For those interested in capturing your windsurfing moments on video, here are a few things I've noticed as I recently was going through upgrading my not-so-old GoPro Hero 4 Silver to one of the newest versions.

So, why upgrading?
The newer GoPro Hero 5 and 6 have a few new features that are incredibly useful to windsurfers.
- WATERPROOF: First, the camera itself is completely waterproof (up to 10 meters deep) and doesn't require a separate case. This is very convenient. No more fiddling with a case that prevents accessing the touch screen interface. And less risk of getting your shot ruined because the case lens fogged up in cold water during warm days!
- HIGH-RES AND SLOW-MO: Then, you can now shoot at high resolution in 2.7K and 4K at pretty high frame rates which means that you can zoom-in and slow-mo your clip in post-production to pretty high levels while keeping a crisp image and smooth action. Pretty sweet.
- WIND NOISE REDUCTION: This comes handy to minimize the whistling noise so characteristic of POV (point of view) action shoots in windsurfing.
- IMAGE STABILIZATION: Finally, the really cool feature of the newest versions, is the Image Stabilization. Not as good as a gimbal, but still capable of delivering impressive smooth and stable images anywhere there is jerky and jittery action.

Now, which one to choose? The Hero 5 or 6? There are plenty of resources online, but here is my recent experience… maybe this can help someone! My take is that the Hero 6 is the better choice for getting significantly better vids:
- BETTER AUDIO: The sound is way-better with the Hero 6 than on the Hero 5. Not fantastic but acceptable with the 6, while the 5 has over sensitive pickups that amplifies every unwanted sounds (like a slight touch on the camera), and has a constant static humming in the background that make the audio completely unusable.
- BETTER VIDEO STABILIZATION: Significantly superior with the Hero 6.
- HIGHER FRAME RATE OPTIONS: At 1080P 240fps = you can slowdown a clip to 25% of its original speed and still get amazing quality.
- HIGHER RESOLUTION OPTIONS: The 2.7K or 4K setting on the 6 provides enough image data to significantly zoom-in on the image during editing, and allows for very high quality videos by downsampling the output in HD 1080P.

To conclude, I initially got the Hero 5 and returned it the next day because of the audio issue. If anyone is in the market for an action camera and can afford the extra $100 it costs, please do yourself a favor and go for the Hero 6!
Lastly, avoid updating the firmware to version 2.01: it messes up the stabilization, so it's best to leave the 1.6 firmware alone for now!

Hope this helps! If any questions, just shoot!

Thanks for the helpful information about the GoPro models.

My lovely wife gave me a Gopro 7 for my birthday 10.05. I wish it was something more useful like a mast or sail or a board but I didn’t want to ruin her joy of choosing and giving presents herself, my traditional, geeky babe. I guess now I’ll have to use it, as much as the DSLR I’m afraid. Any essential items I may need for it? I have no idea how to attach it to the boom or mast securely?!

Reid recommended a flymount original product
It works great!

Ady wrote:

In all my GoPro(Hero 4 Silver) shots in my albums I'm using the Flymount. Very secure, built well, and doesn't hurt the mast, sail sleeve, or boom.

Flymount
flymount.com/







The Gopro 7 is waterproof but you might want to think about a waterproof case. I've banged mine(Gopro 4 with waterproof case) on enough stuff that it's nice to know that I can just replace a scratched / damaged case if I had to. You don't want a case if you have a fog issue like Greg had with Lake Michigan cold water with warm air. I haven't had a fog issue on Clinton Lake with my Gopro 4 with waterproof case.

Gopro Super Suit - Compatibility: HERO7 Black, HERO6 Black, HERO5 Black, HERO (2018)
shop.gopro.com/mounts/super-suit/AADIV-001.html







You might want to think about video and photo storage. I doubt you'll be shooting in 4K (extreme resolution) because your HERO7 Black will start to overheat in 30 min and shut itself off. My Gopro 4 screen grabs in my albums are off 1080P video. 1080P video can still take up a lot of space. I use a Western Digital Passport with 1TB (1 Terabyte) of space for video and photos. There are many brands and you can search for the latest and greatest.

Western Digital Passport






Also handy is playback software(free download) for screen grabs, slow motion, frame by frame, and flip image any angle. I use VLC media player. You can designate a folder in settings and then every time you hit the "snapshot" button it will send it to the folder.

VLC media player (free download)
www.videolan.org/index.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player


Hope this helps.

Thanks guys! Do I need that orange float ?

Ady wrote:
You can have a safety line like you see in the Flymount photo above. But what that line is holding could break too. So it's not foolproof. I don't like the door mount float because it blocks the screen for seeing what the GoPro shot framing is.


Orange float door mount. It blocks the screen.





Here's something new. The Bodhi Floaty Case. Gives the GoPro some protection and videos show it has more float. And you can see the back screen.

Bodhi Floaty Case - for HERO 7, HERO 6 and HERO 5 Black
www.bodhifloaty.com/products/bodhi-float...ange-for-hero5-black

Thanks! I ended up buying the waterproof case and the Flymount. My bad for not reading the playback software tip .
What settings are best? I went with the default ones -2.7k/60 fps/ 4:3 format, which drained the battery quickly . Changing the format to 16:9 gives me the option to shoot in 1080 and maybe I should change to 30 fps?

Ady wrote:

I shoot in 1080p with "SuperView"(which is digital, not optical, super wide angle) at 24 fps with my GoPro 4 Silver. I get almost 2 hours of shooting time. Also smaller file

The higher frames per sec are good for smoother slow motion if you make a vid.

Best solution to keep water droplets away? Spit ?!

Ady wrote:
I'm thinking of trying Rain-X Glass Water Repellent (3.5 oz)

Congrats on the new GoPro, Ady! Very cool.
I’m using a slightly different setting than Reid because my GoPro 6 (and your 7) can do a few more things that you might find useful. I shot everything in 2.7K (roughly twice 1080P res), at 60fps in superview (wider angle). Why? While I encode (render the video) everything in 1080P, having raw footage twice the definition allows to zoom in up to 200% without loosing definition once encoded at 1080P. I also encode my vids in 30fps (seems like water is a bit less jittery that way) but I shoot raw clips in 60fps to give me the choice to do slow motion up to 50% of normal speed without looking like its missing frames! For super-smooth slowmo, you’ll need to record at an even higher frame rate: reducing the footage speed to 20% will give you a nice and fluid slow motion! Pretty cool! In occasions, you could set on the fly to 120fps but I think your field of view would have to be set to Wide only.
I am not familiar with the GoPro 7 specs but the more you use higher frame rate and higher definition, the bigger the amount of space you’ll need on you micro SD card. At 2.7K/60fps/superview, I get about 1 and a half hour of continuous footage on a 64gb card and a fully charged battery will last about that much as well.
I ended up rotating three 64gb cards and three batteries. This usually covers my need for a day on the water.
If you want to watch your vids on your 4K TV in 4K (if you have one! ...I don’t! ), you can shoot, edit and encode your vids in 4K but I think you’ll be limited with the fps and lense angle settings on the GoPro. Raw footage will be bigger in size and your computer will need to have high end specs (video card and processing) to deal with this kind of files. In addition, the file format (H.265) of certain 4K raw footage requires a computer that has the most recent video codec in order to edit. If your computer is not recent, it might not have the necessary codec. You’ll want to test and see if that works for you.
Bring on the vids and stills!