Our own Jaz Diaz made the trip from her home store in El Cajon to the Channel Islands to represent Sun Diego during GoPro's latest Super Clinic. Check out photos and video of her adventure and see all that's new from GoPro!
The first weekend of November, GoPro gathered its southern Californian accounts for the annual Super Clinic. Representatives from dozens of extreme sports shops met on Santa Cruz Island to have a hands-on kayaking and camping experience with the newest GoPros on the market. Sun Diego’s own Jaz Diaz went on the two day expedition to represent our shop and get the lowdown on what's new with GoPro's range of cameras and accessories. Jaz captured her experiences on the island and recounts her adventure here:
We were each handed a GoPro and given simple instructions:
Record your adventures and have fun!
Looking around at the 30 strangers who I'd be camping with for the next two days, everyone fiddled with GoPro Hero4s and the new Hero4 Session. We were given a plethora of mounts: head strap, wrist strap, chest and my favorite – the three way (a tripod, selfie stick, and hand grip all in one.)
>We wriggled into our wetsuits and found kayak partners. My partner had the Hero4 Session, while I brought along the Hero4 Silver. I own a Hero3 Black, and the first thing I noticed about the Hero4 was the LCD screen. SO CONVENIENT! With an allotted amount of memory, deleting garbage shots to save room for better footage was easy. The touch screen is user friendly and allowed my partner and I to check out our shots out on the water. We kayaked into a gorgeous sea cave. Enormously eerie and dark – but the Hero4 auto adjusted to the dark setting. The images weren't fuzzy at all!
Another sea cave we ventured into was called the Emerald Room. Inside, the light reflected a greenish-blue hue from the water. It was breathtaking. My partner showed me how to use her Hero4 Session. One button and you’re set! Point, click, capture. It fit in her palm perfectly, the simplicity of the camera is definitely applause-worthy. Something my 11-year-old sister could figure out in an instant, but still powerful enough to capture stunning video.
Next, we kayaked to a bay and snorkeled. The water was SO clear! We captured footage of colorful fish and dancing kelp. The wrist mount has a swivel underneath the camera. It was perfect for snorkeling. I got some shots of the fish in front of me, and swiveled the camera around to record myself swimming.
That night we set up our campsite and went on a sunset hike. The chest mount came in clutch. I could freely use my hands while recording. Neat perspective.
Once the sun set... Wow. Stars flooded the sky and the Milky Way was clearly visible. We don't see the night sky this way in San Diego. The darkness was perfect for playing with slow shutter speeds on the Hero4. We took turns drawing images in the air with our flashlights while capturing images in low light. The results were so cool! The GoPro trainer had a light stick that he slowly walked across with in front of the cameras. The stick would change colors. To the naked eye, it looks like a floating stick with flashing lights. But on the Hero4, the slow shutter speed captured the image of GoPro's logo!
Overall, the experience was a BLAST! The island is stunning in its isolated beauty and capturing my adventure was easy and so much fun with the GoPro cameras and accessories.
Top three takeaways from my trip:
The first weekend of November, GoPro gathered its southern Californian accounts for the annual Super Clinic. Representatives from dozens of extreme sports shops met on Santa Cruz Island to have a hands-on kayaking and camping experience with the newest GoPros on the market. Sun Diego’s own Jaz Diaz went on the two day expedition to represent our shop and get the lowdown on what's new with GoPro's range of cameras and accessories. Jaz captured her experiences on the island and recounts her adventure here:
We were each handed a GoPro and given simple instructions:
Record your adventures and have fun!
Looking around at the 30 strangers who I'd be camping with for the next two days, everyone fiddled with GoPro Hero4s and the new Hero4 Session. We were given a plethora of mounts: head strap, wrist strap, chest and my favorite – the three way (a tripod, selfie stick, and hand grip all in one.)
>We wriggled into our wetsuits and found kayak partners. My partner had the Hero4 Session, while I brought along the Hero4 Silver. I own a Hero3 Black, and the first thing I noticed about the Hero4 was the LCD screen. SO CONVENIENT! With an allotted amount of memory, deleting garbage shots to save room for better footage was easy. The touch screen is user friendly and allowed my partner and I to check out our shots out on the water. We kayaked into a gorgeous sea cave. Enormously eerie and dark – but the Hero4 auto adjusted to the dark setting. The images weren't fuzzy at all!
Another sea cave we ventured into was called the Emerald Room. Inside, the light reflected a greenish-blue hue from the water. It was breathtaking. My partner showed me how to use her Hero4 Session. One button and you’re set! Point, click, capture. It fit in her palm perfectly, the simplicity of the camera is definitely applause-worthy. Something my 11-year-old sister could figure out in an instant, but still powerful enough to capture stunning video.
Next, we kayaked to a bay and snorkeled. The water was SO clear! We captured footage of colorful fish and dancing kelp. The wrist mount has a swivel underneath the camera. It was perfect for snorkeling. I got some shots of the fish in front of me, and swiveled the camera around to record myself swimming.
That night we set up our campsite and went on a sunset hike. The chest mount came in clutch. I could freely use my hands while recording. Neat perspective.
Once the sun set... Wow. Stars flooded the sky and the Milky Way was clearly visible. We don't see the night sky this way in San Diego. The darkness was perfect for playing with slow shutter speeds on the Hero4. We took turns drawing images in the air with our flashlights while capturing images in low light. The results were so cool! The GoPro trainer had a light stick that he slowly walked across with in front of the cameras. The stick would change colors. To the naked eye, it looks like a floating stick with flashing lights. But on the Hero4, the slow shutter speed captured the image of GoPro's logo!
Overall, the experience was a BLAST! The island is stunning in its isolated beauty and capturing my adventure was easy and so much fun with the GoPro cameras and accessories.
Top three takeaways from my trip:
- The new GoPros are SICK!
- Having no wifi or cell service for two days is actually pretty refreshing.
- Roughing it out isn't so rough when you have a Go Pro to play with.