Advice for Night Dive

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Matsya

Contributor
Messages
209
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0
Location
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
# of dives
50 - 99
Hello everyone,

I am doing my first night dive tomorrow. I have read the theory portion in the PADI Dive Adventures Book and have done the knowledge review. But I would like to have practical advice on any specific things to do and watch out for.

Thanks in advance
 
Don't shine your light into other peoples faces. Monitor your depth more often. Turn on your light before you go in the water because if dropped you won't find it.

Dave (aka "Squirt")
 
MAke sure you and your buddy can distinguish each other underwater. You will only be able to see what is directly in your flashlight beam and the lights of other people. Even if you and your buddy both have red flashing lights on your BC, it won't help much if everyone else has red flashing lights.

Night dives are fun, but they require a lot more attention your air (which you will probalby use up faster), your depth and your bouyancy control.
 
Your buoyancy is a little harder to keep track of because you don't have much reference to tell you where you are in the water column. It's really easy to end up at the surface while trying to do things like communicate with your buddy or navigate so stay neutral and pay attention to your depth gauge. Remaining horizontal while communicating, etc. instead of "standing up" like many new divers tend to do will make maintaining your buoyancy without a reference easier.
Ber :lilbunny:
 
make sure you pay attention to your buddy; stay together

make sure you remember which way to go to exit the water

take an extra light just in case yours fritzes
 
If there are jelly fish in your neck of the pond, don't use the lights until you get to depth, and turn them off before you surface.

Had them sting the hell out of me before I learned this.
 
good point

they live in the top 15 feet, so do turn your light on, just press it against
your bc to keep it from shining, until you're down at 20 feet or so

you could also turn the light on and off up top to make sure it works.

you just dont' want to dive and then find out your light isn't working.
 
Light is important so take care checking your primary and backup light. Put fresh batteries. You should be able to locate easily your secondary light in dark in case of primary light failure. When you go down sit down sit on a sandy patch and switch off your light. After some time 1-2 minutes your night vision improves and you will be able to see quite a lot without lights. Move your arms and you will see pryotechnique display of bioluminescence caused by zoo planktons. Its is an fantastic experience. Check your compass and note your heading. Based on the dive time start returning on reciprocal heading its the least confusing method of navigation. Make adjustment of drift due to any currents. Look at your bubbbles going up and that will reassure you the about the direction of surface.Do not task load. Night dive is fun so no need to panic. Do not do any dives more than 12 m in in your AOW night dives and you will be comfortable.
 
Communication - make sure you communicate even more slowly, frequently, and obviously than on your day dives. It is much harder (of course) to see facial expressions and non-lit hand motions at night. When you are with an instructor they will take the lead on this, but this area is where my buddy and I need the most improvement on our night dives.
 
Marking your entry/exit point with an identifiable light source when shore-diving can be handy when your reciprocal is off a hair.
 

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