Myself and Craig are normally, backwards and forwards on the cell phones making last minutes checks that everything is in place including the sunshine before we give the green light for the pilot to fire up the chopper. Once air born, the next hour truly is a mad frenzy of action. We have a running list of who should sail on which piece of kit and if we are lucky the operation can run smoothly and you can work your way through the list without a hitch. A few years back the plan somehow went out of the window and of course from up in the helicopter you can’t really talk to anyone to regroup and you just have to improvise. But everything went horribly wrong and I ended up with Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Jimmy Diaz and Cyril Moussilmani all clenching their fists at me from the water. It was a terrible moment and when I came back down everyone was shouting and screaming that it was all my fault! Yes it is far more fun shooting the likes of Eva and Alice blasting on Geckos in their G string bikinis I can tell you that for nothing!
But the whole helicopter shoot is really a great buzz for the camera guys, especially when you are up over the water at Ho’okipa the waves are firing and you have some of the best riders in the world going off from this awesome viewpoint. Quite often I have come down from helicopter shoots totally buzzing; it really is a huge rush especially when you are confident that it has all gone to plan and you have pulled it off!