suds wrote:

But to place the unit in a waterproof
bag will mean that it will again be handheld and far more difficult to use
in open water. Has anyone else worked through this situation? What is the
solution?


I have mounted on the dash of my 4x4 (I "dive" in the woods) a Radio
Shack gooseneck style cellphone holder that has adjustable jaws. I feel
a GPS in a freezer-weight Ziploc bag would be well-protected against all
but lengthy immersion. The bag would allow use of all buttons. Holder
affixes to base disc via rather strong suction cup; a lanyard could be
added for safety. This mount seems impervious to the vibrations of
backwoods travel and a strong sealable bag (with positive inflation as
insurance against water?) should make the GPS both useable & reasonably
proof against the tides.

Yours in the north Maine woods,
Pete Hilton aka The Ent

--
Old age is always 15 years older than I am.
B. M. Baruch

"Peter H" wrote in message
...


I have mounted on the dash of my 4x4 (I "dive" in the woods) a Radio
Shack gooseneck style cellphone holder that has adjustable jaws. I feel
a GPS in a freezer-weight Ziploc bag would be well-protected against all
but lengthy immersion.

I bought a waterproof pouch for my GPS today. It only slightly decreases
the signal strength and you can operate all the functions through the bag.
It works great except that you have to put down the paddle to make any
adjustments to the unit. With the trades blowing like they were today, that
means you'll be rolling in the troughs before you get the thing up to
eyeball level. I'll stop by the kama'aina Radio Shack and look for this
"gooseneck style cellphone holder that has adjustable jaws." Perhaps it'll
do the job and I can rivet it on to the kayak.

Thanks

suds

"Wade Norton" wrote in message
. net...
Suds,

Like you, my wife and I enjoy scuba and kayaking. We live in the Pacific
Northwest so we envy your "warm" climate. We get to Hawaii about once a
year in addition to other warm water dive travel. We're relatively new to
paddling so we haven't done any kayak travel, yet.


Yikes, drysuit diving off a kayak! Did you read the August issue of
"Rodales's Scuba Diving?" Or have you seen this website?
http://www.whidbeydive.com/page2.html You couldn't do drysuit diving out
here. There is no way you can paddel any distance w/o getting completely
soaked so you'd have to keep the suit on the entire time. We just have too
much wind, swells, and current. It makes for a lot of fun in the kayak but
I'm glad I just have to deal with a wet suit.

Oh, and please don't try paddling out to Hawai'i. I know airfares have been
going up but we need all the tourist dollars we can get so we don't want to
lose you. ;^)


I've never used a GPS for diving other than finding my dive sites (shore
dives). I have a friend that takes his GPS on dive boats, but I just
don't
take that risk. I do put the GPS in a protective bag for my kayak trips.
I use Voyageur bags for the GPS ( http://www.voyageur-gear.com/index.php )
..

Out here you might get your regulator hose cut and extra weight on your belt
if you try bringing a GPS onboard. Local dive ops don't want others to
learn the location of their "dive spots."


Here's the "water proof" criteria for GPS units. I snatched this from the
Garmin website

Most Garmin® GPS units are waterproof in accordance with IEC 529 IPX7. IEC
529 is a European system of test specification standards for classifying
the
degrees of protection provided by the enclosures of electrical equipment.
An
IPX7 designation means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in
one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. An IPX8 designation is for
continuous underwater use.

Like you, I've tried to find a "truly waterproof GPS" (IPX8) and haven't
found one. I would tend to agree with your kayak expert. Until someone
builds a IPX8 GPS I would continue to bag the GPS.


If the market existed, they'd do it. I've got camera's and lights that are
good down to 150' or more. It's just a question of money. Right now the
number of kayakers that need a waterproof gps isn't attracting the
manufactures attention.

Well, I should let you go. You need to go outside and look at the sun.
You've only got a couple days left to do so. ;^)


suds

Your dealer is right, all the Garmins have battery compartments that are not
waterproof. At least for the GPS-76 series though, the rest is REALLY
waterproof. My experience is that you get a little water in the battery
compartment, but the thing keeps working after being dunked. Especially if
sal****er is involved, you need to clean it out later and get a little rust
preventative in there. No big deal though.


"suds" sudsysadie@hawaii{is the #1 state for Spam eaters}.rr.com wrote in
message ...
Hi,

I've got a question about using a handheld GPS on a kayak but first allow
me
to introduce myself.

I've been lurking here for a couple of months. My wife and I are avid
scuba
divers. A year ago we had the incredible misfortune of being stranded on
Oahu while between jobs. Now we are here until we retire. Tough, huh?
So
we learn to surf and keep up the diving but it gets rather old going to
the
same spots on a crowded, tourist filled, cattle boat every weekend. While
on a trip to the Big Island, we take a kayak tour of the Kona Coast and it
immediately occurs to both of us that a kayak is a fantastic way to go
diving. To make a long story short, we bought a couple of used kayaks and
have started diving from them. It's great fun.

Now my question. The manual for my handheld GPS (a Garmin 12
http://www.garmin.com/products/gps12/ ) says that it's waterproof. That's
great because I have the swivel mount for it and would really like to
secure it to my kayak in such a manner that it will always be positioned
in
front of me while paddling. This will be very beneficial when finding
those
dive spots offshore. However, my local kayak expert insists that if I
don't
keep it in a waterproof bag, I'll regret it. He says the electronics are
waterproof but the battery housing is not. I've had to replace enough
dive
lights to understand what that means. But to place the unit in a
waterproof
bag will mean that it will again be handheld and far more difficult to use
in open water. Has anyone else worked through this situation? What is
the
solution?


suds

hi folks.
i haven't read through many threads on this group, so sorry if this is
duplicate information, but i highly recommend aquapac.com aquapacs for
GPS and digital camera protection in the water. i took my canon elph
s330 snorkeling with me in thailand and got some great photos. it's
much, much cheaper than any underwater camera "housing" and should
also work great for waterproofing a gps.




"DaveH" wrote in message ...
Your dealer is right, all the Garmins have battery compartments that are not
waterproof. At least for the GPS-76 series though, the rest is REALLY
waterproof. My experience is that you get a little water in the battery
compartment, but the thing keeps working after being dunked. Especially if
sal****er is involved, you need to clean it out later and get a little rust
preventative in there. No big deal though.


"suds" sudsysadie@hawaii{is the #1 state for Spam eaters}.rr.com wrote in
message ...
Hi,

I've got a question about using a handheld GPS on a kayak but first allow
me
to introduce myself.

I've been lurking here for a couple of months. My wife and I are avid
scuba
divers. A year ago we had the incredible misfortune of being stranded on
Oahu while between jobs. Now we are here until we retire. Tough, huh?
So
we learn to surf and keep up the diving but it gets rather old going to
the
same spots on a crowded, tourist filled, cattle boat every weekend. While
on a trip to the Big Island, we take a kayak tour of the Kona Coast and it
immediately occurs to both of us that a kayak is a fantastic way to go
diving. To make a long story short, we bought a couple of used kayaks and
have started diving from them. It's great fun.

Now my question. The manual for my handheld GPS (a Garmin 12
http://www.garmin.com/products/gps12/ ) says that it's waterproof. That's
great because I have the swivel mount for it and would really like to
secure it to my kayak in such a manner that it will always be positioned
in
front of me while paddling. This will be very beneficial when finding
those
dive spots offshore. However, my local kayak expert insists that if I
don't
keep it in a waterproof bag, I'll regret it. He says the electronics are
waterproof but the battery housing is not. I've had to replace enough
dive
lights to understand what that means. But to place the unit in a
waterproof
bag will mean that it will again be handheld and far more difficult to use
in open water. Has anyone else worked through this situation? What is
the
solution?


suds