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Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 00:52:42 -0500
To: Mark Hanes <"sumamax@er*.co*"@erols.com>, cavers@cavers.com
From: Jeff Disler <pdisler@io*.ne*>
Subject: Re: another stupid question..LOL
At 06:47 PM 05/07/2000 -0400, Mark Hanes wrote:
>OK here goes....
>
>If you are poking around in small silty restrictions and find yourself 
>in a white out situation...would it be better to keep your eyes open or 
>closed from a psycological standpoint??
>
>I always close my eyes as this doesnt let me know I cant see..and I 
>think helps me to concentrate on the line without the mental turmoil...	
>	what do you think??

When I'm diving under these type conditions, I will usually just shut off
my light and leave my eyes open. This assuming that one already knows the
direction of travel and are on the line heading in their desired direction.

Of course if the vis is not truely zereoed, then some navigational
information could be missed by either closing your eyes or shutting down
the primary.

Why have my light on when it not usable, I'd just might as well save the
battery power for when and if the conditions clear (I'll check from time to
time) or beyond the sumps.
I have heard many suggest that shutting down a primary light during a cave
dive is not a wise thing to do. It is true that powering up a bulb is
probably the most likely time to have a bulb failure. Perhaps the higher
wattage bulbs used by some have a greater chance of bulb failure during
start up. I however usually only dive with a 12 or 20 watt bulb and have
never had one blow during switching on.

Regards JD


 


"SILT HAPPENS"JD   JEFF DISLER
  SAFE CAVING       NSS 26000

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