NEW DIVE LIGHTS FROM CATHx OCEAN

Recently this year I led another group to one, if not, THE best wreck diving mecca on the planet – Truk Lagoon. With over 60 wrecks strewn across 60 odd square kilometers of lagoon. What sheer bliss!

First thing that happened on my first dive was that my light died! Something you really don’t want to happen so early into a trip. Having to make do with bits and bobs I struggled through my trip and when I got back to NZ I set out to find a new light. What I was looking for has to be robust enough to withstand the riggors of wreck diving, the power to punch deep into dark passageways and unquestionable reliability. Well, I think I have found such a light!

Edwardo Pavia, internationally renowned technical diver and filmmaker, about as Italian as they come and a bloody good mate of mine, we met last year on a National Geographic Britannic expedition and he was also on that very trip to Truk this year with us. He handed me this light and immediately it felt like it meant business! It was from a manufacturer that I had never heard of before – Cathx Ocean!

When I got back to Auckland I started making inquiries and after a long phonecall to Ireland (where they are manufactured) 5 days later this package arrived on my doorstep! It was by far the fastest I have ever seen anyone respond to an inquiry. Here are my comments about the lights. They have quite a wide range of lights and after talking at length with Adrian Boyle – the owner of Cathx Ocean I learnt a lot about their business. Primarily they make lights for deep submersibles which like to go to depths in excess of 4000meters! Almost immediately you can feel this with the workmanship that has gone into these lights. They supply most of the armed forces above and below the water too! Emergency services that demand their gear to work 100% of the time.

The two lights that I purchased were the Euphos umbilical and hand held lights. I will talk about the hand held first.

EUPHOS HAND HELD DIVE LIGHT

First of all here are the official stats on the Euphos Hand Held Dive light.

• 75 minutes burn time at full power (1250 lumens)

• 3 Hours burn time at medium power

• 4 power levels for longer life

• Battery status indicator Rugged design

• Tough anodised or Teflon finish on marine grad alloy

• Through case charging ensures no seal failures Compact

• Measures less than 185mm length with an easy to hold grip and handle

• Light weight at 450g in water Designed for divers

• Unique dual position thumb controlled switch

• 24 Hour SOS and strobe modes

• "Smart" controller

you can see here that you can easily and simply use the goodman handle on the handleld dive light

My comments: This light is great to have as a primary light if you are heading out for a normal recreational days diving. I was most impressed with the 4 light intensity settings (100%, 75, 50 and 25%) With the light at 100% intensity it really punches out the light (1250 lumens) so it was really effective. I am not sure about you but I really struggle with all this ‘lumens’, watts, thing. All I can say is that I have owned 100 watt HID’s and other LED lights and this really brings home the bacon. By far the strongest hand held light I have ever seen. Period! The limiting thing about the light is that it only gives you 75 minutes at 100%. But don’t dispair, I ran the light over the whole days diving where we did a little over 4 hours diving and I had light all the way through. Having the different light settings, while at first sounded a little gimmicky but when coming up close to walls I only really needed 50% and less light intensity. I found myself using the lower light settings more and more as I didn’t really need the 100% intensity during day non overhead environment dives.

Massive thanks to Andrew Simo for taking these picks of me with hand held in action.

Its light weight, very easy on the hands and you don’t have to watch how you handle it. I watched a video on utube and this woman smashed the Euphos light against a metal table. Not a scratch! So that was impressive! The light is TOTALLY sealed so when it comes to charging it you just attach two probes in the base of the light and off you go. Its intelligent charging will glow green when the light is charged and takes a little over 2 hours from almost dead flat to charge. It also has some handy additions. It has an SOS mode which flashes the SOS signal (3 long, 3 short) for up to 24 hours. Not a bad idea if you find yourself drifting out to sea!! For travel it also has a lock mode so there is no chance of the light going on during transit. I would not hesitate to only bring this light on recreational dives! It would make an awesome back up light too, when doing more industrious stuff. Dives where you really need a PROPER back up light to get you out of trouble, this light will do the deed with honours. It can be easily stowed on the harness, strapped under the arm for easy deployment. All in all I rate this light about 9 out of 10! It will live in my dive box and be taken on every dive I make. It is also designed to be used out of the water also. This is why it is so popular with emergency services, navy etc.

EUPHOS UMBILICAL DIVE LIGHT

The Euphos umbilical is next on the list. Again here are the stats on it.

LONG BURN TIMES

• 2.5 hours burn time at full power (1250 lumens)

• 5 hours burn time at half power increasing at lower powers.

• Battery status indicator RUGGED DESIGN

• Tough Teflon impregnated hard anodised finish

• Through case charging ensures no seal failures

• Gel filled submarine umbilical cable Compact

• Head Measures less than 105 mm length (handle option)

• Battery pack measures 208m length in a tidy 47mm diameter can

• Light weight head at ~150g in water Designed for divers

• Unique dual position thumb controlled switch

• 24 Hour SOS and strobe modes • Integrated “Smart” controller

• Goodman handle optional

• Handle model or stub head version options

Same output at 1250 lumens but a massively longer burntime at 100% power output. First impressions, just like the hand held, was the workmanship, totally sealed it sits in your hand really nicely. There is a Goodman handle option but I prefer the grip of the light handling my camera etc. The battery pack is very light, infact its noticeably light. The whole unit weighs 150grams in the water and dead weight on land is 1.02kg. For travel this is one of the lightest umbilical lights around. Again the entire unit is “sealed for life” and access to charging is through two prongs in the light head. Another interesting thing that makes me even more excited about these lights is that in the future when upgrades are inevitable, technology will only get better the guys at Cathx Ocean have made all their lights internally modular so when the LED technology gets better you can simply upgrade the electronics. Remove the front of the light, pull out the “LED pot” which has no soldering, just push in plugs and replace! Presto you have a 100% upgradable light for the future! When you see the price you will be blown away! The hand held will sell for £450 (round $1100nz) and the Umbilical for £ 680 (round $1650nz)

Email:info@petemesley.com