Producing the Battle of the Paddle
The Battle of the Paddle is the premier event in the world of stand-up paddling, a surfing variant currently sweeping the country and its waterways. The Battle is captured live each year on film and video and delivered online by Soul Surf Media's Chris Aguilar, who explains how he goes deep in the surf to get it done.
Surprises!
I recently got a Flip camera, thinking of it as a disposable camera that would never make an impression on me. Wrong. Although certainly not the most professional-looking thing, the quality I was able to achieve with it shocked me. Coupled with a Mamba Crane from Cobra Crane, I used it on a recent channel-crossing shoot in Hawaii. With the Flip perched on the end, I was sure the cheap camera was going to go down in these shooting conditions. As it turned out, the camera lasted six weeks out on the ocean perched on the end of the Mamba Crane. And even more surprising to me was that the crane and camera worked together beautifully to capture some unique shoots of the paddlers. Even more surprising, the Mamba/Flip combination provided some of the smoothest footage I've gotten in rough conditions!
By the end of the shoot, I was mounting the SR11 on the Mamba in a housing and dipping the whole thing into the ocean to try to get shots of dolphins passing by the boat. In addition I purchased the Cobra Crane I, which will be a vital tool for Battle of the Paddle shooting. I have used the CCI for one surf shoot and discovered two things:
• It adds a very cool dimension for surf shooting-a bit more height and a very smooth panning mechanism
• You definitely need the external LCD; seeing what I was doing was the biggest challenge.
Autumn EventDVLive Trailer from EventDV on Vimeo.
The Future
By adding the Cobra Crane I and Mamba Crane, I am hoping to continue Soul Surf's focus on shooting events from an entirely different point of view. The Glidecam is definitely a part of this effort. I'm also just starting to get into shooting Super 8 and am seeking housings for it. I want to go backwards and shoot with real film. I always get edgy when people call what I do "filming" or "filmmaking." To me, those terms refer to an art that is much more complex then what I do with a video camera.
Over the past two years I have traveled from Hawaii to New York making videos for our site, The Stand Up Project, mainly because I love the sport, but also because I love the community and people in the sport. Last year's Battle of the Paddle was a tremendous success for Soul Surf Media Productions. The first night of the event, I did a same-day edit of the Elite race. By the next morning, I was getting high fives and rave reviews about it. The video was embedded all over the internet and is still, to this day, my highest viewed video on my Vimeo page. It led to me being lucky enough to get some editing work for Rainbow Sandals and allow me to develop a host of new friendships in the industry.
Shooting from the surf at a SUP event in New York City
With the growth over the last two events, I can only imagine how much bigger the 2010 event will be when it returns to Doheny in October. Knowing the events team at Rainbow, I'm sure they will have some new twists and tricks up their sleeve to push this year's event to yet another level. I will be there again in October to document it once again, this time with some new tools and tricks up my sleeve to continue to push the way I cover and shoot this incredibly fun, dynamic, and exciting race in this exploding sport.
Chris Aguilar (chris at soulsurfmedia.com) is the producer, shooter, and editor of Soul Surf Media Productions. Soul Surf produces the online video journal The Stand Up Project, a collection of videos about the sport of stand up paddling.