Foster City lagoons January 20, 2013

Getting better at this Gopro video deal, but not perfect. Sometimes the wifi bacpac system thinks it's recording and it isn't; sometimes it won't shut off. Need to get it working consistently. Mostly it does, though. Take a look at the video of the shorter leg of the canal system in Foster City.

Movin' Along....

So I'm supposed to be healing and I'm finally feeling some strength and some pluck. Tired of being out of commission, yesterday I tested my walking around ability. I had thought that I could only walk an eighth of a mile before my leg got too tired. But a test of a brisk paced mile walk showed me that I had underestimated my current state. Also got on a friend's small bike and pedaled around the block a few times today, but that's another story. Meantime, feeling that it's time to put my hip to more tests, I decided to do a test hike (very short, but steep and slippery) at Montara lighthouse, an old favorite of mine. At the same time I could test out the new Gopro Wifi setup, which I finally got working. So I strapped the camera on my head, the control on my wrist, and took a stroll to the hidden beach. The product is below (and all worked out well, BTW.)

Vive la difference???

Hmmm. Have I finally discovered how to import, convert and upload a Gopro H.264 MP4 properly?

By trial and error I seem to have found that cutting the original Gopro HD MP4 in Avidemux and outputting as MP4 might actually work with good detail left in the process. Uploading anything to YouTube remains slow, however.

Let's see how this short clip compares. You won't really know until you blow them up to full screen size, though. First is the old one:


The new one:

Ringing Out the Old Year

Can't say it's been a fabulous mini-vacation, as I was unable to settle yet on the right next kayak. But I did get in a couple of good paddles, despite the almost constant deluge over the past 2 weeks.

One nice paddle at Lake Del Valle in Livermore, CA, gave me a good opportunity to check out 3 Wilderness Systems kayaks. Didn't settle my question, however, as that will take more time and lessons.

The last was on New Years Eve day, with a morning paddle in the cold clear weather. I had the Foster City lagoons to myself pretty much. Just me and the birds again.

This one gave me a chance to practice with my new Gopro Hero video camera, mounted via a suction cup mount onto the bow of the kayak. Let's see if I got it more "right" this time, though there were glitches in the conversion and editing, and for some odd reason the clarity and detail is missing from this version, but not from the original. Just a quick encapsulation of a 1.5 hour 6 mile paddle that is my normal practice run. It traverses more than half the Foster City canal and lagoon system, heading south, then east from the boat park, and returning. It was cold and clear on 12/31/12 and I had the canals pretty much to myself. A beautiful morning paddle!