During the 2015 NoveNove Aloha Classic Karim Iliya let his drones fly over the big waves of Ho’okipa and got some great footage. He put the best shots together and released an almost 4 min long clip, which shows incredible angles from above. Thanks Karim for that great effort putting this masterpiece together!!

Karim: “Windsurfing is an incredibly dynamic and difficult sport. A couple of the toughest people go out in the water to search for different angles. I took to the skies with a quadrocopter drone. It is by far the most difficult to film aerials of. With high winds and massive waves, the scene is constantly shifting and sailing. The windsurfer changes speed, and I discovered while shooting, that the wave slows down when it hits the reef. You must avoid salt water ocean spray coming off the waves. Sometimes the drone is not fast enough to keep up with the sailor. Battery time is cut in half, down to 6 or 8 minutes while battling the wind. With each battery swap I had to clean salt water off the drone’s camera. Sometimes the drone can’t keep up with the windsurfer, and so I would have to turn the drone, and tilt the camera to keep them in the shot. It was a balance. The closer I got to the windsurfer, the more chance I had of messing up the shot. I also almost had a near mid-air collision with Ricardo Campello’s drone. The screws in the quad are rusted, but it’s still holding up. As challenging is it was filming this, it was also the most fun subject to film.”

Drones:
DJI Inspire 1
Phantom 3 (when the wind finally calmed)

 

 

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