OneYellowTang Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago All, I'll start by mentioning I've been to Cocos a couple of times and Malpelo once. Maybe once or twice on those trips I remember wishing I didn't have a large camera rig to deal with in a heavy current situation (which was always a temporary feeling). We're headed for Galapagos in a couple of months (I know, wrong time of year for the big stuff, but my daughter's university break dictated the timing of this trip). I've been reading about potentially heavy current dives up at Darwin and Wolf, as well as potentially 1-2 other spots. I'm also aware that you could end up not experiencing these conditions as well. This isn't enough to likely to get me to leave my rig on the LoB, however I am thinking a bit on how I may want to secure the rig to my BCD and have it enough out of the way so I can have both hands free to anchor myself on the rocks, etc. A single lanyard is an obvious starting point, however a Z8 in a Nauticam housing with dual strobes swinging around in a current (as your pulling yourself along hand over hand) may be secure, but doesn't seem ideal. Thoughts on best practices here? I've dived in some reasonably heavy currents with my rig in the recent past (Shotgun & Castle Rock in Komodo, Devils Highway in the Solomons) without worrying about this, however Galapagos seems like it could present a next level challenge - maybe it's the rocks, or maybe I've been reading too much 😉 Looking for suggestions or any advice for those that have been before.
TimG Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago Good question. Happily I've never actually had to deal with the issue but understand entirely where you are coming from. The solution I developed for myself was to use two carabiners with detachable connectors (see photo). I clip a carabiner onto a D-ring on either side of the shoulder straps of my BCD; and the round snorkel retainers are fastened onto my strobe arms. If I need to free my hands, clipping the connectors together leaves my system (a D500 with Retra strobes) hanging from my BCD and reasonably manageable. 1
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