They Call Me GoPro Dave

It all started on a Friday night in the basement of a restaurant in Golden Lake. The Renfrew County ATV Club was holding their annual general meeting, and since I was a club member in good standing, I figured I should show up and see if there was anything fun I could help out with. I was a few minutes late so I quietly found a seat near the back and listened to the presentation put on by the board members. There was some discussion about the finances (which were in a sad state of affairs), talk about open board positions, and a quick presentation about the new website a contractor had been working on since their old site had been hacked and corrupted. Everything was going just fine until a disgruntled member of the audience stood up...

Entertainment at last!

Well nothing too crazy. Some people just have a hard time coming to grips with the $150 price tag on a trail pass. After the yelling stopped and the fellow stormed out of the meeting, the board finished their presentation and called the meeting to a close. I walked up to the chair of the board afterwards and asked who was the admin for the RCATV Facebook page. I had a few ideas about getting some fresh content on the site to attract more of the younger crowd. And just like that, a new journey as the RCATV Facebook admin began!


New Friends
As a new member to the ATV club, I really didn't know too many of my fellow club members. I had heard of a Poker Run up in Stonecliffe so I asked some of the other club members at the meeting if they planned on going. A handful said they did plan on attending the run, so we arranged a meeting time and decided to ride as a group! What I didn't realize at the time was that our new little group of ATV enthusiasts would become a tight knit family, spending the rest of the riding season getting to know one another, planning trips, and building up a strong ATV club.

They Call Me GoPro Dave
After the ride in Stonecliffe, we all exchanged our contact info and found each other on Facebook. We had also bumped into some riders from the Nation Valley ATV Club as well and were interested in talking with them about club improvements, as their club was running some very successful events. I can't remember when or even what we were talking about, but I ended up being invited into a Facebook chat group with a group of these people. Turns out there was another Dave in the chat group, and things started to get very confusing! The other Dave was nicknamed Viking Dave because of the horns sticking out of his helmet, and I earned the nickname GoPro Dave because I had filmed all of the riders in Stonecliffe with my GoPro HERO action camera. And so it began; I had a new group of ATV friends, and they called me GoPro Dave.

Embracing The Role
Mixing ATV action videos quickly became a favorite pastime of mine. I greatly enjoyed seeing how much a video can please a person. People become exited watching themselves conquer a difficult hill climb. Playback a big water splash from a mud hole and their eyes light up in wonder. The videos became a way for me to visually tell a story. I could pick a certain sound track to convey an emotion, playback scenes in double time to invoke the sense of great distances being traveled - it was complete creative freedom and I loved it! At the same time, videos are perfect on Facebook for promoting an ATV club. What better way to convince someone to join than to show them all the fun they could enjoy!

Enjoying The Fame!

Ok, I'm not exactly famous (yet!), but I must admit that being known as the "GoPro" guy that produces "amazing!!" videos is a very rewarding experience. It's a very fun way to exercise my creative side of the brain, and it helps out an amazing not-for-profit organization, the Renfrew County ATV Club - the place where it all began :)