Or Why I think night diving is easier than daylight OW diving
Light doubling (any other names for it?) is taught in the GUE Cave I course. Its nothing new, but if you and your buddy become more aware of it and actually use it, its a powerful tool.
Light doubling is actually two things, first, when both of you illuminate one area you get to see it better, thats obvious. But more importantly, if your buddy makes sure that his light crosses your field of view quite often, it allows the diver in front to keep track of rear diver without having to ever turn around. I usually cave in a team of three divers. If Im the #1 diver, Im always making sure that Im seeing two other beams of lights playing on the walls in front and beside me besides my own. Divers 2 and 3 make sure that their lights shine forward at regular intervals so I can see them. The #2 diver always makes sure that he sees the beam from #3 at regular intervals (as well as looking forward at me). #3 just has to keep the first two divers in sight. On exit, the roles are reversed. This way it's easy for any one diver to keep track of the other two for redundancy.
Weve done some long penetrations (long for my level) without the front diver ever having to turn around!
Upping your awareness of the divers light beams also helps in emergency situations where a diver starts shaking his light. If youre not used to looking for the others beams, you might be slow to notice and/or react. Since watching the other divers beams is now part of your buddy system, any shaking is immediately noticed.
This makes night dives a piece of cake, though I do check from time to time in crowded waters to make sure someone hasnt dropped in and replaced my buddys beam.
Im sure that anyone thats done more than a few night dives has kept track of their buddy via their light, but try and formalize it and youll find out that its an excellent diving tool.
Roak
Light doubling (any other names for it?) is taught in the GUE Cave I course. Its nothing new, but if you and your buddy become more aware of it and actually use it, its a powerful tool.
Light doubling is actually two things, first, when both of you illuminate one area you get to see it better, thats obvious. But more importantly, if your buddy makes sure that his light crosses your field of view quite often, it allows the diver in front to keep track of rear diver without having to ever turn around. I usually cave in a team of three divers. If Im the #1 diver, Im always making sure that Im seeing two other beams of lights playing on the walls in front and beside me besides my own. Divers 2 and 3 make sure that their lights shine forward at regular intervals so I can see them. The #2 diver always makes sure that he sees the beam from #3 at regular intervals (as well as looking forward at me). #3 just has to keep the first two divers in sight. On exit, the roles are reversed. This way it's easy for any one diver to keep track of the other two for redundancy.
Weve done some long penetrations (long for my level) without the front diver ever having to turn around!
Upping your awareness of the divers light beams also helps in emergency situations where a diver starts shaking his light. If youre not used to looking for the others beams, you might be slow to notice and/or react. Since watching the other divers beams is now part of your buddy system, any shaking is immediately noticed.
This makes night dives a piece of cake, though I do check from time to time in crowded waters to make sure someone hasnt dropped in and replaced my buddys beam.
Im sure that anyone thats done more than a few night dives has kept track of their buddy via their light, but try and formalize it and youll find out that its an excellent diving tool.
Roak