Lighting for dive float at night

[rickthompson]

I'm planning on doing my first night shore dive this week. I've done plenty of night dives and plenty of shore dives but never combined so I'm wondering what the recommendation/law is about lighting your float/flag at night. Is a strobe sufficient or do you need omnidirectional continuous white light? I have a strobe and plenty of spare dive lights, so if anyone can suggest a DIY solution that would be great...

Thanks!

 

[Hickdive]

Get an opaque plastic gallon container like this;

Put a bright light in it, screw the cap on tight and tie the end of your reel line through the handle.

You've now got an illuminated buoy.

 

[Searcaigh]

I used to do a lot of night diving from the shore when I lived in Saudi, and used a strobe underwater to mark the entry / exit point, usually weighted with a 3lb weight or similar, and generally on a line to the surface at the reef edge.

We never used a lit SMB though, it would have attracted unwanted attention ..... like the Coast Guard!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I have used a strobe and I have I used a fairly low wattage tank light. I am not aware of any law or rule on this that is universal, but lighting a dive flag at bight is a good idea, and I prefer the strobe- it is very bright without being intrusive.
DivemasterDennis

 

[iluvtheocean]

i've always used a glow stick zip-tied to the flag off the beach for night dives (along with the flasher on my tank & my regular lights)

 

[thirdcoastdiver]

I have been involved in previous discussions about lighting your dive flag. There are two sets of opinions.

Viewpoint 1: The brighter the strobe, the better. Everyone will know to stay away because of the bright strobe light on the water.
Viewpoint 2: Bright lights attract attention and curious boaters are going to zoom up to your dive flag to see what is going on.

I can see the value in both sets of viewpoints. In the areas that I dive, the legislators did not seem to anticipate night diving, so no legal requirements except that I need to be within 100 ft. of the flag and boaters need to stay 200 ft. away. I have also used a non-blinking tank light on my dive flag for night dives.

 

[farsidefan1]

I'm puzzled. When I go night diving from shore I take my usual redundant lights and if in a new area I leave a light at the entry point weighted down but I have never even considered a floating beacon above me. Sounds like a bother to me. If I have to surface I'll use me light and smb to be visible (lights up like a jackolantern). If I'm underwater - no worries. Is it a requirement in some places? What am I missing?

 

[diverrex]

We don't use flags/floats when shore diving in SoCal so that solves our problem of how to light it at night.

 

[fjpatrum]

I'm puzzled. When I go night diving from shore I take my usual redundant lights and if in a new area I leave a light at the entry point weighted down but I have never even considered a floating beacon above me. Sounds like a bother to me. If I have to surface I'll use me light and smb to be visible (lights up like a jackolantern). If I'm underwater - no worries. Is it a requirement in some places? What am I missing?

Yes, in some places it is a requirement, I believe. I dove in Florida last year with someone who insisted it was a local law to light your dive buoy at night. I don't know if he was right but I tend to believe it's a good idea whether required or not. We put a glow stick and a flasher on it with no troubles at all. Of course it was also a well known shore dive site.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

When night diving in inland waters my preference was always a single white light above the required dive flag. My reasoning was that the law required anchored boats to display a single white light, so from a distance the flag looked like an anchored boat and other boats avoided it.

That was based on my previous experience where any other light system just attracted other boats wondering what it was.