There's a new womens' surf magazine called WSSM (Women's Surf Style Magazine). Like every other women's magazine, they are struggling for advertising and operating with a very small budget. They contacted me about doing a feature on tips, and suggested I explain how to duckdive. The magazine is targeted to all women surfers, but since most girls that can actually surf are more likely just to flip through the pages of a women's mag to see if there are any photos of themselves and then look at a guy's mag for inspiration, WSSM is more focused on the average female surfer who is probably a beginner. They asked me to get some photos of me duckdiving to go with the advice but warned me that they wouldn't be able to pay for the photos. I know a few photographers of course, but no one really wants to shoot for free. Also, getting duckdive shots require a water housing, which eliminates a few of the potential photogs. While in Hawaii, I figured I would just run into someone, ask them to get a couple shots, and it would be pretty easy. By the end of the week, I hadn't done it yet and figured I might as well try to get a few shots myself. I asked my friend Emily to paddle out with me and my little GoPro camera to try to snap a few.

The GoPro came with a few pages of directions, that I skimmed once, and then lost. I usually just use the camera in the video setting and haven't messed around with photos yet. I did remember that you can set it to "photo" and it will take one photo every 2 seconds. I couldn't remember if it would operate like a regular camera and take a photo when you click the button (I later realized it does), and since it doesn't have a screen to check the photos (you don't know what you got until you plug it into your computer), I didn't have any way to figure it out on the beach. So, I put it in "photo every 2 seconds" mode and just paddled by Emily, doing some duckdives a few times. It definitely wasn't the work of a professional, but these photos might be good enough. At least the water was beautiful! Check em out!