Shooting closeups of kids surfing

I occasionally volunteer with a local org here in NYC that does free surfing lessons for kids. Next week I want to shoot some photos for them. I've shot underwater quite a bit, but I've always been curious about the best way to do it above water, but getting frequently splashed. What I usually do is take my camera in its housing, lick the dome, dunk, raise 2-3 seconds before wanting to shoot above water, then shoot, and repeat as necessary.

This time I will most likely only be up to my chest in water so was wondering if I could leave it mostly dry somehow. I've heard of people rubbing oil from their nose skin or outer ear onto the glass / acrylic, and when you slowly pull it out of the water, there's no drops on the port. But I just don't know if that messes with image quality? I'd test this out but will be away from home until the night before so might not have time.

Any tips greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much

if you're above water, I think you could go with a flat port (if you have one that fits the lens) and save a lot of weight.  It might also be the perfect place for a TG-6 instead (massively lighter- no housing needed).

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

At the Digital Shootout in Bonaire last month, I took a class on over/under split shots.

The part that surprised me most of all was the recommendation to shoot through a sheer stream of water flowing off the port immediately after you raised it out of the water.\

Wait longer and you have to shoot through some water, some glass, and some water streaming off .. not smoothly.

So it is important to get that water to stream cleanly, and for that we (all the class members) ended up cleaning our domes thoroughly before the class. The instructor passed around a bottle of plastic cleaner and some microfiber cloths to clean them. This is like waxing your car when you wash it - spread on the cleaning stuff, rub it around, wait until it dries up (white) and then polish it off with a cloth.

The idea is to get it scrupulously clean so water doesn't stick to some micro-debris stuck to the glass.

If you have no waves, no splash and tightly controlled conditions, then you can work with a dry dome. Outside a lab, I can't see having those conditions in the ocean.

Thank you! I saw your reply in the other post, very inciteful on managing the port. I'll give both a shot tomorrow and report back.