I mean depending where you filming your gonna need a long distance lens.

My wife who is a photography buff says if she were attempting to video me surfing using her Sony A7iii camera she would need either a 70 to 200 or a 200 to 400 lens. Both that camera and the lens are super expensive.

If you were to try to use your cellphone to record I know they make lens that clip/slide over your stock phone lens to allow you to zoom in further.

This is not really my area of expertise but again my wife is really into photography and those are her recommendations for if she was trying to shoot surf video from shore at the distance most waves break from her safe shooting distance.

How are you now? I’m so sorry about your shoulder. Hope it heals fast. Regarding coaching programs, I found another one that is quite good, especially if you want to continue coaching long term and have your trainees checkin in, posting new films for you to analyse and send back. It’s called Onform, it is very similar to coaches eye. With some extra features. Costs some money though. Good luck with everything!

Sorry to hear that Nick. Get plenty of rest and I am told Arnica is excellent for inflammation if you are into natural remedies.

Hey Nick, sucks about the shoulder! 

For a low budget good enough quality cam I also recommend the Sony HDR-CX405... It's the one I use, very compact, great zoom. The footage I upload is shot with the cam and the distance between can be up to 100m away. The quality suffers a little the further out it zooms. Still good enough to provide feedback. 

I would recommend getting a spare battery set -depends on how long your record times will be- because the Sony battery does not last long.

I also recommend a tri-pod... One with a fluid head. It is difficult to follow moving things smoothly with the standard photo camera tripod, and you WILL miss a critical moment because the tripod jerks as you try pan or tilt to follow the action. There are low budget options, like Velbon.

Heal up soon... sure the extra beach time is going to help as well 😀

Hope you heal up!

I’m an open water swim coach and use my iPad, a waterproof case and a program called coaches eye. Unfortunately that app isn’t available for download anymore but there are other coaching apps. To be able to show hi resolution film in slow motion, tracking square by square, enlarge, mark and measure and show it for your mentee, on the beach, is absolutely fab. Record analyze retry record analyze retry record analyze retry. The improvement curve will be steep! For in water coaching I use GoPro and transfer it to the iPad for analyse.

.

That sounds painful and frustrating. Hope it heals quickly

Sorry to hear that ☹️

I've got a Sony HDR-CX405 camcorder which I bought second hand for just under £100.

It's got a 9.2MP sensor and an incredible 30x optical zoom which will be plenty enough 👍

You can copy the footage into another device for analysis.

Check eBay etc and you should find some.