New experiments have been conducted using a combined free-surface gradient detector (FSGD) and digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) technique to study the interaction between a vertical shear layer, created by a surface-piercing splitter plate, and a free surface. The emphasis of this study is on understanding aspects of the interaction between the free-surface deformation (FSD) and the near-surface turbulence through the correlations between the elevation and the vorticity fields, and the spectral behaviour of the near-surface pressure. The Reynolds number of the present study, based on visual thickness and the velocity average of the two streams, is 12 100. Mean results for the velocity and vorticity fields show that self-similarity is achieved. Instantaneous data sets show that at the free surface, vortex tubes within the main rollers connect normally with the free surface as is evidenced by strong vorticity as well as the strong deformations at the free surface. The instantaneous data sets also show that the streamwise vortices near the braid regions, while weaker than those seen in the main rollers, also reconnect with the free surface. Statistical analyses show that the FSD is strongly correlated with the near-surface vorticity field, as the correlation coefficients are quite high ($\sim 0.7--0.8$). The pressure spectrum slope within the shear layer near the surface is found to be $-10/3$, compared with the analytically derived value of $-11/3$ (George et al. 1984) found for a shear layer in unbounded flow.