How a 360 Camera Turned Into a New Passion

I bought my very first 360 camera around four years ago. Back then, the big hype around 360° footage had just started, and social media was practically flooded with it. I was fascinated by the idea of capturing spectacular perspectives, but in my opinion, the technology simply wasn't advanced enough yet. The quality was perfectly fine for an Instagram or TikTok reel, but definitely not good enough for a high-quality 4K YouTube video in landscape format. So I decided to put the whole topic aside for a while.

Until September 2025.

A friend of mine filmed me with a brand-new and significantly better 360 camera — and I was instantly blown away. The image quality, the dynamic shots, and the creative possibilities convinced me immediately. At that moment, it became clear: now was the time. That same day, I bought a DJI Osmo 360 and started filming absolutely everything I could.

I quickly realized, however, that 360° footage isn't something you can simply record and instantly watch. The footage first needs to be "framed" — meaning the actual perspective has to be selected and cut out from the full 360-degree image. So the first challenge was creating a proper workflow. After experimenting for a while, I discovered that the easiest method for me was editing directly on my iPhone and then sending the finished clips to my computer via AirDrop. Simple, fast, and efficient.

Like most kitesurfers probably do, I started with the classic harness mount setup. The 360 camera is attached behind the harness using a selfie stick, filming the rider from behind. The fascinating part about it: the selfie stick becomes completely invisible. It genuinely looks as if someone is perfectly following and filming you the entire time.

As cool as that perspective was, one thing eventually started to bother me: you almost always only see the rider from behind.

So I started experimenting. I simply took the selfie stick into my own hand to find out what would be possible — and that's exactly where a new little passion of mine began.

Because suddenly, filming itself became part of the challenge.

I quickly realized that performing tricks while holding a camera steady is anything but easy. Doing a board-off with your right hand while simultaneously controlling both the board and the selfie stick is multitasking at its absolute finest. And strangely enough, that became exactly what fascinated me: performing stylish tricks while perfectly controlling the camera and making the whole thing look so effortless that viewers can simply relax and enjoy watching it.

From reel to reel, it slowly evolved into something unique. A lot of groovy moments on the water were created — scenes that look relaxed and playful on camera, but actually required an enormous amount of focus and coordination behind the scenes.

The best thing about 360-degree footage, however, is its versatility. From the exact same clip, you can create both vertical videos for social media and cinematic landscape shots for YouTube. And because of that, it would have been a complete waste not to turn all those sessions into an entertaining video for my YouTube channel as well.