There is a lot of debate in the technical diving community about the use of helmets for mounting lights on. For the diver who wants to dive a true holgarthian set up and to stow their long hose valve around their neck, a helmet is a no-no. Other divers are content to stow the long hose under bungie down the side of their cylinder and use a helmet to keep their hands free of dive lights.

Like many other canister lighting systems NITE RIDER lighting units are equally adaptable to whichever practice you want to dive. Two of the models that I've used are the Sport Diver system and the top of the range NR4000. The entry level model, the Sport Diver, is probably one of the smallest 'canister' torches on the market. The tough battery case takes 5 'D' size alkaline batteries to power a 10w head. The battery pack can be clipped onto the waistband webbing, or in the pocket of a BC, although you must be able to freely get to the battery pack as that is where the on/off switch is mounted.

The 10w head is direct, very small and produces a bright white beam of light. It is attached to the battery pack by a just over 1m of cable, though a small curled section at the end will allow this to stretch to about 1.5m. The best option I've found in using the Sport Diver System is to mount the battery pack on the right hand side of your webbing belt and run the cable around your shoulder to your left hand or onto a helmet. That way you use your right hand to operate the switch while aiming the light with your left hand (there's no problem in changing this around if you're left handed). The burn time of the torch depends very much on the selection of the 'D' cell batteries. Good quality heavy duty batteries give over an hour and a half burn time but cheaper batteries diminish this substantially.

For the diver who does a lot of travelling the Sport Diver is ideal as the unit minus batteries weighs very little and you can always stock up on batteries when on site. Two new additions to the unit have been launched in the USA where Nite Riders are built, they are a conventional torch head and handle that converts the battery pack to a lantern style torch and a dual beam version of the lighting head.

At the other end of the scale is the flagship NR4000 system. This is a 13.2 volt 5.0 Amp hour rechargeable battery pack with a dual 12 & 20 Watt lighting head.

The battery is a NiCad pack that takes between 12 and 14 hours to fully recharge and provides around two hours on full power (32 watt) and five hours when using the 12Watt head alone. Like the Sport Diver System the battery pack can be mounted onto a BC waistband, but a better option is to mount it onto a cylinder using a cam-band.
The battery pack has an on/off switch but this is more for use as a safety measure when travelling and for recharging, than for during the actual dive.

The battery and head are joined centrally by a wet-connector joint that gives two distinct advantages. The first is the ability to get fully kitted up into your BC and then connect the torch head, dispensing with torch heads dangling everywhere and getting caught under straps. The second is that the torch becomes a modular system. If an extremely long burn time was needed then two battery packs could be used by disconnecting the first pack as the beam begins to turn yellow (having turned the power pack switch to the off position first) and connecting into the new pack. This could give an exceptional burn time of up to 10 hours.

The only real moan I have about the unit is that the charger is not automatic and it is possible to 'cook' the NiCad pack if the charger was left on for more than 14 hours.
The head has a choice of four settings: Off, 12W only, 12 & 20W together or 20W only. This is adjusted by a switch on top of the lighting head.

The light the head generates is extremely bright and very powerful. On a recent dive with the system I was following a line when I suddenly entered a wall of silt that had been kicked up by the close proximity of a scallop dredger (who obviously didn't know what an A-flag meant). The light was on full power and caused a great deal of back scatter, but by dropping to the 12W that penetrated through the silt, I was able to find the line and follow it back to the shot by touch. Both the systems come complete with a neoprene headband for mounting the light on your head and a soft hand mount. All the Nite Rider systems have a number of mounting options including conventional hard hand mounts, helmet mounts, video arm and mounts for full face masks. So, helmet mounted or not, you certainly have the choice with the Nite Rider system.

	Sport Diver	NR4000
Power pack	5 `D' cells	NiCad
Output	10 Watt	12-20 Watt
Burn Time	1 hour+	2-5 hours
Depth rated	60m	100m
Price	£83.25	£446.00

PROS: Compact units, powerful lights, modular.
CONS: Switch location (Sport Diver), Non-automatic charger (NR4000)
For suppliers e.mail NiteRider at: dive@niterider.com or call: (001) 619 268 9316