True Stories

I'm a rescuer for the Swiss Disaster Relief organization. During the first days of October, I was in Indonesia, with more than a hundred rescuers and dog handlers, to provide help to this badly hurt population. In the evening and throughout the night, the rubble was well lit by floodlights. Unfortunately, the portion we did need to check was absolutely dark. Luckily, I always carry my L2 LumaMax®, which lit the area right up and allowed us to search it.

I appreciate the long runtime and the high beam of my L2. It pleases me to think that this small light contributed to saving lives.

Gaspard Z.
Lausanne, Switzerland

It was Halloween, and my wife, my daughter, and I were out trick-or-treating. At a house next to a dark, desolate field, the homeowners told us that someone in the field was shooting a BB gun at the children walking by - one child had even been hit in the chest.

I had my SureFire C2 Centurion® with me, and I was angry at the thought of someone shooting at innocent children, so I charged into the dark field and promptly illuminated the punk, who ran off, petrified. If it weren't for my SureFire, he would've stayed hidden and continued his rampage, and a kid could've been seriously injured, but my SureFire saved the night. You've got a customer for life.

Mark S.
Sacrament, CA

Every time I walk out the door, I carry a few essential items, one of them being my SureFire 6P® LED. On the way to the movies, my buddy and I almost hit a deer lying in the middle of the road. It had evidently been hit by a car and couldn't get up.

We pulled over and investigated. The deer was still alive, but if another driver wasn't wary, there could easily be an accident. I pulled out my SureFire and put on a reflective vest that I had in the car. I turned on my light, and its beam cut through the night like a knife through butter. While my friend stood by the deer and tried to get it moving, I flagged down passing motorists with my SureFire and warned them of the danger ahead. One motorist even commented that my flashlight looked like a light saber.

After about five minutes, the deer found enough strength to get up and run into the woods. My friend and I left, happy for the deer, for the fact we'd helped prevent an accident, and especially happy with the way my SureFire 6P performed. I'll never buy another brand of flashlight.

Jeffrey P.
Fredericksburg, VA

My wife and I decided to have our third baby at home, with the help of some wonderful midwives we found in a nearby town. At about 2:30 a.m., when our little girl decided she was ready, the midwives and I gathered around my wife to assist her. It was then that we realized our bedroom ceiling light was just not providing enough illumination. So I reached for the nearest SureFire, which was a G2® Nitrolon®, and lit up the area. The midwives carry flashlights for such situations, but they'd never seen anything like my little G2.

Long story short, I sent each of the midwives home with a G2 Nitrolon. And, since then, I've given them each a couple of boxes of batteries and set them up with Surefire spares carriers full of batteries and spare bulbs. Now our fourth child is due, and just like the last one, I'm sure that the first thing the kid will see is the bright light of a SureFire at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks for making such excellent products!

Matthew H.
Colorado City, TX

I am a T7 paraplegic who's been confined to a wheelchair for the past 16 years. One winter evening, while out with some friends, the weather outside turned from rain to ice. My van was parked at the far end of the lot, and I told everyone I'd be fine getting into my van, so they left. But when I got there, my door locks were frozen solid and I couldn't get a key in them. Plus, I'd been in such a rush to get out of the house that I'd forgotten my cell phone.

Luckily, I hadn't forgotten my SureFire 9P® Original with its high-output P91 lamp. I removed the light from my backpack, held it over the lock for a couple of minutes, and behold—the heat from the 9P's lamp melted the ice in the lock. Now I never leave the house without it.

Thanks for making the best light made. It saved me that night!

Jay J.
South Bend, IN

I was recently at a gun show, with one of my buddies, and we were on the lookout for SureFire flashlights there. As I was leaving, I came across a booth selling knock-off SureFire, and I started to check them out, when my buddy said, "Don't waste your money on that - it's a piece of junk. A SureFire is a much better light and well worth the extra money."

I took his advice and waited and bought a 6P® LED the next day at a tactical shop. When I got my new flashlight home I started shining it around my house, checking out how bright it was. I've owned my house for 10 years, and I thought I'd seen every square inch of it. But with my SureFire I found an unknown cubby hole behind my attic stairs, and about four feet into the hole I saw a stack of seven $20 bills, covered in dust, that I assume the previous owner had stashed away. I immediately call my buddy and told him he was right - the SureFire was well worth it!

Michael A.
Hapeville, GA

Two weeks ago, I was out for a night ride on some local mountain bike trails with a buddy. The trails were in great shape, and we were climbing a big hill about halfway through our ride when my cycling headlamp's rechargeable battery failed. We were about five miles from the car, and the only way out was by single track far too narrow for a vehicle.

Lucky for me, I had my E1B Backup® in my pack. I strapped it to my helmet and had more than enough light to finish the ride in style—something an average flashlight wouldn't have been able to muster. My E1B is always close at hand when I venture into the woods, and that night it lived up to its name.

Thanks, SureFire.

Carl H.
Knoxville, TN

I'm a volunteer for my local ambulance service, and one dark night we got called to a job where someone had fallen. It turns out our patient had fallen down a four-meter vertical bank off a deserted gravel road, and there was no lighting available.

My partner used his service-issue torch to have a look down at the patient, but it didn't really light much up. Then I pulled out my SureFire L4 LumaMax®, and it was like I turned on the sun. We could see down the bank and clearly see our patient. I used my light to hunt for a clear path down, which I found, and quickly learned that our patient had a fractured and dislocated ankle. With the darkness and limited space restraints, we had to call in a rescue squad to scoop the patient out with a stokes basket.

When they arrived, I used my L4 to light up the scene. Every time I shined my torch in a different direction, it was like the sun turned off. Everyone was impressed with my L4's performance, as their torches looked like matches compared to mine! We got the patient out of there and to the hospital, but, if it hadn't been for my SureFire, the job would have been 10 times more difficult!

Nick B.
Wellington, NZ

For Christmas last year, I got my cousin a Surefire G2 Nitrolon® because he was going to Alaska to work on a fishing boat as the cook. When he got back, he told us all how his SureFire flashlight saved his life.

One night, while out at sea, it was foggy, and my cousin saw what he said "looked like little lily pads" in the distance. He didn't know how to work the big spotlight onboard, so he grabbed his G2 and pointed it at the "lily pads," discovering that they were icebergs. They stopped and turned around, thanks to the G2.

If it hadn't been for that G2, he and some other men might not be here anymore. Thank you, SureFire, for your amazing products and the effort you put into them.

Jared W.
Knoxville, TN

The other day I received a frantic call from my wife. She'd lost a screw, about the same size as a BB, from a bracelet I'd given her as a gift, marking the birth of our second son. She had no idea where it had been lost, so I pulled out my M6® and started searching the house.

After checking the bedroom and the nursery, I went down to the TV room, which has a multi-colored oriental rug. I gave the rug a quick sweep with my M6, from about eight feet away, and saw a small gold glint—the screw to the bracelet. This flashlight literally found a needle in a haystack, and my wife now understands why I often gush about how sweet it is.

Ben W.
Pittsburgh, PA

I'm an inspector and compliance consultant in the housing industry, so I'm often called upon to accompany government subcontract inspectors when they inspect my clients' properties. I can't tell you how many times one of these guys has squinted into the darkness with his crummy flashlight in hand and said he was going to cite my client for a violation he "thinks" he sees. That's when one of my SureFires helps me earn my pay. I always keep an E1L Outdoorsman on a lanyard around my neck and a U2 Ultra™ in my hip pocket. I remove my E1L from its lanyard, hand it to the guy, and tell him he'd better show me a clear violation before he writes one up. It often turns out that, when the inspector sees things in "a better light," he discovers he is wrong. That's because my I've already inspected the area before him, using my SureFires, and already made any repairs that were needed.

Michael G.
Monkton, MD

I work for an ambulance company as an E.M.T. in Louisiana. Well, one night we responded to an SUV that had run off the road and into an oak tree. It happened to be a bad wreck, and both of the patients needed to be cut out of the car by the fire dept. This was at 0200 in the morning, and the cops on scene were carrying Mag-Lites, which we needed. When we went to turn them on, neither of the Mag-Lites worked.

I went back to my ambulance and grabbed my SureFire Centurion® and E1L. Needless to say, they both worked wonderfully as we worked on our patients, both of whom had fractured femurs. When the fire dept finally got there with the "jaws of life", we were working on our patients. One of the fireman hit my hand, and I looked on in horror as my Centurion went flying out of my hand and hit the pavement, lens down, making an awful cracking sound. I picked it up and looked at it...the Pyrex window was cracked! I turned it on to see if it would still work, and it still worked wonderfully, which was great, as we had a second patient to go and still needed light.

All I want to say is thanks, SureFire, for making my job that much easier by making such well-made equipment and bringing light to some very dark places in Louisiana.

Stephen S.
Ball, LA

I take my German short-haired pointer, Hank, for late night walks, and I always carry my SureFire E2D Defender®. One night, while strolling through town, I stopped for some ice cream for him and me (vanilla is Hank's favorite). I tied Hank's leash to the bench outside and went in. While inside, a stranger, armed with the power of persuasion—dog biscuits, lured Hank into the back of his SUV.

From inside, I saw Hank's face in the back window of the strange SUV, so I dropped my ice cream and ran after my best friend. The SUV started to pull off, so I drew my SureFire from my pocket and smashed the car's window with its Strike Bezel™. Hank leapt out of the back and ran to me as the SUV drove off.

I used to only carry my E2D on our late night walks. Now I carry it everywhere, day or night. Had I lost my best friend, I don't know what I would have done. Thanks, SureFire.

Sean K.
Huntington, NY

In January, my friends and I were sledding down a hill on a golf course. On one run, we came close to hitting a tree, so we all dug our hands into the ice to stop. One of the girls cut herself and was bleeding pretty badly.

I had a first-aid kit in my trunk, so I used my E2D Defender® to illuminate the icy path up to my car. When I opened the kit, I discovered that the band-aids inside were frozen solid, way too stiff to apply. Then I remembered reading a SureFire True Story about a guy who used his SureFire to dry fire wood. I figured that if a SureFire could get warm enough to dry firewood, my E2D could surely thaw out a couple of band-aids. It worked, and we used band-aids to help stop the bleeding on my friend's arm before taking her home to get her cuts wrapped up.

Johnathan B.
Rochester, MN

I went out boating with my roommate and several of his friends on a 30-foot powerboat. When we arrived at the docks it was dusk, and the boat owner saw that I had a flashlight, my SureFire A2 Aviator®, so he sent me inside to turn on the boat's power. I still hadn’t located the circuit panel after about fifteen seconds (it was hidden behind a corner), so I decided to use the incandescent beam to light up the entire cabin. The boat owner saw the cabin light up from above and thought I had turned on the lights below deck without giving power to the rest of the boat!

About two hours later, when returning to the docks, we found that the spotlight on the boat did not work properly, and the owner asked me if I could shine my "super bright" flashlight in front of the boat to see if we could spot any channel markers. Not only could we clearly see the channel markers reflecting from about 200 feet away, we could also see the next TWO sets of markers beyond them! The boat owner commented, "Thats one helluva light!" and I was assigned spotlight duty to guide the boat in. As we neared land, the A2 was used to spot numerous piles of debris and mangroves so we could maneuver around them.

Afterwards, my roommate said, “I promise to never again make fun of you for spending the extra money on a SureFire!"

Bryan F
Key West, FL

The A2 Aviator® hybrid flashlight is one piece of gear I never hunt without. The white LEDs were crucial when my father and I went hunting in South Carolina.

On the first night out in the deer stand, it was important to use the low-powered white LEDs so we would not spook any nearby dear and to inspect my father's rifle, which had a bore obstruction. A day later, I had to walk through a swamp to get to a ground blind, and the A2 showed it's great versatility when its batteries' power level dropped too far for the incandescent element to work anymore. Instead of fumbling the rest of the way in the dark, the LEDs worked like a charm and provided more than enough light to get around the snakes and find the ground blind.

A year later, with the same A2 Aviator but fresh batteries, we were hunting in South Carolina again, when my father shot and wounded a deer. It was dark, and finding a blood trail was made a whole lot easier, and safer, using the A2 Aviator flashlight. I will never go into the woods again without the A2 Aviator.

Eugene C.
Mundelein, IL

It was almost a week after Independence Day, on a weeknight, when the neighbors across the common area behind my house were still setting off fireworks into the early morning hours. This had been their ritual every night since a week before the 4th. I'm as patriotic as the next guy, and I love fireworks, but setting them off after midnight on weeknights well after the celebration should have ended was a bit much. Not to mention that their fireworks had awoken our baby every single night.

There was not a single light in the common area, and they were sitting on their back porch with all the house lights off. I couldn't see them, and they couldn't see me. I walked into the common area and said that it was a little late for fireworks on a weeknight and asked if they could please wrap it up for the night. They said nothing. I asked again, explaining that we had a sick baby asleep in bed and would really like her to stay asleep. Again, I was completely ignored. So I pulled out my C2 LED, pointed it at their faint silhouettes, and fired it up. I was about 30 feet away, and they all covered their faces with their arms. I left it there while I politely stated that we have city noise ordinances and that I would be calling the police if they set another one off.

Haven't heard a single firework since.

Russell V.
Zionsville, IN

I'm a transportation inspector for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, and our duty is to ensure safe and legal operation of commercial motor vehicles not only for the driver's safety, but also for the travelers around them. I was performing a routine inspection on a semi truck, and as I walked around the truck I could smell diesel. I had my partner get under the truck to see if he could locate the smell, but with his ordinary flashlight he could see nothing unusual. So I whipped out my brand new SureFire U2 Ultra™ and had a look. With my U2's bright beam, I quickly discovered that a fuel line was leaking and dripping onto a VERY hot exhaust line.

My partner and I immediately closed off a section of the parking lot to prevent anything bad from happening—all thanks to my new purchase. After that incident, the rest of the inspectors went out and purchased new SureFires.

Porfirio M.
Raton, NM

I was driving along a dark scenic road in upstate New York when I saw a car that had flipped over in an accident. My firefighter training instantly kicked in, and I grabbed my SureFire L5 and my extrication gloves. There were three patients and an infant in the car, and I quickly made sure there were no current dangers and went to work.

I had to break out the rear window to get to the patients. I went for the infant and teenager who were in the car, and I put them both in my car. I then had to get to the passenger in the front seat, so I broke out the window and used my knife to cut her seatbelt. She didn't have any life-threatening injuries, but she did have a laceration to her head, so before getting to the driver I had to put some gauze on her head. After assisting her, I went to work on getting the driver out, but, although he did not have any life-threatening injuries, the "jaws of life" were required to get him out.

When the fire department arrived on scene, they were amazed at how bright my L5 was; the only things brighter were the flood lights from their 2,000-watt generators. They were amazed and all wanted one, so I told them to visit your website.

Joshua R.
Sutton, MA

I'd recently purchased a SureFire U2 Ultra™ and had it in my coat pocket, when I took my car to a local mechanic for some routine maintenance. Fifteen minutes into my visit, the service writer pulled me aside and told me that my car's brakes were "unsafe" and badly in need of new front brake pads, unaware that I'd recently had my brake pads replaced elsewhere. The service writer took me out to the mechanic working on my car to show me the condition of my brake pads. In the relatively dark garage, he shined an extremely dim penlight into the tiny gap between the brake pad and front rotor and said, "See? There's nothing there." Then he told me he'd gladly perform a brake service for the mere price of $390.

I smiled at him and said, "You mean to tell me that you diagnosed my car with THAT little flashlight? Charging $390 for a brake job, you should be able to afford one of these." I whipped out my U2, set it to max output, pressed the switch, and filled his dark garage with brilliant light. When I shined it on the brake pad, it was clear as day that the brake pad had plenty of life left. Also clear as day were the glum looks on the mechanic and service writer's face.

The look on their faces was well worth the price of my U2. And it's priceless knowing that this shop will think twice about bilking people out of their cash for unneeded repairs. After all, they'll never know when another customer might whip out his SureFire to shed more light on the situation

Isaiah B.
Highland Park, NJ

While attempting to reach the tip of Madagascar, in search of new botanical species, disaster struck—the rainy season came early. Pushing to make it before the rains made the roads impassable, the Land Cruiser's motor died. Then, after the driver drained all of its power winching the vehicle out of the mud, so did the battery. We were forced to hire six men to act as porters to get us to a fishing village where we could catch a boat back to Antseranana, in order to catch a plane back to Tana, the capital, and then another plane to Europe from there.

We were down to the wire, and I was due back in the States, so we set out in the darkness with our porters, miles of muddy road ahead of us. Only two of our porter s had shoes, and none had flashlights. Fortunately, I'd recently installed an MN02 extended-runtime lamp in my E2E. We walked through the night, the mud, and the rain, with only a couple of headlamps and intermittent illumination from my SureFire to keep us from stumbling and falling into the deep erosion rifts in the road. The couple of headlamps we had soon died, leaving only my E2E for illumination. We made the fishing village with an hour to spare, minus two porters and a third of our gear; they had gone ahead, without a light, and gotten lost. We found them later, covered in mud but no worse for wear, under the eaves of a fisherman's hut. It turned out that, in the dark, they had slipped down a ravine.

Despite dunkings in the Mozambique Channel, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, my used-and-abused SureFire came through unscathed. I have purchased flashlights from other manufactures, with much less happy results; some of those lights even failed to work in my own living room. Thanks for making such a great product. I'm a customer for life.

Mick C.
Twain Harte, CA

I run five miles a few times a week, and I push my daughter in a running stroller. I generally try to get back home before dusk, but on this particular night, I took an unfamiliar route. With about a mile left to run, it was already dark, and there was no sidewalk for the last mile of this excursion, so I had to share the edge of the road with oncoming traffic. Good thing I had my 6P® LED in the side pocket of the stroller. I whipped it out and used its tactical tailcap to create a strobe effect as cars came into view. Every single vehicle that passed slowed down and moved over to share the road.

I won't be going on any more runs after dark with my daughter, but good thing I had my SureFire that night. Thanks for making dependable tools for everyday situations.

Josh S.
Charlotte, NC

My little SureFire E1L survived a grueling wheat harvest season. It traveled from Electra, Texas, to Shelby, Montana, and never once failed. And now it will make the journey all over.

One night I was called off from driving the truck just so the boss could use my flashlight when we had a midnight breakdown of one of the combines. When I arrived, he had a huge four-D-cell light with a faded yellow beam; I think a lighter would have given off more light. I pulled my E1L out of my pocket, and it lit up the engine compartment bright as day.

With all of the rain Texas had in 2007, downtime was not an option. We replaced the part and the combine was up and running by morning. It's nice to know that my SureFire helped fix breakdowns but never had one.

Ryan R.
Sandston, VA

In 1992 I was traveling through Austria on a night train headed to Budapest. We were awakened by the horrible sound of stones pelting the bottom of the train and the severe jolt of emergency braking. I went to the end of the car and leaned out the window to see train personnel searching beneath the train, in vain, to determine if the train had struck an animal or a person. They were using old, anemic two-cell military flashlights with very dim outputs.

I thought to myself, "We'll be here for hours if all they have are those crappy old flashlights, so I called the conductor and offered him my SureFire 6P®, which I'd brought along for my summer in Europe. He switched it on and said, "Das ist aber hell," which means, "That's really bright." With my 6P, he made quick work of the inspection and determined that it was only a deer the train had struck. We were on our way again shortly, and he returned my 6P to me with the greatest of compliments.

What could have taken a long time was reduced to minutes, thanks to the performance of my, at that time, revolutionary SureFire 6P.

Gregory D.
Mountain View, CA

I was on a boat, paddling on an underground river, exploring a network of caves. The expedition guide had a 12-volt car battery powering a halogen lamp with a six-inch-wide head. I had a Surefire 6P® Defender® (six volts, with a 1.25-inch head). Now, if you do the math, a 12-volt battery is twice the power of six volts, and a 6-inch head should produce a better beam than a 1.25-inch head. But I guess the folks at SureFire use a different kind of math, because my Surefire 6P Defender was easily twice as bright as the 12-volt halogen light the guides were using.

With my SureFire, things we couldn't see with the guides' light all of a sudden became very visible, making their light seem like some kind of kids' toy. I think the guide was discouraged that a little handheld beat his car-battery-powered biggie. In fact, after we got out of the caves, one guide said to another, "I think I need to change my battery." The other guide replied, "But your battery is brand new." If I'd had the chance, I would have told him, "Nothing wrong with your battery-what you need to change is your light...to a SureFire!"

Noel I.
Las Pinas, Philippines

My two-year-old old son was born with no ear canals and deformed ears, but that hasn't stopped him from enjoying the great outdoors. With his bone-conduction hearing aid (about the size of ½ a AA battery) the sounds of the world are available to him. The only problem is that, from time to time, it snaps off its mount and falls to the ground. Last night, in the backyard, was one of those times.

I took my trusty Z2 CombatLight® out of my pocket and the hunt was on. I have had my Z2 for many years, and it has served me well, both at sea on submarines and at home. It took about 30 minutes searching his play area in the wood chips (the same size and color as the hearing aide) to finally find it. Lucky for me the tight focus and smooth beam reflected off the two gold screws and drew my attention to the hearing aid.

With a replacement cost of over $3,000, finding the hearing aid was music to my son's ears and a big relief to my pocketbook. My wife once asked me why I always carry my flashlight. After last night she was sure glad I did.

Joe A.
Rochester, MN

I'm a walnut farmer in Northern California, and I have a small flock of Barbados sheep for "organic" weed control on my farm. The sheep and I are frequently in some fairly rugged terrain, and I make sure to check their condition and portable electric fencing every day around nightfall. I always have my SureFire in hand to see skunks and other critters and to scare off the occasional stray dog or coyote that may be seeking out a lamb dinner.

One evening I noticed that the main matriarch sheep in the group was having a problem with her vision. I recognized the tail end of a wild oat seed that had become stuck under her eyelid, and I noticed that she and the rest of the flock were acting wild and upset because of her disorientation. They ran around frantically, while I tried in vain to catch the hurt one, but they wouldn't let me anywhere near her in their frightened state. This went on until dusk turned to night. So I pulled my trusty 6P® LED from my pocket and used it to temporarily blind and stun the sheep in a harmless way. I was then able to approach the hurt one and I remove the seed from her eye. I know that I saved lots of money on what would have been a hefty veterinary bill had the seed stayed in and caused any damage to her eye.

Thanks for producing the best flashlights in the world. I will always have my SureFire light with me wherever my sheep or I go.

Christopher C.
Colusa, CA

One cold, stormy night in March, I received a phone called from one of my friends. He told me he couldn't get his boat to start and he was 15 miles downriver from where he put in. He and another one of my friends had been catfishing that night, when they were caught by a storm, and now their boat wouldn't start. Before we hung up, they told me both of their cell phones were dying, so I wouldn't be able to call them again.

I called another friend to go with me, and we put in our boat at the same landing. He brought two rechargeable spotlights, and I brought a corded spotlight and my SureFire E2L Outdoorsman. The river was low when we started down the river to find them. Both of us had been on this river but never that far down, so we were going slow, due to the weather and all the exposed debris caused by the low water level. We started out using my spotlight, which ran off of the boat battery, but it had a short in it, so it quit working about two miles down the river. My friend started using his rechargeable spotlights, and we made it about 15 miles in the rain, finding my stranded friend, but by then they were drained.

We got my friend's boat cranked, but we were out of lights to navigate back upriver—until I remembered that my E2L was in my pocket. I gave it to my friend, and he laid on the bow and used it to navigate the 15 miles back upriver. It provided more than enough light for us to see where we were going and dodge all the debris in the river from the storm. Thanks to my E2L, we all made it home safely that cold, stormy night.

Patrick R.
Willard, NC

After reading a bunch of articles on the SureFire LEDs, and having excellent experience with my incandescent SureFire 6P®, I bought SureFire E2L in December 2007. One July evening my wife got a call from my brother-in-law's wife saying that his car broke down on I-85. I grabbed my L1 and my E2L, just in case I needed them both.

Well, I got there, and sure enough the water pump shaft was moving freely in the engine. We drove to the nearest auto-parts store, bought a new water pump, and came back to the car to start working on it. Good thing I had the E2L with me—it provided us with light for seven hours straight. My brother-in-law even said, "Your flashlight sure paid off tonight." It sure did.

Thank you, SureFire, for making an excellent product with such great runtime and reliability.

Chris C.
Suwanee, GA

I've always loved paddling my kayak at dusk on a quiet river, but one night the return trip upstream proved to be more than I'd bargained for. Unknown to me, a storm had gone through upriver, sending a surge of water downstream. Normally the return trip upstream is a workout, but that night it was a fight to not lose ground in the channel, as the rain-swollen river's current had picked up considerably. Add to that the newly displaced logs floating downstream, which can put a hurting on a plastic kayak if you don't see them, which I couldn't, since my original return time had long since passed.

Thanks to my SureFire G2® with its P61 ultra high-output lamp, I was able to hug the bank and dodge both the current and submerged trees sticking above the surface. My G2's 120 lumens cut into the night a good 40 yards ahead, allowing me to plan my route with as much comfort as I could muster after two hours of all-out paddling. That G2's been in my personal flotation device anytime it's even close to dark ever since. And, yes, it's survived more than one dunking.

Dan B.
Cincinnati, OH

While in Wisconsin, fishing for white bass, I dropped my E2D Defender® over the side of our 16 foot Alumacraft. We eventually got it back by snagging the lanyard with a treble hook. After taking the batteries out and letting the whole flashlight dry overnight, the next day we replaced the batteries and, what do you know, it came through with 60 lumens of powerful light. But that isn't even the impressive part.

The very next day, as we were backing up the boat to the launch, the truck ran over my pile of gear, completely breaking my custom fishing rod. However, as I sifted through the splintered graphite, plastic, and metal, I found my SureFire completely unfazed by the one-ton truck's tires. That was last year, and I still have my SureFire today.

Thanks for the best of the best, SureFire. I really do inflict cruel and unusual punishment on my SureFire.

Kilian W.
Lake Forest, IL

I'm a photographer, and I use many tools to help achieve a good image. There is a technique called painting with light, which I was able to achieve, thanks to my SureFire 6P®, on a recent trip to France. I was in a small town with a castle, and the sun had gone down, but I really wanted a photo of the castle with the moon behind it. By leaving the shutter open on my camera and using my 6P to "paint" the castle with light by shining the light on the stone and moving it around, I was able to get just the shot I was looking for.

My 6P has helped me out in many dark places many times. Thanks, SureFire.

Richard V.
Santa Cruz, CA

It was the evening of our town's summer festival, and it was still an hour or so before the fireworks were scheduled to start. Hundreds of kids had bought toy light-sabers from a festival vendor and were playing with them in the soccer field. It looked like a tryout for a little league Star Wars competition.

My five-year-old managed to break his toy light-saber, and the vendor was completely sold out, so we couldn't replace it. It broke my heart to see my little one crying, so I went to my car, grabbed my E2L Outdoorsman and some duct tape, cut the colored plastic "beam" from its cheap, broken light source, and taped it to my E2L. Bingo—my kid had the meanest, brightest light-saber that ever was.

Edward R.
Medfield, MA

A buddy of mine, who trained with Special Forces, showed me his M4 Devastator®. I race sailboats and have always had trouble at night with crossed halyards at the masthead, which on our boat is 60 feet up from the deck. Not being able to straighten out halyards can be a real safety issue on any sailboat, but especially on a racing boat when you're pushing things to the limit 24 hours a day in all kinds of weather during a competition. In the dark of night, in a driving rain, a four-cell Maglite isn't powerful enough to sort out the halyards.

Well, I quickly achieved hero status by borrowing my buddy's M4 and taking it on our race from Victoria, Canada, to Lahaina, Maui. It lit up the world and allowed us to clearly see, and clear, the halyards on several occasions over the 2,308-mile race. It was a major contributing factor to us winning our class in the race, and gave us the confidence we needed to see and solve even the most vexing problems at night.

This year, I gave SureFires to my entire secretarial staff as self-defense tools for Christmas. There is absolutely no substitute for the value your product generates on so many fronts.

Linn L.
Tacoma, WA

May 2007—I'm in the Arabian Gulf, on a deployment with the destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76). It was the darkest night I'd seen on the deployment; no moon, flat, calm seas—no ambient light whatsoever. We were setting up for a nighttime refuel at sea, a tricky evolution in good conditions, in which two ships drive parallel to each other at a distance no greater than 180 yards. The ships are then connected with fuel lines and cables, making the refuel/replenishment possible. Just before the receiving ship goes alongside, the bridge signals Morse code "R."

Long story short, our spotlight wasn't ready to go, and the XO looked to me and said, "Do you have that super flashlight of yours?" I pulled out my G2® Nitrolon®, with a red filter, said, "Yes, sir," and passed the signal to the supply ship. They sent the reply signal with their spotlight, and the refueling went off without a hitch.

I never thought I'd signal a vessel at sea with my SureFire. Awesome light. Thanks.

LTJG Robert I.
Imperial Beach, CA

During a solo canoe expedition on the Mississippi River, I had a choice to make: dig in and weather the four days of coming thunderstorms or paddle the one-hundred-mile leg of the journey to Memphis, TN. The only problem was, about fifty miles of the paddle would be at night. Lucky for me, I made the wise decision to purchase a 6P® LED for the journey.

As the sun fell and I slipped into the darkness, I could only guess what I was in for. Canoeing down the flooded river was challenging enough during the day, and surely the night would add more variables to the equation. I held tightly to my GPS, VHF radio, and 6P—all tools I trusted to see me through. The FM35 red filter was incredibly useful for reading the navigational charts, and with the easy flip of a switch, the powerful LED light pierced the humid darkness and illuminated channel markers.

The intensity of the 6P LED may have confused towboat pilots into thinking I was a larger vessel, but it served to let them know I was coming through. The journey was a success. Thanks for showing me the way.

Kristian G.
Libertyville, IL

One night my wife and I went out for "Date Night." As we left the house, I grabbed my trusty G2® my wife just shook her head and said, "Why are you taking that?" I replied, "Because it's my SureFire."

Anyway, after dinner we were on our way to the movie theatre, and as we drove into the turn-around of the freeway, we came upon a guy pushing his car. I jumped out and told my wife to put the car in the shopping center across the street. Well, as we were pushing the guy's car out from the underpass, traffic began to converge on us—quickly. So I pulled out my G2 and pointed it at the driver's side of the car coming at us, and the driver abruptly slammed on his brakes. If it hadn't been for my SureFire, I'm certain we could have gotten hurt, or possibly killed, because the cars were coming pretty fast around that turn-around, and there were no lights in that underpass.

After we moved the car into the parking lot, and I joined my wife, I said, "You see, it came in handy, didn't it?" All she could do was smile. Thanks for making a superior product.

Raul C.
Houston, TX

I have an E2D LED Defender®, and I bring it with me practically everywhere I go, in this particular case, on one of my early evening runs in the city. I usually keep the E2DL in my hand when I run, since I don't like things bouncing around in my pocket. Plus, it gives me some level of security against stray dogs that may decide to tag along.

On this run, I was in the middle of crossing the street when a cab raced towards me, not heeding the pedestrian lane. I quickly brought my SureFire into action, blasting the cab driver with all of the E2DL's 120 lumens. The driver slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt only a few feet from where I stood. It's great to know my E2DL has power to stop reckless drivers right in their tracks.

Christian P.
Makati City, Philippines

Last Friday night, my fiancé and I were walking our dogs in Ventura, CA, on Main Street. It was about 9 p.m., and the area is loaded with bars and people drinking, especially on weekend nights. We were crossing Main Street, at a stop light, with a green light when a drunk driver was making a left turn toward us. When I noticed he wasn't slowing down, I pulled out my SureFire E1B and first shined it on the ground. When that didn't work, I shined it directly in his eyes, at which point he slammed on his brakes, skidding to within a few feet from us. Thank God I had my E1B on me.

Kent A.
Camarillo, CA

I was hiking in the middle of the woods, in Pennsylvania. It was an all-day hiking trip, staring at 5:30 a.m. and ending about 9:00 p.m. We used my SureFire G2Z in the morning to get us to the trail, because it was still pitch black at that time of the morning.

When it was time to head back, around 7:30 p.m., it was starting to get dark. As soon as night fell, it became obvious we were lost in the woods—about the worst feeling in the world. I went into my backpack and took out my G2Z. Its beam was so strong and worked so well that we were able to back track our prints and eventually find the trail markers.

That SureFire saved us from spending a cold night in the woods. I will never buy another brand of flashlight.

Matthew D'Adamo
Philadelphia, PA

I'm 16 years old and a member of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. About a year ago a Cessna aircraft crashed into a mountainside, and the ELT (emergency locating transmitter) went off in the tail of the aircraft. Civil Air Patrol received a call from the Air Force saying that we needed to perform search and rescue.

The mission consumed a total of four days, and the local ground teams were quickly becoming exhausted, so the Incident Commander expanded the call to other ground teams in the Maryland/ West Virginia area. I received a call at 3:00 a.m., and a few hours later I left for Hagerstown with my local ground team. I cannot express how exhausting the trek was, walking up and down those mountains.

My team had been searching for about four hours, and it was starting to get dark, so I broke out my SureFire Z2. Everyone else had Maglites, which paled in comparison to my SureFire. Thanks to my bright light, an hour later we were able to locate the downed aircraft. Unfortunately, there were no survivors in the aircraft, but thanks to my SureFire, the Civil Air Patrol was able to bring closure to the families of those in the plane.

Jason L.
Owings, MD

I was working in Kuwait on a land rig, and a driller and I went into town one night to get some chow. On our way back, a real bad sandstorm hit. We lost our way and went off of the road and into a ditch, rolling the truck onto its side. We had to call to get a lift, and even through the fierce storm my SureFire was able to shine through the sand so help could find us. Now all guys on the rig swear by them.

Thanks, guys.

Mitch H.
Saint Charles, MO

While on a family vacation in Branson, Missouri, we visited Marvel Cave at Silver Dollar City. Before the tour started I noticed the guide was carrying a two-cell Maglite on his side. I told my wife that I was amazed he didn't have a better light.

When we got down deep into the cave, he started showing us different things in the dark caverns. About half way through the tour, he tried pointing the beam from his light at something to show us, but it was too far away for his weak light to reach. He told the group that the cave was so big lights couldn't reach some places. I immediately pulled out my brand-new SureFire LX2 and proved him wrong. Everyone on the tour was amazed at how bright my light was. One guy even asked if I could shine my light down a huge hole so he could take a photo.

The rest of the tour the guide used my LX2 to show people the hidden features of the cave. When the guide returned the light to me at the end of the tour, he told me he was going to replace his Maglite with a SureFire.

Jeff T.
Louisburg, KS

I was tracking an 11-point buck during the 2007 muzzleloader season, and I was in very thick cover in northern Wisconsin, with temperatures down to -18° F (-28° with wind-chill factor). I started with what I thought was plenty of daylight, but it quickly became apparent that I was turned around in the dark. I reached for a granola bar in my jacket pocket when I noticed my E2D Defender® was in my pocket too. Not only did my light save me during that bad weather in the dark, I was also able to retrieve the buck and find a logging road, which led me home. What could have ended in tragedy, ended with me safely home—with the biggest buck I've ever harvested.

Alex K.
Park Falls, WI

A few months ago, I was in Kenya, with a medical team, working out of many of the slums outside of Nairobi. Since so many areas are without power, it is pitch black most nights. While in an area called Rongai, we had many people with infections and wounds that needed to be cleaned and treated, but without power it was almost impossible. Good thing I had my SureFire Outdoorsman. The flashlight lasted all day, providing enough light to help over 370 people who desperately needed medical attention. I ended up giving up my light to a local doctor who runs into the same issues we dealt with, on a daily basis. It's nice to know my light is still doing some good over there.

John V.
Orange, CA

Last night, my SureFire flashlight paid for itself. I'm a student at Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and when I first purchased my E2D LED Defender®, a lot of people joked that I'd been ripped off. Even after I demonstrated its power, they remained skeptical.

Well, last night my friend and I went for a walk, so I brought my flashlight with me (college campuses can be dangerous at night). On the way back to our dorm, a car skidded around a corner and headed straight for us at 50 miles per hour. It all happened so quickly that I didn't have time to move out of the way. As if moving on autopilot, I aimed my SureFire at the driver's side window, blasting the driver with the full 120 lumens. The driver swerved off the road to miss us (missing us by about eight feet) and crashed through some bushes before continuing down the road. As they passed us, I noticed that two teenagers in the car were smiling and laughing—totally oblivious to what was going on.

I'm thankful that I had my SureFire flashlight with me. It undoubtedly saved my life as well as my friend's life. Thanks for making such a reliable product. I'm now a loyal customer for life.

Ben C.
Timonium, MD

I am a middle school science teacher in Alabama, and one day, last spring, it was a rainy, nasty day, and we were under tornado watches until late afternoon. The tornado watch quickly turned into a tornado warning, and we were instructed to take our classes to a downstairs room for safety.

All the teachers at my school are issued a classroom light (I will refrain from mentioning the brand of the light we're issued, so as not to embarrass them), but since the quality is not to my liking, I always put my SureFire E2D LED Defender® in my desk once I get to work. So, when we were instructed to go downstairs and the power happened to go out, the few teachers who actually had their issued flashlights turned them on. Needless to say, we were still in the dark until my Defender provided a nice, bright light that amazed the kids and my coworkers. Not only did it allow us to see and keep track of all the students, it allowed the kids to forget about the bad weather so we were all able to relax until we were given the green light to return to our classrooms.

Thanks, SureFire, for the great products you make.

Nic G.
Cullman, AL

It all started one morning when the wind started blowing and building up throughout the day. As I was getting ready for evening church service, I put my SureFire G2® into my suit pocket. My wife asked me why I was taking that to church, and I told her that, if the wind didn't die down a little, we would almost certainly be without lights at church. Well, about an hour into service, a big gust of wind knocks out power to the whole town. Everyone in church was looking for the door, when I pulled out my G2 and lit the way for everyone to get out safely. That night my wife looked at me and said, "Honey, I'm sure glad you took your light to church."

This light has gotten me through the police academy, through caves I explored in college, and now through an interrupted church service. I love this little SureFire.

Steven P.
Cincinnati, OH

As a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Michigan State Police, in Detroit, my role as a first responder does not always end when my shift does. Sometimes I'm thrust into situations that require immediate action. Such was the case when a recent winter blast turned the area freeways into a black-ice nightmare for unsuspecting drivers. Luckily, I had my trusty SureFire 6P® with me.

Within a mile of my departure, I crept up a slight incline on a curving freeway onramp. I watched one car right after another slide and crash in front of me. Then I noticed a vehicle about 100 yards in front of me, facing the wrong way in the right lane of traffic and unable to move out of harm's way. I stopped and began to lay out a flare pattern about 50 yards away to alert approaching vehicles to the vehicle's presence. With the wind chill well below zero and terrible visibility, I knew from experience that it was only a matter of time before these folks would be hit by another out-of-control motorist. The flares helped, but I needed a better early warning system. That's when I reached for my 6P flashlight.

Using the flashlight like a strobe, by clicking the tailcap switch on and off, I was able to fend off disaster from a safe distance—for nearly an hour—until help arrived in the form of wreckers and marked patrol cars. That night, my SureFire very likely saved that couple, and other motorists, from a crash and almost certainly injury. Thanks, SureFire.

John B.
Ferndale, MI

I work for an aero-medical service in New England and never leave for a mission without my SureFire E2D LED Defender®. One night, it may've just saved a man's life.

We'd landed on an interstate after a severe car accident around 3:00 a.m. The state police secured the landing zone from traffic, but a bystander walked through the woods from his home to view the scene. As I exited the aircraft while it was running, the man ran toward the helicopter in close proximity to the low-spinning rotor blades. My E2D made the perfect strobe, flashing from five to 120 lumens to summon the police to intercept the bystander before he became another patient.

After we debriefed the incident, other flight medics went out and bought SureFire flashlights. Now they won't leave the ground without theirs, either.

Mike H.
Boston, MA

I'm a photographer, and we recently had a power outage that started Friday afternoon and continued through part of the weekend. Around 2:00 a.m. that night, I couldn't sleep, so I thought I would try working on a product photo shoot for some friends that I'd been trying to finish. The only problem was that there was still no power. So I used my SureFire M6^® and L6 to illuminate my light tent and the products. I was surprised at how well my SureFire flashlights lit my product.

Nicholas C.
Pittsburgh, PA

Last night my wife's alternator belt came off her car's engine. It was around 9:00 p.m. or so and pretty dark. Luckily, I always keep my SureFire G2^® on me at all times. The belt may have come off at night, but it was as good as daylight under that hood. I fixed it pretty quickly, and we were soon on our way. One more reason why I always carry my SureFire.

Nate T.
Cookesville, TN

It was a dark, moonless winter evening in Yosemite Valley as my wife, daughter, and I finished our meal at the Yosemite Lodge Cafeteria. Suddenly, we were plunged into pitch-black darkness. No power, no emergency lights, no generators. No problem.

I just reached for the E1B that's always tucked into my pocket and shined it off the ceiling—plenty of light for dining to continue. While other lesser lights flickered on here and there, it was the little E1B that really lit up the room. When we finally had to leave, I found myself peppered with questions about my "lantern" and met with stunned looks when the questioners realized that the "spotlight" was hidden in my palm.

The next day we learned that the outage was caused by a ringtail cat that explored the wrong part of a substation, knocking out power throughout the valley until the wee hours of the morning. Good thing I had my SureFire so the only effect of the overnight outage was a little added adventure.

Steve C.
El Cerrito, CA

I have owned my SureFire L1 for over three years, and I never feel comfortable leaving the house without it. One moonless night at the beach, after eating at a BBQ, a couple of us decided to take our float out for a spin. I foolishly rushed into the waves with my glasses still on, and they were flushed away when the first wave hit me and threw me underwater.

I kept praying that something resembling a pair of glasses would appear in the murky waters. Thankfully, I had my trusty L1 on me and my myopia wasn't too bad, so I dunked my flashlight into the water and started searching for my glasses. It only took me about 15 minutes to spot my glasses drifting over the sandy bottom below. My friends all thought I was mad when I dunked the flashlight in the water—in their worlds, flashlights and water didn't mix. But not in SureFire's. If it wasn't for my L1, finding a pair of washed away glasses on a moonless beach would've been next to impossible.

Andrew P.
Shatin, Hong Kong