Can we talk about how my flashlight almost killed a dive last week

I was doing a bridge inspection in Norfolk on Tuesday and my primary light flickered out at 40 feet. Honestly, I thought I had fresh batteries in it but I guess I grabbed the wrong spares from my truck. Tbh, it took me a solid minute to swim over to my backup bag and swap gear in zero visibility. Has anyone else had a light fail on them mid-job and what do you keep as a backup now?

2 comments

2 Comments

cooper.max15d ago

Start carrying a backup light in a different pocket than your main one every single time. I noticed a pattern where we all assume our gear is good until it isn't, and then we scramble. Learned that lesson the hard way myself, now I treat every dive like my light might die at any second.

quinn58214d ago

Cooper.max is out here acting like we're trying to navigate a blackout in a submarine. I get that gear fails sometimes, but honestly how many dives have you actually had where your light died and it was a real emergency? Most of the time you just surface or call the dive. I've been diving for years with just the one light and never had a problem. Not saying it can't happen, but carrying a whole second light in a different pocket feels like overkill for something that's pretty rare.