Had a backup light flood at 90 feet off Galveston yesterday

The O-ring on the battery cap must have pinched during my pre-dive check. Anyone have a favorite brand for those small, clear backup lights?

3 comments

3 Comments

sullivan.abby2mo agoMost Upvoted

My dive buddy had a total light failure at 60 feet in a murky lake last year, and his backup was the only reason we found the anchor line. I get what mason_craig34 is saying about just ending the dive, but that feels like the same logic people use to not keep a spare tire in the car. I mean, it's about having a plan for when simple things go wrong, not just for the super complex stuff. For me, that little light is more about peace of mind than the money.

mason_craig342mo ago

Honestly, why even bother with a backup light on a basic 90 foot dive? That's not exactly a deep or complex wreck penetration. If your main light fails, just end the dive. It's one more piece of gear to buy, maintain, and fail on you, like that O-ring did. Spending money on a "favorite brand" for a gadget you'll probably never truly need is just throwing cash in the water.

grant8261mo ago

Does your spare tire have a little O-ring on it that can fail if you look at it wrong? (Mine sure doesn't, but my backup light does, as I found out the hard way.) I get what the other guy is saying about just ending the dive, but after spending 40 minutes getting down there and working on a current, I'd rather have a cheap little backup than swim all the way up through 90 feet of green water like an idiot. Personally, I've been using a little Princeton Tec Amp 1.0, mostly because it's small enough to forget I'm carrying it and I've dropped it on concrete more times than I can count without it breaking.