About a month ago I was contacted by Tressa and Sarah from Hat Productions. They had an interest in my jet ski and me as a driver. Legend cinematographer Rob Hunter had requested my support for a Japanese television commercial involving Kite Boarding. He wanted to drive along with the kite surfers and get some tracking shots. He would shoot and I would drive the ski.

I was enlisted along with my jet ski. The ski was sent off 10 days early to get fitted with a special mount that would allow the large 35mm camera to hang off and get the shots.

Arriving in Cairns, the special mount had taken on a much larger dimension due to the lack of strength in the jet ski body. Instead of trying to drill into the ski's fibreglass shell, a different mount was attached to the outside on the back of the ski. It was like a scaffolding had been erected on the back. (see photo of me skidding up the beach with it on the back, minus camera).

The next morning I followed Marine Coordinator Gert Jaccby and his team some two hours out to sea to a little sand island that would be the location for the shoot for the next 3 days. Straight away I could tell that the rigging on the back of the ski was way top heavy and made keeping the ski upright very difficult. It was tough.

Later that first afternoon it was decided that the 40 lb camera and splash housing were not ideal and that they were going to rig a 80 pound plus dive housing and 35mm camera on the back.

The camera hung from the top bar by bungie cords. It was quite a set up. Unfortunately, no one took a picture of it all rigged up, but when I saw it I had my doubts.

After lunch we launched the contraption. Rob and the camera swinging on the back, me at the wheel. It was outrageously tippy. The only way I could get any control of the ski was by going flat out fast. To stop would be an immediate roll over. Rob and I zoomed around the small sand Island while kite surfer Paul Stockholm barely got going in the light wind.

On one pass of the island, Rob and I caught up to Paul and were getting some good shots. It was difficult to keep the ski upright. All of a sudden Paul's kite lost wind and dropped directly in front of us. I had two choices. Run straight over his kite and have it get sucked into the impeller of the ski, or stop. Stop down I did. Rob and I and the camera went into a slow roll to the left and over we went.

I got my radio that was strapped around my shoulder and neck, caught up in the camera rigging. It took me a while to get untangled. I came up and Rob was no where to be seen. Just then he came up . He'd been held under longer than I was.

The heavy camera that had been hanging down, now was swinging from the top bar pulling the entire ski underwater like a led ball. The ski was taking water fast. It took several dives by Rob to free the camera. When it was brought up, the housing was flooded. The front glass port has struck the reef breaking it and the result was a drowned Ari 4 camera, a $150,000 plus rig, totally soaked. Salt water does wonders to those sort of things. It later came back with a $90,000 repair bill.

Once it became apparent that the camera was soaked, my jet ski didn't seem that important. The ski and I were towed back to the mother ship and the shoot went on without us. Sara made some hasty calls to Yamaha dealers for me, before we were turned onto Danny Dade of Gert's fantastic crew. Before we were all bundled into Choppers for the ride back to Cairns, I took the ski to the Island and Danny promised to have a look at it. He got it running that night.

It was a full on day to say the least.

The next three days were spent shooting the rest of the commercial. I was able to shoot a couple of rolls of my first ever kite boarding and got a couple of shot's I'm stoked about.

We went onto Hamilton Island for 5 days where we were plagued with poor
wind. It was tough.

The director did get epic footage of the second commercial Hat was making at the same time. This one involved a hang glider. Overall it was an interesting shoot that when it is edited, will produce a couple of great commercials.

I'd like to thank Hat and the rest of the team for having lots of fun and professional support for the job. Mark, Michael, Sarah, T, Rob, Richard, Lara, Marc, Pete, Anthony, George, Ross, George, Gary, Marco, Deb, Gert, Catherine, Rob, Lawrence, Paul, Mike, Chris, Toshi, Lee, Flur, Danny, Jason, and the rest of the gang. Fun to work with all of you.

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