a retreat from DIR

[jonnythan]

nope Jon

the light is mounted on the hand. the wrist is turned up. the light is shinning up.

try it sometime

also, you can pivot your hand slightly so it's pointing away from your
buddy's face if it's a problem

seriously, i believe this "blind your buddy" problem is seriously overated

how many air-shares do you kow of have failed because of buddy-blinding,
leading to the drowning of the buddy?

on the other hand, i was facing a constat, very real problem of an entanglement
hazzard. THAT was the problem i had to address. that was the real problem,
not this "buddy blinding" thing that really, is a non-issue for me.

I'm sure you can do it fine, but in the linked video, the donating diver would have had his light shining directly into the other guy's eyes at least twice, including when the hand was closest to his face.

However, what happens when you're two feet above the OOA diver in the water? Can you still keep your wrist up that much?

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

I am somewhat bemused by all the back and forth on this topic, and I apologize in advance if my reply comes across as haughty or condescending.

The advantages of lighthead on the left hand seem clear to me:

1. Allows for easy illumination of gauges on right wrist
2. No chance of accidentally blinding OOG buddy during gas share
3. Light can still be used for signaling while donating gas
4. Preferred location for scootering

These comments about hand placement and which way the lighthead is pointing during a gas share are mostly irrelevant IMO, as the primary concern during a gas share is to get gas to the OOG diver.

As the donating diver, I don't want to have to worry about which way my palm is facing or my lighthead is pointing. My goal is to get a working reg into my buddy's mouth as quickly as possible, and in a way that does not increased his already heightened level of stress. If the lighthead is on my left hand, then hand positioning is never going to be a concern, and I can devote 100% of my attention to the most important thing at that moment (helping my buddy).

For routine tasks like checking my gas or adjusting buoyancy, I simply switch the lighthead to my right hand, perform the task, and then switch it back. This transfer seems very natural and smooth to me, and I don't ever have to interrupt my forward progress to do it.

With all due respect to H2Andy, I have done numerous swim dives in the Eye and Ear, and I don't ever remember having problems with my light cord catching on things. I don't know that I could consciously describe what I might be doing differently, but it has never been an issue for me, as far as I can recall.

The SPG on the hip is probably a little harder to justify to a diver who does not carry stages, but once you start doing that, it becomes obvious why the SPG needs to be there. Even without stages, it is much more streamlined if it is hip-clipped - running it to the chest D-ring puts a loop in the hose, which increases the risk of entanglement and puts unnecessary stress on the mechanical connections.

Again, I apologize if this posting comes across as "holier than thou". It's just that I agree 100% with aquaoren's comment about "you shouldn't try to replace skills with a new equipment configuration". Like a lot of folks, it took me a little time to get used to hip-clipping the SPG and wearing the lighthead on the left hand, but now it seems very natural to do it that way. And as I have advanced in my diving, I find that it's really paid off to have that muscle memory already in place as I add new components.

 

[JimC]

Diveright light cords come to long by a few inches for most people. When used in the left hand they loop down a good bit. The simplest answer is to shorten the light cord.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

Seems like the hard core dir guys dont like change, that must mean they know it all.

Far from it - I don't know if I qualify as "hard core", but the more I learn about diving, the more I realize that I don't "know it all".

I think it's probably more correct to say that the "hard core dir guys" don't like change simply for the sake of change. Change is inevitable in any system, if for no other reason than due to advances in technology or technique. The biggest thing you have to consider when contemplating a change is whether it will help or harm the overall effectiveness of the team. Some changes will be obviously either helpful or harmful, while others may show equal aspects of both. In that situation I would think pretty hard before adopting the change - if it has the potential to harm, and cannot overwhelmingly be shown to help, then it probably ought to be reconsidered.

Any individual change is automatically suspect IMO, as it potentially undermines the consistency (and therefore the effectiveness) of team procedures. If your team members don't know how to react in an emergency due to some change that you made from the standard procedure, then that could spell disaster. And that is certainly something that has the potential to "kill you under water".

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

lol... ok... did you learn to do the backward kick with Mare Quattros? wait, no... you probably changed the equipment configuration to use Jets

Back-kicking is really more about technique than gear. I do a lot of single-tank warm water diving in full-foot fins (Mares Avanti Tre, to be precise), and I can back-kick in those pretty effectively. I've never tried the Quattros, but I can't imagine that it would be any more difficult than the Tres. And of course I would not want to try it in a drysuit and double 104s.

As with a lot of activities, it all boils down to one thing - practice, practice, practice.

 

[H2Andy]

The advantages of lighthead on the left hand seem clear to me:

1. Allows for easy illumination of gauges on right wrist
2. No chance of accidentally blinding OOG buddy during gas share
3. Light can still be used for signaling while donating gas
4. Preferred location for scootering

these were non-issues to me:

1. no issue if gauges are on left wrist.

2. not a real issue. trained cave divers are not going to panic b/c they
get a light in their eyes.

3. the hand-off takes two to three seconds. there's no signal other than
EMERGENCY that can't wait 2 to 3 seconds. and, you know, if we're OOA,
i KNOW we're in an emergency.

4. i dont' scooter. no point in rigging myself for something i don't do.

on the other hand:

the light chord across my chest was catching on crap all the time when i had
to go through very tight passages (i'm talking about an inch or two clearance
at times, at the most).

THAT was my problem. that's the problem i had to solve. by moving the light,
i solved the problem.

 

[xiSkiGuy]

When I took my Cavern course, the instructor had us use the light head on the right hand and wrap the excess around our arm. I mount my wrist computer on the right wrist. I found that I had to reach over and push the "backlight" button to read the gauge, instead of just shining my light on it. I asked the instructor about this and he has his wrist gauge on the left wrist. To me that switch introduces issues when trying to adjust buoyancy and maintain depth without visual reference.

Andy, have you moved your computer to the left wrist as a result or do you find illumination a non-issue?

EDIT: It appears that while I was typing, you posted indicated that you have moved the computer to the left wrist

 

[H2Andy]

i moved the computer to the left wrist

my feeling is that any bouyancy adjustments are going to be quick and my
hand is going to be on the inflator button or dump valve a few seconds at most,
and then i can go back to looking at the gauge

 

[rjack321]

i moved the computer to the left wrist

my feeling is that any bouyancy adjustments are going to be quick and my
hand is going to be on the inflator button or dump valve a few seconds at most,
and then i can go back to looking at the gauge

Anything else you've had to change to accomodate moving the lighthead?

I still am curious how your buddies are understanding your new system and if there are any issues. E.g. I can't steal a glance at your gauge with it clipped to your left d-ring.

 

[xiSkiGuy]

Several folks have asked about how these changes have affected your team. Given that you are training with NSS-CDS, has this actually brought you more in line with your other team members?