RAID General Standards – Photo Update

Effective Immediately RAID have issued the following standard update.
This excerpt is a pre-release of what will be included in General Standard Update v.58 which is scheduled for immediate release.

Photography/Cameras/Movies

With the specific exception of the circumstances listed below, RAID neither sanctions instructors nor students using hand-held underwater cameras (still or movie) while on course. Operating a camera is distracting and takes attention away from the task at hand – either leading or following course requirements. Instructors are cautioned that, in the unfortunate case of an incident leading to any type of unfavourable outcome resulting in loss of equipment, minor injury, serious injury or death, there is no defence possible when participants were distracted by the presence of a camera.

Regardless of the level of training. No cameras, please.
This applies to instructors AND students.

The exceptions are:

1. Instructors may use a helmet-mounted camera to document student skills and drills in confined water.
2. Instructors or students may install a fixed camera (e.g. on a tripod) on automatic (running continuously or on time lapse) in confined water to document skills and drills
3. A certified assistant may use a camera (still or movie) to document any and all dives in confined water and for open water dives as long as their presence has not been used modify maximum allowable instructor/student ratios. In simple terms, as long as they are not considered part of the primary dive team. RAID suggests that in these cases, the “camera person” dives with a suitably experienced and certified dive buddy.