Action cameras have a hard time capturing the action when it comes to large objects, specifically when it’s mounted to the object itself. This is due to the close-up nature of mounted perspectives and the wide angle lens effect on the footage. Those two factors make for a confusing perspective and what we’d call a “hard read.”
That being said, wave runners are no exception to this creative problem. If the camera is mounted to the handlebar facing backwards towards the rider, the footage comes out too close and the element of speed or movement is lost as the rider fills up the frame. If you move the camera further away by adding a sticky mount to the front of the wave runner, you get extra distance but will likely have the handlebars covering the subject. At that point you still have a crop that doesn’t display the full amount of action.
If you add an 11 inch PEG to that same sticky (example: above picture), the camera is at eye level and provides a full range of mounting angles and scenery/context. This quick elevation of the camera ultimately grabs the shot in a unique perspective most content-creators haven’t seen before and is what PEG is all about.
The shot above was captured with an 11 inch PEG and GoPro MAX 360 camera. The surfboard sticky mount offered more surface area than the standard rectangle sticky mount and it held perfectly. Even though the wave runner bounced up and down over the choppy water at speeds upwards of 45mph, the camera and PEG stick held on for the whole ride. Here’s a short clip of the same perspective:
Hopefully this info is helpful and inspires you to capture differently. Next time your on or near a large and mountable object, try getting a PEG stick on there to show off the action in a way no one’s seen before.