I need a small shotgun mic for shooting surf footage & some interviews.
So I really need a good all round mic 80% used at beach.
I realise that I need wind protection I will get an Equalizer.
I just need to know what mic. It needs to be fairly small around 9inches or so. Doesn't have to be really really high quality I was thinking the ME66 or AT835.

I would like to hear your reccomendations.
Thanks

Both are excellent mics and are where most serious users start. Niether requires phantom and will operate on a 1.5 volt AA battery.

I think the surf pounding on the beach, which is fairly low frequency is going to blow out speech when a wave arrives on-shore.

Most directional microphones are less directional at low frequencies which is where a lot of the wave sound energy resides. Shotguns have those annoying back-lobes that can really pick up the sounds you want to avoid.

A Cardiod would probably give you better performance because it will better ignore environmental noise from the sides and back.

I continue to like and use the Shure SM81C (Shure calls it an 'Unidirectional' microphone). The 81 works well enough that I'm starting to use it more on booming jobs than my AT835B shotgun. Better sound reproduction and much better side-noise rejection in noisy environments. (does require Phantom power)

I'd boom a microphone upward from just below the field of view so the wave sound is even further attenuated.

Take a look at the Shure Educational Web Site: http://www.shure.com/booklets/default.htm

Might think about using paper tape to seal the tape door on your camcorder.