Best way to travel with an HID Canister Light?

[tstormdiver]

I am preparing for a 2 week trip to Malaysia, so I need to pack efficiently. I am planning on doing some serious night diving while there & so I am Planning on taking my HID Canister Light. It is a 10 watt with a NiMH battery. What's the best way to travel with it on such a long trip? Carry- on or check- in? Keeping it in it's storage box to protect it (takes up a lot of room)? Wrapping it in a wet suit or such to protect it? I know that the battery must be disconnected & in such a way that there cannot be any accidental reconnection & bulb ignition. There shouldn't be any problem with that. I made a decent investment with this light & don't want to lose it whether by theft or damage. Just looking for some practical ideas. Thanks.:blinking:

 

[tedwhiteva]

I carry on my HID, Regs, and computers in a small hand held duffle bag. I wrap the light head in a hand towel in the middle of the bag. Saves weight in the checked bagaage too. A sholder strap for the bag is handy for long walks to gates.

 

[tstormdiver]

I have a roller style carry on that I tend to carry most of my sensitive diving gear in (Regs, computers, prescription mask). I could probably find something to wrap it up in (towel/ wetsuit), no problem. Thanks for the input.

 

[TSandM]

I carry on my HID light head, and pack the canister and batteries. This has worked well everywhere we have gone. The one time I screwed up and put the batteries in carry-on, I almost lost them to TSA.

Just one sort of off-topic observation . . . If the water in Malaysia is clear, you may find that you don't want to use your HID at night. I actually prefer diving with a small backup light in tropical water, because you don't scare all the nocturnal creatures into hiding. And you can use a good backup light easily for signaling in dark, clear water.

 

[SparticleBrane]

When we went to Truk last year, my fiancee and I carried on everything needed to dive -- entire HID light, wetsuits, regs, backup lights, etc. I wanted to make sure that if our checked baggage didn't make it, we could still do the dives the first few days using our own gear.

We had a few labels printed up for our batteries, and explained exactly what they were before they went through any of the machines. We didn't have any issues, although we did get bomb-swabbed once coming into Honolulu from Guam, if I remember correctly.