Cam Overboard

A moderate NW breeze blew across a lumpy 4-5' windswell as it buckled its way through the gap between that chunky mini-backdoor pipeline and the kelp-strewn middle break of the regal Outer Kom.

Our bullet-proof kayak, with two sails (call it a 10 foot ketch) with a small aft rudder sail and a dhow-like main sail, cut through the chop like a hot knife through butter.

Surfboard shaper Pierre de Villiers has been playing with boat design, and this was the product of his craftmanship, a handmade sail boat from bow to stern. I had tied the camera to my arm, and was digitally recording the adventure.

Now these visuals are stuck in a little box hopefully floating somewhere near the Kommetjie slipway. Maybe it filmed some kreef and random nudibranches, cucumbers or polyps on the seabed as the onshore breeze gently pushed it ashore?

Perhaps early in the next few days a computer savvy local walking their dog will come across the camera lying in the rocks. Would it be too much to ask that they plug the camera into their computer's USB port, download some stills and upload a picture to Facebook saying: "Are you the owner of this camera? If so, call me and I will return it."

It may seem to good to be true, but it happened the other day. A surfer lost his GoPro in Noordhoek, and another, Jonathan Blyth, picked it up 25 minutes later a kilometre down the beach.

He had been surfing the same spot, and found the camera floating in the inshore zone on his long walk back to the car park. How did he know he found it 25 minutes after the surfer lost it? you ask.

On opening the camera at home, they downloaded a film captured by the camera. It lasted 25 minutes, starting with a ride, a wipeout, lots of rolling and floating, and ended when a face appears and a hand reaches out to grab it.

They took a screengrab of another clip in which they thought the owner appears, and posted it on Facebook with a phone number and message to call if "your face looks like the attached".

I called Jonathan anyway, to ask him if he was a professional GoPro hunter and to see if the guy had reclaimed the camera, but sadly, the answer to both questions was no. However, since then, the cam has been reunited with the owner.

So if you do find mine, you know where to find me.

Wavescape on Facebook can be found here, just by the way

Films shot on our GoPro, sob

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