Exmoor Lockdown Diary 28 - The Miracle Camera That Survived 100 Storms

Jack Coleman, partner Tanya Hall and daughter Scarlet - and Tanya’s mum Amanda

They say miracles don’t happen, but sometimes they do. Which is good to know in these strange and uncertain times.

During the winter I watched as my tiny GoPro camera was swept away by giant waves on a North Devon beach. Naturally, I thought I’d never see the camera again - and, even if I did, it would certainly be wrecked. 

But for once The Wrecker’s Coast did not live up to its name. After three months of winter storms the GoPro was found on Hartland Quay beach by a local family who cleaned off the tiny camera and managed to get it working! Having spotted me on the footage - as well as recognising well-known North Devon fishmonger Dan Garnett - they were able to track me down on the internet and inform me that my camera was safe and sound. 

I thought it was a hoax at first - but then I went to meet Tanya Hall and her daughter Scarlett who found the camera underneath a rock on what must be one of the wildest, roughest beaches in England.  I could sort of half-believe that someone might find the camera - but the fact that it was still working after three months of being pounded on The Wrecker’s Coast just didn’t seem feasible.

Dan the Fishman

Tanya’s partner Jack Coleman couldn’t believe it either - and he is qualified to make such a judgement…  Jack is a full-tine coastguard in the area and he commented: “This coast doesn’t take any prisoners - so for a GoPro to survive these waters is amazing!”

Even staff at the internationally renowned GoPro company have been surprised: “We make our cameras to be some of the most rugged you can buy,”said Isabel Pakowski, director of communications at GoPro. “So we are excited and admittedly also impressed this GoPro proved us right and survived three months of pounding in winter storms under the water off a rocky beach on the Atlantic…”

It was in early December 2018 that I went to the beach at Hartland Quay with my friends Christos Yianni and Mike Twine so that we could meet up with Dan the Fishman (as Dan Garnett is better known) and create a unique Christmas seafood picnic for the festive pages of the newspaper where I worked.

I had my little GoPro Hero 4 with me so thought I might use it to take a few video shots of proceedings. After all, it’s not often half-a-dozen blokes decide to have a cook-up on a beach in the middle of a December storm.

I had the bright idea that if I put the waterproof GoPro down on a rock at the point where the huge waves had become reduced to ripples, high up the beach, it could be immersed in the foam and show how wild conditions were. It was a stupid idea - because right at the moment the mother and father of all waves came roaring in and I had to leg-it up the beach or be drowned.

As the tide dropped we spent an hour searching for the GoPro, but it had disappeared into the ocean without trace.

Beach at Harland Quay the day I lost the GoPro

Three long months later Tanya and Scarlett visited Hartland Quay. “We were just walking on the beach looking for crabs - and my mum found this strange thing and it was a GoPro,” said Scarlett. 

“I didn’t recognise what it was at first - it was underneath a rock,” said Tanya. “So I just pulled it out and then realised it was a GoPro. I thought we might be able to find out who it belonged to.” 

It was Jack and Tanya’s mother, Amanda Parselle, who carefully cleaned the salt off the camera and managed to charge it so they could see the footage on board and find out to whom it belonged. 

“That’s when we saw Martin’s face on the footage - and Dan the Fishman. We managed to find Martin’s name on Facebook - and that was it,” said Jack.

When young Scarlett handed me back the camera she was just a little disappointed to be saying goodbye to such a fun camera. 

However, so impressed have GoPro been by the miracle story, they sent the family a brand new camera to enjoy, as an unlikely gift from the sea. And I got one from GoPo too… So we were all very happy indeed by the Tale of the Miracle Camera That Survived 100 Storms