Tofino Kayak Trip 2017
I spent four days in April on Chesterman beach in Tofino, British Columbia Canada with the Stohlquist Pro Kayak Team. I had a drysuit, hood, gloves, fins and goggles and for the first time I used the Ikelite underwater camera housing with a Canon 5d mark 2 body. I had been using an Outex housing which performed well but I wanted something a little more rugged to handle being in the waves. The Ikelite gave me complete control of all the camera function and with the dome port being about two inches off the camera lens made a huge difference.
The water was about 8 degrees and I was able to stay in comfortably for the entire session which lasted between two and three hours. It was awesome to feel part if the action rather than on the sidelines, and began to feel the stoke everyone was talking about.
In the evenings we would review the photos and the team gave me tips on better places to stand and how to move through the water better. Once I understood where to stand/float and how to dive under the waves I could focus much more on the content and the composition rather than just trying to survive in the waves.
It was one of the most enjoyable trips I have been involved in and owe a big thanks to Stohlquist and James Manke for organizing the accommodation and food logistics and Ben Doffe, Chris Bensch, Glen Pearson, Santiago Berrueta, Jarrod Gunn McQuillan, Reuben Buerge, Lee Richardson for their help in understand where to be and most important where not to be.
