Why the left hand on a canister light?

[TxHockeyGuy]

I've wondered about this for quite some time. It appears that when diving a can light you are supposed to use your left hand for this. I've never understood why. I must also say I'm not a DIR diver so please keep that in mind for any responses. Since I don't dive a can light or I'm also curious as to which hand you would use with your backup light in case your primary went out and any reasons as to why?

 

[H2Andy]

primarily so you don't blind yoru buddy during an OOA (you'll be handing the primary over with your right hand, and that puts the light right in his or her eyes)

also so you can shine the light on your right hand when laying a reel

and shine the light on your gauge, which goes on your right hand

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Also, you drive the scooter with the right hand.



(That said, in reality when either caving or using my scooter I frequently switch the light from hand to hand in response to some issue or another where I need a free hand or need to use my other hand...you can drive the scooter and hold the lighthead with your thumb on the goodman handle (I have a Gavin). It's nothing that you need to be real anal about... )

 

[do it easy]

I thought it was to keep the right hand free? This would be easier if it were multiple choice.

 

[H2Andy]

(That said, in reality, when either caving or using my scooter I frequently switch the light from hand to hand in response to some issue or another where I need a free hand or need to use my other hand...it's nothing that you need to be real anal about... )

alas, i am not DIR in that respect ... i find the chord across my chest gets caught up in tight passages ... so ... i use the light on the right and the gauge on the lef, but that's not DIR

that and i dive a computer (not DIR either)

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Same here. I don't scooter in caves yet, I have too much else to learn first. But the cord can be a pain when it gets tight. I wrap it around my right arm and keep the lighthead in my right hand so the cord won't catch on anything when going through restrictions.

(I'm not quite DIR-compliant either.....)

 

[Karen Cleveland]

Two good reasons are the donation of the long hose in an out of air situatuation uses the right hand and scooters are usually driven using the right hand.

 

[TSandM]

Doc, oh Doc . . . How could you disappoint me in this way?

One of the things I've wondered about is that, when my light is in my left hand, a loop of cord hangs down. I've actually managed to hang it up on stuff already (piling stubs in Cove 2) and could easily imagine it hanging up on things in a cave, although I would imagine I'd see what I was moving over if I were using the light, and if I were not, it would be clipped off and the cord through my waistband. Still, there is a loop. I find it hard to believe that all cave divers cut their light cords to custom dimensions.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Heh....they don't (well, the one's I dive with don't!)

They wrap the cord around their right arms and hold the lighthead in their right hands when negotiating tight restrictions! No loop hanging down, no worries!

(My instructor saw me mangling these restrictions with my lighthead grimly held in my left hand, and after the dive explained slowly, quietly, and using small words that one day I would come to grief that way. I discovered that flexibility in lighthead handage made negotiating restrictions far more logical...) There certainly may be some short female divers or gargantuan male divers out there who have custom cords cut, but for the most part if I'm going to drop $1300 on a flashlight I think I'm not going to drop another $400 or so on custom modifications... YMMV.

(I'm aware of the entire "oops, you flashed your light in my eye whilst handing me your long hose"-thing. I figure that if I'm getting low on gas (which shouldn't happen) in a cave or wreck (which definitely shouldn't happen!) then getting flashed while receiving gas is likely the least of my current concerns. Not saying I might not be annoyed, but I'm betting I'd have a few other things on my mind at that moment. So...whether the lighthead is in my left or right hand depends far more on whats going on in the cave at any given moment, and way less on compliance with how someone else believes I ought to be carrying my lighthead consistently!

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

Some good responses already here. The reasons for using the left hand make sense and it is interesting to hear some of the problems with this as well. I asked about which hand you use the backup as this is the closest to how us non DIR divers dive. This may be entirely inappropriate for this forum as it isn't a DIR question but I was asking this specifically to see which hand would be best for a pistol grip type primary light. I'm sure many DIR divers don't use their 24 watt satellite signaling devices, err I mean dive lights, on Caribbean type dives. That being said I believe to stay within the terms of service, see how hard I'm trying here mods, I have to keep any topics here DIR specific. So I ask again, which hand is best to keep your backup light, or perhaps in the case of a non DIR diver a pistol light, where it isn't as easy to switch your light back and forth due to a lanyard (I am assuming your backup lights have a lanyard). I hope I kept that more or less within the spirit of the rules here.