Searching for Giant Abs - Part 4 - The Movie

I,ve been down that trail in more ways than one. Good job Eric. That sure is some nice and flat water. It makes the poor viz definetly doable. Hey what am I saying? 4-5ft is good.Shannon, you look like one happy camper for sure. WTG

That is a awesome video
 thanks for sharing with some of us regular divers.You showed real honor to the sport and the pursuit

Craig,

haven't wiped the smile off my face yet. look forward to meeting and diving with you. The flat water made the dive. Vis was workable. You take what  you can get up in those parts.

Abking- The rookie is shaping up nicely and It looks like I'm going to be able to pull it off and make the trip. Now that this looks solid, am allowing myself to get jacked up! Show me the money!

Shannon

This video makes me want to do some kayak diving, to try to access some of the more remote shoreline in Sonoma.

There's tons of uncharted territory along the sonoma coast. Many, many places that have not seen a human being. Find one of those places and you have found your own "old growth" forest. There are plenty of giants among those areas, just have to put on the frontier hat and get after it.

SRJ

that's awesome!  almost, almost makes me want to go....

Abking-- check out -- http://www.jhonefly.org/jhof/jhof_rules.htm

One fly per day, biggest limit wins, all catch and release

Abking, amazing as always!  I LOVED everyones reaction to that Ab.  You can't make that up.  My own heart skipped a beat just watching him holding it.  AWESOME!

I can't wait to see the GMS III epic video.  You simply get better and better with these videos, catching the essence of the hunt.  The "human" factor, reaction and loving what you are doing.  It really comes through on the video. 

I got my camera and dive housing the other day.  I need some Abking video instruction at GMS III! 

Matt

Thanks, all.   

I need some Abking video instruction at GMS III! 

Matt

Matt - thanks for the kudos.  As for video instruction at the Cove, I'm already apprehensive about peoples' perception about me always getting footage, so I may actually end up with less footage of overall events than I usually do!  Anyway, I'll be sneaking footage whenever possible.     As for advice in general:

- get all the footage you can - editing is much more fun and productive when you have all that to work with;
- think about key situations that you want footage of and plan to be ready for it - hooking, playing and landing a fish for instance...
- develop a scene of something that you want to record or even make up, then execute a plan to capture it

Of course it's also all about getting used to whipping out the camera quite often, knowing how much memory and battery you have, and paying close attention to others' personal space.  The best thing that I found to capture peoples' attention is to show a rare or hard-core event, of course.  So there's the addiction in a nutshell.  Creating the movie from the footage is a whole different trip - I started Domenic down that road, but we're only a few hours in.  This movie took 4-5 hours of just working with the footage. 

There's tons of uncharted territory along the sonoma coast. Many, many places that have not seen a human being. Find one of those places and you have found your own "old growth" forest. There are plenty of giants among those areas, just have to put on the frontier hat and get after it.

SRJ

You may be surprised how charted it actually is.  In mendo land, the entire coast has been extensively combed by urchin divers who relay the info back to others.  Mendo and Sonoma see a lot more divers than that area.

A sublime balance of pleasure and pain.We are very fortunate to share these amazing places and experiences with our friends.

Inspirational movie.Thanks!

Eric thank you for that awesome video. Great job on the location and dive. Shannon that Ab is huge brother excellent job. It'll be an honor to dive with you gents up at the cove.

Ariel

Ariel,

many thanks on the big ab. Still so excited to get a giant. Will look for you at the cove if you are going to be there. Will bring my ab to show and tell. Am sure the many members here who have taken 10" ers think no big deal, but it was a big deal to me. Abking was great and the documentation second to none.

Shannon

Shannon - I met with Jack the owner of the Shelter Cove campground today and he had a half dozen or so 10's sitting out getting ready for mineral oil.  They were nice ones, and he plans to hang 30 in his store.  None of the ones he had out today were as nice as yours.  That ab will impress anyone and everyone.