I had been looking forward to capturing some decent footage of the 6 foot plus swell the other day. A surprising strong SE swell hit Cronulla Beach, even after the NE cyclone swell we just had. That late afternoon I took on double overhead waves, I was a bit uneasy at times and did make it out with the best ever rides of my life. At one point I was apprehended underwater for a long time by a powerful wave. While held down, I had discovered this is my limit and it felt like an eternity trying to swim to the surface and obtain much needed oxygen. I had just gained a profound amount of respect for the ocean and would not surf any bigger until I am more experienced, this determined my limitations.
Next day after, there was still a big swell hitting the coast and I decided to take out my go pro. Unfortunately the pro standard mouth mount snapped while duck diving. The gopro impacted into the surfboard, which was unexpectedly enough to break it. I had gathered my go pro before the swell took it into shore, lucky for the float attachment.
The pro standard mouth mount seemed to snap fairly easily. I believe this may be due to the fact there is a minute notch in the plastic. Not too sure why it is designed like this, however it snapped exactly in the middle of this notch. Perhaps this could be a safety feature so that you don’t take the impact on your teeth, not too sure.
Nevertheless, I had a great time surfing after I returned the Go pro camera back to the car. The waves were powerful and I was lucky enough to see a decent sized turtle. Would have been great to capture the turtle on go pro, he was very cool indeed.
I own a different mouth mount from cam gear that I hadn’t used before. The surf was a lot smaller than previous days and decided to take out the other go pro mount. I was in fact very tired as a result of surfing for the last week every day in large swell. To be honest, I needed a break and could tell by my poor surfing effort. I couldn’t help myself and still went out anyway. I was glad as dusk is a fine time to surf, the sky transforms as a result of the sunset and It seems to slow down time where I can contemplate the colourful light reflecting upon the water. I wanted to reveal the beauty I see at dusk by slowing down time at these particular moments in the video.
The cam gear mouth mount is made with a snorkel mouth piece, although after testing the mouth mount, in my view it had many disadvantages compared with the pro standard that Kelly Slater uses.
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The mouth piece is more difficult to hold in the mouth, resulting in a sore jaw.
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The mouth piece moved around a lot more in my mouth, making it a lot more uncomfortable. I really did not enjoy it and felt it could fly out of my mouth more easily.
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The footage does not seem to be as smooth as a result of the mouth piece slightly bending up and down.
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The breathing was not as comfortable and you could swallow water much easier than the pro standard.
CONCLUSION
The pro standard mouth mount is much more comfortable in my view and seemed to be less likely to fly out of the mouth. The biggest positive for the snorkel type mouth mount would be that it is harder to break. The comfortable feeling and easier breathing with the pro standard is enough for me to consider buying another. I will need to be careful not to hit against my surfboard next time or not take it out in rough conditions.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more surfing footage.
