I really like the angle given by the K4 (and similar) harness mounts.

So thought I'd make one - but rather than use a straight carbon rod on an angle away from my back, use an S-bend. Thus it is still set behind but can be rotated to get a side cross view - rear quarter panel shot :/
Thus the grub screw retains the pole but also allow it to be turned thus swinging camera to the side.


I think it may be too far back and too high so I'm wondering what people think of the geometry of it all.....?
Obviously erred on the side of longer cos it can always be shortened


Oh yeah and looking for ideas for attaching the safety lanyard to camera end and the harness end - the clips pictured won't last in salt water and are too big. Need a stainless clip or carabiner but only about 2 - 3cm long. Can't find anything ....

Looks super how about a 2mm lanyard rapped in a spiral around the pole that way no flapy bits with a bit of tape at either end or inside the tube look forward to some botom turn footage then smacking the lip goodluck!

^^ I guess I could but my thought was to have lanyard thru pole and attached to harness so it does not matter if the whole thing detaches.
Was a prick getting it thru the hollow carbon tube and out a 3mm hole trust me....

You would need a few beers to take that on ! And if it breaks you will have all the parts still

Instead of a gopro, why not get your friends to film you??,,,oh,,wait,,,yeah,, lol

Wasnt long ago you were baging out the " i " generation and gopro young people filming themselves to show on social media. Good to see the old dog is embracing the new school stuff. Good onya bloke. Proud of ya. Will tell the crew at myth busters that you "can teach an old dog new tricks" BUSTED

This is a compliment btw, just to make sure you understand.

Two things that popped into my head when I saw your mount, The base is smaller that the K4 and how the hell did you bend that carbon tube lol. In regard to the bends in the tube, could it possibly increase the pitching and yawing forces and make it wobble around a bit more? I'm just imagining things here but it seems like a straight tube might be a bit stiffer. Here's a few shots of my K4 mount for scale compared to yours. Like I said your base looks smaller but I haven't seen the backing plate so if your backing plate is a decent size then you are probably fine.

P.S. if you wanted to make your clip smaller then a small D shackle might be better. Failing that the good old bowline knot has never let me down.

Thanks cluffy
I don't know how much it moves around as I have nothing to compare to but the carbon tube is very stiff. I didn't bend it - I made the tube like that (ie carbon braid, laminated over some polystyrene that I had bent.)
Cos, yes you're right, you can't bend carbon like that.

If the bends in it enable too much movement I can always go to a straight rod. Or, fill the lower half of the tube around the s-bend area with a high density foam or resin.
I'd rather not to the latter as at the moment the whole thing weighs abotu the same at the GoPro does so why double the weight of the tube unless I have to....

Address please Mark. Harness will be dry by tomorrow so I can ship it to you for installation

Hi Mark, any change in direction of a cylinder will result in higher rates of flexibility. A 90deg bend that you have is probably the most flexible. Perhaps a single arc may get the cam further away without reducing the stiffness. The harness mounts tend to bounce or whip up & down so you may have coompounded the issue. Any slight wobble from your harness compounds the problem at the point where the cam is. Will be interesting to get your feedback after a trial.
I have a K4 mount and have had a few issues with knocking my cam, mine is the extension one (longer) and it's really hard not to clean your GP up when on the beach or in the shallows when flipping the rig. I took the extension off and have had no issues with a good image. It's probably one of the few mounts that get's the rider, rig and board in the frame and really conveys that feeling of speed.


AB.....

Thanks Al never thought about some of that.
I think if it flexes too much I will stick a 6mm carbon rod thru each 90deg bend to stiffen it (like the brace under a 90deg wall bracket for shelving if one can visualise that)
It is pretty damn stiff though, the carbon braid is equivalent to about 3 layers of 6oz cloth but is continuous of course. But really don't know till it gets an oscillation going over bumps... like my guts do....

But yeah you are right, the angle is good with the harness mount, like chase cam.

How's the height - a few inches above me scone?

Opinion. What! its a work of art
Soo much better than ricardos in this one
I guess this guy goes through some gear ey. Yeah, try sailing with a spare half a rdm mast strapped to your back

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/a-ricardo-vid/?SearchTerms=ricardo

Sorry i cant imbed it

I used my K4 mount for the first time yesterday and I was a bit worried while I was sailing. It seemed to be wobbling around quite a lot. I was using the extended mount in small to medium chop on my SLW 90 with an R4 8.6. The wind was only about 13 to 17 knots but it was choppy at times. I came off the water feeling a little downcast as I believed the footage would be no good as the cam was really wobbling around a lot. I needn't have worried. When I edited the footage I found that yes it's bouncy but the point of view is so amazingly good you just don't care about the wobble. The thing is rather than the entire image jerking around like a mast mount, the movement is kind of centred around yourself which makes it a little less vexing. And did I mention the POV is awesome? wow I just love it. The extended mount gets a bit more of the world in the shot which makes the movie a bit more enjoyable I think. All of the movement I was getting was in the harness area, the carbon tube supplied with the mount is going absolutely nowhere. I tightened the harness almost to the point of discomfort but there is still a lot of wobble. I think the extension compounds the wobbling a fair bit but like I said I don't care. I think maybe the standard bar on a waist harness might be a lot less wobbly. Here's the POV I got from the long mount.

That's great. can you post up a clip of some of the action?

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Dezza said..
That's great. can you post up a clip of some of the action?

+1 :-)

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seanhogan said..

Dezza said..
That's great. can you post up a clip of some of the action?

+1 :-)

Uploading to Vimeo now. should be up late tonight or tomorrow. It's mercifully short, around 5 and a half minutes. It's nothing flash just a bit of SLW 90 cruising but it will give a good idea on the capabilities of the K4 mount.

All the water based shots I uploaded earlier in the year from Maui were using the mount mentioned by Big Al in this post.
I'll try and link some of the pictures back in to this thread or re-attach if that fails.
My 2cents, the cut down K4 harness works a treat... you just need to be aware of it when water starting and carrying your gear as pointed out in the earlier post

^^ yeah Kev, Al made good point about the s-bend part of mine maybe hitting the water
..... it all looks good until you realise a stance that is partly seated and leaning to windward, combined with chop, puts it waaay close to the water

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Mark _australia said..


I think it may be too far back and too high so I'm wondering what people think of the geometry of it all.....?

Your question :

Is the stick too high or too far back ?? ^^^

Well, that's hard to answer until I see you star in your own movie.

lol.

But sometimes I think the geometry of gopro leans a little bit towards self-absorption and self-serving narcissism.

^^^ helpful as always.

Go away.

lol. ^^^

Here's the SLW vid. Make up your own mind about the bounciness I'm ok with it. I threw in a bit of a ride I had on the formula gear today. It's not very quick but bear in mind it was only 10 to 12 knots with a short gust of 15 knots at the end.

Wonder what Waveslave thinks about you leaving that kiter for dead in 10-12? He will be bawling his eyes out over his green tea and tofu

Poor old Mr Slave. He's always there to bring the hate. He's the enemy of creativity.

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waveslave said..
But sometimes I think the geometry of gopro leans a little bit towards self-absorption and self-serving narcissism.

If it was pure narcissism wouldn't the camera have to mounted to the boom pointing straight at his face?

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Cluffy said..
It's not very quick but bear in mind it was only 10 to 12 knots with a short gust of 15 knots at the end.

What size sail/ board did you use in the video... what's you weight? Definitely a great perspective that makes formula racing look like fun.

Cluffy said in his first post entry here - SLW 90 with an R4 8.6. The wind was only about 13 to 17 knots but it was choppy at times

in another discussion about winter luggage - he states that he is about 83 kilos

i was searching about the JP SLW and 8.5 sails, but i am also a LOT heavier - 105 kilos
unsure why Cluffy has a JP SLW AND a Formula ??
seems to be using the same sail on the Formula as well !!

like that POV in any case !!!

Cluffy, that angle looks really good. We were watching you from shore and the camera/pole were bouncing all over the place, we were joking that the footage would be vomit inducing, but ended up not so bad. Thanks for sharing.

agree, pretty cool vid!

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hoop said..
Poor old Mr Slave. He's always there to bring the hate. He's the enemy of creativity.

"Enemy of Creativity" ^^^

That's gonna be the name of my new badass kite clothing brand.

You couldn't afford to buy the name from me :)

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stehsegler said..

Cluffy said..
It's not very quick but bear in mind it was only 10 to 12 knots with a short gust of 15 knots at the end.

What size sail/ board did you use in the video... what's you weight? Definitely a great perspective that makes formula racing look like fun.

I'm 81 kg's atm and in the formula vid I'm running a 10.7 metre and also a Deb R19 fin which is a pretty powerful fin. I thought the formula vid was worth adding as I don't know of any movies of formula gear from that perspective. It definitely show's that they aren't that hard to ride.

Joe windsurf raises a valid question about why have the SLW 90 and a formula board. The short answer is one is for racing and one is for freeriding but when I originally choose the SLW 90 I was tossing up between SLW and formula and also struggling with severe diabetes so I was a little wary of formula. 12 months later my fitness and health improved enough to take on formula so I went for it. I don't race all the time but I still like to cruise around on the formula gear. I find the power of the formula boards upwind very addictive. The SLW and the formula gear might look similar but they don't feel similar. The SLW is a piece of cake compared to the formula board and the 10.7 but it comes down to how hard you want to push it.

I'm very happy with the picture quality of Vimeo. I got sick of Youtube compressing the crap out of my vids. The exact same file on Youtube looks inferior to the vimeo ones for sure.