ECSC - Preparation and Gear List

Finally the day is here. Shooting with ECSC360 is the most anticipated week of the year of me. It is one of long days starting at 4:30 a.m. and often not ending until sometime after midnight. It is filled with the tension of having to get the shot and having it ready for publication by the media deadline. While the public is enjoying the largest beach party of the year, our focus is on the details like f-stops, compositions, and shutter speeds. Our eyes are constantly scanning for the next captivating image. The crowds cheer as a surfer blasts a 360 air while we pray that we didn't miss it - that we nailed the focus and captured the moment. Did the spray obscure the expression? Was the composition clean or was there something missed? Will it translate to a still?

2013 East Coast Surfing Championships

I spent last evening cleaning my cameras and lenses until each was like new. Shooting on the beach we have to constantly fight sand and salt spray, so the cleaning will be a repetitive theme throughout the week. Today while waiting on the delivery of a Nikon 200-400mm f/4, I am packing my gear. I will take with me:

• Nikon D800
• Nikon D300s
• Nikon 200-400mm f/4
• Nikon 70 - 200mm f/2.8
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
• Tokina 16-28mm f2.8
• (2) Induro tripods
• (2) Induro BH ball heads
• (1) Wimberly head
• ThinkTank Hydrophobia 70-200mm rain cover
• Op-Tek backup rain covers
• Hoodman Loop
• Lee filter system with holders and hoods
• Lee ND soft graduated filters
• Tiffen polarizer
• Lee 10-stop ND filters
• Tiffen .3, .6, and .9 ND filters
• Cable release
• Camranger remote release
• Batteries and chargers
• Compact flash and SD cards
• Nikon 900 strobe
• Strobe gels
• Rocket blower
• Microfiber cloths
• Residual oil remover lens cleaner
• LensPen
• ThinkTank Streetwalker camera backpack
• LowePro AW200 camera backpack
• Non-abrasive PecPads
• Sensor Scope
• 15" Apple MacBook Pro
• (2) Seagate portable 1TB backup drives
• Apple iPad
• Apple iPhone 5s
• Pocket battery charger with USB connect
• Intuous 4 tablet and stylus
• Spyder 4 Colorimeter
• Memory card readers
• Gaffer tape
• Headlamp
• Heat sheets

2013 East Coast Surfing Championships

Virtually everything listed above will be used over the next 5-days. So now just pray for surf. It killed me watching the opening round of the Billabong Pro in Tahiti yesterday with 12' faces. We may not have triple-overhead surf for this year's event; however, we will have a great event to cover.