Dive light two-fer: wide-angle? and stuck lights...

[disappearinjon]

Yesterday I went diving with my lovely wife at Redondo. Vis was lousy on the surface, but opened up at about 30 feet. It didn't seem all that dark to me, but Laura's not really into diving in the dark. She feels claustrophobic.

I was thinking that some sort of wide-angle light might make her happier diving on days when vis is good farther down. Does someone make such a beast that works well enough for the Puget sound?

Also, my Princeton Tec Torrent LED that I carry as my small light is stuck closed, and I can't change the batteries. Worse, my primary light, a UK C8, also got stuck recently, and the handle came off when the nice fellow at the dive shop tried to open it. (That was returned under lifetime warranty and the replacement has arrived; I just have to drive down to Tacoma and pick it up.)

Am I doing something wrong with the lights when I change their batteries, so that they get suctioned on permanently? I feel like an idiot, to have this happen twice (and leave me temporarily lightless, too), so I feel like I must be doing something wrong.

More importantly, anyone have a good way of opening these suckers?

[Nwbrewer]

Find her a good focusable 10watt HID canlight. should be able to find one used for ~350-400.

Soak it in warm water. Should expand everything and make it easier to open. Don't crank the heads down so tight. Most of them have a barrel o-ring design anyway, so tighter does not equal a better seal.

Good luck!

Jake

[fmerkel]

I have several UK400 and a D8 - similar lights. They can get pretty snug after a dive. I close them firmly but don't reef on them.
Occasionally I have to put the handle or body in a vise to unscrew the head. The worst case needed a rubber strap wrench on the head.


Handle in the vise for the solid handles works OK. If the handle is screwed on this is a weak spot and the connection may not take the torque. For those put the body in the vice, especially if it has opposing flat sides.
DO NOT SQUASH IT!. It just needs to be tight enough to not twist.
Use smooth copper jaws or line the jaws with thin plywood to not mar the light.

The problem can get especially bad for the LED lights that may go months without being opened.
We had Roddy, the UK rep come to our club for an infomercial on UK lights and he had a UK400 that NO ONE in the entire club could open by hand. This was not done as a gimmick. He really couldn't get it open.

[ljjames]

if you want to give a canister light a try, i've got an EOS LED (nice small head, bright clear beam) that she can try.. If she doesn't have a BP/W, we can just thread it on a weight belt... i'm sure there are probably some folks around with a 10w you guys could try as well (the 12w LED EOS is the smallest light i've got, the rest are 18, 21 and 24...)

[disappearinjon]

if you want to give a canister light a try, i've got an EOS LED (nice small head, bright clear beam) that she can try.. If she doesn't have a BP/W, we can just thread it on a weight belt... i'm sure there are probably some folks around with a 10w you guys could try as well (the 12w LED EOS is the smallest light i've got, the rest are 18, 21 and 24...)

Thanks for the offer... at the moment the thought of a can light does not make my darling wife's heart leap with joy; it sounds to her like one more piece of equipment to manage. So I'm going to let all this slide for now, and probably she'll sit out the last little bit of the top-layer muck for this year, and I can revisit the issue in March or April, sometime after I've paid for a new drysuit and everything else...

[Nwbrewer]

I always thought canlights were much easier to manage than a pistol grip or lantern light.

[airsix]

+1

Canister light (on goodman) makes one FEWER thing to manage.

[ljjames]

they really are easier to handle.. (forgive the pun)

you can still use the hand that has the light in it...

A lot of the current mfg's have some TINY canisters available for their lights that are so small they could probably fit in a pocket... The smaller 10w HID and 10-15w LED's are quite tiny on the hand compared to the higher powered HID's.

I would give it a try, and/or you guys should come out and dive with our group on one of the midweek tweeks (thursdays) or weekend group dives so she can see them being used... it doesn't really sink in until one sees them in use and tries it, then one never goes back

i'll just touch on this, and please don't take it the wrong way... but sometimes it's nice for female divers to see other female divers using some of these items, it can seem less intimidating that way... On many of our dives, the ratio is 50/50 women to men, and sometimes even higher favoring women.

[Matt S.]

I agree, a can light is great. But if a person is not convinced then there is no shame in using something else. I understand not wanting to deal with one more piece of gear.

You can get compact and very bright torch-style LEDs, like this one, for a lot less than a canister light.

http://tacticalhid.info/mce-light

(I have heard good things about this budget light and I will be evaluating one soon with a mind to use it when traveling.)

The important thing is, have a light. Lights are great! Once she gets hooked on having a light, then you can get her a 24W HID. Or maybe you should get her interested in underwater video. That gives you an excuse to bring down a HELL of a light.

I can't imagine diving without a light, if for no other reason that communication.

[disappearinjon]

i'll just touch on this, and please don't take it the wrong way... but sometimes it's nice for female divers to see other female divers using some of these items, it can seem less intimidating that way... On many of our dives, the ratio is 50/50 women to men, and sometimes even higher favoring women.

That's a really good idea. Certainly it'd be nicer for my wife to have other people try to talk her into new gear for a change, instead of me doing it. I know we're booked for this week and next, but perhaps after that...