Mauricio Tassara Carries Drone Business To New Heights By Writer and Contributor Emily McGinn
Mauricio Tassara has surfed his entire life. He loves being outdoors and in the water. So when he suffered a serious injury in August 2023 that left him paralyzed from the neck down, he thought his life would never be the same again.
Though he ended up recovering movement that same day, the next few months were fraught with physical therapy and uncertainty.
“I was going stir crazy because I'm a really active person. I surf every day, and I mountain bike and do all kinds of crazy sports. I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie,” Tassara says. “I needed to get away from all the stress and worry of surgeries that doctors were talking about.”
As doctors brainstormed spinal fusions and potential surgeries that Tassara would have to undergo, Tassara’s brother suggested a new hobby to occupy his mind: drone piloting. Tassara took his brother’s advice. He bought a drone and a camera and, as he recovered from his accident, he made a habit of flying his drone at the beach and filming his friends surfing.
Becoming an FAA-certified drone pilot marked the beginning of a journey Tassara never expected in his life — but one that he now loves and appreciates, even though it started because of a traumatic incident.
After beginning to learn drone techniques by filming his friends, Tassara started filming the great whale migration that passes along the Palos Verdes coast. However, it was when he was filming more surfers at the beach that he saw a potential for a business in his new hobby. He posted the video on Instagram and started receiving requests from surfers in the video to purchase it for their own use.
“I really didn't know what to charge. I really wasn't doing it for that purpose at that time,” Tassara recalls. “I just asked for donations, and they started giving me money on my Venmo, and so then I was like, maybe I should follow this path that fell in my lap because of this accident that I had that was really serious.”
Since then, Tassara has found a variety of applications for commercial drone videos through his company Empty Drone — with “empty” symbolizing his initials “M.T.” He has shot videos for real estate, marketing and sailboat races. Drone footage provides a unique bird’s-eye perspective that is becoming increasingly sought after commercially, which has helped Tassara grow his business.
Though Tassara has enjoyed growing the business, he also still loves to explore his own creative pursuits through drone footage, as well. For example, he recently entered a film festival for drone footage, and he is thinking of making a movie. He most enjoys filming marine wildlife, and even provided footage of a humpback whale with its calf to the ABC television network for a whale special.
“I have a deep connection with the ocean, and although it doesn't give me a monetary reward, filming the marine wildlife is my favorite thing to film,” Tassara says. “I love seeing the gray whales come by. In general, my favorite thing to film involves the ocean, our coastline and our community.”
Flying drones has allowed Tassara to help marine life, as well. He recalls a couple instances where he filmed a whale entangled in fishing nets. He then sent the footage to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association so that their rescue team could study the footage and assist the at-risk whale.
“I found that it's been something that I've been able to, in a way, give back to society or to the world,” Tassara says. “So it's just become something that not only has become a little business, but also a way for me to give back to nature and our community.”
Tassara has a history of working in television post-production, which has helped him with editing his footage. However, operating the camera and drone had a learning curve, a process he describes as both “challenging and rewarding.”
“[For anyone interested in drone piloting], my advice would be to film every day, to fly every single day, to practice every day, because the more you do something, the better you get at it,” Tassara says. “That's been the biggest thing for me, and what has taught me the most is really just to practice and apply myself.”
Empty Drone’s business growth came as an unexpected yet pleasant surprise for Tassara, who says that the process has involved a lot of opportunities arising that he had not even sought after. Moving forward, he hopes to continue to expand the business, especially as he moves toward retirement.
“They say that if you work doing something you love, you don't work a day in your life because you're basically having fun,” Tassara says. “[When I pilot], I'm always outdoors. And being outside is my happy place. That's where I love to be when I'm not at work.”
For him, Empty Drone is more than just a business — it is evidence that something positive can come from a dark situation.
“It started out as just something to distract my mind from the stress and worries of surgeries and spinal fusion. I'm a firm believer that from something really bad, there's always a silver lining, and so from something negative, there's always a positive,” Tassara says. “You just have to find it. And for me, that really bad accident that I thought was basically ending my life as I knew it actually bettered my life, and has been a super positive thing. And it keeps growing and more opportunities have come.”
You can check out Tassara’s work at his Instagram @empty_drone and his Facebook.
Bio:
Emily McGinn is a journalist based in the Los Angeles area. She enjoys reporting on and writing about a variety of topics from lifestyle to news, especially in her areas of specialty, environmental science and political science.