Buying a torch
All divers use underwater lighting equipment for the same two vital purposes; to see with and be seen by.
Because novice make their first dives in relatively shallow water and bright conditions, a dive light may seem unnecessary, but using a small torch will actually reveal 'true' colours, such as reds and oranges, which would otherwise start to disappear as soon as you begin to descend. And you don't have to go deep to discover undercuts, overhangs and holes in wrecks and reefs worth investigating - take a torch and you'll find a wealth of marine life, including nocturnal predators such as eels and octopuses. The ideal lighting system for this kind of dive is a small 4-cell light. It can be kept in your pocket until needed, hung from your wrist or pressure gauge or clipped into a holster on your leg, arm or belt.
More advanced diving activities - such as wreck, night and cave diving - require lights in order to see anything. Here it is worth spending more to get more - torches with narrow beams reveal only small sections at a time, making it necessary to move the light continually which is distracting to you, and can lead to you annoying other divers. Wide-beam lamps throw out an 'umbrella' of light over large areas. Many cave divers insist on three lights for safety, assuming one fails and one gets broken.
Your torch is more than a guide to what you're seeing. When natural light is poor, the easiest way of communicating with your dive buddy is to shine your torch towards your own body and, using your torso as a backdrop, make hand signals under the light.
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