Where to mount a Go pro on a Wakeboard?
 

So we have tried a few times with the Go Pro on a wakeboard with mixed results. Is there a place people have found to work best for mounting them on a board. I'm not sure if a few inches makes a difference but it seemed a lot of the time the cameras just saw water spray.

I have not tried mounting to the board. I too have been thinking of the best way to use the GoPro and Contour for filming wakeboarding. I only have had one run since I got my GoPro and I used a Chesty Mount. It did not hinder my riding too much, but it didn't give me any decent footage either.

I have seen a video of someone riding a cable with a board on his back with straps to wear it like a backpack. Then there was a piece of metal that extended a 2 to 3 feet up and to the right. He mounted the camera on the top of the metal piece looking back down at the rider.

I think to get the best shots you would need to get the camera somehow 2-4 feet away from the rider and point it back at them. I don't think that backpack rig could handle a full set behind a boat.

I was thinking if there was a way to mount the camera at the base of the handle rope that would generate a good shot.

I highly reccomend attaching a teather string to something like your bindings incase the mount breaks. The black piece that slides into the mount broke on me at odub after coming off a kicker. Luckly it didnt break open the housing and i had a zip tie holding it to my binding..

If you get the GoPro Surf edition, it comes with a different mounting system which includes a separate mount and teather. The teather works awesome. I snapped my mount surfing and the teather saved my GoPro. I went back to GoPro and they sent me some free hardware to fix it.

Maybe tie it around your front or back boot. That might give a pretty cool view.

The plastic mount WILL break. Jus got back from riding and my buddy had his break after only a few minutes of riding. Granted he rides at a pro level and goes huge but none the less the mounts they provide are not suitable for being attached to a wakeboard. The Surf mount may hold up better. Will be testing that out next time. Either way I would not trust anything without a tether

Just be aware that depending on how the mount breaks, it has the potential of cracking the housing therefore killing you're gopro. Think of how much beating its taking on landings... Never had a problem using it on helmet cam during falls or using it on the end of a pole.

A friend of mine cut the plastic mounting rings off the bottom of his so the case was flat and bent a piece of aluminum to attach it to his board because he kept breaking mounts. He just drilled two holes through the bottom of the aluminum to mount it to the fin holes and used adhesive tape to attach the other end to the case.

I haven't tried it yet but how about using the head lamp strap take off the strap that goes on top of your head(the one that keeps the mount from sliding down. It does come off) then put it around your leg. I've seen it done with a snowboard.

Used the suction cup to attach to board. Came down heavy on a landing and the housing, NOT the suction cup mount broke. Camera went about 15 feet in the air and that was the end of that... Had the mount tethered to boot using wire.

also.. use the big kahuna leashes.. they attach to the housing AND the mount so your camera hopefully won't fly too far.

Has anyone actually ever seen the housing itself break and let water in???

Buy the backdoor floaty and you don't need a tether. I have it and it works great

I don't think you'd get great video from the board itself but if you are set on mounting it there this is the only way I'd try it: http://camrig.com/gopro-fin-mount

Careful about putting mounts on the wakeboard and hoping that the floaty back will float it. It will not... I found this out the hard way, and there is currently a Hero2 at the bottom of the lake.

I am not sure how much the float will float, but it will not float the suction cup. I suggest testing the float with your connections before you go.

I use the GoPro suction Cup to secure mine, then I usually tie it with a shoelace to my bindings. This angle worked out alright. You're right though, it's definitely hit and miss.

http://vimeo.com/27834399 (Around 1:15)

Try mounting your Gopro with a Wakeye system
http://www.wakeye.com/pages/wakeboard-towers

^^^I like it! How much is $280NZD in real money?

That wakeeye thing.. I couldn't find any footage showing how well it works for wakeboarding, only slalom. It does seem to track smoothly, though.

There is a currency option at the bottom of each web page i think where you can choose USD

Gopro Rope Mount
 

I know everyone is lookking for a good way to get some great footage with their gopro at the lake.. This is what I came up with..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDuG...Cw8jNylfU3wO1Q

I am looking to license it / get industry support to get this out there.. hit me up if your interested..

Lax stick for the win.
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I really like the mount zenxteninc. I produce wakeboard short fims and this sure would come in handy. You can check out my work at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqcmX218VCu-SMbH8Y0NPEQ or on Instagram. The account is eagle.eye . I made a camera mount similar to the wakeye and with the two combined filming would be a lot easier.

Love the mount. Checked out the website and would be interested in the prototype offer. My crew is bunch of weekend warriors that would love this thing.

Great idea. Hope it is successful for you. Let me know next steps.

SIMPLE!!!! You screw it into the built in mount on your new O'Brien wakeboard!

kinda feel the same. also yea, be careful with the floaty thing and have some extra line attaching it to you somewhere. a friend of mine also lost one to the bottom of the lake.

i like the ol dude in an inner tube trick.
(a vid my buddy put together)

most of the footage from the vid is from the back of the boat with something other than a gopro but you can tell which ones are from the innertube, and those are the gopro....

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Hr...VUU/edit?pli=1

That tube technique can end in some bad rope burns.

Love the rope mount I have seen those before.

The floaty's are great but I have seen them rip off the camera on a bad crash, so do not depend on them entirely. I also lace the camera through the doors iron bar to my binding. It has saved my camera once already!

I like sticking mine to my handle, I use a rollbar mount, it gives some pretty cool angles.
The chesty does not really work for wakeboarding.
If you are at a cable though, if you are allowed, sticking the camera to obstacles with the suction cup gives some pretty cool shots.

I do agree with you there. A buddy of mine pretty new to the sport wanted to give it a shot with a friend he brought... I told him the dangers of it and they decided against it.

That post with the fin mount thing did actually have some cool footage. I might give that a go.

zenxteninc...
i also like the mount, but would like to see it a little more stable. Have any plans to further it any?

Also how does it do with flip tricks and other tricks where slack in the rope comes into play a little (like spins) ?

would like to see some footage of how it handles that. Pretty cool though!

my obrien mana surf has a mounting hole on the front. I'm sure board makers will follow suit.

I am so totally going to try that fin mount shown in the video. Here's a video I made with my helmet mount.

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cool! good riding there John!

I don't recommend a floaty by itself. 1) some mounts weigh enough to sink the camera with a floaty. If the mount breaks off the board and is still attached to the camera, your camera could sink. 2) floaties can rip off in a crash - has happened to me several times. I now run a bead of aqua-seal around the floaty to supplement the sticky pad (be careful it doesn't interfere with the housing seal), plus I add a leash as backup.

Handle mounts that put the camera 4-5 ft in front of the rider give a great point of view, but they are quite difficult to make that don't have huge camera shake.

No where, it bounces around too much

i really liked that fin mount setup so i did my own.
here it is...
http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...psddf8bce3.jpg

it's a piece of aluminum with some holes drilled into it. i used some pieces of wood under the aluminum to dampen the bouncing (i think it will anyways) but also to not scratch the board, and to make the machine screws the right length for the fins.

i've got it tethered to my front binding, and also have a floaty on it (it floats the original gopro, which is what i have.)

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7138f21.jpg

the base mount plate thing is screwed into the aluminum because i already know those adhesive pads don't do crap really.

here's a pic of the mount on my wifes board so you can see the screws. i set them down into the plastic so the gopro slides right on. (i made two so the gopro is easily swapped out from board to board).

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8c4d9ec0.jpg

i don't have the original box packaging mount like in that vid that biggator posted above cuz i threw it away.

can't wait to try it out this weekend.

would just like to share my results with this...
it kinda worked, but for the most part did not. i found many things others above have found...

so for spray... there was minimal spray on my board, my wifes board had much more spray in the cam. i think it's the fin on mine being centered vs the fin(s) on hers on the outside. my footage was pretty good regarding spray though.

we did get some decent footage, but it didn't last too long. the landings of a few jumps would move the angle of the gopro, even though it was tightened down with tools to get it hella tight. that wasnt too bad though cuz i could reach down and move it back.

it lasted alright on my board until i landed a raley, (which i got a sick shot of...)
http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...psfcb41e76.jpg

but on the landing it snapped the plastic mount on the metal piece, and also bent the metal piece.

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4b6f821e.jpg

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...psa9c789c7.jpg

that was that for me.

so we put it on my wifes board. figured she doesnt ride as hard so it would do better. even she still got the angling thing, and then the floaty came off for her. she didnt have the strength to angle it back up so that was that for her too.

thinking about trying to add some sort of spring system in there to lessen any impact on the whole rig on the landings.

G

The raley shot was pretty sick!

k so trying this again.

here is what i came up with...

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...pscf25ac79.jpg

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6d9629fc.jpg

i slammed the board down on the couch as hard as i could a few times. (figured the couch was prolly the closest thing to water that wouldnt break my board haha)

it held just fine. the video definitely bounces a little on the impact but i dont mind and it didnt break or change the angle.

not sure when i'll be out next but ill post my results again when i do. anybody wanna take me out to the delta midweek this upcoming week?

Nice work Greg! that looks legit, cant wait to see the results

I've been experimenting with a camera mount very similar to this. If you haven't tested it yet, the problem you'll find with that design is the camera will twist because there is nothing to stabilize the tube from twisting back and forth. It still makes for some cool angles on your shots, but its hard to get much good material because of camera wobble.

A decent solution I'm working on is if you can find one of the old, carbon fiber triangular handles. What this does is allow you to anchor the tube that holds the go pro directly to the handle, which because it is a stiff handle instead of rope, adds torsional stability the rig. The camera will mostly twist only with your handle - still not perfect since your hands and the handle will bounce and move some, but far better than when you use a soft-sided handle.

Those old stiff sided handles are hard to find now, so I'm trying to come up with a new idea that will somehow anchor the tube that slides over the rope directly to the handle to still provide that torsional stability... I just haven't had the time to go play with pvc pipe and see if I can figure something out.

The safety leash will by your friend! I attached my GoPro to the board and came up with this footage awhile back. Mount did end up breaking and the leash saved by cam from being on the bottom of the lake.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=3&theater

the 2014 obrien paradigm has a built-in go-pro mount

^^ You have pics of this mount? I can't find one myself... ^^

^^ ditto i also couldnt find it. the only pics i could find of that board did not have a mount

twowake and orange...
id be interested in seeing some video of those if you have any!

parkerbomar...
nice! but not for me (i think it would get in the way...)


more results of the springy fin mount...
so the spring helped dampen any change of angle on landing impact. although it did change angles once or twice, it did not do it nearly even close to as much as with my first trial run with the more rigid mount. the first trial would change angles even on a small one wake jump.

the springs caused the video to be much more jittery though during regular riding which was not nearly as bad in the rigid mount. This can be seen much much more in the original video at 60fps.

and it still snapped the same way on landing a krypt (which i did not ride away from, i have a hard time landing in revert). no need for a pic of it snapped cuz it was basically the same as the first time.

im guessing having the spring on the bottom but not the top doesnt help. maybe it needs it on both top and bottom so there is no hard abrupt changes in direction both up and down, like the suspension on your car :P

off to trying it again version 3.0 next

short clips of video of both trials if you care to see...
little bit of riding, wake to wake jumps, flips and the killer of the mounts.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PzBnXgWz-WA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

another cool frame pulled from the video again, this time the scarecrow (which again i landed but did not ride away from >< )

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...psd6c35bf4.jpg

ps. trial one was with the original goPro, trial two got upgraded to the hero 3.

G

putting the lacrosse stick in your vest like a samurai sword actually kinda produces some sick shots.
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Actually it doesn't twist. The tube is connected to the handle and turns with the handle. Here is a clip of a friend of mine.
http://vimeo.com/90818329

I used a helmet mount to capture this back roll from Bill Tonis

Actually your video is showing exactly what I meant. Soft sided handles allow the tube used to mount the camera to wobble or twist under impact so the horizon bounces back and forth. If you can mount the tube to one of the old carbon fiber handles, the tube can't twist when you jump and land.

Soft sided handles are about all you can find anymore, so I want to find a method that still has a more direct mount between the grip, which is stiff, and the tube used to mount the camera. I've wondered if I could let the pvc tube extend well beyond the Y in the handle and actually connect to the grip to reduce the twisting motion. It's far from ideal from a wake boarding standpoint as the handle is non-standard, but might be good for some low level tricks not involving handle passes. I'll post photos if I ever have time to work on this and get it figured out.

Full slalom sesh
 

When this goes to a mold the video should be even more stable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mapJ8lb-r8w

I'll take 2 please

I have been testing the prototype - get on them, they are great.

How can i get one?

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Love that angle. Nice clip.

We've been mounting on the rope. We take burst of 30 and then go through them and grab the good pics. I lost a 4 Black with the surfboard mount this summer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pszzkrbaty.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psl2oizmof.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pskwxcgcwi.jpg

I ride with it on my board a lot. You get some really different angles but I agree with the tether. I made mine out of some thin climbing rope from REI and attached it to the back loop on my boot. I've broken 3 mounts but the tether saved it every time. You just have to mount it far enough back if its on the tip of the board so if the wake washes it won't knock/break it off.

How are you mounting it on the rope and making it stay upright?