I am a sucker for pretty dive gear. If I'm being honest, I'll even accept a tradeoff or two so I can keep my color scheme going. When I saw Deep In The Dark's reels and goodman handles on instagram (@deepinthedark_divegear), I knew I had to get one. I first saw @Cenote_Girl using one. She's got a lot of cool gear. At the time, there weren't many reviews from folks who weren't pushing their referral links. I threw caution to the wind and ordered it, wondering what tradeoffs (if any) I'd be making to get such a pretty reel. This cost me £180 GBP. Right now that's about $240 USD. Priority shipping was an additional £27.74 or about $37 USD. Cheaper shipping was offered, but I was feeling inpatient. That puts the price above the Halcyon Pathfinder 400 ($213 USD) which comes with line included while the DitD reel comes empty.
I ordered the reel after chatting via WhatsApp with Jools, the owner/builder at Deep in the Dark. He builds these in his backyard shed to order. He estimated it'd ship in two weeks, and he pretty much hit that estimate on the nose. Shortly after that, I had the reel in my hands. It is an absolute beauty. I picked the color and pattern from his website. It looks just like the photo (in the best possible way). As a 90s kid, the color scheme gives me strong Nickelodeon vibes. I had no idea aluminum anodizing could look like this. It isn't painted on. This is now part of the metal, so I expect it to remain beautiful for the life of the reel. The fit and finish is excellent. The brake works well. The reel is rated to hold 400 feet of #18 cave line, but I opted to load it with #36 line from Piranha (thanks Randy!). 400 feet of #36 fills it to the lip of the reel, so I backed it off to 300 feet which is plenty for me. This is the length of line shown in the pictures. I threw a rubber stopper on the end of the line as a temporary stopper, but I plan to replace it with a plastic bead.
I've only used this reel on one trip so far, but I have found zero tradeoffs. It is a beautiful, high performance piece of gear. It got ooohs and aaaahs from many folks, and I'm certain nobody is going to mistake this reel for theirs. It works as well as any high-end reel and is gorgeous to boot.
Check it out here: The Pioneer Cave Diving Reel
I ordered the reel after chatting via WhatsApp with Jools, the owner/builder at Deep in the Dark. He builds these in his backyard shed to order. He estimated it'd ship in two weeks, and he pretty much hit that estimate on the nose. Shortly after that, I had the reel in my hands. It is an absolute beauty. I picked the color and pattern from his website. It looks just like the photo (in the best possible way). As a 90s kid, the color scheme gives me strong Nickelodeon vibes. I had no idea aluminum anodizing could look like this. It isn't painted on. This is now part of the metal, so I expect it to remain beautiful for the life of the reel. The fit and finish is excellent. The brake works well. The reel is rated to hold 400 feet of #18 cave line, but I opted to load it with #36 line from Piranha (thanks Randy!). 400 feet of #36 fills it to the lip of the reel, so I backed it off to 300 feet which is plenty for me. This is the length of line shown in the pictures. I threw a rubber stopper on the end of the line as a temporary stopper, but I plan to replace it with a plastic bead.
I've only used this reel on one trip so far, but I have found zero tradeoffs. It is a beautiful, high performance piece of gear. It got ooohs and aaaahs from many folks, and I'm certain nobody is going to mistake this reel for theirs. It works as well as any high-end reel and is gorgeous to boot.
Check it out here: The Pioneer Cave Diving Reel
