Your Helmet Choice and Why?

[O-ring]

to me the light monkey is a little cheap, flimsy, and makes your head look like a penis. The build quality on the pelzels are much better

I have never had my Petzl underwater, but I can attest to the build quality by the number of times I've smacked my head against rocks while falling on lead or getting hit by rockfall while trad climbing. If it can handle that it can certainly handle bumping your noggin in a cave.

 

[Johanan]

Helmets form a ton of really terrible habits.

No, they do not, in my opinion. According to my observations wearing a helmet is a regional preference. Among my buddies, Floridians despise helmets and British habitually wear them.

Signalling and blinding the buddies with helmet lights is a non-issue as normally the backups are turned off. I have a video light with a GoPro on my helmet and I turn it on while shooting. This was the situation where the bubbles came in question. Normally one would use a primary light on the hand.

Concerning "if you bang your head you shouldn't be diving" type of comments - the same could be said about most things. "If you have a problem deploying a long hose you should not be in the water" or "If rocks are falling on O-ring's head, he shouldn't be climbing". Rocks happen to fall from a cave ceiling, too. In my country, it is illegal to enter a construction site without a helmet even if you do not approach the actual structure.

 

[chrisch]

.. Among my buddies, Floridians despise helmets and British habitually wear them. ...

Well I'm British and don't wear one and all the people I know don't either. There are not many diveable caves in the UK but the handful that exist are mostly sumps which need some dry caving and mines which often also need dry caving to get to them. That sort of "diving" probably needs a helmet and lots of dry caving experience. If you are a diver first and a caver second you probably dive in France, which is more "Floridian".

So to the OP you almost certainly don't need a helmet and if you are learning to cave dive will almost certainly be asked not to wear one. (Unless you come to the UK to learn).

Removing the guts from a standard builders helmet and zip tie in a couple of bits of pipe insulation, then a bungee for a chinstrap and you have a decent helmet for very little cost compared to the commercial ones designed for climbing and canoe work. You can then mount lights on it for your solo penetration of some mud filled sump. Not my thing if I'm honest.

 

[chrisch]

Here you go:

Diving in the UK - helmet

British cave divers - no hat

The latter being in France (Ressel).

 

[karstdvr]

I agree a Petzel helmet is the best,but the only time I use one is when there is climbing or dry caving to get to the dive site, then the helmet gets left behind and not used during the dive.

 

[Johanan]

Removing the guts from a standard builders helmet and zip tie in a couple of bits of pipe insulation, then a bungee for a chinstrap and you have a decent helmet for very little cost compared to the commercial ones designed for climbing and canoe work. You can then mount lights on it for your solo penetration of some mud filled sump. Not my thing if I'm honest.

A good idea, I like that, especially the pipe insulation.

So to the OP you almost certainly don't need a helmet and if you are learning to cave dive will almost certainly be asked not to wear one. (Unless you come to the UK to learn).

Right, I started my cave training in the UK and was requested to wear a helmet. Completed it in Mexico and everybody was wearing helmets. Even Russians and Chinese. Go figure.

The logic would suggest that a beginner would need a helmet more than a seasoned diver as he or she has a higher risk of hurting the head.

My British instructor friend in a helmet. BTW he uses to dock his primary umbilical lighthead on the helmet when he needs to remove it from his hand.

 

[kelemvor]

I am a wreck diver who never wanted to dive caves but in the last year or so I have had this unrelenting desire to dive caves.

With that end in mind, I have been looking at the different options for helmets and wondered what you have chosen and why you made that decision.

Light Monkey. It's all they had at my LDS when I signed up for cave class. Mine has never been wet.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

A good idea, I like that, especially the pipe insulation.



Right, I started my cave training in the UK and was requested to wear a helmet. Completed it in Mexico and everybody was wearing helmets. Even Russians and Chinese. Go figure.

The logic would suggest that a beginner would need a helmet more than a seasoned diver as he or she has a higher risk of hurting the head.

My British instructor friend in a helmet. BTW he uses to dock his primary umbilical lighthead on the helmet when he needs to remove it from his hand.

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I was chatting with Garry a couple days ago!

 

[Johanan]

I was chatting with Garry a couple days ago!

He's an outstanding cave and sidemount instructor.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

He's an outstanding cave and sidemount instructor.

Yeah and a very good guy all around. I have been working on making plans to dive with him but this virus has hurt those plans.