How was your first night dive ?

[mdv50524]

My first night dive was an adventure to say the least. I was very nervous before the dive as I had never done a night dive before. To help ease my nerves I buddied up with one of the dive masters that dives with our group, she was going to stay with me and my friend who had also never done a night dive. Somehow by the time we got in the water we ended up mixed in with a group of about 8 divers (all with their own buddy pairs), had I been smart and listened to my gut instinct I would have called it right then, but I didn’t. The start of the dive was great, visibility was awesome and the sight of dive lights illuminating the kelp forest was surreal. Unfortunately it all went south from there, it started with another divers light flooding, which caused them to panic and bolt for the surface. The dive master I was with told me and my friend to park it on the sandy bottom while she went to help. A few minutes later she came back and thumbed the dive. When we got on the surface the panicked diver was starting to calm down and she and her buddy decided to surface swim it back to shore. The rest of us after checking our remaining gas, and that all our lights were functional decided that we would drop back down and follow the reef back to shore. What should have been an easy swim back turned into an all-out scramble as the other buddie pairs took off in different directions. My friend, and our dive master all stuck together as originally planned, and on our way back in we found one of the other divers had gotten separated from their buddy and was tangled up in kelp and struggling to free himself. We stopped and helped free the diver and the four of us made it back safely to shore.
The next evening I did my second night dive, just me and the dive master and it was an amazing experience. Still took a while to get used to just how disorienting diving at night can be. I may do more night dives in the future, but have not be actively looking for the opportunity.

 

[RustyFalcon]

I was fairly nervous about my AOW Night Dive, but it turned out to be pretty uneventful. Shore dive off Pensacola with a group of AOW students, maybe 25 feet deep. We navigated from artificial reef pod to pod using lights and compasses. Biggest issue turned out to be the max amount of green algae in the water that made it like diving in pea soup. Learned that my eBay special Cree dive light doesn't really pack much of a punch. We saw a couple crabs and I think a small octopus coiled under a reef pod. Otherwise not very much to it. Made me want to try a "real" night dive.

 

[dmaziuk]

Biggest issue turned out to be the max amount of green algae in the water that made it like diving in pea soup. Learned that my eBay special Cree dive light doesn't really pack much of a punch.

It's not the light, it's algae. Same way car headlights don't work in the fog: backscatter.

 

[N2theBlue StCroix STX]

Night Diving in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands is great! Bio-luminecence is one highlight, but mostly its the famous Frederiksted Pier. The Pier is one of the Seven Jewels of the Caribbean and like a gothic cathedral. Shallow dive of 18-33 feet. Go in at sunset when the water is still grey -- you feel totally comfortable like a daytime dive. Because we are nearer the equator, the sunset gets to dark pretty quickly. within 10 minutes, its black. Not to fear, there are lights on the pier that cast a golden glimmer (every other light is out along the 0.29 mile long Pier to provide darkness for diving).

Sunlight color RED is completely absorbed within 15 feet -- so, night diving will bring colors and vibrancy you've never seen during the day because your flashlight brings the light back! Like stained glass windows brilliantly lighting your dive. Octopus the size of your hand tend to come out at night, and the Frederiksted Pier is the best place in the Caribbean to find seahorses. Turtles often sleep here, too.

Looking forward to seeing you dive and report on your experiences in St. Croix!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My first night dive was in AOW. It was kinda creepy. I stayed so close to my dive instructor he told me afterward we could've shared the same wetsuit.

I've since come to love night diving ... especially solo night diving. Even more enjoyable are those early morning dives where you get in the water while it's still dark and watch the "shifts" change as daylight slowly brightens your surroundings.

For many of us, night diving's an acquired taste ... but once acquired it can become your favorite way to dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Laurie S.]

My first night dive was horrible! I had about 15 dives by that time and wanted to try it. I didn't have any problems with it, but it was a lousy dive. The dive con took us all down to the bottom and had us kneeling (yeah, great). Then, one girl panicked and he made us all come back to the surface. Then we all went down again. Due to the massive stirring up on the bottom, there was no visibility from the silt. Then, he didn't take us anywhere, we just stayed below the boat. The final maddening thing was that I had an instabuddy. When we finished our lovely dive, we went up the anchor line. I was holding on, waiting my turn and he decided to climb right up over me. I don't know if he was panicked or what, but I was mad.

I led my first night dive as a DM last month. We had a nice leisurely swim around San Antonio Point in San Carlos, Mexico, and we had a great time. What a difference!

 

[Hintermann]

I did my first night dive in the Great Barrier Reef on board the Kangaroo Explorer with only 8 open water dives behind me. I had booked this 3-day liveaboard cruise from the UK and knowing that they offered night dives, bought a cheap but effective UW torch a few days before the trip. The idea of a night dive thrilled me and the guide, who knew about my inexperience, was ready to look after me. It was a giant stride off the boat into a calm sea and the guide went first and then beckoned to me to follow. I was so excited that I forgot to put the regulator in my mouth and realised it only when I hit the water! But after that it was great and we had 45 minutes of excellent diving and I did not feel in the least apprehensive. In fact, I liked it so much that since then I have grabbed every opportunity to do night diving and to date have done 77 of them. My plan is to complete 100 night dives before I retire from diving.

 

[Searcaigh]

My latest night dive at Lembeh Straits was totally awesome

Two Bobbit Worms and two Stargazers





Can't wait to do the next one

 

[The Kraken]

Mesmeric, enchanting, exciting, brilliant, ethereal . . . !!!


Safe dives . . . . . .
. . . safer ascents !

the K

 

[MNJoe]

My first night dive was in a quarry as part of my AOW training. It was the same site we had used for classes during the day. It was kind of cool, but yet just a quarry so not very eventful. I was also taught to choose a site for a night dive that I was all ready familiar with.

My second night dive was in the Texas Flowers Gardens, my first ever bluewater trip. It was freaking awesome!!!!! Yes, we dove that site prior to it getting dark, had dinner/surface interval then did night dive.

I really like night dives.