Yes - More light makes for a better dive
No - I like the dark
I guess it depends on the lighting. A strobe in the hill 400 tunnel might be interesting. A big disco ball in the Florida Room, that would be nice. Underwater speakers playing Coldplay, lava lamps in all sidemount tunnels, a Kodak Carousel slide projector showing pictures of the mountains, or coral reefs, something to enhance the scenery.
"Have you ever noticed
When you're feeling really good
There's always a pigeon
That'll come shiat on your hood?" John Prine 4-7-2020
"Into the blue again; in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones; there is water underground" Talking Heads
+1 on the small light comment. Marci and I dive 10W and 12W LEDs and frankly we don't see the need for more light either. There are not that many cave passages with enough volume and visibility to really benefit from them and in the smaller, funner passages 10W is more than enough.
Personally, I think excessive light tends to degrade your ability to pick up your team mates' lights in your peripheral vision even when all of you are equally over lighted, especially in darker walled, less traveled tunnels, so I don't see big lights as a plus on most dives.
My dry caving experience is dated and comparatively limited, but I much preferred dry caving in a 'real' cave with my own lights to strolling through a lighted tourist cave.
While I love my 21 watt I like the area around me lit up, not the entire cave. For those of you with small lights that think it's enough. I used a 10 watt for years before I went brighter. I always thought it was enough until the 21 watt. Now I can see so much more. I see things I never knew were there. I still have my 10 watts and still dive them in smaller caves, but I was wishing I had brought my 21 watt to Cozumel because one of those caves had some big rooms that could have used some more light.
All that being said, usually minimal light is enough. Half of a good number of my dives are done in conditions where any light doesn't make a difference anyway!
Rob Neto
Chipola Divers, LLC
Check out my new book - Sidemount Diving - An Almost Comprehensive Guide
"Survival depends on being able to suppress anxiety and replace it with calm, clear, quick and correct reasoning..." -Sheck Exley
I've wondered when I'm in a really dark or very large tunnel what it would be like if suddenly someone switched on the lightsI really like to "see" as much of the cave as I can, but I also enjoy shielding my light and enjoying the view with my buddy's light only.
"Cave diving" with lights = Bonne Terre Mines, MO
A lot of times when I'm scootering solo I'll point my light straight up at the ceiling. It's like riding a bicycle out in the country just before dusk.
Whoever said money can't buy love never bought a puppy.
Let there be light!!! The question is how much...while short periods of the absence of light are ok I like to use my eyes and that requires a level of light somewhere between a cyalume stick and 35w. Scootering the main passage at ginnie i like a ton of light, swimming double lines i dont need so much...seems like a selectable intensity would be good and a dim feature for approaching teams would be nice as well. Maybe the light manufacturers will listen. As in other activities lights on or off depends on mood.
"With regard to cave diving, the great thing is to be carried where you could not have imagined you would ever be, and then to come back alive."
"Wilderness. The word itself is music." Abbey, Desert Solitaire
+1 . Gives a whole new look to the cave.Originally Posted by Slüdge
I had to think about this for a while. Part of the fun of cave diving is "What's over there?" or "What's around the corner?". But as I thought back, I realized some of the most enjoyable dives I've done have been either where we had multiple teams following one another (so lots of lights) or when I got to follow the guy with the video lights. You see so much more, and I also think my level of wariness drops a bit, when I am sure I can see.
A case in point: I had always disliked Mayan Blue A Tunnel. It's dark cave and frequently somewhat hazy, and I always thought it was very dull. Then I dove it with a "team of four" (two teams of two, diving together), and one diver had video lights. All of a sudden, I could see that the cave has huge rooms FULL of elaborate decorations, and my opinion of the cave changed completely.
So, yeah, I think more light is better.
I like to swim along with my light pointed at the ceiling a little ahead of me, not quite straight up. I like the twilight effect, and if there are air pockets they'll reflect moving patterns of light back down in front of me.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks