Noob Question: Water entry from boat with DPV

[Jollymon32]

New to DPV’s. Got the basics done (buoyancy, rigging, pool testing), next up is open water dive off a boat. Entry will be giant stride.

Obviously the DPV can be handed to you after you do your water entry, but I believe this is somewhat limited to the boat being tied off to the mooring line. Often, the entry will be a giant stride on a hot drop. So the concept of the DPV being handed to you may not be feasible.

Looking for some insights on doing a giant stride with the DPV in hand. For reference, DPV is a seacraft go.

 

[Pavao]

Have it clipped to you and hold it off to your side, either shroud down holding handle by nose or nose down holding shroud.
Or if you fall back into the water (which I think is best), just use one of the two methods mentioned above and fall backwards pulling the scooter with you.
Honestly, it’s just an object you’ll be jumping into the water holding it, it’s a lot simpler than you think.

 

[Jona Silverstein]

grab the scooter and hold it out in front of you, holding the prop shroud in one hand and the nose in the other. And simply step off the boat. by holding the scooter in front of you it with break the water first creating a pocket so you dont lose your mask.

 

[Pavao]

grab the scooter and hold it out in front of you, holding the prop shroud in one hand and the nose in the other. And simply step off the boat. by holding the scooter in front of you it with break the water first creating a pocket so you dont lose your mask.

I’m sorry, but that’s not very practical on hot drops, and only works with little toy scooters, besides, it’s not needed.
I never have the need to hold mask in place, despite it being the standard procedure taught to OW students.

On hot drops, you’d be standing on the platform ready to enter the water waiting for captain to maneuver the boat and give you the go ahead, you MUST be holding on to the boat, scooter is standing on platform next/in front of you while you’re holding it. Hot drops means divers needs to jump in quickly, pulling scooter up to grab the other end only means more delays while a line of divers are waiting behind you, don’t be that diver.
And again, this would only work with tiny scooters, try that with exploration level scooters like mine, try it on a tech dive with two stages clipped to you, sorry, just won’t work.

Here’s another realistic, in fact very common scenario where that just doesn’t work, a lot of divers are going in with scooters to hunt, one hand is holding speargun… could be a photographer, camera in one hand… none of these divers ever hold mask in place and can’t possibly use two hands for scooter.

As mentioned, it’s just an object you’ll be pulling with you when you jump in, simple stuff, don’t overthink it.

 

[SpaceX Aquanaut]

Hot drop from a diveboat with a high freeboard, try as best you can to have the prop-shroud take the brunt of first giant stride/"splat" contact with the water. And if you must hot drop without holding onto to your mask & reg, pull your mask down around your neck, and under your bungee'd necklace back-up regulator in your mouth (and it's this instance that the Long-Hose Primary/Shock-Cord necklaced regulator around-your-neck configuration has it's best Boat Diving advantages). . .

 

[Jollymon32]

Lots of good information provided. Thank you!

 

[rjack321]

There's a strap on the nose and the shroud, hold it crosswise across your belly and go. The scooter will break the entry force and your mask will be fine. If you are waiting to go, just hold the shroud and let the nose rest on the boat deck leaving a free hand for the railing

 

[justinthedeeps]

One thing I wonder about is whether excessive torque applied to the shroud, nose lid etc on a surface drop could allow momentary ingress of water droplets--in spite of straps or clamps--prior to the main o-rings fully sealing down under ambient water pressure when fully submerged.

Most(?) DPVs can be vacuum pre-sealed now, as with most higher end camera housings. That should provide some confidence that the o-rings are already all nicely squeezed down into the sealing surfaces, with more resistance to temporary displacement on a 'violent' water entry.

A fairly new DPV of mine got some seawater droplets into the motor/shaft compartment, which was not immediately obvious, and I only noticed by the eventual noise of a rusty bearing (and motor housing)

There was not vacuum system on it, and I was doing a fair bit of back roll hot drops, which may or may not explain what happened. Two others of the same model that I have used extensively for shore diving (with more controlled submersions) haven't been affected.

 

[Pavao]

I’m just curious, for those of you advocating for holding scooter with two hands and at same time worried about mask falling off, what’s the downside with holding scooter with one hand and the other holding mask?

 

[flymolo]

For a giant stride entry I just grab the scooter from whichever end is sticking up and jump. Sometimes I cover my loop and mask with my hand, sometimes I don’t.

What do people do when backrolling?