Any advice for first night dive?

[JackD342]

I love night dives, and even enjoy them in the local quarry. But I would offer you some cautions depending on the dive plan.

• Typical guidance is to do a night dive on a location your were familiar with during the day. You have dived this quarry before, but I assume it is large enough that you may not have done THIS dive before. It would be a lot better if you get there and do that same dive in the afternoon, and then follow up in the same spot at night. Especially as a new diver, doing your first night dive.
• You also say the quarry bottom is about 80 feet. Is that the plan? Or are you diving a shallower area, or following the quarry walls? 80 feet at night is a bit questionable in the first place, plus a new diver, etc....
• Visibility in your quarry? The more challenging that is, the more you should think about my first two points.

I bet you plan to go on to Advanced Open Water and do more training. Even if this is not an instructional dive, why not just get the class book for AOW or Night Diver now and read up before this dive? You can do an official one for a class later.

 

[echopkb]

I am going to follow the experienced divers' lead and just go along for the experience. I have no problem deferring to more experienced divers. Then again, I may chicken out since the weather has turned cold. I have one dive since becoming certified and I am feeling extremely intimidated. Vis my first time there was very good; the second time it was about 3 feet and lost our guide and my buddy at one point. The guide outswam us and we surfaced when we couldn't find him.

Would love to do advanced open water and actually discussed it with a friend yesterday. Their advice was to get some more dives under my belt beforehand.

 

[CT-Rich]

I wouldn’t just “follow his lead”. He may not appreciate your skill level and your comfort level. I woul keep the dive relatively shallow and short. Say max depth 30’ and no longer than 30 minutes or some such. He might seem like a pro to a person with 5 dives,but may not be much more experienced than you. Set clear expectations about the dive plan and limits. He may have great dive in mind, but you should know what it is.

 

[boulderjohn]

Night dives are great except for just one drawback--they have to be at night. As I grow older and older, I find myself less inclined to suit up at the end of a hard day and get back in the water. When I do, though, it's a great experience.

 

[Roger Hobden]

I have one dive since becoming certified and I am feeling extremely intimidated.

You have your answer right there: you should probably not do that dive.

Some people, like myself, feel completely at home in the water when at night from the start, so, no learning curve about managing any form of darkness-induced anxiety. But many people are not like that at all. That is the reason why night-diving is considered a Level 2 or "advanced" skill.

At the very minimum, it would probably be more prudent to do a first night dive under the direct and exclusive supervision of a certified Instructor.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have one dive since becoming certified and I am feeling extremely intimidated.

Here is a rule you can follow from your first dive after certification to your last dive, even if that path takes you through the most advanced diving possible:

If you are not comfortable doing a planned dive, don't do it.​

 

[Landlocked123]

As others have said. Depending on the depth one good way to do night quarry dives is to circumnavigate the edges. inevitably you will have what are wall dives. These can vary in steepness and height and be really cool. I have easily over 50 night quarry dives in and staying shallow in the 25-30 foot range will extend your dive by reducing gas consumption and be very rewarding. Whatever you do...slow down... take it realy slow. you will notice more things and enjoy your dive so much more. Also, depending on the visibility (another reason to stay above 30 feet) you really dont need a 9million lumen light ! any 300-800 lumen light will work well. Depending on the amount of divers in the water get matching color tank lights for your and buddy and stay close so you dont get separated. Enjoy

 

[SeaHorse81]

Whenever you feel ready and excited (not intimidated) to go, watch the speed of your descent. If you don't have a stable visual reference all the way down (like a mooring line if you're diving from a boat), keep a very close watch on your depth reading as you descend. I just about blew my eardrums out on my first night dive because I was so distracted by how different it was (as was my equally new buddy) that we unwittingly dropped rather rapidly. It really hurt, but fortunately, no long-term harm was done.

 

[dberry]

I surprised no one has mentioned the issue of communicating with your buddy (or guide). All the usual hand-signals aren't particularly useful when you have to shine your light on your hand to be seen by the buddy. So, working out some key signals in advance is crucial.

Night dives in the ocean can be fantastic. In a quarry... not so much. On the bright side, you won't have to worry about the one drawback I encountered at night in Cozumel: being attacked by sea lice while holding a safety stop. Every time I'd shine my light on my dive computer to check the 5min countdown I'd get swarmed by the annoying little buggers. They seemed to hang out right around the SS depth, as we didn't notice them when we were deeper.

 

[MichaelMc]

For mid water orientation, little specs of dirt etc in the water can give you reference points. Just focus on them and move up, down or stay relative to them depending on what you want.

A few more day dives at that site might be on order.

If you are not comfortable doing a planned dive, don't do it.​