Any advice for first night dive?

[echopkb]

Newly certified diver here. Have the opportunity to do my first night dive in a local quarry I have dived two previous times. Finished my checkout dives there. My first encounter with darkness was one previous dive in the Blue Grotto spring in Florida and did not anticipate the darkness. It was disconcerting on the first dive but I did better on the second. Will be with very experienced divers who, I hope, will coach me along.

Any suggestions, what to expect, how do you know which way is up? Shine the light on the bubbles? With little frame of reference, how do you fine tune buoyancy?

 

[Snoweman]

Interesting question. How deep are you planning on going? All of my night dives have been 40' or less with bottom being at depth. Knowing which way is up is easy when you know you're at bottom. The best thing about night dives are the creatures that don't come out during the day. I don't have much interest in diving quarries. I definitely don't have an interest in diving a quarry at night.

 

[northernone]

For my first quarry night dive I would use the bottom as my reference. Both know what way is DOWN and also to give a visual reference for buoyancy.

There's really not much to see in the middle of a 100ft deep quarry if you're 50ft down and its just black water in all directions. Generally divers don't do that anyway.

For an ascent in the dark, yes you can use your light to light up your bubbles to see which way they go. Also helpful to watch your dive computer / depth gauge to monitor depth using hard data rather than visual input.

If you are excited for the dive, enjoy. If not... You can be a great diver for decades and never want to night dive a quarry.

Does that somewhat address what you are thinking about?

 

[echopkb]

I have been to 60-65 feet, and bottom is probably 75-80 feet. Being landlocked, we get wet where we can. We were in the dive shop today and the instructors asked as if we wanted to do a night dive in the quarry. My first thought was, "what is there to see in a quarry at night?" A new experience...

 

[Diver0001]

From the very first time I dove at night I was hooked. I love night diving and prefer it to diving during the day.

 

[Snoweman]

Being landlocked, we get wet where we can.

I am definitely landlocked being west of ATL. I wait until I can make airfares/vacation time/hotels work for my next warm water dive. I like seeing critters, and am too claustrophobic for a wet suit.

 

[mrAnthony]

My advice is to don't ignore the "backup" rule and do have two. My second night dive, my rechargeable light blinked 5 times then died. I was one of the "I don't need to stinking backup light" guys and woulda had to cancel the dive but another diver loaned me his backup. I had just charged it the day before, so I expected it to work, but Murphy stepped in.

I've seen some weird stuff at night that I never saw during the day, so be prepared to be startled. It was some kind of ribbon-like eel that I didn't see until he was 2 feet in front of my face. Shook me up for a few seconds. He wasn't "scary" it was just one of those "He's in my face and I don't know what it is" moments.

If you don't know which way is up (and your light is on a wrist lanyard or attached to you in some way as it should be) just let go. Physics dictates it will fall "down". Just make sure it's on (as it should be at all times when in the water). You can always retrieve a dropped light that's on in the dark. If it's off, then your SOL if your method of attachment fails you.

Another piece of advice I've found useful in the past, I've lost dive lights and found dive lights. I take a small piece of paper and write my name/contact info on it, and slip it in between the batteries. Hopefully, at some point, whoever finds it will have to change the batteries and he/she will find my slip of paper. No guarantee, but hopefully an honest fellow diver would call me and tell me he found my $100 dive light.

 

[Photo Girl]

Stay close to your experienced buddy. Within touching distance.

 

[CT-Rich]

Not sure what there is to see in a quarry at night, but night diving in salt water is the balls. It is not much different than diving during the day with limited visibility. Bring two lights per diver. A shore beacon to mark the exit is helpful (I have regretted skipping this). I would recommend keeping it to a simple, familiar site and have a partner that has experience.

Make sure you try turning off your light for part of the dive! Up here in New England there are plenty of bioluminescent critters that you just want to see. You don’t really need a light cannon, i’ll often dive with my fingers partly covering the lens of my light so I can spot animals before the light spooks them.

 

[CT-Rich]

You never know what you are going to find on a night dive.....