a fabricated clear acrylic box which provides a full view of the camera and its housing. It is rare that this attention to detail is shown in packaging design these days.

Operation

The camera is extremely easy to operate and navigate through each of the different shooting modes. I did however take my helmet of before a run just to make sure that it was recording(red flashing light). The camera beeps when you manually shoot stills and record which can be heard inside the helmet if there is not too much background noise. There is also an invert shooting option so that the camera can be mounted upside down. I have not tried this yet but imagine it would be good when mounted under the rear of the boom arm.

Housing
The housing is shock and waterproof and has a robust rear seal that is rated to 30m. Check out the AAA battery in the foreground! This thing is tiny and as a result you dont even realise you are using it.

What you get...

With the standard kit you get the camera and housing, a stick on flat mount and a USB/RCA combo cable. I chose this kit as I wanted to stick the camera to the helmet and did not need the helmet head strap mount. This would be suited to cycling or vented helmets that you didn't want to stick a mount on.

Roll Bar Mount Kit.
For the boom shots I mounted the housing directly to the bar clamp, this allowed the camera to shoot down the tube that it was mounted on. This worked well mounted on the boom grip adjacent to the head as the camera is pointed in the centre of the action around the sailors chest. I took some still photos after putting the camera on the tail of the boom and will try this the next time I sail. I think the other linkage pieces will be required so that the camera can sit beside the boom and centre closer to the mast base.

Grab Bag Mount Kit
You get 2 curved and 2 flat 3M stick on mounts. The curved mount is well suited to helmet mounting - make sure you get the position right as the 3M adhesive won't give you a second chance. You also get 2 Horizontal Surface Quick-Release Buckles, a Vertical Surface J-Hook Buckle and a spare Thumb Knob with Nut and Bolt.

Helmet Mount.
I chose to mount the camera slightly forward of centre so that it sat a little lower. The mass of the camera and the wind resistance was minor and didn't affect what I was doing whatsoever. Also, with it slightly forward you can duck your head when you flip the sail in the water and the back of the helmet takes any contact instead of the camera. With the camera off this also means that the mount will not damage the sail doing the same.

Boom Mount

Mounting on the front of the boom you don't even notice the camera. I am not sure if it would hamper the rig flip as I was speed sailing on the day I used it and didn't even gybe.

Rear Boom Mount
Mounting on the rear of the boom grip or the tail you can get another interesting perspective. The wind was blowing in the back yard and I had to point the camera into the sun. The wide angle lens will still capture the full sailor even this close.

Conclusion
This camera is one of the best investments I have made! I can re-live the sessions and show others what I "get up to". I would even consider getting a second to shoot 2 views at once or the standard model to shoot others over greater distances.

I purchased the GoPro Hero Wide and the mounting accessories from Adventure Cams HQ.
They had the best prices I could find and also included a Windows Movie Maker tutorial DVD and a handy Spudz Lens Cleaning Kit. The delivery was promt and everything was well covered in bubble wrap. They are also Australian(WA) so you are supporting local business.

JP/Pryde 1st & 2nd - 2009 PWA Ulsan World Cup

JP/Pryde riders Antoine Albeau & Micah Buzianis have finished First and Second in the Slalom at the world cup event in Ulsan Korea. Both are still not 100% physically, so this is a true reflection of their talent and confirmation that the JP Slalom Gen V boards and the Pryde Racing Evo II's are damn fast & easily controlled.



See the event writeup here:
http://www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=35&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1487&tx_ttnews[backPid]=29&cHash=9723b18c65

Sandy Point 16 May 2009

Although I didn't have the session I had hoped for I was happy with the footage I captured on my new camera. I had a play with helmet and boom mounts and have a lot more ideas on interesting angles.

Here is a quick low resolution edit of some of the footage. I will do a full review of this fantastic camera shortly.

The GoPro Hero Wide is available from Adventure Cams HQ
http://www.adventurecamshq.com.au/shop/product_info.php?cPath=50_71&products_id=57



P.S. my boom isn't really that squeaky, it is the sound of my hand moving on the boom grip!

Micah's foot injury

Micah's foot injury seems to be healing well and he has had several sessions putting it through its paces...

"Saturday 5-9-09 The foot felt great this morning, this is relative to how it was feeling this week, I think the sail was very good for it. The sorest spot was the ankle not the break site so this is a good thing. The wind was a bit lighter today so I think another session will help even more, I certainly need the water time with only three days till I leave for Korea. Once at the beach I went with the JP 68 and my RSRacing EVOII 7.0 again. It was more like 7.8 weather but this was exactly what I needed another day of mellow sailing. The water was a bit flatter as well so it was again much easier on my foot, if we can get this flat of water in Korea I could be ok."

Read the full report on Micah's site: http://www.micahbuzianis.com/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=79