Discussion: Map in which hand ?

Despite 35 years of using computers I still function without glasses. In M50 this means I do well when it rains.

I'm short-sighted in my right eye and long-sighted in my left - should I switch to carrying my map in my right-hand instead of my left ?

Try it and see if you like it. (Personally, I can see things held in either hand with either or both eyes, but...)

You'll have to buy a new compass!

Yep, hopefully someone will lose a LH one at one of our next few events so I can try it.

Can see OK with either hand (as it were), but wondered if it was better to match up. I know a few people wear just one contact lens to get the same effect I have by accident, so they may have input.

received wisdom is carry the map in your dominant hand - I don't know how much this has to do with hand stability and how much is due to 'dominant eye' (which almost always is the same side). Just don't tell the thumb compass manufacturers this - I like that there's one thing out there that the 'default model' is built for me!

Yes. I'm short-sighted in my left eye and long-sighted in my right; so I carry the map and compass in my left hand. That's got to be a lot easier than dragging the other hand across my chest to get a glimpse of the map.
However, I've always carried the map in my left hand even before the eye discrepancy developed. And I'm right handed - that was mainly so I could use the "dominant" arm to brace/steer myself through scrubby undergrowth. I stopped doing that in Australia when the undergrowth fought back.

I always carry the map in my left hand even though I'm right handed too. I'm short sighted in both eyes.

I guess they do things backwards down under but for those of us who started orienteering before the arrival of the thumb compass the right-handed person would hold the compass in the right hand to take advantage of the better dexterity of those fingers in turning the compass housing thus forming a compass hand habit that was not easy to break.

I hold my base plate compass in my left hand too so I can turn the bezel with my right hand.

I'm very right handed, and always carried my map and baseplate compass in my right hand until I got a thumb compass, and then I still carried them both in my right hand with the compass backwards, until they started making thumb compasses for the right hand. I basically never turn the bezel unless I'm sitting around bored.

And I carry my SI stick in my left hand, on the ring finger, palm side, pointing toward my wrist.

And I'm somewhat nearsighted in both eyes.

I don't turn the bezel on my thumb compass, only on the base plate compass during rogaines because in WA terrain, if you don't go straight line, you are adding unnecessary distance.

My SI stick is on my right hand and points towards the control.

I am:

Right handed,
Need glasses to read fine detail on the map for the past 10 years
Thumb Compass and Map in my left hand
SI Stick on my right hand,
If using a punch card then that is on my left hand
On Rogaines I use a base plate and mostly carry it on my right hand.

I think when I used to use a base plate for Orienteering I had everything in my right hand and the punch card in my left hand

I am relatively old, have had cataract surgery on both eyes some years ago and opted for a reading lens in my left eye specifically for map-reading and a distance lens in my right eye. Works well, the brain sorts things out, and this was an intentional reversal of pre-surgery vision. Learned on a baseplate compass in right hand (still think it's likely superior for pure bearings) 40 years ago; and now use only left-hand thumb compass (use bezel frequently) with map and S.I. on right middle finger. Lord knows what you'll be using 40 years from now.

Mapping App located directly in your optical nerve.

Short sighted in both eyes.
Right hand dominant.
Left hand map and compass.
Right hand, pointing finger for the SI stick.

I never use the bezel on the thumb compass - that just confuses me.

Q: If you wear your SI stick on your ring finger - does that mean you have made the ultimate commitment to Orienteering?

Right hand dominant

@Tash I have heard of the "Brides of Christ" but "Brides of O" must be something

tRicky: My SI stick is on my right hand and points towards the control.

Wow, I want to know where I can get one of those. There are times when that would be extremely useful!

My optician has given me varying strength contacts - the dominant eye (right in my case) is ned for long distance vision - i.e. terrain and the other is used for map reading - with a lens optimising short distance vision. Works OK, though recently I've tried without a lens in my left eye and I think it works even better for map reading, just not quite so good for terrain checking.

I guess so.

Oh JJ, you big romantic softy. ♥

Nothing says romance like a clenched fist.

(And I'm going to call for an end to this particular train of thought before it gets even creepier.)

Had perfect vision until I was 45-50 years old, but I had started to use safety glasses in all non-rainy events about 10 years earlier.

Currently I use bifocal O glasses (+3.0) when it is dry, or a single +3.25 lens in my right (dominant) eye for wet days, including most Night-O events.

Both eyes are slightly long-sighted now, the right is the worst so having a lens there and no lens for the left eye works well even though I normally carry a base plate compass in my right hand and the map in my left.