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domenica, settembre 23, 2012

Slab

Slab (pron. /slæb/) in surfing refers to "any shallow reef or rock shelf over which very steep and powerful waves break". Watch this video of an Assie slab. It hurts, really.

venerdì, settembre 21, 2012

Celebratng Kelly's 50th win


Kelly Slater wins again in Trestles. Nothing new, except for the fact this is his 50th win in the ASP tour. Let's celebrate whatching the video above.


lunedì, settembre 17, 2012

North depower line - broken again!

Shit happens - you know. How many of you figured out that some of your gear was missing once at the spot, almost ready for the best session of the year? Maybe you forgot the mastbase? The wetsuit? The harness?
Or - even worse - some of your gear got broken during the session, letting you on the beach completely pissed off while all your buddies are having so much fun?

Shit happens - as said - but it shouldn't happen so often. Not with the north depower line. As a matter of fact, mine got broken during the last session in Laredo, a couple of days ago, giving me no other choice than a 20minute walk down to the spot where I left the beach. 

I don't know why North is not able to provide its customers with decent depower line, something that could last more than 30/40 kiteboarding sessions. I already substituted it one year ago and now it's time to start over again. 



Back to the session... before shit happened I surfed for almost two hours in nice conditions in Laredo, the wind was blowing 15 to 20knots from East. Looots of people and swimmers...
 
With the remote and the bacpac on, I also tried a different mount for the GoPro, inspired by this video here:


The helmet straps are too short for the strut of the North Rebel but I find out that the mod above fits perfectly and it's pretty stable. My kite has been washed a couple of time by the waves and the camera is still there.
Here the edited video of the session. Enjoy!



venerdì, settembre 14, 2012

Muskiz - PornoKiting

I scored a nice kitesurfing session yesterday in Muskiz, my (I think I can say it) wave home spot. The conditions were pretty gnarly, the wind wasn't too strong and there was some head high waves deploying into mushy ones. I sailed with my 10m North Rebel and the surf board.
Check this video out.


PornoKiting from Francesco Fucelli on Vimeo.

The camera was mounted on the helmet. I must say I don't particulary like this mounting option because 1) video is always shaking, no matter how much you tight the camera on the helmet and 2) because of the wide angle and the high waves appears smaller than they actually are. So when you friends see it their reaction is "bah, those mushy waves...". I suck.

By the way, PornoKiting because I'm not particulary creative, and the music remind me... well, you know. Use your imagination ;)

Talking about the remote wifi controller for the GoPro I bought a week ago, here's a video test I made while resting a little bit on the beach. Keeping the line of sight between the camera and the controller, I walked away about 25mt (the bar lines lenght) and still I was able to operate the camera via the bacpac. Quite goo I wold say.

Wonder if it works also underwater... ;)


martedì, settembre 11, 2012

GoPro WiFi combo kit first impressions

I just bought the Wifi backpack and the remote combo kit for the GoPro HD via Amazon.

The backpack is a little add on for the GoPro HD (the first and the second release) that provides wifi connectivity, allowing users to control the camera  through a remote controller.





The combo kit includes - obviously - both the backpack and the controller, as well as the case extension and some cables. The controller has two button for easy access to all functions of the camera (not the "SET" once). A little display shows the current selected mode. The remote can be wrist mounted using a velcro strap, also included in the kit, and is waterproof . The display is similar to the one which comes with the Hero HD2 camera, a black and white LCD.



To my surprise the camera, the wifi bacpac and the remote need to be upgraded once unboxed to start working properly. The upgrade procedure for the Hero HD is quite simple and it's described in this video; it's not that straightforward for the accessories, since you have to download the GoPro Cineform Studio software first, then connect the camera with the add-on attached and plug the micro USB cable to your laptop, praying it will be recognized by the software.
During the firts try using my brand new laptop running Windows 7 the bacpac failed to be recognized. Grrrr. No way, no matter what I was doing. I thought the bacpac was broken, but before calling the GoPro guys asking for an RMA I did try going through the upgrade procedure using my old macbook and - magic!- both the bacpac and the remote were recognized promptly. Thanks Steve! Done, the upgrade went on smoothly and the wifi bacpac started working as expected.



The remote is quite easy to operate. One button to turn on the camera and to change the recording mode, one button to start recording. A flashing red led will show the status of the camera, ie if it is recording.
I did also check the coverage of the wifi signal indoor and it seems to me quite ok. I will retest it attacching the camera on my kite during the next session (hopefully soon).



The remote can be charged using a USB port, unfortunately on the remote side the connector is proprietary so be advised, don't lose it or you will have to call GoPro for a spare one. The bacpac can be charged using the standard microUSB cable and it runs on it's own till the battery runs out, then start drying the camera battery.

Overall, good impression, the built quality is very good as usual.