Primary Light - Hand

[trogloxene]

Which hand do you put your primary light on and why?

The book Doing it Right: - The Fundamentals of Better Diving says to place the primary light on your left hand. This seems it would be awkward for reading your SPG while diving in the dark

Thanks


Sean

 

[Jasonmh]

The left hand. Your computer/bottom timer is on the right (making it easy to shine the light on), it leaves the right hand free to donate the primary reg, when using a scooter you are using your right hand for it, ec.
It really is not too bad to check your spg, by grabbing the light with the right hand while you are reading the spg. After a little practice it becomes second nature.

HTH

 

[MonkSeal]

Reading SPG is not a frequent action - your primary SPG is your bottom timer (time + avg. depth + SAC rate).

 

[b1gcountry]

It doesn't mean you have to have it in your left hand at all times. I switch the light back and forth pretty frequently. Most of the time, it is most convenient in my left hand.

I check my depth/time probably 100 times each dive. I probably check my SPG 5 times or less.

Tom

 

[MonkSeal]

It doesn't mean you have to have it in your left hand at all times. I switch the light back and forth pretty frequently.

As Tom wrote above, you tend to move light to your right hand whenever you do something with left hand and you want to avoid shining light all around sending unwanted signals and confusing team members e.g. when you operate wing dump valve you switch the light temporarely to right hand. Of course, when you do something when you already have team attention (like making tie-offs) or when you do something that doesn't cause erratic moves (like reeling line) you'll not move light.

 

[ligersandtions]

I keep my light in my left hand almost all the time. When I need to dump or add air to my wing, I hold the light with my right hand (grab the top, exactly opposite my goodman handle, and keep it controlled....no erratic movement that could be interpreted as signalling for help). When I want to check my SPG, I do the same thing....grab the light with my right hand and reach down with my left to look at the SPG. I generally only look at the SPG a few times during the dive as I've got a pretty good idea of where my gas supply is based on my depth and time.

 

[trogloxene]

Thanks for the responses.

I have used my primary light in both my left and right hand. I do prefer it in my left hand, but I found myself switching my hands when I would check my SPG. I wanted to see what others were doing.

Sean

 

[ivobj]

In my case I prefer to use in my right hand, not exactly because of the SPG, as many said, you don't look at it so often. My reason is that I dive mainly wrecks, so my main concern is entaglement. with the light most of the time in the left hand, the light cable would be crossing under my body, having more chances to get entagled or even cut by an eventual sharp edge in the wreck.

I use it in my right hand, because of that botton timer and depth gauge goes on left hand and the excess light cable I put around my arm, so it is not hanging down.

I caves there would be no problem to use in the left hand, but as I am so used to it, I end up using in the right hand also in caves.

 

[nadwidny]

Your bottom timer/depth guage are on the wrong hand.

 

[alexxred]

If you are finding that you are using your light in your right hand to prevent a tangle your light cord might be to long?? Wrapping it around your arm means you could get tangled more easily. What if you need to clip it off? Or switch hands?