Entry with camera - how do you do it?

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Storker

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How do people handle boat entries when they're diving with a camera rig? When I was carrying just a small compact, I clipped the housing to my harness and jumped in, whether it was backroll from a smaller boat, or giant stride from a slightly bigger boat. Easy peasy.

After encumbering myself with a more serious rig, with strobes on long arms, I carry my rig on entry only when I'm shore diving. If I dive from a boat, I always ask the boat tender to hand me the rig after I've jumped in, but sometimes that's just not practical. A typical case is when we're half a dozen divers backrolling off a RIB: The captain calls "go", and we all roll at the same time. After which the captain has to take an extra round, pull close to me and hand me the rig. It's cumbersome. Also, since I'm thinking of mounting a GoPro on top of my housing, it'd be cool to have some footage of the entry, which isn't possible if I'm not carrying the rig while I roll off the boat.

Another thing is the strobe arms: So far, I've packed the arms close to the housing when the rig is on the boat, and then unfolded them as a part of the last check we do at 3-5 meters before we start the dive. On ascent, I use some of the time at the safety stop to pack up the arms again so the rig is easier to hand to the guy(s) in the boat.

I'm just wondering if this is the ideal way to do things. So, you who dive with larger camera rigs: How do you do it? Arms packed up or extended? Rig held close to your chest while jumping in, or handed to you by the boat crew after entry? Do you do it differently when you backroll compared to giant stride entry?
 
Backroll, camera close to chest. Giant stride, I prefer to have it handed to me in the water.
 
Backroll, camera close to chest.

One hand holding the camera, one hand securing mask and reg?

Also, how big a rig, and have you had any problems/close calls?
 
Backroll, camera close to chest. Giant stride, I prefer to have it handed to me in the water.
I would hesitate to do even a backroll because over time this may damage the housing. I used to do exactly the same as Freewillow till my housing started leaking-in (fortunately the camera was OK). I bought a new housing and since then have always had someone hand my camera kit in. Wuth 2 strobes, a wide-angle lens and a top light, it is too bulky to roll back with anyway.
 
having them hand it is really the best way to do it. This can be either handing it to you at the surface or lowering it on a line hanging from the deck and you kick over to it and grab it, tug on the line twice for OK and he'll retrieve the line. Not the best idea for the housings to take that impact, with the strobe arms it's worse
 
I always try to have someone hand it down, real nice and gentle like. When that's not possible I've found dropping it over the side ahead of time on a line works since my rig is ever so slightly negative.
 
Even with strong currents, it is almost always possible to fin it back to the dinghy or boat to collect the gear. On one occasion in Raja Ampat, the guide asked us to do a negative entry because of the current; I asked him to collect my camera instead of me and he obliged. With their experience, the guides usually have a little more flexibility than we do.
 
backroll put your camera in the water before you and then roll in if crowded forget all go together and go later
giant stride from large boat lock arms in a position that the strobes go on the handles not on the housing and then jump with the rig in hand higher than you if you are positive it won't even hit the water
 
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