Up next in 10
Underwater strobes are essential equipment for technical diving in the tidal waters around the British Isles and I often get asked about them. This video shows why they're important, my thoughts on redundancy and the models that I use.
*Details*
The strobes shown in this video are:
a. Hi-max Technical Dive Strobe - https://divelights.uk/collections/hi-max/products/strobe-one-set
b. Shark Pulsar Technical Dive Strobe - https://www.dirdirect.com/products/shark-pulsar-technical-dive-strobe
*Highlights*
00:00 Introduction
02:10 My strobes; Hi-max (Nautilus) and Shark
04:18 Fixing strobes to the shotline
04:40 Doh One! Strobe doesn't work
05:46 Doh Two! Taking the wrong strobe
*Kit I Use*
Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos:
- Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4
- Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA
- Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk
- Drysuit is an O-Three Ri200 - https://www.othree.co.uk/drysuit-range/ri-2-100-drysuit/
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:01
hi this is Don Robinson and welcome to
0:03
my deep wreck diver Channel I've had
0:05
loads of comments on recent videos about
0:07
underwater strobes so I thought I'd put
0:09
something together showing what I use
0:12
and why I think they're really important
0:14
for the kind of diving that I do which
0:17
is UK tidal waters relatively deep you
0:20
know 60 M plus technical diving it's
0:24
pretty much a given that every diver
0:26
when they go down to the bottom of the
0:28
shotline will stick a stroke on and the
0:31
reason is it helps you to find your way
0:33
back now that sounds fairly
0:36
straightforward and it's something that
0:38
that that people do but it isn't until
0:40
you get to a dive like the one I'm at
0:41
the moment that it really reinforces how
0:44
important that was this is the wreck of
0:46
the baller at which is probably 40 Mi
0:49
off the lizard peninsula in Cornwall
0:51
it's 85 M deep and our it's been Salvage
0:55
and it's absolutely flat really broken
0:58
really difficult to navigate
1:00
and at this point in the dive I was I
1:04
was considerably overdue at being back
1:06
to the shotline and the reason is is
1:08
that I've been I've been looking around
1:10
for the shotline for ages and not being
1:12
able to find it it was just so difficult
1:14
to navigate on the wreck and without
1:17
that single strobe up there I'd never
1:20
have found it I knew I was the last
1:22
diver on this wreck I knew everyone else
1:24
had got back and therefore I knew that
1:26
there was only my strob at the bottom of
1:28
the shotline
1:30
now if this strobe hadn't have been
1:32
there then I'd never have found the
1:34
shotline if that strobe had failed I'd
1:37
never have found the shotline so I'd
1:39
have had to put up my delayed SMB and
1:42
bag off and Float with the current away
1:45
from all the other divers on the lazy
1:47
shot and just pray that the boat was
1:49
able to follow both sets of divers so it
1:52
was a really uh emotional dive for me in
1:55
a really emotional moment and just
1:57
reinforced how important that the
2:00
uh having strobes at the bottom of the
2:01
shotline are and uh you know how
2:04
important it is to have decent ones and
2:05
how important it is to have them that uh
2:08
that work so uh on to what I've got well
2:11
I I use a double strobe and uh the
2:14
reason I use a double strobe is cuz why
2:16
wouldn't you it gives you a whole load
2:17
of redundancy I have two different ones
2:20
as you can see there one by high Max and
2:22
the other one's by shark they both
2:24
attached together on a bit of Bungee and
2:26
that bit of Bungee obviously goes around
2:28
the shotline you can see there's just a
2:30
bit of a Twist grip there to turn them
2:32
on the uh the high Max one just goes One
2:35
Way first of all there's a constant beam
2:37
which I never use and then there's a
2:39
flash the shark one is is a bit
2:41
different uh it's one way is the uh is
2:44
the constant beam and the other way is
2:45
the flashing light if I'm honest I
2:47
prefer the high Max one um just because
2:50
the uh the flash is a bit more uh
2:52
frequent which I think is is useful they
2:55
both use a similar sort of system in
2:56
that you you open them up and they've
2:59
got the same battery inside which is uh
3:01
kind of I don't know what size that is
3:03
um but there's a lot of power in there
3:05
and these strobes um go for quite a long
3:07
time so uh you know that's pure
3:10
chinesium there and uh both these
3:12
strobes I think I got from um somehow or
3:17
you know not Teemu but um AliExpress or
3:19
something like that and uh yeah they're
3:21
both both really good quality um uh you
3:25
know nice and bright they uh they work
3:28
well batter life is good and uh you know
3:31
relatively cheap for what they are I
3:33
guess the only thing i' I'd flag up is
3:35
and you probably see the high Max one
3:37
there is uh is probably getting to the
3:39
end of its life um those rotary magnetic
3:42
switches that they've got are not the
3:44
not the best in the world so um the the
3:48
the the magnets inside rot and
3:50
ultimately it will die um but that's
3:53
just the way these things are and
3:55
actually I'll have had four years use
3:57
out of it maybe 5 years use out of it
3:59
and several hundred Dives so that's uh
4:02
that's a pretty decent trade so uh how
4:04
do you get these things on the on the
4:06
shot well you know once again no no
4:08
particular rocket science here I've got
4:10
that uh that bungee cord on you can see
4:13
there I've got it hanging in my left arm
4:14
this is actually just a single strobe
4:16
but uh this is a really clear piece of
4:18
video so there you go you can see I've
4:19
got got the single strobe it's flashing
4:21
already just wrap that bungee round
4:23
twice and then using the uh the clip on
4:27
I just uh just clip it back onto the bit
4:29
of Bungee and the bungee will hold it
4:31
there on the shotline and it's not going
4:32
to uh it's not going to slip up and uh
4:35
away we go good with the dive so nice
4:37
and straight forward now this uh this
4:39
isn't this is shows one of the problems
4:42
and uh on this video um you can see I've
4:44
got a single strobe I go to turn it on
4:47
and uh it's not working and uh that is
4:51
one of the really good reasons why I now
4:53
dive with a double strobe you can see
4:54
it's it's really faint there so either
4:56
that one's on its way out or there's
4:58
problem with a battery or something like
4:59
that
5:00
uh you can also see I haven't got the
5:01
the white balance right on this video
5:03
which is which is a bit of a pain but
5:05
yeah so uh I've had to had to do this
5:08
dive with uh without a strobe now
5:11
luckily this wreck is uh is quite small
5:13
and easy to navigate myself around so I
5:16
know I'm going to be able to get back
5:17
also looks like the will supply of nets
5:19
on it which is uh which is not great but
5:22
that sometimes
5:24
happens but yeah on a bigger dive like
5:26
that Ballarat dive having strobe that
5:28
didn't work would be uh would be really
5:31
really upsetting so that's why I dive
5:32
with two uh here's another strobe
5:35
related incident at the opposite end of
5:37
the dive though so here I am getting
5:39
back to the shot line it's great you can
5:41
see it's it's really slack there the the
5:42
rope's vertical I'm coming up there's uh
5:45
there's some strobes there you go
5:46
there's double strobe brilliant I think
5:48
that's uh that's mine so I'm going to
5:51
take it off all all good so far now what
5:54
the more astute of you will have noticed
5:56
is that I have a bit of green St green
5:58
tape on the bottom mine and youve
6:00
probably seen the second set of double
6:02
strobes there has got the green tape on
6:04
so so what I've done there is I've taken
6:05
someone else's strobes off luckily I've
6:08
realized and I've put them back on but
6:09
this does sometime H sometimes happen
6:11
people take each other's strobes and
6:13
that's why we all mark them I use I use
6:16
green tape like you can see there that's
6:18
a kind of um a hangover from my days
6:21
when I rock climbed and everybody used
6:23
to stick bits of uh electrical tape on
6:26
all their gear so um and you can see
6:28
there there's a load of other different
6:30
types of strobes on the on that shotline
6:32
so everyone's got their own favorite
6:34
type I'm not saying mine are better than
6:35
anyone else's they're just the ones that
6:37
I happen to use and uh and I like so uh
6:41
I hope you've enjoyed today's uh today's
6:44
video bit shorter than lots of my other
6:45
ones but um you know hopefully it's
6:47
useful if you're interested in strobes
6:50
and uh yeah as always leave us a comment
6:53
let us know what your favorite strobe is
6:55
uh obviously if you've enjoyed the video
6:57
give us a give us a like uh if you
6:59
haven't tell me what you didn't like and
7:02
uh I will uh look forward to seeing you
7:04
on my next video thank you
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