This afternoon Mark Parry and I headed down to Whitsands Bay, Cornwall to test out my new GoPro Surf Hero HD waterproof video camera. It was a beautiful day, clear and crisp (albeit a bit cold).

The swell was small today so I took out the 9′1 Bilbo longboard and paddled around and got a few waves. I put together a little footage capture with the GoPro HD camera.

The sun was directly behind me, so it is pretty intense in the video at times, also I think I needed to adjust the tightness of the mount, so the camera didn’t move as much and possibly the angle so I was in the frame more. Also because the air temperature was only about 2 degrees, the casing fogged up a little, but for a first go we were pretty impressed with the quality of the video.

Check out the short video clip below. The footage has been optimised for the web and so isn’t as high quality as the original video.

GoPro Surf Hero HD, Whitsands Bay, Cornwall from Ben Ellis on Vimeo.

Paul the postman has just been and made a very special pre-Christmas delivery of my GoPro Surf Hero HD video/stills camera. The Surf Hero HD, is as you might expect the High Definition version of the much-loved GoPro Surf Hero, a digital video and stills camera that you can mount to your surfboard to capture amazing footage of you and your buddies pulling in to that next pit!

You can also get different mounts for the camera so you can attach it to a helmet, your chest etc. Handy for ski/snowboard movies. Dare I say 2010 will be featuring the 4th snow/surf movie from myself at some point :)

I can’t wait to test it out in the water, unfortunately a.) I have to wait until Christmas until I can open it, and b.) I need to get myself to the coast to make full use of it! In the mean time, check out the links below showing some test footage from the boys at GoPro, I reckon you’ll be suitably impressed!

GoPro HD HERO Camera: Surf Movie from GoPro on Vimeo.

GoPro HD Camera: Ski Movie from GoPro on Vimeo.

PS: Cheers to Magicseaweed for a stress-free and speedy delivery :)

I’ve finally got around to putting up a few pics from our trip to Newquay last month. We had a good time, great weather (as usual) and a few reasonable waves and one defining sunset season at Fistral on the last night. This time around Alan Stokes and Ollie weren’t around, but I still managed to spot another pro, Russell Winter. This pro surfer spotting is becoming something of a habit, haha!

Check out the pics on Flickr.

I’ve been pretty busy since we got back from Newquay two weeks ago, so hadn’t really had the opportunity to check out some of the photos I took. I was quite pleased to find some of these (more retro style) shots on my waterproof W60 camera (they have obviously had a little tinkering in PhotoShop). There are a few below, the rest are on my flickr.

And so the quiver extends itself to 6! Yep that is 6 surf boards, spread over 2 hemispheres, you could even say it is an intercontinental quiver!

This is the 7′0 fun board that I brought from sharper and owner of Breeder surfboards, Renato Casimiro, I’ve named him Clyde (after Clyde “the glide” Drexler).

Here are a couple of pictures I took with the underwater camera today, not amazing, but a little proof all the same. I actually got pounded trying to take the pictures as I was caught inside. they don’t really do the surf justice, but to give you an idea it was about 4-5ft today, still fat, but the wind was blowing onshore and so it wasn’t as hollow as yesterday.

There was a beautiful sunset last night which we just about caught before heading out to dinner, check it out below.

Today Rose and I made the trip down the coast from Massaguacu to Maresias, via Sao Sebastiao. We are staying at the Tambayba Hotel Pousada, an Indonesian-style resort set in lush, tropical surroundings.

The surf was pretty intense today and I felt a little out of my league alongside a handful of local surfers. The set waves were in the region of a good 6ft, very thick, fast and pretty hollow. I haven’t surfed waves like this since Fiji a few years back, and more recently at Itamambuca. I think I got about 3 waves in the space of about an hour, not that many to be fair, but at least I didn’t snap my board on the (heavy) lip of the wave (i’ve already broken 2 leashes and a fin).

I’ll give it another bash in the morning.

On our way back from our trip to Paraty, Rose and I checked into the Canto do Itamambuca, a nicely kept pousada about 500 metres from the beach and river.

The funny thing about the “500 metres” to the beach is that they don’t mention that you actually need to cross a river to get to access the beach, either by getting a small boat (paddled by one of the local boatmen) or wading/swimming across. Depending on the tide, the river can be ankle deep to neck deep, so you don’t really know what to expect. But after a few crossings you get used to it (unlike Australia, there are no nasties in the rivers around these parts – or so I was told).

The Canto is a nice place, with friendly staff, a nice pool and a decent breakfast, the only thing was that we were the only guests staying there (as it was low season after carnaval) so it lacked a bit of atmosphere.

Whilst staying in Paraty, we booked in a charming little hostel near the river called Casa do Rio (house on the river). It had an arts and crafts feel to it (in the artisan sense of the word, not the architectural style).

The only thing I could fault was the fact that the room was a little small and when it is 39.5 degrees in the day time, you HAVE to have air con in your room, we didn’t and you would need a nuclear-powered ceiling fan set to turbo to even come close to reducing the evening heat by a few degrees.

Sticky, sleepless nights aside, our stay was pleasant, and probably the first time on our stay outside of the city of Sao Paulo that we bumped into English speaking tourists, in Caragua and especially Massaguacu it is mostly locals who don’t speak (or let you know they speak) English.