Let $G(n)={\textrm {Sp}}(n,1)$ or ${\textrm {SU}}(n,1)$ . We classify conjugation orbits of generic pairs of loxodromic elements in $G(n)$ . Such pairs, called ‘nonsingular’, were introduced by Gongopadhyay and Parsad for ${\textrm {SU}}(3,1)$ . We extend this notion and classify $G(n)$ -conjugation orbits of such elements in arbitrary dimension. For $n=3$ , they give a subspace that can be parametrized using a set of coordinates whose local dimension equals the dimension of the underlying group. We further construct twist-bend parameters to glue such representations and obtain local parametrization for generic representations of the fundamental group of a closed (genus $g \geq 2$ ) oriented surface into $G(3)$ .

We give a new proof of a theorem of D. Calegari that says that the Cayley graph of a surface group with respect to any generating set lying in finitely many mapping class group orbits has infinite diameter. This applies, for instance, to the generating set consisting of all simple closed curves.

Let $M$ be a complete hyperbolic 3-manifold homotopy equivalent to a compact surface $\Sigma $. Let $\Phi $ be a proper subsurface of $\Sigma $, whose boundary is sufficiently short in $M$. We show that the union of all Margulis tubes and cusps homotopic into $\Phi $ lifts to a uniformly quasiconvex subset of hyperbolic 3-space.