Category — Equipement

I have been diving for the last 4 years with two 10 Watt Sartek HID lights. I love my Sarteks. The build quality is excellent and the batteries rock. The lights have been all over the word and have spent a lot of time off the coast of NJ wreck diving and cave diving. They have really taken a beating. Each light has been back to Sartek once in those 4 years. The first went back because I blew the ballast in my bag. It was returned to me in 4 days, all fixed up and with a new rotor switch. I was very happy. The second light went back because the switch boot failed. It flooded just a tiny bit; just enough to let the wires and switch corrode. As far as I am concerned both light have served me well.

About two weeks ago, after a dive at Chac Mol, I opened the canister on one of the Sartek’s and found a little moister in the can. I thought to myself, “Oh, that must be some condensation. Interesting.” The battery was a little corroded. I decided to switch out batteries the next day and go for two more dives at Sac Aktun (Grand Cenote). I dove with Patrick and Katie, we did two dives totaling 169 minutes. One run was up to Lithium Sunset and the other over to the Cuzan Ha loop. At the end when I was cleaning up, I opened the light to disconnect the battery and I found about 1/8 cup of water in the can. I definitely had a flood. The light was still functioning; however the battery connectors were looking pretty bad. I examined the unit and found that I had punctured the cable at just outside the elbow. I think I put the can on butt mount and then pull the cord to get more slack and I was pulling on it when it had a nasty twist in it. Or the thing just wore out after being abused for so long. The score is now 1 Sartek HID out of order and two batteries.

I switched over to Allie’s Sartek and kept diving. I immediately bought a new HID from Protec for Allie, an MR11. I used Allie’s light a couple of times and it died on two dives in less then ½ hour. This was a complete bummer. Additionally, a new phenomenon developed, it only starts about 85% of the time.

The first time this non-starting issue occurred was when Patrick was borrowing the light during my side mount class. He turned it on and nothing. We waited a couple of minutes, he flipped the switch and it worked. This same thing happened to me while I was shadowing Allie’s full cave. We finished a lights out drill, I flipped the switch and nothing. I tapped the head and it came on. The score is now 2 lights dead and three batteries. Luckily, it was the end of the day. That night I went to Aquanauts and bought myself a second MR11.

Aquanauts didn’t want me to dive the new battery the next day, so they lent me a battery. That battery lasted 12 minutes on the first dive. The dead light prompted a light trade underwater with Steve. We completed the trade in 3-4 minutes in the cave. It was a cool experience. Now, I have Steve’s 21watt light saber. All goes well for the dive. Then we start the second dive. It is down stream at Taj. It was a training dive. We do another lights out drill. I switch the light saber on and it lasts about 4-5 minutes and dies. We exit the cave on backup lights and all is well. The score is now: 2 dead Sarteks, 1 dead Dive Rite and 1 dead Halcyon.

I go home and very dutiful charge the loaner battery from Aquanauts. I show up at Minotauro today very confident and proud that I am sure I have a charged battery. My chest was all puffed up. I know I did the right thing. Allie and I get in the water to do our S drill for dive one and guess what? My MR11 has a very nice blue light. It is the sign of another dead battery. This one lasted just about an hour before dying. This prompted my second light exchange with Steve, who was very understanding.

It is almost comical, every day this week, we actually had a light failure during Allie’s full cave. No need to simulate a light failure, I was providing them. The Sartek’s are going back to the states on Friday. I now own 2 Sarteks and 2 Dive Right MR11 lights. Tomorrow, I will bring 1 extra MR11 battery, courtesy of Patrick. With my luck, two out of three Dive Rite batteries will work. I hope.

My opinion is the Sartek lights are superior to the Dive Right lights. The build on the Sarteks is better. The charger actually works correctly without any fudging. And the batteries are way less finicky. If I purchase anymore big lights, I am going to spend the money and go with Sartek. Additionally, I think I am going to convert both lights into LION. It is a couple of hundred bucks, but the burn time goes up significantly.

How is that for some awesome alliteration in the title? I just tickle myself.

When I was doing research/preparing for my side-mount course, I was tasked with getting a helmet. If you are not a diver, not a back mount diver or an open water diver, you might be asking yourself, "Why do I need a helmet under water?" There are a couple of reasons:

• You need some place to mount your lights to keep your hands free while laying line, surveying or giving Patrick the finger. It is infinitely cooler to clip your light to your helmet, then to put it over your neck.
• You should protect your head if you are going to be in a very small passage. The top of my helmet is scratched.
• You should protect your head if you are using a DPV. I image you could knock yourself silly on an N19 in the cave.
• It looks unbelievably cool and chicks dig it. When the girls see me put my purple helmet with the yellow lights, I know they are getting hot for me.
• It gives you something to stress about before you start class.
• It gives your friends something to make fun of you about. Maybe it will distract them from noticing how awesome a diver you are.
• Lastly, mounting and dismounting your light will make the rest of the team nuts with confusing light signals. (Sorry Katie)

Since I had no idea what I was looking for in a sidemount helmet, I turned to the internet. Unfortunately, my search skills failed me and I found limited information on helmets for cave diving. I did find some excellent photos from a site in the UK. But they seemed to focus on sump divers.

After suffering a tolerable level of frustration, I started to page my friends here in playa. Patrick and Fernado, of Protec fame, answered the call and let me take a look at their helmets. Patrick's helmet is a modified construction helmet. It is red and has two SL4s and a mount for his HID. The helmet is secured by a plastic clip and a basket inside the helmet. I think Patrick's helmet is 3rd generation. I know he has spent a lot of time working on it and it has cost him.

After a review of his helmet and finding out I could get myself a helmet like his at the electrical store on Ave Jaurez, Patrick instructed me to go to Walmart or Mega and get a kids helmet. Not a foam one, just a plastic one with a liner. I think Patrick's helmet was about $25USD.

I checked Walmart here in Playa del Carmen and NO helmets. Lots of bikes but no helmets. I found that weird. Then I went two blocks to Mega and I found the perfect helmet. It is purple, fits about right and it cost $55 pesos. Yes, it cost about $5USD. I thought, "This is awesome! If I am going to trash something by drilling holes in it and modifying it, at least it isn't an $80USD kayak helmet." Steve Bogaerts and some of the other elites use Kayak helmets.

I got the helmet home and started the experiment. I had read that you want to put the lights at eye level. I don't remember why. So I decided to mount the HID on the right side where the SL4 is now. I put an SL4 apposing the HID mount and above the HID mount. The photos should make it clear what I mean, you will have to imagine a little. (All images are clickable and lead to a larger photo. I think you should click one!) All the lights are mounted with zip ties.

Originally, I tried to mount the HID using the plastic bracket that came with the goodman handle. This piece proved to be too brittle and broke while I was trying to mount it. A quick phone call and Patrick hooked me up with a piece of used PVC pipe. Believe it or not, he found it a couple of hundred feet back in Minotauro. He is using the same worn pipe for his helmet. The only difference is I am using 1 layer, my light head is bigger, and he is using two layers of the pipe nested.

I aimed the lights so that they all focused in the middle about 15 feet away. It seemed logical to me. There was 3 pieces of foam in the helmet. I removed the two side pieces and left the top piece which runs the length of the helmet inside. The helmet was a little narrow and a little long with the foam. Now without it, the width is about right maybe a little wide and the length is unchanged.

Steve Bogaerts said that the final test is to take it diving. Everything has to go in the water to be proved. So I took it diving and it was clearly a first attempt. Here were the immediate problems:

• The HID was in such a position that it cast a weird light in my eye. I really hated it below the SL4 and inline with my eyes.
• The HID was aimed way too close. To be honest, in the first 5-10 feet I only need the edge of the cone of light. I don't need the hot spot right there.
• The helmet was too low in the back. When my neck was up the helmet was resting on the hoses and was being pushed down into my mask. This was uncomfortable and made removing tanks a bitch.
• The HID is on the WRONG side. I would have never know this if I didn't practice doffing and donning bottles in the water. The right bottle is last on and first off in my world. If the light is on that side, it is always in the way. You have to remove it from the helmet to remove the reg, if you clip it on the right D ring, then it is in the way when you deal with the buggies and it gets all caught up. Putting on the bottle is just as painful with the light there.

So, I had some changes to make. I moved the HID mount to the left side and I changed my cable routing to the left side. I wear my HID butt mounted. I put the two SL4s in parallel on the helmet and left the aiming about the same. I moved the HID to above the left SL4 and I aimed it up a couple of degrees. This way I don't have to arch my head so far back to get a little bit of reach out of the light in big cave. The cone of light is just right now. It is also out of my eyes. Lastly, I trimmed the rear bottom edge of the helmet to give me some room. Unfortunately, I have limited tools here, so I was restricted to a utility knife, hacksaw and sandpaper. I did the best I could, but it is still not right. I will take another wack at it later.

The helmet is a little loose on my head and the foam inside is less then optimal. The helmet is negative, however the foam soaks up water and has noticeable inertia when I move my head. I am sure some of it is the three lights, but I think some of it is the water trapped in the foam. Also, Steve says the foam is raising my profile too much. One of these days I will work on it some more. Maybe it is an excuse to buy a Dremel.

So that is the story behind my helmet. As it evolves, I will keep you informed. If you have any questions about helmets, send them in and I will find the proper person to answer them.