NWGratefulDiver:
I have difficulty buying into this "safety and comfort" argument ... as I do calling a preference a "bad habit".
I practice using my light in either hand ... but typically I prefer keeping it in my right hand. My reason ... consider it good or bad as you choose ... is that I use my left hand more often ... for buoyancy control ... than my right. And I'd prefer to keep my beam where my buddy can see it, rather than having to make it disappear (or switch hands) every time I want to reach behind my hip to vent a bit of air from my wing.
I regularly practice OOA's in this manner, and I can assure you that if I see a light flashing, or a hand approaching a diver's throat, I can have my light in my left hand fast enough to accommodate an effective OOA exchange. Heck, in most cases I could have it clipped off and out of the way in the one or two seconds it takes for that diver to approach for a hand-off. If they're panicked and grab my reg out of my mouth (something I haven't practiced, but now that I think about it I will), I'd just duck my head and let them have the hose ... hands-free ... and switch hands before freeing the hose from under the light.
Does every variant that is not officially sanctioned by GUE have to be considered a bad habit? I don't think so. Suffice it to say you should think through what you do, and make sure you practice your skills to the point where you could handle an emergency effectively. Beyond that, I see this as just another "angels on the head of a pin" sort of argument.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Hi Bob,
Being that this is the HOG forum which I have found is another name for personal preference and not really using a team approach, I agree 100% that saying one is wrong or one is right is unjustified and not accurate here.
However, as an educator, I am sure you can appreciate the fact that practicing OOA and real OOA's are two different animals. I teach a certain way because during these events, even the coolest customer will have trouble keeping the presence of mind to "switch" hands. I have seen this quite often just teaching drills. Responses to these events need to be instinctual. The need to think "which hand is my light in?" is a delay if, in fact, it occurs to the donor at all to switch hands during a real event. Blinding the OOA diver w/a light is not going to help the situation. Add to this the fact that one day in the diver's career he/she may find themselves cruising behind a DPV and will want to keep the light in the left hand during it's use. It sounds to me like the many people that have difficulty in doing this just give up and carry it in the right because it's "easier"... unless I have missed a well thought-out reason for it, that's what I continue to hear and observe in my travels teaching. As I said earlier, many folks do seem to encounter trouble doing it so it does become a "habit" that requires some effort to break and thus proving my point that "bad" (meaning not beneficial to the diver in their continuing education or during an OOA) habits need to be avoided.....law of primacy, teach them correctly first then you don't have to go back to unlearn any deeply ingrained muscle memory. We use muscle memory to our advantage by teaching habits that will not need to be changed (unlearned and relearned differently) later in the diver's career. We call those "good" habits. If these labels offend, sorry. But the labels are accurate and necessary to differentiate to the students what is desirable and what is not desirable regarding the learning process. We do not need to be wishy washy about any of this. We give the students concrete procedures to practice/follow w/solid reasons behind them. People do not pay us to tell them to "do what ever is easiest", they pay us for our expertise and experience and both of these have molded our philosophy and procedures. They have been proven in the field to work and that is why we do what we do.
Regardless of the forum this is in, the original poster requested info on how to carry the primary light. The folks I represent have thought this out a bit and I have given the main reasons for doing what we do. Those that seem to have issue w/that seem to beleive that I am forcing my beliefs on them. When in fact, I am only giving the procedure and the reasons. As always, feel free to dive as one wishes. But my personal belief is that if someone is soliciting advice, the advice giver should also give valid reasons for said advice.
I have also found that when changing hands w/the light, just reach down and gently reach over the top of the light head, gently grab w/the right hand and smoothly slide the left hand from the goodman. This will result in little to no movement of the light beam and allow the team to travel w/o interruption while adjusting buoyancy w/the left (or whatever one is doing w/the left hand)--or if one desires to glance at the gauge, a quick (2-3seconds) shine of the light onto the gauge will light it up, then put beam back into team view, then bring the glowing gauge into view...that seems to work for me.
dive safe!---b.
<-- Soggy
