A GoPro HD...

Last weekend, about an hour into the Canadian MotorSports Show at the International Centre, I happened to walk past a huge display of GoPro Cameras. As I have an affiliate link to GoPro on this site, I stopped to chat to the guy in the booth about the cameras, and noticed that they had one "Surf Hero" camera amongst all the MotorSport cameras in the display. We discussed the merits of the cameras, the various mounting accessories available and the U.S. vs the Canadian pricing.
Really, I had absolutely no intention of purchasing one of these cameras, as they are pretty expensive, until he told me about "The Show Special". Anyway, to make a long story short, I am now the proud owner of a HD GoPro Surf Hero camera, and I paid $120 less than the suggested retail price in Canada. Really, how could I walk away from a deal like that?

A Frosty Friday...

I met up with Jeff and Regan at Bond Head around noon. The surf was still building, so we decided to head a little further East to check out Cobourg Pier. The surf looked pretty good, but unfortunately the Pier was closed and there was a 6' ice shelf on the shoreline, so if you did manage to get into the water there was no way to get back out! We returned to Bond Head and met up with Josh. The waves there had picked up considerably, as had the wind. The temperature had dropped to -8˚C with a wind chill of -18˚C, so it seemed a good time to put my Xcel wetsuit to the test! I spent a little time taking some photos before surfing some nice lefts for about 1 1/2 hours and then called it a day. Josh had mounted his GoPro camera to the deck of his board, but somehow it became detached and is now submerged somewhere in Lake Ontario. Other than that, we had fun. Once again, the zipper on my suit iced up, so I had to drive back to Toronto in it and then thawed it out by standing under the shower for a while. All in all, a pretty good session...

Do you think he's "Certifiable"..?

Well, that's what the neighbours were mumbling about on Saturday when they noticed me walking down our street on my way to the Lake carrying a surfboard. They were all out shovelling the snow off their driveways. Admittedly it was a little chilly, -3˚C with a windchill of around -8˚C, but wetsuit technology really has come a long way. I met Kristoffer and Geoff at the Lake, and we spent the better part of 2 hours surfing some pretty decent little waves before calling it quits. They both complained of cold fingers, mine were pretty toasty. Seems that they each were wearing 5mm neoprene gloves, while I had on 7mm neoprene mitts. Goes to show, the more rubber you have on, the better.
Lynn came down and took a couple pics of us, which are available here. That was very nice of her, considering the temperature...

The Ventures...

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was two tickets to see "The Ventures" perform live in February at Casino Rama. The band, formed in 1958 by Don Wilson and Bob Bogie, two masonry workers, has sold over 100 million records, and are to date, the best-selling instrumental band of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and their biggest hits were "Walk Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O". Their career was given a shot in the arm by Quentin Tarantino's use of "Surf Rider" and several other classic surf songs in the soundtrack of the movie Pulp Fiction. The track, "The Ninth Wave" was a huge hit in South Africa when I was growing up.
We are really looking forward to hearing and seeing them live...