For the past couple of years a small Yorkshire manufacturing company have been steadily chipping away at the hearts and minds of the technical diving fraternity. Their low-key black and white adverts in the diving press belied a product that in my opinion was something worth shouting about.

The JMD Umbilical torch manufactured, not surprisingly, by JMD Technologies of Pickering, North Yorkshire, is a well constructed, easy to use and incredibly bright torch system. A simple glance at the long slim solid looking rectangular battery pack demonstrates a quality build. JMD's literature states that 'all components are precision machined to fine tolerances using computer controlled machines' - and it shows. So much for the battery pack, what about the more important light? Again attention to detail is present here. The head is slim and balances and fits perfectly in the hand.

Although a Goodman style handle is not available from JMD, the back of head has a recess that allows for the attachment of a P-clip so the head can easily be clipped off when not in use. The light comes with a 50w Xenon bulb which is claimed to give the same output as a bulb nearly twice its size (i.e. 100w). The beam is intensely bright and is a crisp blue/white light that can be adjusted from spot to wide angle by twisting the handle. The spot setting of the focus-able beam is particularly useful when operating in low visibility or when heavy plankton or sediment is present. In a cave, in clear water, the wide angle is capable of lighting a passage way from floor to ceiling.

The torch is simply charged by removing a knurled threaded plug and inserting the phono style charging jack plug. It takes approximately 16 hours to charge from flat and twelve hours after a typical day's diving. The 12V 5Ah battery gives a burn time of 70 minutes until it runs flat. The battery pack is mounted upside down on a cylinder by a cam-band-clamp and held in place by a stainless steel locking pin. This system makes for very easy removal for charging and when using a twin set the battery pack sits perfectly between the cylinders. The torch also counter balances perfectly with a pony when used on a single cylinder. JMD state that the torch may be stiff when new and needs to be turned on and off a few times to overcome the problem. This was found to be the case on the first dive I used the torch when it locked on after a dive to 38m. Despite having some heavyweights on the boat no one could twist it off. We left it immersed in water until the battery was run down, after which it allowed me to twist the head. Having turned the torch on and off a few times the problem never re-occurred.
The torches are tested to and rated at 150m as a standard. Mark Andrews recently used two JMD torches that were specially tested for him at 200m on his deep air dive and he intends to use three designed and rated to 300m on his deep gas wreck dives in the Hurd Deep this summer.

One final and important aspect to this system is the price, a modest £325 for either the red or blue anodised version. With such a good build quality, ease of use and value for money the JMD Umbilical will certainly continue to win the hearts, minds and wallets of tech divers. Contact JMD Technologies on: 01751 476972

Review by Ron Mahoney