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mixedup

contour vs gopro mounts for minimum snag points?

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Trying to decide between GoPro & Contour. Safety & minimizing snag-point risk is a key determining factor. Can I ask:

Q1 - What is the best mount to minimize snag point risk for each of these cameras? (I have a cookie ozone open face)

a) Contour
b) GoPro (e.g. http://www.chutingstar.com/newgear_en/square-one-gopro-top-mount.html ?)

Q2 - Given use of the above mounts (from Q1) would the contour still be safer from a snag point risk point of view?
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First, the standard disclaimer applies (get the number of jumps before putting on a camera)...

DeltaGear sells low profile mounts for the GoPro. I'm a bigger fan of the Contour for mounting height and snag points. However, there are many, many more GP mounting options.

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I use the standard contour profile mounts and instead of a tether i put a quarter inch wide piece of gaf tape across the rails after attaching it to the mount. Prevents it from being able to slide forward and off if it got bumped. But not so strong that you cant grab it and slide it off deliberately if it happened to catch a line.

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The GoPro snag hazard finally caught up to me. Inside 8-way (why I was wearing the camera, I don't know) had my air taken away by a 2 low jumpers before I could react and flipped through, right between them. Snag - Pop - $400+ gone at 7K. Hero 2 w/WiFi backpack and 32GB SD card. I'm done with GoPro for inside (or outside for that matter) video/Pics. Drift HD Ghost enroute.
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" ~Samuel Clemens

MB#4300
Dudeist Skydiver #68

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Quote

The GoPro snag hazard finally caught up to me. Inside 8-way (why I was wearing the camera, I don't know) had my air taken away by a 2 low jumpers before I could react and flipped through, right between them. Snag - Pop - $400+ gone at 7K. Hero 2 w/WiFi backpack and 32GB SD card. I'm done with GoPro for inside (or outside for that matter) video/Pics. Drift HD Ghost enroute.



Why? it's not that much lower a profile than a GP. Cheaper, but there isn't much less of a snag hazard.
Sorry to hear you got bit too.[:/]

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Was it an actual "snag" of something on a naked-mounted GoPro, or mostly a problem due to the high profile of the camera protruding out from your helmet and taking a blow from contact with someone else's body or rig?

IOW, would it have survived if you had a mount or a deflector that keep material from being able to "grab" the camera?

I made a deflector for my gopro (picture attached) out of InstaMorph moldable plastic that should prevent lines and risers from hooking the camera around the mount. It might be some help preventing detachment from a blow against area above the helmet, unless the contact was only with the camera body itself.

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I don't mind the tether on the contour, but I also practice my EP for getting entanglements with a camera. The nice thing about the contour tether is it un-clips. I've used this before in freefall when a camera got knocked off. Just unclipped the tether and stuffed the camera in my jumpsuit. Took about 5 seconds.

No one ever says this cause it's too blunt, but you're doing something really really stupid if you ever get an entanglement with a top mount. Go back to basics, learn how to deploy stable or perish cause you shouldn't be jumping a camera anyway. Not saying an entanglement can't happen, just staying its really difficult. Wing suiters and Crw dogs have a lot higher chance to get lines or a bridle around the top front of a helmet.

It's a real sh*tty day no matter if you have a camera or not if lines some how end up there. But if they do, Jettison the helmet, chop and fire the reserve. Hopefully you practiced that, and hopefully you have enough time and hopefully you are aware what you're RSL/skyhook would do if your are snagged. It's a camera, they are dangerous but at the top of your helmet I almost feel they are just as dangerous as someone wearing boots with those damn lace teeth or a gopro or altimeter mounted on their chest or mudflap.

That is all... plain and simple, just don't die and think before you mount these damn things.
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thanks trunk - I'm not jumping cameras yet but, if you had an entanglement on a top mount then:

a) I can't even imagine what it would be like - like wouldn't it feel like the likes were going to rip your head off or something? or hangon, we're talking about the bridal not the lines I guess correct? So is it a dumb question in fact re whether it's possible to have your lines entangle with a top mounted camera?

b) if you did cutaway your camera/helmet would that potentially immediately clear the problem with your canopy opening. Ie just in relation to when you say jettison the helmet & then chop, would it really be jettison, observe outcome, then chop if necessary?
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In this scenario, If lines from your deploying canopy do get wrapped around your camera you do have a high possibility of breaking your neck. In this case, you can be screwed and all practice may be null and void. Canopy collisions tend to be a little softer in which case you would clear your helmet and as in all malfunctions the access the situation and perform the necessary EP(s). A bridal would be a HS malfunction and depending on altitude see if its easy to clear, jettison, then asses the situation. There are no hard fast rules for these things, but good to think about what to do if they do happen. I've been caught in the dirt before with something as simple as a larks head knot on my toggle keepers, sh$t happens extremely quick during mals and if its your first one and you have an entanglement, you may just not have the awareness to save yourself. Yet another reason why we suggest people get their jump numbers up.
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I made a deflector for my gopro (picture attached) out of InstaMorph moldable plastic that should prevent lines and risers from hooking the camera around the mount.



I like this, and I think Trunk might have told me about this as well. Once you have the shape you want, how do you connect the mold to your helmet? Or does that Insta stuff mold directly on to your helmet?

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I personally use a clay like substance called sculpey. That instamorph looks cool but don't keep it in a hot car for any period of time. The sculpey molds well and then you just throw the piece into the oven, bake, sand and paint if you like.

And you can just use double sided tape to secure it down. I generally make it so the mount bolts through the sculpey plate. I wouldn't use epoxy since god knows how many times you will change your setup on your helmet and its a PIA to take off.
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I greased up my helmet surface (with cooking oil) so the stuff won't stick, then softened what I had and put it in place and held it there until it solidified. Then cleaned off the helmet and used 3-M tape (like the stuff GoPro uses to attach the surface mounts), and put it in place. On mine, the tape is holding it down on sides and across the front. As long as it's close, then you can always heat up spots that don't seem to be in close enough contact and get them back down.

Once it's on, with a heat gun you can pretty much do with it as you want: Add or remove plastic wherever you want, make this side higher here, lower there, closer here, move the front out a bit, in a bit, etc. I did that a lot, as I kind of designed and engineered it on the fly.

For $25 you've got enough material to make about 4 of them. Of course, you have to invest the time as well.

It melts at 140 degrees F (~60C) so I suppose a closed car in the summer sun might not be a good place to store it, particularly if gets direct sunlight. OTOH, probably not good for the rest of your gear either. :S But I haven't gone into a summer with it yet. (I'll update this thread in the future if I run into any problems).

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Perhaps "snag" was the wrong description. I think it was more of just a hard blow to a naked-mounted GoPro as you put it. To add, I wasn't using the little white plug they provide which prevents the release from, well... releasing. I should have known better...

I hope this lesson will help to prevent this from happening to someone else.

My Drift HD Ghost will be mounted flush via a cookie mount plate on my open face along with my CX-150. No more camera mounts on my full face during inside formation flying. Lesson learned...
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" ~Samuel Clemens

MB#4300
Dudeist Skydiver #68

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