Your Helmet Choice and Why?

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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.
go get a safety helmet or a bike helmet that you can customize to your need you will save money no need to spend big bucks on a specific dive helmet from a big brand.
 
I prefer to carry as little gear as possible so have avoided helmets so far. In my last cave class, I had to take a ton of notes (slate mounted with bungee on my left arm) and I found it incredibly difficult with the primary on a Goodman handle. What I am considering now:
  • Moving the bolsnap on my Goodman handle so that I can let the light hang from my left chest D-ring while taking notes and having the light pointing towards my arm (this requires clipping and unclipping the light every time I need to write)
  • Installing one of the backup lights on a helmet (lighting would be the only reason for an helmet)
  • Asking somebody from the team to illuminate my arm when taking notes
I would love to hear practical advice from seasoned cavers on this pretty common scenario.
I use the razor mount on my helmet. When I need to take notes I simply put the primary on my helmet pointed down and it lights up the workspace perfectly. It’s also very handy for reel work. I consider being able to move my light to the helmet to be a major convenience.

When I dove backmount in caves, I didn’t use a helmet, I was using a canister light, so I draped the cord over my neck and that sort of works; some people have tried making a little bungee cradle-sort-of-thing to clip the light to a chest d ring pointing up (towards your arms if they’re in front of you) but neither option is even close to as good as using a helmet mount IMO.

For the past several years I’ve been diving SM, and the helmet does provide some safety in tight restrictions. There are some sharp rocks in Mexican caves and even superficial head cuts can bleed like crazy. That’s something I personally want to avoid even if it’s not very likely. It depends on how tight the spots you’re diving in are, I suppose. In Mexico there are lots of tight spots with very little head room, usually silted out unless you’re the first one through, and not uncommonly in a halocline.
 
 

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