Top Underwater surf LED's
 

Looking to add some lighting to my boat this year for some nighttime surfing. I found a few older posts but not much in the last year or so for reviews. What are currently the best options for underwater lighting that have enough output for night time surfing???

I've had great experiences with lifeform 9 series. Super bright and they seem like the most bang for the buck.

Here is a thread that is only a week or so old on tower lighting, may surprise you. Heard good things about Lumitec. You are basically gonna get what you pay for on underwater lights, I researched it quite a bit till I did it on my boat and realized I did not need to add underwater lights cause of what I already had

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=808429

Top three lights right now in my opinion would be shadow caster , lumatec sea blaze X series and the lifefourm 9's. The lifefourm 9's are hard to beat for the price. Here is a pic of the lifefourm 9's on our last boat

I did a comparison on Tige Owners awhile back between the Shadow Casters and Liquid Lumens. You can't go wrong with either brand and I loved the Shadow Casters. But I declared the Liquid Lumens the winners. They are absolutely insane. But the price reflects that. Give it a look.

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...nderwater-LEDs

Great feedback! Even though its winter here in Washington, for some reason I've been researching boat lights for the last 4 hours like I had nothing else to do! I guess the taxes and dishes can wait for now and I'll keep looking up lights. :)

Its worth noting that I would prefer to spend less than $350 a light. If anyone has good purchase sites or discount codes, I'm all ears (post or PM me). Specifically, I'm looking to be able to do some night surfing with just underwater lights. The water isn't too murky around here either so hopefully 2 lights will do the job.


These are the lights I'm looking at that seem within the price range and good quality, Input and pics are appreciated!

All in blue color:
Lumitec seablaze x
Lifeform 9
abyss starfish medium or mini

Shadow casters and Liquid lumins look to be above the $350 range each.

Last summer I had Lumitec Seablaze 3. Very Bright and loved it. Very good product for the price!
On my present boat I have the Roswell L6, they comes stock.. definitely prefer lumitec but not so much difference.
My lumitec was Blue, now they’re white. Blue looks better in my opinion.

Last year I’ve done a thread for that too and I heard life form was the best quality for the price from almost everybody but it was hard to order them and suicide shipping cost due im in Canada.
Hope that’s help! Good luck

I have had both the sea blaze x and the lifefourm both are nice lights. The sea blaze are a deeper blue and have a fade and strobe function. If both are the same price go seablaze

I bought two of the boat plug led Neptune transom lights. I am very pleased with them. I went with the RGB ones.

Ditch the boat lights and Get a Brigade Circuit Board. They are so dang cool, they have all the LED's glassed in the board, completely water tight.

These would be in your price range. https://www.onlyinboards.com/Accesso...water-LED.aspx i'm sure i could get you a pair down under 350 each too.

Totally agreed with Andy! Just love the new brigade Wakesurf.
Insane

Have you seen boat plugs new light the screws directly in to the mounting screws for your drain plug. If it's bright enough its a genies idea.

https://www.boatpluglight.com/collec...-2-solid-brass

I bought this underwater drain plug for like $20 bucks. Before people rag on me cheaping out....... I just don't have the 300 for an underwater light and what did I have to loose? I love it for the price. No, its not the brightest but for night swimming and things like that, it works perfect. Our lakes over here aren't the most clear but it works pretty dang good. Plus if I ever get tired of it, I just unscrew it and put the plug back in.

https://www.amazon.com/Amarine-Under...ain+plug+light

The drain plug idea may be a cool accessory but not enough to surf behind. They might be a decent option in addition to some quality lights but probably not needed. I like the silver case of the Lifeform 9 a little better than the Seablaze X bronze but it sounds like both are great lights to use.

For reference, the seablaze X are twice the light output of the seablaze 3's per their site.

I went with the https://www.liquidlumens.com and very happy with them. They
use a box to up the voltage to 36volts so they are brighter then many lights out there. Brightness also depends on which color you get as well.

6,000 Lumen’s for Red and Blue LED’s
7,000 Lumens for Green LED’s
10,000 Lumens for Cool White LED’s

https://www.liquidlumens.com/best-underwater-lights/

It uses a pair of DC-DC drivers designed to boost your boat’s standard 12V power supply. This process results in a higher output (either 25V or 34V depending on the LED color) voltage. This higher voltage means a more powerful LED can be installed Underwater.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...acb781bb9d.jpg

What is the best placement location for surfing? My guess is setting them up in a pretty wide pattern to illuminate the wave face outside the prop wash.

When shopping led's don't go by lumens it is deceiving and used as a sales ploy. Look at the amp draw of the light. The higher the draw the brighter the light.

Agreed. One thing I've learned with research is that the lumen rating is borderline worthless and amp draw is a much better measurement of output when comparing similar style lights. Lumen output can be easily manipulated to make a product look better.

And why do you want to nightsurf with just under water lights, hiding from authorities? It’s much better with tower lights and our brack water really doesn’t allow them to be that luminous down here

I totally agree. That's why bought a 19 dollar underwater light for just swimming and a light bar mounted on my rear deck for night surfing.

Attachment 44182

I picked up some Liquid Lumens at the Utah Boat Show. I'll return and report. From what I hear they are the best thing going.

They are awesome. I love mine.

It would be a great time to update or Re-do a Underwater LED challenge. At the time Shadow Casters (SC) were the Bomb. I have frequented many night time tie ups and I have not seen anything that is brighter (pound for pound) No disrespect, but the plug lights are not even close. Sure people can take picks and over expose or fake the lights true output, but when you see a SC next to a drain plug light in person well let’s just say game over. Now with that said the drain plug lights are a GREAT option. But it’s a apples vs oranges contest. Drain plug lights have restrictions and surface mounted lights don’t. So IMO they should Have a drain plug light contest because for some people a surface mounted light is NOT a option. I’m a huge fan of SC. The RBB color casters with the Wetsounds /SC Controller has no equal IMO.


SC and Garmin have teamed up to allow you to control underwater lights from various garmin devices. That’s pretty cool for the people that currently have Garmin stuff.
Jeff pound and the Crew at SC are top notch IMO. Tim at Wetsounds teaming up with SC is a win for us night time bling boaters!

Heres my take on most of the plug lights, that either thread into an existing garboard or replaces the garboard.

A threaded light on a trailer boat will experience a failed harness from the stress of threading in and out to drain the bilge and then reinstall the plug. On a single engine outboard or I/O, the light will be behind the drive unit. On wake boats, there is likely a wake plate or other hardware that might cause a shadow or even physically interfere with the plate.

The company will suggest drilling and mounting a new garboard dedicated for the light. Well, im looking at your plug light to avoid drilling. If im going drill a hole, its not going to be a 1" for a garboard. Ill drill two .5" holes and mount to traditional lights.

Some are made with residential grade brass plumbing fittings and material. Not the best for the marine environment.

Liquid Lumens seems to have a bright light and solid construction. However, you need to take into consideration that they require a large voltage step controller to supply the needed 25V or 32V DC for the lights.

Cant say it enough, there is no way to use advertised lumens to compare one brand to another.

I'm a fan of the Lifeform LED 9s.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4708/...258ca80d_z.jpgGator Step / Lifeform LED 9s by Mason Obray, on Flickr

I'm looking at getting the life form 9's but had a question. Is one good enough or do most people install 2? Thanks

I suggest a pair at least, for a typical trailer sized boat for the best penetration and balance.

I do not think this is an issue for boats with dual batteries.

Number of batteries has nothing to do with a box supplying 32V DC across the boat.

A box thats maybe 4" x 8" that needs a safe, solid spot to mount

Not ignition protected and needs ventilation

Needs at least 8ga cable if the batteries are close and up to 4ga cable if the batteries are a distance away, like 15+ feet.

Are you implying that they are unsafe? I read the installation instructions and if they are followed there is no more danger than the audio amplifiers most of us have in our boats. Finding a spot near the batteries isn't an issue on most boats.

Number of batteries has everything to do with it if the lights are hooked directly up to a battery and not getting power from the boat's primary electrical system fed from the alternator. In most instances those with two batteries will be fine.

Hey guys, Rob from Liquid Lumens here. Always nice to see boating enthusiasts discussing and enjoying our products!

Chpthril, our Power Supply Kit IS Ignition Protection Certified. I thought it was important that we are all clear about that. Also, we provide the proper cable and connectors to safely install our system on any boat.

We have also just release two brand new products, the Skinny Dip model light (a 40W true 12V Underwater Light that still incorporates our light focusing technology for approx $597/pair) and our new Multi-Color RGBW Underwater Light (capable of producing 16 different light combinations).

I’d also like to add that Liquid Lumens does not claim any performance specifications without first having our products performance tested and certified in a third party laboratory. As such, I don’t have specifications to release on our Skinny Dip or Multi-Color Lights yet. But they are both out for testing now, so I hope to have them published soon. That being said, I expect them to both be performance leaders in their respective categories at their price points.

Lastly, while Lumens are always relevant to a discussion about light, amp draw on the battery will tell you the true raw performance (power) of a light. Even more relevant in this application however is the Candela rating of the lights. Which is the measurement of how much light is actually projected behind your boat.

Hope that helps a little. Enjoying everyone’s discussion and input. Let me know if you have any questions about our products. Happy Boating!

Good to know, Rob, thanks for clarifying that. I was surprised to read that it was not IP.

I found that statement on your website. Resources = installation instruction, under the "warning" header https://www.liquidlumens.com/underwa...-instructions/

only as unsafe as the installers knowledge. As originally stated, the Liquid Lumens has different considerations compared to more traditional LEDs. Its wise for a consumer to think through these additional factors, prior to making the choice. More to it then a light with 2 wires that can be connected to a helm rocker.

Looks like our website still has our old Install Instructions shown. I’ll get that corrected and updated.

Yeah, Always wondering too. Anybody responded yet.
Should it be mot distanced or near the middle. Near the wake plate or more at the bottom..

Top Underwater surf LED's
 

Most of these underwater light have a pretty wide beam angle. Therefore I wouldn’t worry about them being too far apart. But rather too close together. Any quality light will not leave a dark spot in the middle. Assuming you’re running them in pairs, the wider you have the two lights apart, the more area they will cover. Look at most factory locations on wake boats to give you an idea. I’d be more worried about having them too close together creating an overlapping super bright area. But every light setup is different. Shadows are really the enemy here. Mount them where they have the least amount of blockage.

If you don’t have factory locations already drilled on your boat, meaning you’ll be drilling fresh holes. I would recommend mounting the lights up on a “T” shaped 2x4 setup and testing different distances apart. When you find the sweet spot you can drill your holes accordingly.

There’s also another option. You can mount them to the trim tab or wake plates. Below is a picture from when I was doing the comparison on the rz4. The shadowcasters are mounted to my AVX with brackets. The LLs are mounted on the 2x4.

I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re facing serious blockage. Which I was with the AVX.



https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f7d79680a8.jpg

Can’t speak for other brands, but BABz is Correct about our products (Liquid Lumens). We recommend mounting the lights as low and wide on the transom as possible. This will largely depend on your boat design, however.

The key thing is selecting a safe location where the light housing will not interfere with trim tabs, surf systems, etc. You should also consider the light position relative to anything that could create shadows, such as large exhaust systems. All that being said, our lights are bright enough that in pairs, one can make up for shadows created by the other as long as they aren’t both blocked by the same object, like the swim deck (mounted too high). If you have any questions about your specific boat model or want mounting location advice for your lights, feel free to PM me.

Cable needs to come through into the bilge, not the stringer cavity. So the best spot for the light may not allow cable access.

I prefer as low and as wide as possible, taking into account the considerations already posted. Too high on the transom and you get more light skimming across the surface of the water. Deeper lights up the water better.

So Jeremy, how would u suggest installing a pair of thread in lites without drilling when there is only a single center mounted garboard?

https://boatpluglight.myshopify.com/...-and-splitters

mabey this with either a third light in the center or the drain plug.

Well, 3" apart is not quite as wide as one light on each side of the transom of a 102" beam.

2nd, I would not want that monster hanging out of the garboard on my boat. On average, they are held in with 3 #6 screws. Something is going to giveway.

3rd, that thing would not work on 90% of wake boats. Yes, i know not all boats are wake boats, but this is wake world. Heck, that thing loaded with a couple of lights may not fit some I/O or outboards.

Oh, and Jeremy's buddy William, is passing the same boat pic off as his boat this morning on tigeowners.