Pet peeve: dangling lights

[Matt S.]

Sometimes when I am diving, I think a cop might be pulling me over--I'll notice a bright light spinning behind me or beside me. Was breathing too fast? Am I getting busted for not having an AOW card at 61 ft?! WHO RATTED ME OUT? I'm diving to the hospital officer, I swear it's an emergency.

Well it's probably not the scuba cops. More likely, it's a diver in distress, because waving your light around means "oh crap I need help."

So I turn around, and it's not a cop with a wet-notes ticket book, or a diver in distress. No, it is a happy diver who has let go of his light, which is hanging at the end of a stretchy spiral keeper, spinning back and forth, back and forth... A few minutes later, the light gets used, then dropped again, starts twisting again, and I look again...

Please, for the sake of my blood pressure, don't let your light dangle on the twisty cord of doom! (It's also a hell of a wrecking ball, better than a fat rental console.)

 

[Ana]

I have to agree with you, but worse than that is wonderful full moon night dives when you need nothing but wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust and them he comes... the guy that either has a stupid light in his mask and insists on communicating with you, or has a very powerful light an decides that since you are not using your own light he needs to light up your path and ofcourse you face once in a while, just to blind you for the next 10 minutes or so.

To all of them I'd like to say STOP THAT!!! because I'm considering learning light stuffing techniques and if I manage to master them it won't be pretty.

 

[jim T.]

Head/mask lights are the worst! Extemely inconsiderate of other divers, especially one's buddy. How can you keep an eye on your buddy or exchange hand signs if they're
burning out your retinas? For tech/wreck penetration, caving, sure but not needed in open water. Maybe photographers, but the cameras usually have their own lighting anyway...

I'd like to see a holster made for pistol grip lights so that they can't spin when you're not using them. It can't add much more drag than the light itself. It could even be made with a swivel lock so that the light can still point down or slightly forward when it's not in in your hand. Any product developers out there?

 

[Matt S.]

That would be irritating. We can't do moonlight dives here so we all have to have lights, making it that much more likely you'll get one in the face. (which I have done, but at least I felt bad about it...)

Light STUFFING techniques? LOL

 

[RonFrank]

One suggestion is to tell the offensive diver after the dive what a problem this is.

As for photographers, they have lighting, but need a focus light, and a dive light. I generally use my dive light as a focus light if shooting, or use my strobe which has a full on positioning light.

I agree that dangling lights are a problem during the day. At night I've not noticed this much as the divers generally need the lights to see. However headlights should be banned! :mooner:

 

[Garrobo]

My pet peeve is those wuss divers who cancel out on the morning dives because of high waves or something even though the boat is going out if they show up, making me wait till the one oclock group (if they ever show up). Same as the others about the lights. I usually stay in the back of the pack to avoid all this activity.

 

[Geoff_H]

My pet peeve is those wuss divers who cancel out on the morning dives because of high waves or something even though the boat is going out if they show up, making me wait till the one oclock group (if they ever show up).

If anyone is not comfortable making a dive, then I think it's wrong to call them wusses. They are not put on this earth to make up the numbers on your dive boats, and better for them to remain on shore than dive in conditions they are unhappy with.

 

[Gombessa]

If anyone is not comfortable making a dive, then I think it's wrong to call them wusses. They are not put on this earth to make up the numbers on your dive boats, and better for them to remain on shore than dive in conditions they are unhappy with.

Amen. Though I can fully understand the inconvenience of someone thumbing a dive due to conditions we don't agree with, the last thing we should do is promote a culture where safety judgments are ridiculed.

 

[crlavoie]

Head/mask lights are the worst! Extemely inconsiderate of other divers, especially one's buddy. How can you keep an eye on your buddy or exchange hand signs if they're
burning out your retinas? For tech/wreck penetration, caving, sure but not needed in open water. Maybe photographers, but the cameras usually have their own lighting anyway...

I'd like to see a holster made for pistol grip lights so that they can't spin when you're not using them. It can't add much more drag than the light itself. It could even be made with a swivel lock so that the light can still point down or slightly forward when it's not in in your hand. Any product developers out there?

I made one out of a copper pipe hanger and a stainless steel pipe clamp. It's far from elegant but it works excellent. It works in the same way as a money clip or a better example would be the type of belt clip you would find on a tape measure.

It takes all of 5 minutes to make and costs less than $2.00. The only improvement I would make is to substitute stainless for the copper pipe hanger but I can't find it (easily anyway). I've had the same one for over 2 years (80ish dives) and it's still fine. For the $10 bucks I spent, I've got enough material left to make 10 or 15 more.

 

[fisherdvm]

My pet peeve is those wuss divers who cancel out on the morning dives because of high waves or something.

I guess it would be a smart wuss diver if he was not up to the experience. I feel bad for the divers who get sicker than a dog because their hubby wants to dive... It seems like it is the women who are more prone to sea sickness than man.

Yeh, it is a little upsetting when you really looked forward to a dive, and it is canned because not enough people showed up at the dock. Plenty of dives were canned 3 weeks ago after that tropical storm in the Keys though... Our captain gave us a choice (go out or get a refund), and 6 of us were stupid enough to go out. We hit a big surge, and an older diver likely broke his tail bone or perhaps ruptured a disk. The captain turned around just short of the dive site, and gave us all a refund. I don't know why people like to ride in the bow, it is where you get whacked the hardest in rough waves. The poor older diver who got hurt said this about 20 minutes before he got injured " For the last ... decades I've been diving here, the weather has been bad!"....