I am using the GoPro Hero 3 wrist mounted waterproof digital camera and camcorder for these videos on You Tube. The video quality on my desktop is excellent, much better than what you are probably getting on You Tube. The camera came with one cable: one end attaches to the camera like a standard USB, the other end has three connectors-one is a USB connector for a computer, the other two are the yellow and white RC connectors for video and audio that plug into most televisions. I have watched the videos on my TV straight from the camera and have transferred them to the computer using the USB connector, with no problems. It is compatible with every version of Windows and Mac operating systems except maybe Windows 3.1, which doesn't have USB support anyway. It did NOT come with a CD and NO driver’s or anything else had to be installed. There was no configuring whatsoever on my older Windows ME computer.

The wrist mount is easy to use and understand. I wish I had a GOPRO Helmet Hero Camera Expansion Kit , which I would have to buy separately, along with a helmet. But so far GoPro Digital Hero 3 Waterproof Digital Camera with Wrist Strap is what I have to work with. It does not interfere with paddling. The easiest way to go is to run the videocorder continuously- with the added 2 GB SD memory card (another extra which is pretty much required) and rechargeable NiO batteries (extra, required, and not cheap) I can get 56 minutes of video. I then edit the video with Windows Movie Maker, which was included with my computer when I bought it so long ago. The system works- I like it, and am considering buying more memory cards so I can shoot even longer (but 54 minutes is still pretty good).

From the looks of things I could probably strap it to a leash plug without spending any more money and then I’d have a board-mounted camcorder.

Also, it creates the files in AVI format and Windows Movie Maker converts them to .wmf files. If you work with an AVI editor it is easy to extract frames from the video and have some excellent stills. And of course you can shoot stills from the camera – I just like shooting video.

The only negatives are: 1) it eats batteries up fast and you MUST use recharbables and 2) it is over configurable with two many available features and settings which I’ll never use (but show me any camera which isn’t). I just have my default settings and leave it that way and it seems to store them.

Overall this is a great camera and it works for surfing. But when you purchase it, you will be buying batteries and memory and possibly other mounting options. So it will run you over 200 when all is said and done.