Glowsticks on night dives

[AfterDark]

Glow sticks makes a diver body easier to find after the batteries in the dive light wear out.

 

[MikeMeagher]

The use of glowsticks on a diver for night dives has been in use for many years in Southern California where many night dives are conducted from dive boats, especially during lobster season and when dives are conducted at the offshore island. The boats / divemasters require one turned on and affixed to the regulator or tank valve of each diver "just in case" the divers primary light were to go dead or burn out.. then the diver on the surface can still be easily seen by the boat. Othen they are affixed with a "zip tie" or tie wrap whatever you call it. Often in these waters currents will pick up and divers may become spread out over a wide area. Having glow sticks helps the dive boats to see the surfaced divers at night, to locate them so they can be picked up.

 

[Texasdivechick]

Although I prefer to keep my light off during a night dive (when there's plenty of natural moonlight available) there have been times when I was required to use a glow stick. The most irritating thing about the glow sticks is that blood worms are attracted to the light, then get in your hair, crawl on your neck..... <shudder>. I still get that creepy-crawly feeling when I think about those disgusting things.

 

[tc]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Some off topic posts have been moved to a new thread in Humor-

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/humor-games-clips-yarns-tales/308314-alternative-uses-glow-sticks.html

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[Hoomi]

The LDS requires them on the night dives for their trips, or at least some form of tank light. I believe the logic is, if something happens to incapicitate you, and you drop your light, some form of tank light makes it easier to spot you. As already mentioned, too, different colors and styles of tank lights make it much easier to tell which diver is which, rather than shining your dive light on their face or something similar.

I have one of the GloToobs. They're depth rated for greater than any diver is ever going to go, available in multiple colors, and have an easily changed pattern. If multiple divers have the same color, they simply make sure they have different patterns, and they can still be told apart from behind. Our night dive in Mexico almost two weeks ago, two divers had blue GloToobs. One had his set to steady, and the other to slow, pulsing. My white GloToob was set to flashing.

I secured the split ring on the stem to the yoke using a zip-tie, and had no problems with it.

 

[diver 85]

And like most of us he should think they are bogus.

Bogus..........really??...tell me why......

 

[The Chairman]

Bogus..........really??...tell me why......

1. They do not solve any legitimate problem.
2. Divers should have at least TWO lights on a night dive. If one fails you switch to the other.
3. Buddy skills should be such that there is no need for additional ID.
4. Environmentally, they are wasteful and a pollutant.
5. They are annoying and confusing.
6. They are not nearly as bright as any handheld light, so their usefulness to find divers is very limited.

This doesn't mean that they aren't fun to play with. But using them to solve diver skill issues does not seem smart.

 

[pittyyofool]

Yeah, I see them as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist!

If you have decent buddy skills and more than one light, this should not be a problem!

on most dives I completely agree with you.

What exactly is the point of them?

live boat operations.

in commercial lobster diving, a boat will drop off several divers in different places along a seawall or something. when the diver surfaces they will signal the boat with there light and receive a reply flash from the boat. after that the diver turns off his light (unless the boat is going to pass him) the captain uses the glow sticks to navigate to the diver.
This is for two reasons: 1) save the battery's in your lights. It may be 15 min before you get picked up if there are divers in front of you.
2) if you are shining a light in the captains FACE it is really hard for him to see anything else! And that increases the risk of him running over another diver.

we use 2 glow sticks. one on the yoke, and another in front on the top of the bc hose pointing up.

 

[The Chairman]

1) save the battery's in your lights. It may be 15 min before you get picked up if there are divers in front of you.

The new LEDs are awesome! I get 10 hours on 3 AAA batteries and this Intova is so bright and focused!

2) if you are shining a light in the captains FACE it is really hard for him to see anything else! And that increases the risk of him running over another diver.

I would turn my Intova on Strobe mode and let it point down in the water. I bet it would create more than enough light for him to see me.

But hey, it's a special application: you do what you gotta do!

 

[diver 85]

1. They do not solve any legitimate problem.
2. Divers should have at least TWO lights on a night dive. If one fails you switch to the other.
3. Buddy skills should be such that there is no need for additional ID.
4. Environmentally, they are wasteful and a pollutant.
5. They are annoying and confusing.
6. They are not nearly as bright as any handheld light, so their usefulness to find divers is very limited.

This doesn't mean that they aren't fun to play with. But using them to solve diver skill issues does not seem smart.

OK--then I guess some dive operations have it all wrong.......glad you know more than them....so this thing is unsafe to the environment--that's good info to have....guess you better get rid of your dive lights too---you ever go on a nite dive lightless???