Here’s something I knocked up a couple of nights ago. I found this aluminium pole on the side of the road and instantly saw that I could use it as a GoPro pole mount.
Aluminium waterproof GoPro pole mount / monopod – 75cm long without insulation foam
Aluminium waterproof GoPro pole mount / monopod – 75cm long with insulation foam
Here’s how I made it:
- Cut a 10cm long piece of a bike inner tube and wrapped that around the top of the pole.
- Wrap and fix the inner tube in place with duct tape.
- Then tape over and seal up each end of the pole with duct tape.
- Add a wrist tether above the handle from some nylon string or similar. I used an old one I had laying around from a digital camera.
- Attach a GoPro bike pole mount onto the end securely, make sure it can’t move around.
- Optional: Add some pipe insulation for extra buoyancy and to reduce the chance of being hurt by the pole if you wipe out. I prefer to go without the foam covering though as the pole is lighter and easier to swim with.
- Go have some fun!
This cost me nothing, as I already had the bike pole mount on hand and found the pole. You could do this with just about any type of pole material, but I strongly recommend a aluminium pole around 60-100cm long (mine is 75cm) as this gives you good reach, is light weight, rust proof, doesn’t get heavy/waterlogged, not too cumbersome and is buoyant if sealed correctly. Another alternative if you want to make your own is to use some PVC pipe with a tripod adapter or bike mount as discussed here.
I took it out the other day at a local surf break and was very happy with it. You can get some great angles if you are willing to go over the falls of the wave and film people as the surf past underneath you or sit in the inside where people are boosting airs. I’ll upload some footage later once it’s ready. Just goes to show that with some a bit of creative thinking, duct tape and a few attachment accessories you can easily create a lot of interesting mounting solutions for an action camera.
Update 7 March 2013:
And here’s what the footage looks like in action. This is a frame grab from a small 1.5ft, pre-work morning session a couple of weeks ago:
Looks pretty awesome, although it is much more difficult to multi-task than it looks!
Peace
Karl
