Just then Manoa comes flying by from above and to the right of me.  He’s grabbing the rail of his board and he’s deep in the tube.  The cool thing for me is that I’m right there with him flying along underwater, getting a fish eye view of what’s happening above.  And what a view it is. 

I see Manoa wipe out toward the end of the wave and I pump up the scooter to max speed and come right up to him a few moments later as he gets back on his board with a big smile on his face and paddles back out.

I have a feeling the shot is going to be what Bruce Brown once taught me to call a “keeper”, a shot that will make the cut of the finished film.   This is the surf, the session, and the shot’s I’ve been dreaming about for over 35 years, the entire life of my filmmaking career.

I can remember a long time ago imagining what it would be like to be able to do a tracking shot underwater and how cool it would be to see more of the ride.  For years I felt this was the next level my underwater photography had to progress to.  But I just didn’t have the resources to make it happen, which doesn’t mean mean I didn’t try.

On a Disney feature I did with George Greenough in the late 1990s, we met a guy who was assisting us with the high-speed cameras, Simon Christities.
During that shoot, I told Simon about my desire to shoot tracking shots underwater in the surf.  We discussed several ideas using the underwater scooters that  were around at the time. The problem was that they would only go about three or four knots.

In February 2008, I was invited to join Todd Bennett on his boat OUTBACK in the Caribbean.  I was going to do a story on Todd for my new production, A DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE, and was keen to get some surf in that part of the world since I’d never been there.  The first day after arriving the surf was flat.  “No sweat,” says Todd. “I’ve got the toy for days like this.” 

We went to the back deck and sitting there were two silver machines that looked very slick.  “Lets go explore the coastline underwater with these new scooters I just got. Electric-powered, jet-propelled mini jet skis with plenty of grunt,” explained Todd.

The OUTBACK crew helped us into the water with them, as they are quite heavy.  As they did so, Todd went thru the operating drill with me. The right handle had a pistol grip that you squeezed to make it go. If you let go of the pistol grip, no matter how fast you were going, it would stop within a few feet.

Off we went.  We were in a beautiful bay being swept by clean offshore winds in about 30 feet of water and the scenery underwater along the coast of the big hill OUTBACK was parked under was nothing short of spectacular. Great coral and fish everywhere.  But for me it was all about how cool this scooter was.  It flew around anywhere I wanted to take it, in and out of canyons, up and over reefs and down into cracks in the ocean floor. 

I met Todd on the surface on one of our trips to the top for air.  “I can’t believe how quick this thing goes.  I want to rig my camera up on it so I can follow you and shoot.”

The next day the crew from OUTBACK helped rig my camera to the scooter.   This allowed me to figure out how best to shoot, what angles I wanted and how to work my speeds.

A couple of weeks after the trip I got a call from Todd.  He said he wanted to upgrade one of his scooters and would be happy to sell me one of his.  I was over the moon.  As expensive as they are I felt that getting the footage for the new film would be more than worth it.

OUTBACK was due for some servicing, so they took the scooter to Florida and had the agent they bought it from send it to me in Sydney. When it arrived, I took the unit to a couple of mad professor types who are legends in the Australian film industry as cameramen as well as inventors, grips, moulding experts and machinists who also build camera parts. 

I went up to their workshop, a large shed in the bush on one of their properties, and explained what I was after.  I wanted a camera mount that could be taken on and off easily.  I wanted it light.  I wanted to be able to move the camera platform up and down, to rotate it through 360 degrees, and have the ability to perform both functions easily in the water.

“Hmm!  That is quite a list,” replied Lester and Rob.

A couple of weeks later, they called me up to view some drawings and a plan to attach the mount to the unit.  It was amazing . . . a very simple design, with all the things I wanted right there.  I gave them the go ahead.

September rolled around and I was finally going to get this thing in the water and start shooting.   I flew to Tahiti and arrived at Tim Mckenna’s house.  Tim, a long time friend and collaborator, who was going to help me along with this project and shoot some stills of our efforts.

The first day we tried to start the scooter, which Lester and Rob had nicknamed “Flipper”, we couldn’t get it going.  We tried and tried but just could not get the inbuilt computer to work.  We had to call the dealer in Florida  for help and we spent the next week staying up late so as to speak to them on the other side of the world in their morning.  No joy.

It was not until November that a replacement was sent back. Then when I got there and opened my water camera bag, I found the control panel of my water housing had been smashed in transit. Tim “Mcgiver” McKenna came to the rescue with one of his old ports. 

Our first couple of days were really interesting.  It was three to four feet, with a few surfers and body boarders out at a reef pass about a mile out.  I was very careful at the start.   Flipper weighs 150lbs and I had no idea how it would react if I got caught inside.

That night back at Tim’s house we looked at the results.  I’d made several mistakes in the camera setting and a couple of issues with reflections I was getting off of the unit, but there were a couple of very interesting shots.

The second day was much better.  I was getting braver in my driving.  I’d start way out the back, see a set wave coming and follow it thru to the inside.  Sometimes I was going under several guys sitting out the back, catching a guy taking off and driving down the line, passing Tim in the zone for a still shot, moving thru to where a couple of guys would be duck diving as they paddled out and finishing off as the guy on the wave kicked out – all of this in one shot!

The third day the swell had dropped to two to three feet and it was very dark and overcast.  Tim and I met up with Patrice(?), who went underwater bodysurfing for us.  It was on this day that I started to formulate how to create different angles to make a sequence.  Although the surf was small, that night in review, the collection of shots really stoked me.

The surf then went flat for a few days with an expected six-foot south swell due on the coming Monday.  With Manoa’s help we ferried the unit out to the reef to save battery power.

With the surf much bigger there was a lot more room to move and I was able to get a greater feel for my machine and where I wanted to take it. 

With Tim’s much appreciated supervision of my underwater antics, I pushed my rig in places I never thought I could go. 

The results speak for themselves.

Manoa’s surfing at Teahupoo is nothing short of perfect; and to be able to capture his dance from underwater was exhilarating – and a dream come true for me!

A DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE scheduled completion early 2010.  For further info and to follow the film’s progress, please go to jackmccoy.com or adeepershadeofblue.com.  Aloha