One of the year’s month’s most watched surf clip was Anthony Walsh’s GoPro footage of a single wave at Desert Point seen here on tracksmag.com. As of today it has had over 150,000 hits on youtube and has featured on every surf site on the planet. It’s success is partly down to the wave itself, pure Indo perfection with Walsh threading five proper bazzas. But more than just the quality of the wave, the clip was mesmerizing because it showed exactly why we surf. The multiple camera angles, with viewpoints looking out and back in the tube as well as the background, took everyone who watched it along for the ride. It was a user generated fucking masterpiece. But then that is not surprising, the Lennox Head freesurfer, now based on the south shore of Oahu with his girl and son, has been working on these angles for the better part of a decade.
“Well around seven years ago I was surfing a lot of sessions on my own and there was no photographers around,” Walsh told Tracks, talking from Lennox after just hopping off the plane from Indo. “So I started experimenting with mounting onboard cameras and holding them myself so I could have some imagery to show people. At first I started using quite big cameras that weighed three or four kilos. I experimented with all different set ups for three years or so and while I had some good results, it was a lot of hard work. I was like, ‘I can’t keep doing this. I need a smaller camera.’ Basically I needed the technology to catch up.”
That technology arrived in the form of GoPro. Walsh saw the size and knew that it was what he had been waiting for. “I got a contact off the internet and emailed them. I mean this was before they had video cameras and only had three people working for the company.” Compare that to now where in 2013 GoPro’s sales were just shy of $US1 billion. Last week, GoPro’s Wall Street IPO became the hottest of the year so far, with shares going for 40 bucks a pop, after being listed for 28. Last year alone users have posted an gigabyte tearing 2.8 years-worth of video content alone.
Of course of that 2.8 years (1.1 year of which is SUP’ers catching two footers) Walshy’s is the cream of the crop. The question is why? “The thing is on that wave I was literally not thinking about the camera at all,” says Walshy. “What happens is that the more you use the camera, the less you think about. It’s almost a subconscious thing, like waxing your board or putting your leggie on before a surf. That helps it feel natural. For example when I was bottom turning I would change the camera to the outside hand, because that was the one I wasn’t using. It just flows and I think that is what shows in the footage. It takes experience, but now it’s not a hindrance, at all.”
Walsh is a GoPro sponsored athlete, but is also running the GoPro Challenge on the ASP World Tour. He rocks up to the events, hands out cameras to the pros, shows the guys the ropes and then logs and edits all the footage. So far the winners have all come from freesurfing surrounding the events, but Walsh is keen to get some action from the actual heats. “At the moment the prize is money is ten grand, but we’ve upped it to 15 if the footage is obtained when competing, so hopefully that might help.”Another way is for Walshy to do it himself. He is off to Tahiti in August for the Von Zipper trials, an event he as made the finals numerous times. “Yeah if I get into the main event I’ll definitely get some footage. So there’s a good chance of winning the GoPro challenge. The only problem is I’m a judge. That might be an issue.”
Walshy, always a contender at Chopes, with or without a camera. Photo asp/Robertson
