Tag: video

That’s How We Roll-A Flipbook Video of the Last Dive of FnF 2012

The First Video of the “Friend. Not Fish. 2012” Dive Trip

It’s about time.  Back in ‘06, a group of my friends started the “Friend Not Fish Dive Trip” aided by the hard work of the original organizers, Aaron and Maquel Crist (of Crist Spears fame). We did it three years straight, and then unfortunately took 3 years off (the flailing economy didn’t help).  This year Todd (one of the original members of the group with us, and a die-hard in his own right) took it over from the Crists, and put the band back together.  He was on a mission to revive it.  This time we chartered a different boat from the same operator, and as usual, we had a great time.

I’ve become notorious among the group for taking great video on these trips, and then never showing anyone (sorry, everyone).  This time, to provide a good faith offering to everyone involved, I wanted to get something up within days of the trip, so I chose a really cool series of photos put into a video flipbook of sorts.  This was the dive deck of the Truth boat for an hour or so at the last dive site of the day (don’t worry…it’s time-lapsed, so it only takes 5 minutes or so).FNF2012Logo

The commotion near the end happened when Aaron, free diving and hunting with one of his spears, shot right through a fish and got a 3+ foot moray eel behind the target fish accidentally.  After having another moray steel the fish while he was figuring out how to deal with the razor sharp teeth of a squirming eel, he decided to bring it back to the boat on the pole spear and deal with it on our terms.  Aaron has video of this incident, so hopefully I’ll post a follow up soon with that clip (I haven’t seen it yet).

This video was shot on Santa Cruz Island, California, with a GoPro HD Hero.

I will get some more commentary and video up shortly. Honest. I will.  For now, enjoy the comings and goings of the divers, the hard work of the great Truth crew, and a beautiful day on the Pacific Ocean.

A little nostalgia for Todd T–Famous New York Pizza

Another Quick Take.  I know…the joke is a little inside, but I will point out that TT and I did it originally before Michael Scott did.  Now, if I could just find that old video.

In the meantime, here’s the homage from TC.  Notice the cat calls for the Manhattan hotties against the wall in the background.

Some Grand Cayman Diving

Last month my wife, Crystal, and I took a whirlwind vacation with some of our extended family to several great diving destinations including Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Ft. Lauderdale.  I’ve got a lot of video footage and some still photos from the trip, so I put together a little sample from Grand Cayman.  More to follow.

We dove with Casey from Neptune Divers and it was fabulous.  No big animals on our two dives this time, but the terrain on the wall was amazing, and the life around the wreck and reef we did on the second dive was fantastic.  My sister, Brenda, shown here in this video a few times, was on her first dive as a certified scuba diver (see her using her arms? :)). Her husband, David, is featured here too, along with Crystal and I.

I’ll also have a review/recap of our trip shortly.  For now, here is a quick view into the underwater world of Grand Cayman, featuring their world class wall that dives into the abyss just off shore.  Enjoy.

View in HTML 5 (for iPad, iPhone, etc.)

Daily Flip 5 – SGTRI

Well, I did another triathlon last weekend, the SGTRI.  Actually, while a different race, it was the same venue from my first full tri which got cancelled due to weather after the swim.  This time wind and waves got the swim start delayed, and then cancelled as well.  I’m not having good luck at this venue.  So, the race organizers turned it into a run-bike-run event.  It turns out this was a really hard course, both the bike an the run.  They were much harder than I had expected.  I bombed on the last run, but finished, so I guess that’s something.

I did the tri with my friend, Matt, and my brother, Cory.  Matt lives here in Mesa and Cory lives in Park City, UT.  Matt and I had planned on having me fly us up to St. George, UT, where the event was.  That would turn an 8 or so hour drive into a 2 hour flight.  Then my brother asked if I could come pick him up near Park City…so of course, I agreed.  After dropping Matt and our gear off at St. George Airport (KSGU), I got back in the plane and flew up to Provo, UT (KPVU) and picked up my brother.  Then we both flew back to Hurricane, UT (1L8) where our rental home was as well as the actual triathlon (Hurricane is about a 20 minute drive from St. George).  Matt and I got to fly over the western edge of the Grand Canyon both ways.  Here are a couple of pics from that.

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We stayed in a great house that was only a couple of miles from the start of the race, so we were able to ride our bikes in on the morning of the tri…no parking or waiting in long car lines necessary.  It was great!  My friend, Jen, from high school and her husband, Marcello, drove up from their home in Las Vegas to cheer us on and take some great photos.

We had a great time.  I wasn’t happy with my performance, but that just gives me some additional motivations in my training…I’ll improve for next time.  Even so, I got to hang out with a lot of great people, got to race in a triathlon, and got to do a lot of flying!  A great weekend, indeed, despite Sandy Hill.

I dedicated a daily flip video to the experience.  It’s a little long for a daily flip, but I hope you enjoy it.

Testing my Amphibico Underwater Housing

I picked up a used underwater housing last year that wasn’t really for my Sony HDR-HC1, but for a much older TRV analog model…but I figured mine would fit with some modification to the camera plate, and the LANC controller should work with my newer model Sony camera.  Because I like to marry my love of Photography and Videography with my love for scuba diving, I couldn’t resist.  Well, I finally modified the camera plate this week, ripped out the LANC electronics (which never did work correctly for my camera), and made it a completely manual shell housing.  I tried it out in the pool yesterday with my family swimming…and here are the results.  All I have to do now is rig up some linkages to allow some mechanical control of the camera while at depth.


Video: Housing Tests in Pool

Sticking it to the RIAA

So, the group Barenaked Ladies (BnL), whose music is very decent, are joining what seems to be a trend these days…self publishing albums.  They’ve released their latest studio release album, “Barenaked Ladies Are Me”, for download on their website.  Not very unique, right?  Well, here is the kicker…there are two types of downloads…mp3 at 192kbs, or for a couple dollars more, lossless FLAC.  Also, there is no DRM at all.  Rumor has it that they are selling a lot of these while going around the RIAA, Apple, and the other Juggernauts in the DRM space.  Here is the link to the shopping page to buy this album, and if you look around, you can even get a whole bunch of live performances, not just the studio releases, since they are recording their shows and making the tracks available.  Great job, BnL!  Don’t get me wrong…I’m all for protecting intellectual property, it’s just nice to see some of the content owners trust their fans a little bit, and give them a good consumer experience in the process.

And, for good measure, here is a fan-produced video for “Wind it Up”.