Jumping off a boat with secondary reg on necklace.

[Esprise Me]

If I'm carrying a camera,,,,,I giant stride BACKWARDS . It softens the water against the front of my body and eases the force to the camera & strobes. You can step off the boat backwards too. And just like stepping forward we always look before we step backwards, makes no difference forwards or backwards.

I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. But seriously, can you elaborate? Do you lean back as you step off? How do you keep your fins out of the way? I really prefer not to hand off my camera, so I'm always looking for ideas.

 

[Storker]

I switched to a long hose/bungied backup config perhaps some hundred dives ago. Giant stride, backroll, wading in... no issues. At all. If anything, there's been less issues than with a conventional octo setup. Recently, I've started to just fall side/backways, cradling my camera rig and hugging it tight instead of having the boat tender handing it to me after I've splashed.

Just remember to do a proper S-drill before your dive to make sure nothing has snagged.

 

[NothingClever]

Same as everyone else....no issue with my alternate on a tidy neck bungee.

 

[loosenit2]

As everyone has said it is a non issue, but I have to ask why are you considering the switch to primary donate? It is clearly the system of choice for technical divers, but It is a long standing debate as to whether it is a better system for pure recreational divers as it is not widely understood or taught.

If you are making the switch to build muscle memory because you want to go into tech diving...cool, welcome to the club. If you are doing it because you keep reading about it on SB, please realize that SB has a very tech diving orientation and consider your choice fully.

 

[Centrals]

I'm considering switching to a primary donate setup with the secondary second stage on a necklace, and wondering how a giant stride entry works out. Is the movement of the secondary second stage a problem? I can imagine it swinging up and hitting me in the face; is that not a problem in practice?

I never noticed any issue either it was back-row or giant-stride.
The 2nd stage is just below my chin.

 

[d^2b]

As everyone has said it is a non issue, but I have to ask why are you considering the switch to primary donate? It is clearly the system of choice for technical divers, but It is a long standing debate as to whether it is a better system for pure recreational divers as it is not widely understood or taught.

I mainly dive with my wife, who is an excellent buddy, so I'm not too worried about the training issue; we'll obviously have to practice it a bit. I mainly like the idea of knowing exactly where my secondary second stage is all the time. I happened to get a good deal on a reg set already rigged this way, so it's an opportunity to try it out.

 

[Johnoly]

.. Do you lean back as you step off? ....

Many divers do it differently and none of them are incorrect. For me:
- Both feet equal at the edge, look backwards both sides to make sure it's clear.
- Lean just a bit and act like you are taking 1 step backwards. Your boat fin will slide off the edge naturally. Keep legs slightly apart at entry
- Bend at the waist. If it's a 2ft drop, I'll bend 45 degrees(not 90 degrees!), If 5ft drop, 10 degree slight bend.
- I keep my camera rig tight & right at my waist(weight belt buckle), other hand covering mask & reg.
It really keeps my strobe and camera arms from taking a blast force of water at entry and shields it.
I still go in negative below the water don't come above the surface. Just turn to face down right after your head is under the water line.
But there's also a limit. When we were jumping 10 ft high from the bow of the Truth boats, the crew tethered our cameras down to us.

 

[Kmart921]

I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. But seriously, can you elaborate? Do you lean back as you step off? How do you keep your fins out of the way? I really prefer not to hand off my camera, so I'm always looking for ideas.

Check out a couple divers from Jacques Cousteau's team demonstrating at the very beginning of this clip:
Look down, bend over, step / hop backwards. Easy peasy!

 

[dmaziuk]

I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. But seriously, can you elaborate? Do you lean back as you step off? How do you keep your fins out of the way? I really prefer not to hand off my camera, so I'm always looking for ideas.

I just twist as I step -- but I'm not wearing fins when I do that, I'm sure that helps.

 

[tursiops]

The reason for a GIANT stride is to make sure your tank clears what your are standing on/stepping off of.
If you swing around and put the tank in first, no issues. No GIANT anything needed.
And don't jump, just step. Jumping might allow your foot to slip...bad idea.