Look Ma, no hakasSince Fusioneng put a GoPro video up so quickly, I felt obligated to follow suit. Here is my first GoPro video—not a polished production like Slaughter, et al, just a day out when I was testing my mini spray skirts—miniskirts for short. Winds were about 18 mph, gusting to 23. There was 2-3’ chop. I was manually holding the GoPro camera at mid-chest level, and you can see, although there are many serious splashes, only a few drops reach the camera (& me). More about that below. The location was Biscayne Bay near Miami.
I was also wearing my new Kokatat Hydrus 3L Tempest Paddling Pants.
http://www.rei.com/product/849522/kokatat-hydrus-3l-tempest-paddling-pants-mens These pants have integrated socks which are a boon to keeping your feet dry & warm. I put a pair of ordinary socks over the pants socks to protect them—they are subject to abrasion if not protected from rough edges and seams in your booties or water shoes. So far, those pants have worked great. I also was wearing an old Kokatat paddling jacket with a t-shirt underneath.
I apologize for the video being 8 min of the same thing—sailing through 2-3’ chop at about 6-7 mph. It was a sunny day and the water looks beautiful. There are some pretty good splashes. Despite the temperature of about 78 deg F, I was cold after 3 hours on the water. I wore only light shorts under those Kokatat pants. I did not deploy my hakas because I wanted a good view of the splashes. In the 4th edit of this post, I changed the video to include music by a friend of mine (Christof) in Taos Ski Valley, NM. There are now 2 audio tracks (1) the natural GoPro audio--pretty low volume typical of GoPro in its waterproof box, and (2) that by Christof. Christof is pretty cool. Don't turn up the volume too loud, but loud enough that you can pick up the GoPro audio (hard to do for some of us.) There is a peculiar "clicking" sound on the natural GoPro audio. You can hear it at numerous places throughout the video starting at 0:27 and 1:34 min. There are a cluster of clicks at 7:38 min, near the end of the video. These "clicks" are due to drops of water (splashes, if you wish) hitting the GoPro waterproof housing of the camera. You can literally count the number of drops hitting the housing in this 8-min video.
Overall, I thought the miniskirts worked very well. The video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVKnd-r3P7E[/youtube]
If you can't see that video, go directly to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVKnd-r3P7EKeith