How to Use A GoPro 7 for Spearfishing: Part 1

How to Use the GoPro 7 Black for Spearfishing (Part 1: Accessories) by NOOB Spearo

Unpacking your first GoPro is bloody exciting but there's lots of things to learn. Here is a quick rundown on what accessories you need for the GoPro Hero 7 and getting it ready for spearfishing.

First up you need to buy all the other stuff to make your GoPro rig useful for spearfishing. Here is a list (and a few thoughts) to help you get started.

• External Hard Drive: Don’t use your internal storage to store video files as this will slow your system down. Label your video files in a way you will remember and put them into files. At least as a basic idea try 3 folders for each trip; Top Shots, B-Roll, Meh. Everything else can go in the bin.

• Decent PC for editing: You need a fast rig with a good video card to create nice vids. If you make good video’s people other than your Mum will watch and lets be honest, YoungBloods & Daniel Mann need some competition. Be extra specially careful with your PC choice if you are considering filming and editing in 4K.

• Spare Battery: You can only expect 45-90 minutes juice out of the GoPro 7 Black battery so having some spare Batteries for a full days diving is crucial. If you take a look at third party brands, check out Wasabi or Smatree. 

• Supersuit: The Supersuit keeps your shiny new GoPro safe and watertight to 60m. It also keeps out dust and protects it from bumps, scratches and nearly every clumsy effort my sausage fingers make; 

• SD Card/s: The GoPro 7 Black demands a high speed/high reliability SD card. No matter what card you buy, reformat it often. Highly recommended across many users are the SanDisk Extreme V30 cards which come in multiple sizes (popular are the 64 and 128gb versions). Also well regarded are the Lexar 1000X u3’s, Delkin 1900x V60’s and Samsung EVO Select U3’s (I’m sticking with the Sandisk Extreme V30 though) 

• Headstrap: This is arguably the best 1st person mount for spearos. You don’t have to point your loaded speargun when you generously take some footage of him with his personal best trout. Provided you can slow your head movement down, dial the correct settings in and position the lens correctly, you will get some quality footage. Don’t be like Turbo though and send poor old Shreks second hand GoPro to the bottom in 80m of water. No instead you should use a headstrap under your hood and dive mask OR buy something like the Chin Strap Head Band Combo from Mako. 

Going beyond the standard setup

There is always more to buy and these next accessories while not essential, will certainly give you access to footage and audio that can take your spearfishing vids to the next level.

• Big Blue 7" Flexi Arm Gopro Tray
• Lapel Mic (Rhode Smartlav)
• GoPro Karma

The tray is used to capture third person shots that can give people an amazing perspective on your dives. The tray helps the GoPro filmer to keep the subject (you), front and centre and forces them to slow down and pay attention to what they are capturing. This is a serious tool to consider if you have a teams based approach to capturing film. 

A Lapel Mic (or two) allows you to capture better quality sound especially for interviews or even some narrative storyline type stuff you can record in post-production. The GoPro 7 Black already has the best built in mics of any GoPro but a lapel mic will still give you some better quality audio to use. People hate shit audio so it's a worthy consideration.

Last but not least on my list of glam accessories for your GoPro, is a drone. Telling a story with your films is far better than just a kill-shot montage (IMO) unless you just want to make films for other spearos. Drones allow you to capture wide screen shots that can help to set the scene. You can also use flyovers to capture the action or a long panning shot to establish the shot. I really dig the added storytelling ability a drone provides AND lets not forget you get a gimbal grip which is super cool for buttery footage even on a rough boat deck.

That's Part 1 of my GoPro 7 Black series. Keep an eye out for the next installment here on the spearfishing.com.au blog and follow along on my GoPro journey on the Noob Spearo YouTube channel here http://www.noobspearo.com/youtube