Primary Light for Cavern Diving

[Manatee Diver]

I think the Dive Rite CX1 makes a decent primary for cavern diving (where you still have the sun) and a nice backup for cave diving (which requires 2 backups and a good primary).

Unfortunately the CX1 is discontinued. I love my CX1s did my yearly back up light exit test with it yesterday. Great little light.

A lot of people swear by the CX2, but I am not a fan of the side button.

 

[Miyaru]

Primary needs some form of handle, can be a glove or Goodman, either umbilical or stand-alone. These days stand-alone primaries are much better priced. Umbilical torches can be very expensive as they have long burn times and very bright, often too bright.

Backup needs to work. Non rechargeable batteries with a screw head, e.g. twist to turn on, is probably the most reliable. If it’s moderately sized it can be stored in a pocket or bungeed to your harness.

That sounds like old-school advice and not adequate for cavern diving.
Non rechargeable batteries with a screwhead..... I always use rechargeables. And umbilical?? In a cavern?

 

[girlwithbigtanks]

i own several primary lights. I do think the dive rite lx20+ is good value for the money. I would recommend it for anyone entering overhead or technical. No regrets, it serves a good purpose! As reference i also have UWLD ld 40, a couple of Light monkey and big blue. The dive rite is way better than my big blue. It’s nothing to pack the Lx20+ as a spare, and i’ve smugly travelled with it as a primary and it’s thrown enough light for the dives.

 

[Wibble]

That sounds like old-school advice and not adequate for cavern diving.
Non rechargeable batteries with a screwhead..... I always use rechargeables. And umbilical?? In a cavern?

Primary "Either umbilical or stand-alone"
"Backup needs to work"

My backups are alkaline batteries and it always works even after many hundreds of hours sitting on the harness.

I wanted to make the point that spending literally thousands on a torch at cavern level really isn’t necessary. There’s a lot of good torches for $300 or so, e.g. Big Blue. Some torches are just stupid money. When you’re doing dives at depth and for long dive times, or specialist features (spot+video+V.bright…) then the wallet needs to come out.

 

[VikingDives]

Do the requirements for a primary light for cavern diving differ from those of a primary light for cave diving?

I'm interested in getting my Cavern Diver certification and in the gear required it calls for a primary light and a backup. I understand that cave diving has specific requirements for primary lights but does that apply to cavern as well? Can I use my recreational dive lights for cavern? If so, is the a minimum lumen recommended or beam angle? What about the backup, should it be the same as the primary?

Are you planning on going on to cave? If your are, then you'd be better off imo getting a good primary light (i.e. one you can use in cave) and a backup or two.

If you aren't planning on going on (I wasn't initially) get two decent lights that you can use as backup lights when you change your mind

I'm partial to the D710, as they are reliable and reasonably priced.

Rec lights won't work in cave, but it will depend on your instructor. If I was teaching cavern (I don't), I would teach it as a intro-to-intro to cave and I'd want you to have a primary light to practice with, but there's a lot of leeway in cavern standards. You'd be better off asking your instructor what kind of course it's going to be and what they're requiring.

As far as lights go, it's much easier to signal with a narrow beam, say under 10 degrees.

 

[mr_v]

That sounds like old-school advice and not adequate for cavern diving.
Non rechargeable batteries with a screwhead..... I always use rechargeables. And umbilical?? In a cavern?

Good quality lights like Halcyon Scout or Heser Backup aren't old-school - they're proven. They are super reliable, simple, upgradable, and flood tolerant. I had a similar discussion in another thread, and it all comes down to your philosophy. At least one of my lights is Heser Backup II.

To the OP - I don't know what cavern courses entail, but I find DiveRite BX2 on a soft goodman handle to be comfortable and powerful enough for shorter dives. CX2 is good but a bit too long on a goodman handle.

 

[DogDiver]

Leave your toy recreational lights at home and purchase a quality technical light designed and manufactured for overhead environments.

 

[happy-diver]

Yeah that is right, make one of these

All your lights in one, until you drop it

 

[inquis]

Rec lights won't work in cave, but it will depend on your instructor.

Not exactly sure what you mean by "rec light", but I'd venture that some will. Specifically, the 1000ish lumen (advertised, but realistically about 700 lm) stuff that's widely available works far better than the can lights used to put the first line in many caves. I agree, a tight beam is important.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

This is a great cavern primary light

Get the quick release mount (QRM) on it and a soft handmount for QRM.

Should you ever go beyond cavern this light makes a great backup light too.