My dad made the rather exciting purchase of a jet ski some months ago, and during the summer it was an absolute hoot to go out on the water and race around doing over 100kph (62mph) under the warm sun.

I wanted to get some video to show just how quick the jet ski was, but mounting a camera in such a way that it wouldn’t fall off proved difficult. Then it occured to me: the Gorillapod. With its flexible legs I could surely work out some way of mounting it on the front of the jet ski. Dan reviewed the Gorillapod a few days ago, and after showing him my little test of it he insisted I put my thoughts up too.

The best place seemed to be right at the top, using two of the legs hooked over the instrument cluster shroud to hold it on, and the third stretched out to brace it. Obviously this wouldn’t stay on it’s own with the way the 250hp jet ski accelerated and manoeuvred, so I enlisted the help of some gaffer tape  to hold that third leg down and in place over the front bow.

I wasn’t 100% sure that it was going to hold, so instead of mounting something really good to the Gorillapod (well, the fear of it falling and the fear of it getting splashed were the two reasons), I screwed on my dad’s old Sony MiniDV camera. It still shot excellent video, had decent battery life, and had already been replaced by a newer camera, so should it hit the drink it wouldn’t have been too much of a loss.

Here’s the camera mounted to the ski, after having survived the trip there (including a short 110kph motorway stint).

While it may not have been the most elegant of solutions it certainly proved to be very effective, as this video demonstrates.

While the creators of the Gorillapod may not have had this use in mind, it just proves the flexibility of the product, and sufficed to say I’m pretty happy with the purchase!

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