The Finer Points Of Underwater LightingMost new divers barely give underwater lighting a second thought. After all, those things are only for night dives and cave divers, right?You’d be surprised. There are dozens of ways a dive light can improve your dives. Here are some uses for dive lights that you might not have thought of: Underwater Lighting - Bring Back Lost ColorRemember your basic diving course? Since water is denser than air, light has a hard time penetrating it.You start to lose color almost immediately - first red, then orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet. If you were to shine a light on something that looked like a black stick at 100 feet, you’d probably find that it was actually a red sponge. Granted you’d look a little ridiculous sporting a massive dive light in the middle of the afternoon, but you don’t have to bring light-zilla with you. There are plenty of dive lights that are roughly the size of a hotdog. Just stuff the light into your pocket and pull it out when you find a portion of reef that you want to explore more closely. Underwater Lighting - Look Under Ledges And Inside Of CrevicesThere’s a lot of cool stuff hiding in the shadows of the ocean’s reefs and most of it goes unseen by divers.For example, I used to do a lot of lobster hunting with some buddies of mine when I was younger. These lobsters, use to hide in limestone ledges and they house HUGE lobster. My personal best was 11 pounds (5kg), but there were some lobsters under those ledges that made my prized catch look like a crawfish. I’d shine my dive light under those ledges and see lobster so big it looked like I could ride them. Without underwater lighting, I never would have seen these behemoths. Underwater Lighting - Signal For HelpI know what you’re thinkin’. Who’s going to see a flashlight in the middle of the day? But you forget that other divers have a pane of glass less than an inch from their eyes. That glass tends to catch flashes of light easily and it may be all you need to get your buddies attention.In basic dive classes you’re taught to stay within arm’s reach of your buddy at all times, but in the real world it’s hard to float around while your dive-boat-appointed buddy takes 15 freakin’ minutes to get the perfect picture of some fish you’ve seen a million times. Rather than sit and wait, you’re more likely to go off a few yards and explore on your own. If something goes wrong, it’s nice to have something you can use to signal from a distance. Underwater Lighting is not just for night dives anymore. I’ve given you just a few instances that a dive light could come in handy on an average dive. There are many more, trust me. You don’t have to buy a massive turn-night-into-day light. All you need is a little pen light to make your diving experience more enjoyable. Have you got a dive light?
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