Eish, that's the thing with gadgets. You no sooner buy one, and a coupla months later there's a better, faster, new-improved version with even more bells n whistles.

Luckily Garth was heading home via New York recently so could do a quick strategic strike on B&H for me. For those not in the know, B&H is the world's uber-camera super store. Everything under the sun, at the best prices. Nuff said. Which meant that the new HD Hero 2 made it's way back to PE.

It's double as good as the original HD - and gives you 11MP stills, and can fire off 10 shot bursts - means I won't miss your turns! The video side of it looks pretty stellar as well, with colours and clarity far improved over the original, and a much wider choice of recording options. Happy to say the limited camera menu has got a bit easier to wade through - kind of a challenge when there's only 2 buttons I suppose!

Here's a coupla tricks I've learnt for those of you out there with these lil beauties - but getting frustrated by either fogging or water drops ruining your shots. Nothing worse than you killer shot with a fat ol water drop right in the middle...

How to prevent fogging:

Fogging results from the condensation of moisture in your housing, so moisture free = no fog. Ah, you say, but how do we get moisture free? Let me enlighten you....

First of all store your Gopro housing and camera in seperate lil air tight tupperware containers, and stick some of those dessicant packs in each. Those are those lil white packets you get in the pill boxes, or you can buy em at the chemist). Basically they shlurp up any moisture.

Then, before you head out, stick your housing (open) in the fridge for a minute or two. Your fridge is much the same as an aircon, and is a moisture free environment - so it'll get rid of any moisture in your housing. Then open the fridge, and pop your GoPro into the housing and close it, whilst still inside the fridge. Then chuck your sealed GoPro in a lil cooler box and off you go.

Alternately, if your car has aircon, just hold the open housing in front of it for a minute or so, and then pop the camera in whilst still in front of the aircon - seal it up and head out into the surf. Just don't go open your housing after that - else you'll just let moisture-laden air back in and then you're stuffed.

GoPro also sells lil anti-fog inserts that work pretty good, and you can re-use plenty times. Not cheap though at R200 a pack.

How to stop the dreaded water drops:

Give your lens a big old lick and let it dry before you head out. It stops the drops collecting in the middle of the lens. Guys also wipe a cut potato over the lens, which also works a treat....although your ma might get p*ssed off with all the cut in half potatoes lying round the kitchen. Stuff like Clean Green, RainX or similar that ou's use on their windscreens to make the rain run off real quick also work well, but just make sure whatever you choose can be safely used on plastic (which is what your lens is).

K, so there you have it...no more excuses as to why you can't get the killer shot!

Eish, yet another shark attack at Port St John's. Sunday saw a 25 year old swimmer get attacked by a suspected Zambezi in waist deep water at 2nd beach, Port St John's. This notorious 900m strip of beach has the infamous reputation of being the shark attack capital of the world, with 7 fatal attacks.

The man was pulled from the surf, and a doctor was on the scene immediately, but he succumbed to blood loss. Our condolences to his family. Ironically yesterday's death is exactly a year to the day from the last fatal attack at the beach. This time last year a lightie who'd made the Border surf team was attacked and died from his injuries.

Eish, what a major fail. Drove through from PE to Seals to look for a lil wave as hadn't surfed all week and was needing my salt water shot. As I pull up at the beach car park the air is suddenly filled with screeching sirens. Police van screams up to the beach and next thing the ou is out with his megaphone yelling at everyone to clear the water cos there was a shark.

Coula things immediately apparent as wrong in this equation. First up - why does a van arrive calling us out the water...meaning no-one on the beach has seen anything, this is some outsider pitching up calling the shots. 

Turns out there'd been a pretty big meneer spotted in St Francis earlier that morning, so for some rather strange sense of logic known only to themselves, the police decided that everyone in the water at Seals must get out too. Now work the logic of that out!

For sure the shark could get from St Francis to Seals in a coupla minutes, but the point is, no-one had seen it there. For all we know it'd happily moved off to snack on a yellowtail lunch off at the blinders or something. It's this kind of random panic by the authorities that isn't doing the sharks, or us, any favours.

I'm all for being sensible about calling ou's in if you spy one inshore near a bathing area, better safe than sorry. But to clear all the beaches within 10k's of a sighting is a bit much! Let's remember sharks are there all the time, specially in summer when they like to lurk about close in shore. But that's where they always are this time of year. Nothings changed, other than we all seem to be getting our knickers in a knot about it.

Daniel Chipps, a local St Francis lightie was having an early surf with Derrik Cook out at Hullets and there was a surf ski on the outside catching some waves. The guy on the ski spotted it and yelled to Daniel and Derrik to get out the water. Now if you don't know Hullet's, it's probably the one place you really don't want to see a shark, cos it's vrek far to paddle in! Reckon you cover the distance in super quick time though, nothing like a shot of adrenilin to get those arms working!

So the guys paddled in, grabbed some binocs and then spotted this huge shark. Daniel's not too sure what type it was, but was sure about one thing....it was very big! They actually thought it might be a small bird whale at first, but consensus was it was definitely a shark. 

Everyone at Seals was pretty bummed about getting chased out the water by the police for what seemed the over-reaction of the year. However, never one to follow convention, Mush happily jumped off the rocks at the point during all the commotion, and had some fun lil runners all to himself!

Remember, you have more chance of getting killed on the way to the surf, than in the surf itself! Sure, sharks give us the heeby jeebies, but 99.9999% of the time they swim right by us without a second glance. We aren't on their menu.

And so the final weekend of the summer hols draws to a close. And what a frikking fine summer it's been. For once we got blessed with some stonkingly good weather. From just before Christmas right up til now we've had absolutely stunning days - min wind, lekker warm water, hot as Hades, always something rideable. What more could you want?

Less SUP's maybe! Yrr, these ou's infested St Francis, counted 8 out one morning. They really screw the line-up up good and proper, and are a right hazard out there.....massive boards flying all over the place when the muppets fall off (as they always do!) Amazing that no-one got there pips crushed out there. Still struggle to see the sense of it all - there's nothing remotely graceful about riding a wave in a half squat looking like a carrots stuck up ya ass is there?

The beachies out west delivered as usual. Anne's lit up early Dec, with fire-craker lefts (check the vid); followed by the left at Seals - which saw you get either the pit...or the thrashing....of your life. Andy Lenton donated his favourite board to the bank. Gotto pay the band as they say....

Vaalies provided endless hours of entertainment.....what beats wearing your boardies over a FULLsuit; strapping your board onto the roofracks wax side up and fins forward....in the midday sun; getting sucked out by the rip whilst holding onto your newly bought surfboard and doing froggie kick instead of paddling (fail)....but then getting rescued by Faye after all the other ou's ignore you (score); discovering the urchins lurking between the Seals rocks; getting your blow-up pool toy ripped outta ya hands and across the bay by a sudden westerly gust; finding out that you can't just drive your fancy ass boat straight out the river mouth....cos there's these stupid things called SANDBANKS...duh!

Besides their giveaway GP registrations, they're pretty easy to spot outta their cars too. Poppies in stilletto's, sequined handbags and placked on make-up....at the Spar! Fenders hanging off the sides of their boats as they choeff through the canals...music blaring from their onboard speakers....thinking they're SO cool, but actually failing so badly that even the Model C education system couldn't pass them. When will they learn that when you try to be cool you're immediately uncool....just chill ou's, stop trying so hard!

The Seals boys partied hard and surfed hard....they hit the New Years parties til the wee hours of the morning, then went and grabbed their boards and were in the surf before the sun came up! And man, the NY's surf cooooooked. Classic case of "snooze you lose", as by midday it'd eased up considerably. Those ou's still dossing on the beach at Anne's when I was coming in from my surf missed it! Not only did you miss the surf, you got sandfleas in ya ears, seri-ass sunburn, lost ya shoes...and almost certainly your wallet. And probably have zero recollection of the previous nights activities....um, so why'd you do it eh?!

Someone planted a Stop sign at Seals beach. Crowds were thick, but the vibe was chilled, so all was good. Roll on 2012, we ready for you!!