Shooting the championship

Special tripod system used for ‘beauty shots’ on Wailua River

A special low profile tripod system devised by D. Robert Bloom of Alii Enterprises got him involved in the production of a one-hour special that will cover the Wake Board Championships this weekend at the Wailua River.

Bloom said he worked with the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to devise the system that allows television cameras to be mounted on the helicopters for shoots out the door.

Fusion Entertainment, a Portland, Oregon-based company is doing the production work and on Friday, was working with Bloom in getting their cameras fitted and balanced for taping of what Bloom described as “beauty shots” for the production that will be aired on Rush TV in high definition, and on Fusion in standard television format.

Bloom, drawing on his 18 years’ exerience as a helicopter pilot, said he worked to devise a special leg for the tripod that would absorb vibrations from the helicopter to minimize shake during the taping.

While waiting for Jeremy Shields and Eric Jeffcoat of Fusion Entertainment to calibrate and balance their equipment, Bloom got to chat with wakeboarder Daniel Watkins who was going along as part of the taping production.

Watkins, of Australia, would be giving his interpretations of the helicopter ride from the perspective of a wakeboard winner in the 2004 World Series of Wakeboarding.

He described wakeboarding as more like snowboarding rather than surfing, and after doing a run on the Wailua River, Friday, said the river offers nice conditions for a championship.

Watkins said usually a boat tows the wakeboarder at about 22 mph, and utilizes ballast that helps to generate the wake.

“The bigger the wake, the larger the launch,” he said.

Curt Lofstedt of Island Helicopters was selected to do the aerial portion of the show.

The 2004 Tige U.S. Open Wakeboard Championships will take place Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 13-14 at the Wailua River.