Yesterday, 24 April, I snapped out at Super Tubes for the first time, armed with my little Fuji Finepix and water housing, bright yellow fins and a flaming skull helmet courtesy of Mr. Bruce Gold. (How old is that helm anyway?) I only saw one familiar face and the rest of the people were those of you that wish you stay here. There was a big crowd in and out of the water, and I must say several people gazed at me and shook their heads as I made my way to he water. One guy had this very nice idea of me having a pouch with b-cards which I can hand out in the water. Lamination should do the thing? Maybe I must just change the card shape to be small enough to be tucked into a wet suit arm or leg? I am going to follow up on that one! Thanks.  

The helm on the head also gave good protection against chilly offshore in the ears. I made a resolution to wear it when I go out to surf as well. So watch out for the helm! I will upload some pics later today.  Oh, did I mention it was my first time out at Supers? And that I missed the gully and had to swim all the way out to Point because it is familiar to me and I did not want to be stranded on the rocks like a Southern Right Whale with yellow pectoral fins?! Oh. Did I mention to you the cramp I got at Supers and how I thought about the prospects of drowning? Believe me, it is not very glamorous out there and you do get slapped by the waves now and then. At point I dove underneath an unsuspecting friendly lady (Missus Thys Strydom I think?! Forgive me if I am wrong) and her fins caught my flippers and fortunately not my face. We were both apologetic for a minute afterwards and I think she got a fright with the prospect of cutting me into three. Yes. You get cramps, you miss the channel, you get ridden over, you freeze and you only have about 5 shots to show at the end of a grueling two hour session. Still I am stoked.

The shutter lag of my water camera is really making it difficult to get proper shots. Yesterday I had several good moments framed up, and then the shutter only goes when the wave smacks me resulting in a watery dud. Last night I ordered a water housing for my "big" SLR camera. This is blunt faith. Maybe it includes a tad of stupidity because I don't have all the cash yet. Let's look at the vision: The new setup will enable me to take at least 3 high speed frames at a time with almost no shutter lag. Typically, if I get lined up for a close shot, that is almost all the time I have. Around 2 seconds. The optics on the big camera is much better. It is an entry level Digital SLR, but definitely a leap from the current setup . Surprisingly, the video quality of the cam is not too bad either, and I may also shoot short videos as well. Trust me, you guys will be the first to hear and see the results.