I have just returned from a dive trip where a number of the entries were from a RIB and involved negative buoyancy on entry as a result of strong currents and the need not to drop on a specific current point.
eg. Roll of RIB, hit the water and keep going down.
My question is what do people tend to do about their cameras in this situation ? I am concerned that hitting the water with my camera in hand will lead to a flood but there is really no scope to surface, swim back to the boat, grab the camera.
Anyone got any solutions ?
Mark
We had a few of those in the cocos last year. Usually I left the camera :-D
Those that did it, compacted the strobe arms and made the set up as small as possible, held it firmly to thier stomach and rolled in backwards in as tight a ball as possible
Use all of your body mass to absorb the shock of the water and to protect you gear.
If you have a leak I would guess you would surface, inflate your BCD and sausage, and float away til they came got you while holding your gear above your head. Hope you have strong arms!!!!
You can usually hold your camera underwater below you before you roll in. On a low RIB.
If the current is really that strong you may not want your camera with you. You might need both hands to hang on.
Expanding the original question:
What to do if I have to jump from the liveaboard jumping deck and as before I have to sink immediately otherwise the current will take me away from the rope or the sinking point?
It depends how big is the drop.
For a 2-3 ft drop you can hold your camera above your head and try to slow yourself down when you hit the water (yes, it can be done) and then go down really fast.
I usualy dive from a boat where negative buoyancy is required on entry and I jump in, I re-surface, swim for my camera that is handed to my by the captain and then go down fast shooting for the 15 ft. deco rope. I have never had any trouble even in strong current (probably about 1-1.5 knots)
Vlad
Hello Vlad,
In good condition it’s sure not a problem, as you said, usually I hold the camera above me and jump with my BC not absolutely empty and sink slowly after it.
At list once (at wavy sea above the Thistlegorm) I had such a current that it was real problem to come back to the rope, I done it finally but with almost a hyperventilation so I had to skip that dive. The problem there was that we needed to sink immediately on the rope and it was dangerous to come close to the boat because of the high waves.
Utilize either a rope attached to you or a reel and lower the camer in the water on the rope from the boat. Then once in the water reel the camera back in or pull it back to you.
I have seen that and it appeared to work quite well.
