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Writer's pictureIain Campbell
Dec 2, 20193 min read

WATER

Story 4 – In Closing

I had so many good ideas for Water. Durban was at the top of my list…

Heading up the South African east coast, all the way to where my bodyboarding journey started in Durban. This was to be my main focus before the lack of swell and bad timing stopped me in my tracks.

In keeping with the ELEMENTS theme, James Jones and I decided that we would make one last push to try and get some filming done to properly finish what we had started.

I called up “Chasing Red” Michael Veltman to have one day of shooting with him. I again attached a GoPro Pole mount to my board in preparation for our activities. The next two days would be focused on getting the last shots we needed for this clip to be what we were looking for.

The first day with the GoPro was a test at Caves. The waves just didn’t play their part. But the testing period showed that a small swell was on the way and had the potential of working nicely and helping us to achieve our goal. Two days later and I was back in the Mother City, GoPro pole attached, and ready to find something worth using for the clip.

Frame: GoPro

I paddled out with Sacha Specker, not knowing what to expect. All of a sudden, I was able to see the potential in the line-up. Clean off-shore winds grooming the ocean to a thing of beauty. Wave after wave had me more and more excited about what might have been captured. I ended up getting about 4 to 5 good waves, recording the moments on the GoPro. Later that night, I looked through the footage and was so stoked with what I was seeing. Good clean waves with the angle almost perfect every time. Stoked!

Next was finding a day to link with Michael. We somehow managed to find a moment together and decided that the Cape Town area would be a good idea. But, on arriving at the beach, a small part of me was disappointed with what we saw. However, we got into our suits, went down and jumped in.

The next few moments were really unexpected. I jumped in first and paddled out, not really thinking too much about what was potentially going to happen, until it all started. I took off on the first wave as Michael was getting to the back and backflipped, almost landing atop MV and his camera. 1 shot down, 10 more to go!

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting little fun waves and Michael was just on point with it all. He nailed some of the coolest angles, never missing a beat, and allowing us to create a clip that is worthy of showing.

The production of the Element: Water was also mixed with the essential good old cup of coffee. As you all know, coffee needs water and without water, a cup of good brew just does not happen!

This really displayed a part of the clip that I wanted to communicate as being an integral message of the Elements series.

The coffee-drinking culture that has grown in South Africa (and I admit to being very much part of the following) seems to reflect our collective passion for the sport of body boarding: we don’t just drink the coffee for the rush; we have become seriously passionate about every part of the brewing process, allowing us to savour the wonderful results!

In closing, and to round of the story; it was really James and Render Film Co that brought the clip all together. Yes, this clip is different but at the same time, it is exactly what I wanted to put out. Cinematic; passionate; fun times; riding good waves.

Thanks, once again, to Rosie for her incredible support throughout the production of the ELEMENTS series and for encouraging me to do something innovative. To Michael Veltman, for coming on board and shooting what, I think, is some of the best water content I have created to date. And, of course, Render Film Co for their time and effort with all the back and forth drafts, changing and chopping things.

In closing the ELEMENT series, I give you WATER!



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