First Night Dive

[Bubbletrubble]

Cool, I understand all those thoughts for sure. I was just curious what all was on your mind.

This was a pretty shallow dive, mostly hanging around 30ft. I did feel pretty good being with a dive master and an instructor. And I was very happy with the communication before the dive about everything including signals with our lights. These girls were great! I was actually more worried for them being with me...lol! But, thankfully it went great!

But, I've never thought about what you said, and I see your points. Thank you!

@SoccerJeni: I'd estimate that about 90% of my local dives are night dives. I've done a few night dives with new-to-me buddies at a site in my "backyard." On one dive, there was a buddy separation issue. The guy swam off out of view very quickly on multiple occasions, and I got tired chasing him down. Another time the guy (diver from Los Angeles area) was notably frustrated with the macro-life that our dive group spent a lot of time staring at. He kept motioning for us to leave our little gold mine of nudibranchs, and frankly it annoyed the crap out of me. Clearly, we had different diving goals.

A couple of years ago, our group encountered a lone diver who began chatting with us before one of our night dives. He was standing over his assembled gear which included a spiffy-looking DUI drysuit, stainless steel Halcyon BP/W with weighted STA, HP120 tank, and shiny Scubapro regs. He asked to join us. I politely declined, citing our no-new-divers-on-a-night-dive rule, but felt horrible about it. Then he started asking questions. He asked whether I thought 45 lbs. of lead was a lot to wear for a drysuit diver. He was curious because the suit (and all of the other gear) belonged to a friend, and he had never dived with a drysuit or a BP/W before. After a few pointed questions, I learned that he didn't know how to do a proper weight check. Then he proceeded to ask me how to navigate the dive site. I gave him the best instructions I could, but I recommended that he not do the dive since he was unfamiliar with the site, unfamiliar with his gear, likely over-weighted, and was not equipped properly for solo diving. We entered the water by ourselves, negotiated the surf which was a little higher than usual (3'-4' waves), did a leisurely 90 minute dive, and returned to shore. When we exited the water, I was surprised to see that the guy had attempted the dive anyway. He was pissed off because he couldn't find the wall I had described and he kept "floating to the top." He blamed the faulty equipment. I suspect he resented me for not diving with him.

I realize that you aren't like this guy. Your situation was different in that you met your buddies through a referral. That carries some weight, for sure. I'm sharing this story with you to let you know that it's OK to decline a request for a stranger to join your dive group. If you dive long enough, you'll be placed in similar situations. It's good to have worked out ahead of time why you might not want to dive with a stranger and under what conditions you'd be OK with it.

HUH??? I never said that... That was that bubble person.. Information that was ridiculous to me. Lynne I have dove with new people at every level and will continue to do so.

@Kevin Carlisle: To clarify, I like diving with all levels of divers, particularly beginner divers. I just won't do a night dive with them as our first dive together, particularly when they've never done a night dive before. What's the rush anyway? We could always do a day dive together on the following day. If that makes me "ridiculous," so be it. Perhaps I might see things differently if I were a trained cave diver, I don't know. I'm just an average OW recreational diver. I have no professional or technical scuba certifications.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

@SoccerJeni: I'd estimate that about 90% of my local dives are night dives. I've done a few night dives with new-to-me buddies at a site in my "backyard." On one dive, there was a buddy separation issue. The guy swam off out of view very quickly on multiple occasions, and I got tired chasing him down. Another time the guy (diver from Los Angeles area) was notably frustrated with the macro-life that our dive group spent a lot of time staring at. He kept motioning for us to leave our little gold mine of nudibranchs, and frankly it annoyed the crap out of me. Clearly, we had different diving goals.

A couple of years ago, our group encountered a lone diver who began chatting with us before one of our night dives. He was standing over his assembled gear which included a spiffy-looking DUI drysuit, stainless steel Halcyon BP/W with weighted STA, HP120 tank, and shiny Scubapro regs. He asked to join us. I politely declined, citing our no-new-divers-on-a-night-dive rule, but felt horrible about it. Then he started asking questions. He asked whether I thought 45 lbs. of lead was a lot to wear for a drysuit diver. He was curious because the suit (and all of the other gear) belonged to a friend, and he had never dived with a drysuit or a BP/W before. After a few pointed questions, I learned that he didn't know how to do a proper weight check. Then he proceeded to ask me how to navigate the dive site. I gave him the best instructions I could, but I recommended that he not do the dive since he was unfamiliar with the site, unfamiliar with his gear, likely over-weighted, and was not equipped properly for solo diving. We entered the water by ourselves, negotiated the surf which was a little higher than usual (3'-4' waves), did a leisurely 90 minute dive, and returned to shore. When we exited the water, I was surprised to see that the guy had attempted the dive anyway. He was pissed off because he couldn't find the wall I had described and he kept "floating to the top." He blamed the faulty equipment. I suspect he resented me for not diving with him.

I realize that you aren't like this guy. Your situation was different in that you met your buddies through a referral. That carries some weight, for sure. I'm sharing this story with you to let you know that it's OK to decline a request for a stranger to join your dive group. If you dive long enough, you'll be placed in similar situations. It's good to have worked out ahead of time why you might not want to dive with a stranger and under what conditions you'd be OK with it.

@Kevin Carlisle: To clarify, I like diving with all levels of divers, particularly beginner divers. I just won't do a night dive with them as our first dive together, particularly when they've never done a night dive before. What's the rush anyway? We could always do a day dive together on the following day. If that makes me "ridiculous," so be it. Perhaps I might see things differently if I were a trained cave diver, I don't know. I'm just an average OW recreational diver. I have no professional or technical scuba certifications.

Thats all fine and I would agree you make some good points. My thoughts were why you would even bring it up. Someone is excited abuit their first and then you go and say I wouldnt have done it with you. As you know now she was in excellent hands. People on here are usually too eager to give lectures when its not needed. I usually agree with all your posts so dont take it as an attack and by all means dont ignore your feelings about night diving with newbies. I have always been comfy at night dives, no different than day dives to me wether it was the ocean or a quarry or a cave. You can see as far as you can see. In time she will learn the big picture of night diving but newer divers need to enjoy rather than being overloaded with what ifs unless they are doing foolish things that needs discouraging.

 

[DaMaDo]

I'm glad you enjoyed the night dive.

I went on one recently in the keys and had a blast. It was during my AOW so I was with an instructor who took us farther away from the boat than I would have gone alone but he knew the area well. During the dive I was thinking navigation would have been very difficult had I wanted to find my way back to the boat.

I guess maybe once you start diving an area so often you know it like your own backyard but I'm not close to knowing that feeling yet.

Here's a video of my first night dive on molasses reef in key largo:
[youtubehq]swOyQkvZUng[/youtubehq]

 

[USMCNJ]

night dives are great! its a while new world under there. relax and enjoy

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Thats all fine and I would agree you make some good points. My thoughts were why you would even bring it up. Someone is excited abuit their first and then you go and say I wouldnt have done it with you. As you know now she was in excellent hands. People on here are usually too eager to give lectures when its not needed. I usually agree with all your posts so dont take it as an attack and by all means dont ignore your feelings about night diving with newbies. I have always been comfy at night dives, no different than day dives to me wether it was the ocean or a quarry or a cave. You can see as far as you can see. In time she will learn the big picture of night diving but newer divers need to enjoy rather than being overloaded with what ifs unless they are doing foolish things that needs discouraging.

@Kevin Carlisle: If my posts came off as a "lecture," that wasn't my intention. The last thing I wanted to do was overload SoccerJeni with "whatifs." If you read my initial post in this thread, I think you'll see that the tone was supportive. I believe strongly that novice divers should eliminate as many new variables as they can when extending their diving experiences. Doing a day dive at the site before doing the first night dive ever goes a long way in minimizing nervousness/anxiety surrounding the fun event. I was merely explaining that, if I were in her shoes, I would have been a little nervous, too. Later she asked why I'd feel that way...and I answered. Perhaps I should have answered more briefly, I don't know.

 

[SoccerJeni]

Jen, get to the Keys please. The night dives at The Elbow average 70+ feet viz in 80+ degree water!

P.S. Do you dream in.... scuba too?

Shoot! I was just there at the beginning of November. I think some of my dreams are about trying to get to dive, but I can tell you that most of my daytime thoughts are about diving.

yeah.

Congrats Jeni. Make your way to SoFla. We have cookies.

COOKIES!!!! Well, you just said the magic word! Lol! I'd love to find out what night dives in the ocean are like...write about it here if you want. It would be a treat to read.

@SoccerJeni: I'd estimate that about 90% of my local dives are night dives. I've done a few night dives with new-to-me buddies at a site in my "backyard." On one dive, there was a buddy separation issue. The guy swam off out of view very quickly on multiple occasions, and I got tired chasing him down. Another time the guy (diver from Los Angeles area) was notably frustrated with the macro-life that our dive group spent a lot of time staring at. He kept motioning for us to leave our little gold mine of nudibranchs, and frankly it annoyed the crap out of me. Clearly, we had different diving goals.

A couple of years ago, our group encountered a lone diver who began chatting with us before one of our night dives. He was standing over his assembled gear which included a spiffy-looking DUI drysuit, stainless steel Halcyon BP/W with weighted STA, HP120 tank, and shiny Scubapro regs. He asked to join us. I politely declined, citing our no-new-divers-on-a-night-dive rule, but felt horrible about it. Then he started asking questions. He asked whether I thought 45 lbs. of lead was a lot to wear for a drysuit diver. He was curious because the suit (and all of the other gear) belonged to a friend, and he had never dived with a drysuit or a BP/W before. After a few pointed questions, I learned that he didn't know how to do a proper weight check. Then he proceeded to ask me how to navigate the dive site. I gave him the best instructions I could, but I recommended that he not do the dive since he was unfamiliar with the site, unfamiliar with his gear, likely over-weighted, and was not equipped properly for solo diving. We entered the water by ourselves, negotiated the surf which was a little higher than usual (3'-4' waves), did a leisurely 90 minute dive, and returned to shore. When we exited the water, I was surprised to see that the guy had attempted the dive anyway. He was pissed off because he couldn't find the wall I had described and he kept "floating to the top." He blamed the faulty equipment. I suspect he resented me for not diving with him.

I realize that you aren't like this guy. Your situation was different in that you met your buddies through a referral. That carries some weight, for sure. I'm sharing this story with you to let you know that it's OK to decline a request for a stranger to join your dive group. If you dive long enough, you'll be placed in similar situations. It's good to have worked out ahead of time why you might not want to dive with a stranger and under what conditions you'd be OK with it.

Thank you so much for sharing that story and it makes total sense you would have some of those rules from bad experiences. Experiences teach us a lot.

I'm glad you enjoyed the night dive.

I went on one recently in the keys and had a blast. It was during my AOW so I was with an instructor who took us farther away from the boat than I would have gone alone but he knew the area well. During the dive I was thinking navigation would have been very difficult had I wanted to find my way back to the boat.

I guess maybe once you start diving an area so often you know it like your own backyard but I'm not close to knowing that feeling yet.

Here's a video of my first night dive on molasses reef in key largo:
[youtubehq]swOyQkvZUng[/youtubehq]

You are AWESOME for sharing that video!!!! I was just at the Molasses Reef this past November. It was so cool to see a video of a night dive there. I love love love that turtle. Thank you!


So, has anyone had fears of sharks when doing an ocean night dive? I'd love to hear about how my fear is ridiculous and hear proof that there's nothing to worry about. Thanks!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Ah Jeni, thanks for that little trip down Memory Lane ... when I did my first night dive I was so nervous that the first thing my instructor said when we got out of the water is that he never wanted me that close to him again ...

Now night time is my favorite time to dive. There's just so much to see ... critters that you'll never see in the daytime, and the lack of ambient light just makes your dive light bring out colors you'd never notice during the day.

Wait till you get down into the tropics, on that night reef where you will see hunting octopus, and lobsters scuttling about ... and yes, those PITA tarpon who come flying out of the dark gobbling up every little fish you happen to shine your light on.

But don't worry about the critters who come shooting out of the dark. They might startle you ... but mostly they're just curious ... or hungry ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Ah Jeni, thanks for that little trip down Memory Lane ... when I did my first night dive I was so nervous that the first thing my instructor said when we got out of the water is that he never wanted me that close to him again ...

Now night time is my favorite time to dive. There's just so much to see ... critters that you'll never see in the daytime, and the lack of ambient light just makes your dive light bring out colors you'd never notice during the day.

Wait till you get down into the tropics, on that night reef where you will see hunting octopus, and lobsters scuttling about ... and yes, those PITA tarpon who come flying out of the dark gobbling up every little fish you happen to shine your light on.

But don't worry about the critters who come shooting out of the dark. They might startle you ... but mostly they're just curious ... or hungry ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob you guys got some ugly critters up there. I though the Ling Cod I caught when I lived there was ugly. What is that??

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Bob you guys got some ugly critters up there. I though the Ling Cod I caught when I lived there was ugly. What is that??

It's a wolf eel ... and although it's not exactly cute, it has the personality of a golden retriever. They're one of my favorite critters ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

It's a wolf eel ... and although it's not exactly cute, it has the personality of a golden retriever. They're one of my favorite critters ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Ahh, yes I have heard that of them.