GoPro Boot Camp Teaches You to Shoot Video While Jumping Out of a Plane

Tilted 45 degrees in bubbly rapids, Ben Brown poses for the ultimate selfie. Brown, a professional kayaker who goes by the nickname Brownie, delivers a look of steely-eyed intensity at the GoPro camera strapped to his oar. Another camera affixed to his helmet captures the waves swirling around him. It’s the third GoPro, situated on the tip of his kayak, that makes the shot. Later, in an unadorned conference room at a Canadian resort, Brown reviews the footage. Fueled by adrenaline and beer, he crafts a polished action video ready for sharing on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

The whitewater excursion in Banff, Alta., and the scheduled video editing session were part of a weeklong event in September organized by Brown’s sponsor, GoPro. The Silicon Valley camera company aspires to make money not just by selling gadgets to extreme-sports enthusiasts, but also from the content they create. A big part of GoPro’s media strategy relies on athletes like Brown. The New Zealander’s name won’t fill a stadium or sell jerseys, but he’s skilled at his sport and perhaps better at marketing those abilities. “I’ve been good at kayaking; it only gets you so far if you want to turn it into a career,” Brown says. “It used to be about getting a magazine cover or video part. Now, with the evolution of social media and the work I do with GoPro, it’s become a lot about content, capture, and creation.”