Light management and sidemount diving

[Angie Reim]

Sorry I ever mentioned it.

[lonestarfl]

In a sidemount configuration, most problems that arise should be self resolving. I would tell my partner to tune down his sensitivity to occasional eratic light movement and both of you should be more self sufficient....no I didn't say take a total SOLO mindset although many times in a sidemount cave you are solo despite the nearness of your buddy.
Lee

[Angie Reim]

.no I didn't say take a total SOLO mindset although many times in a sidemount cave you are solo despite the nearness of your buddy.
Lee

That's true. It's part of why I went sidemount. I like to go places that you might as well be solo anyway.

BTW the line in 'Harry's Crack" at Ginnie is intact. Slack but intact. Someone, sometime has pulled on it a bit too hard. Really though there's not much reason to get very near it in SM.

[BillGraham]

I've had this happen too, particularly when pulling and gliding. I've been clipping the lighthead off to a shoulder d-ring and then putting the cord underneath the waistband of my bc and pulling it tight. That makes the lighthead point forward hands free. It still jiggles around a bit but it's a lot better.

[rchrds]

Okay. I'm having serious light management issues ...I'm making him crazy with what looks like possible light signals from behind.... I'm using a head mount on a bungee. The bungee is around my hand. Use a more stable head mount?

Please dont take this the wrong way, but this is one of those things that should be taught at the apprentice level and more often than not is never taught at all. My first issue would be the head light- did I read that right? I cant think of any time that might be ok short of a small backup for deco. There are so many problems caused by head mounting and I wont cover it, because that is old ground. There is no legitimate reason (beyond personal preference?) to head mount a primary light. (with the possible exception of the passage ends in a waterfall, and you rigged the rope upstream and you are now preparing to transition from scuba to vertical. hahaha- there have been a couple funny comics about that. Anyway.)

So, lets assume that it was a typo and you are accidentally signalling your budding during the course of a dive. The most common thing that you see is that the "flasher" is not really aware of what they are doing with the light beam throughout the dive. This is EXTREMELY common- Unfortunately, this leads to the front guy eventually gettting frustrated and paying less and less attention to the flasher. A good leader would call the dive and school the flasher on the surface, but its a skill that takes a couple of dives to catch on- and if the flasher is task loaded by some other facet of the dive, they wont be paying attention, no matter how much they "get their learn on" at the surface.

Once the flasher can control the light during normal dives- which means never moving the light quickly- always making slow smooth sweeps to look at side passages and other things, and keeping the beam close to the field of vision of the front guy- things will become much easier to discern when there is an event that requires the front guy to turn around. I would imagine that this is your primary problem, though you may not realize it. Particularly if the light is mounted on your head. You need to be able to swivel your head to quick check things in low light without disturbing your buddy. Cant do it with a headmount.

Now- coming to the real question- how to keep from flashing during bottle changes, scooter changes, computer or gauge checks, etc, etc... In effect, you dont. If you are swimming- your light should never move from the mask of the guy in front. light on your left hand, you stow the reg that was in your mouth with the right hand (hold your breath ) and put the new reg in. Only requires one hand. If you cant do it quickly enough, your regs are stowed in the wrong place. You should be able to do this without looking or fidgeting or rolling around in the watercolumn, or whatever it is that you are doing now. If you have to look at your computer (on your right arm) you slowly sweep your light as if you were going to look to the right, illuminate your computer and slowly sweep the light back. Same with gauges. As long as everything you do with your light is slow and calm, if your buddy doesnt see your light for the amount of time it takes to do these simple tasks, he wont have a problem. But, as you mentioned, if you are jerking the beam around prior to shielding the light you will make your buddy immediately paranoid. Particularly if he is a light Nazi like myself. (Ask my dive buddies.) If you are scootering- there are a couple of different approaches- the smoothest I have seen is the small PVC thumb loop attached to the edge of the goodman handle- hook the light on your right thumb and control it with your thumb while you switch regs or whatever. You can do this without ever letting off the trigger. I dont have one, so I smoothly take the light out of my buddies field of view, switch regs with the light pointed at the ground (hanging around my neck) and then recover the light. Again, should take less than 6-10 seconds. You should be close enough to your buddy to use their light for navigation. If the viz is crap- you will have to let off the trigger and grip the line to make the change safely- the minute your scooter stops your buddy should stop- no questions.

Stage bottles are a little different as they really require two hands, particularly if you do them without stopping- But here (and really at bottle switches as well) you and your buddy should be doing these things at the same time so they will anticipate a bit of light jiggling. Hang the light over your neck and get to clippin. When your buddy sees your light on the passage ahead, they will know you are ready to go.

Something must be said towards operating as a buddy team- Ideally you are with another side-mounter. They should anticipate your gas changes- (you should be fairly close?) At least within 5-10 minutes of each other. The reality of it is- if you are changing, they should be changing as well. (unless you are switching more often than thirds for balance) I mean really- If you hit thirds- I might was well change over too- I'm not going anywhere without you, regardless of how much larger tanks I have. Just means I will have more evenly weighted tanks at the end of the dive. If you start jiggling or hide the light and you have been stable so far this dive, I will assume for 5-6 seconds that you are switching regs. (Particularly if I am close to thirds.) This will drive my reg switch. So no problems.

Backmounters dont hardly think about this, cause they dont have to. You will have to check your gauge twice as often as they will- this often drives the most rigid light holders insane. Oh well. Pick your buddies eh?

J

[Angie Reim]

Okay. I'm having serious light management issues ...I'm making him crazy with what looks like possible light signals from behind.... I'm using a head mount on a bungee. The bungee is around my hand. Use a more stable head mount?

I meant the lighthead mount not a head mount.

Now- coming to the real question- how to keep from flashing during bottle changes, scooter changes, computer or gauge checks, etc, etc... In effect, you dont. If you are swimming- your light should never move from the mask of the guy in front. light on your left hand, you stow the reg that was in your mouth with the right hand (hold your breath ) and put the new reg in. Only requires one hand. If you cant do it quickly enough, your regs are stowed in the wrong place. You should be able to do this without looking or fidgeting or rolling around in the watercolumn, or whatever it is that you are doing now. If you have to look at your computer (on your right arm) you slowly sweep your light as if you were going to look to the right, illuminate your computer and slowly sweep the light back. Same with gauges. As long as everything you do with your light is slow and calm, if your buddy doesnt see your light for the amount of time it takes to do these simple tasks, he wont have a problem. But, as you mentioned, if you are jerking the beam around prior to shielding the light you will make your buddy immediately paranoid. Particularly if he is a light Nazi like myself. (Ask my dive buddies.)

Stage bottles are a little different as they really require two hands, particularly if you do them without stopping- But here (and really at bottle switches as well) you and your buddy should be doing these things at the same time so they will anticipate a bit of light jiggling. Hang the light over your neck and get to clippin. When your buddy sees your light on the passage ahead, they will know you are ready to go.

Something must be said towards operating as a buddy team- Ideally you are with another side-mounter. They should anticipate your gas changes- (you should be fairly close?) At least within 5-10 minutes of each other. The reality of it is- if you are changing, they should be changing as well. (unless you are switching more often than thirds for balance) I mean really- If you hit thirds- I might was well change over too- I'm not going anywhere without you, regardless of how much larger tanks I have. Just means I will have more evenly weighted tanks at the end of the dive. If you start jiggling or hide the light and you have been stable so far this dive, I will assume for 5-6 seconds that you are switching regs. (Particularly if I am close to thirds.) This will drive my reg switch. So no problems.

Yes lighting control was well taught to me during training but in BM configuration this was not a problem.

Well after some thought I have to think that a great deal of the problems are associated with that bungee lighthead mount. Actually it's the last couple of paragraphs describing switches that helped me to realize this. No matter how smoothly I sweep my hand, if I need to remove the light to hang or clip it I CAN NOT remove it from my right hand (I'm left handed) covered or not without some major 'jiggling' of it about. That's gotta be what's making my buddy 'paranoid'. If I had a rigid goodman handle it would smoothly slide off the hand. I've also had some issues with gear clutter (sometimes forcing me to use two hands) that I think I can overcome with some minor rig changes. I also think I'm going to try the 'Moonhandle' and see if it works better for me.

[rchrds]

I also think I'm going to try the 'Moonhandle' and see if it works better for me.

My buddy isn't a light 'nazi' - quite yet - but he does look after me. Lee is right as to decreasing our dependence on each other since switching to SM from BM. We'll talk about a 5sec wait time or a more deliberate type of signal that definitely differentiates it from 'jiggling'. Note: he uses a Goodman handle and I rarely see much 'jiggling' from his light.

You know- I use a goodman handle as well- but I find more and more that I dont use it. I find it generally uncomfortable. I suppose I do use it if I am getting ready for a large depth change where I would have to hide the light to inflate while scootering or reeling out line- but generally I just hold the light in my fingers. I get finer control. That is totally my input- My wife loves her goodman and I would get the smackdown if I suggested that she quit using it. My sump gear (on the odd trip where I take the HID) doesnt have any handle at all- I just hold the lighthead.

[IowaCaveDiver]

Wow....
Richards....you must have a lot on your mind....good stuff though, i like your breakdown. As for switching regs while holding your breath, i'm not sure that is the safest method. I was taught to find your next reg, remove the reg your breathing on with one hand, put the new one in with the other hand and keep your first hand on the reg you just took out for a few seconds/breaths to make sure it is performing properly and "on", then you can stow it with that hand and continue on. As for where my light is, my buddy has never really had a problem with me behind him and peforming normal tasks, the key is just to do them smoothly and slowly.... a reg switch should only take a conditioned diver 5, maybe 10 seconds at the most.... a guage check takes only seconds, i ususally take my light and "kiss" my guage with it then I can look down real quick and the glow in the dark face is easy and to read. Over all, just as the others were saying, its all about getting used to diving with someone and figuring out how to be comfortable with them.
-Matt

[Jordan]

I'd guess you're moving those hands too fast. Use slow, deliberate movements with your hands when switching regs.

[Angie Reim]

You know- I use a goodman handle as well- but I find more and more that I dont use it. I find it generally uncomfortable. I suppose I do use it if I am getting ready for a large depth change where I would have to hide the light to inflate while scootering or reeling out line- but generally I just hold the light in my fingers. I get finer control. That is totally my input- My wife loves her goodman and I would get the smackdown if I suggested that she quit using it. My sump gear (on the odd trip where I take the HID) doesnt have any handle at all- I just hold the lighthead.

That's why I was thinking of trying what Moonfuzzy does. What I called the 'Moonhandle'. See link under resources.

http://www.cavediver.net/pictures/MoonHandle3.JPG

Angie