CJ
Member
After winning the Scurion competition, I've been itching to get out and give it a spin! The first port of call was buying a new helmet for it and getting it mounted...
Mounting the lamp and battery pack was easy enough and I decided to use a soldering iron instead of drilling the holes - I think I prefer this technique despite the smell. I mounted the battery pack with the plastic knobs on the side after Alastair G suggested to me. This is not to imply that the plastic knobs are particularly fragile, but based on the helmet shape it just made sense to orientate it that way. A massive thank you to Alastair Gott for being my Hermes! (the Greek god, and not the courier company that chucks my parcels over the fence and claims I signed for it...).
The lamp was bigger than I expected, much bigger than a Rude Nora, but not in any problematic way. I could tell it meant business. The whole set-up wasn't heavy either, or at least not for me; everything felt well-balanced. All that was left now was to get out and test it...
Yesterday, I managed to get out to my dig and got to give my scurion the field test that I'd been waiting for; and it didn't disappoint. I'll be honest, I did not attempt to program it at all before trying it... I'll save that for a rainy day. Before climbing down the shaft, I began to worry that maybe this had been a mistake... but once I was working my way down the pitch(s), my worries soon faded. The default flood was perfect, and I more or less used it for the entire dig. It's just awesome coverage and it was easy to forget that without my light there would be complete darkness. It sounds obvious (and like a complete sales pitch), but that's genuinely how well it illuminated everything in my field of vision.
It goes without saying that the battery life easily coped with the lengthy ~8h digging session. I tried the other default modes during breaks, and the high power spot is just perfect for avens and lighting down an entire passage. The modes are easy to cycle through, and it's really cool to be able to cycle forward and backwards through the modes. It was capable of far more power than I needed for my application that day, but it will be my secret weapon in bigger caves or mines. The lowest power setting was also perfect for eating lunch without blinding AlexR. Both of us had Scurions; it's a real luxury to have such combined power in a cave.
Mounting the lamp and battery pack was easy enough and I decided to use a soldering iron instead of drilling the holes - I think I prefer this technique despite the smell. I mounted the battery pack with the plastic knobs on the side after Alastair G suggested to me. This is not to imply that the plastic knobs are particularly fragile, but based on the helmet shape it just made sense to orientate it that way. A massive thank you to Alastair Gott for being my Hermes! (the Greek god, and not the courier company that chucks my parcels over the fence and claims I signed for it...).
The lamp was bigger than I expected, much bigger than a Rude Nora, but not in any problematic way. I could tell it meant business. The whole set-up wasn't heavy either, or at least not for me; everything felt well-balanced. All that was left now was to get out and test it...
Yesterday, I managed to get out to my dig and got to give my scurion the field test that I'd been waiting for; and it didn't disappoint. I'll be honest, I did not attempt to program it at all before trying it... I'll save that for a rainy day. Before climbing down the shaft, I began to worry that maybe this had been a mistake... but once I was working my way down the pitch(s), my worries soon faded. The default flood was perfect, and I more or less used it for the entire dig. It's just awesome coverage and it was easy to forget that without my light there would be complete darkness. It sounds obvious (and like a complete sales pitch), but that's genuinely how well it illuminated everything in my field of vision.
It goes without saying that the battery life easily coped with the lengthy ~8h digging session. I tried the other default modes during breaks, and the high power spot is just perfect for avens and lighting down an entire passage. The modes are easy to cycle through, and it's really cool to be able to cycle forward and backwards through the modes. It was capable of far more power than I needed for my application that day, but it will be my secret weapon in bigger caves or mines. The lowest power setting was also perfect for eating lunch without blinding AlexR. Both of us had Scurions; it's a real luxury to have such combined power in a cave.
I have never caved by candlelight or a stinky... It's a real privilege to be caving at a time where such amazing lamps are available... T'owd man would be jealous. I tried to create a mock-up how it might've looked with a scurion back then.
"This younger generation don't know how good they have it..."
"This younger generation don't know how good they have it..."
Last, but not least, a massive thanks to Rolf at Scurion for donating this for the competition, it really is a fabulous prize to have won. I have no doubt that this will last me years and years too!
