My First Night Dive Didn't Go Too Well

[Blazinator]

Here's a good tip I learned to not hit the bottom in bad vis (all my Lake Erie dives are night dives - vis so bad its black at the wreck, even at 50 to 70 ft):

1. First, you must know the depth of the bottom.
2. Then descend while monitoring your depth guage (more as you near the bottom), and without looking for the bottom, but at your gauge, start to neutralize your buoyancy when you are about ten feet or earlier from the bottom depth (i.e. @ 40 ft for a 50 ft bottom).
3. When neutral, you can slowly approach the bottom in your horizontal swimming position and hover without creating the silt plume.

Way too many times, you think you will simply see bottom even with a 24 watt HID, then slow down, but in ten foot vis you wouldn'd see it in time, and embarrass your pigpen cloudy self in front of the other wreck divers.

 

[lmorin]

Here's a good tip I learned to not hit the bottom in bad vis (all my Lake Erie dives are night dives - vis so bad its black at the wreck, even at 50 to 70 ft):

1. First, you must know the depth of the bottom.
2. Then descend while monitoring your depth guage (more as you near the bottom), and without looking for the bottom, but at your gauge, start to neutralize your buoyancy when you are about ten feet or earlier from the bottom depth (i.e. @ 40 ft for a 50 ft bottom).
3. When neutral, you can slowly approach the bottom in your horizontal swimming position and hover without creating the silt plume.

Way too many times, you think you will simply see bottom even with a 24 watt HID, then slow down, but in ten foot vis you wouldn'd see it in time, and embarrass your pigpen cloudy self in front of the other wreck divers.

Good suggestions, but it's a bit more difficult when the surge causes the depth to vary between about 8 ft and 24 ft.

 

[drdaddy]

John, (My first night dive didn't go well either)

Thank you for sharing. I'm glad you "got back on the horse" and went back down. The dive con was really encouraging, however, she never should have allowed the incident to happen in the first place. Obviously, as others have shared, one's first night dive should be planned at a familiar location and, if possible, a gradual descent (like a beach dive) would be best. I will now share my first night dive.

I realize now, that our divemaster was incompetent. The first dive my son and I took with him, he paired up with my teenage son and was intent upon finding things. He kept his eye on my son (buddied with) and quickly left me behind. My concern, of course, was for my son (my buddy) so I tried to stay beside him, but the divemaster proceeded as if I were not there and it was difficult to keep up.

That evening was my son's and my first night dive - with this divemaster. We entered the water at a familiar location (Hood Canal - Mike's Beach Resort) and the divemaster was intent upon taking my son to look for a red octopus. Being older and done a number of dives that day, I was a little slow equalizing my ears, and I was quickly left behind in the darkness at about 30 feet (10 meters). I never felt panic, but I was embarrassed and I was left alone in the darkness. Being my first night dive, I tried to learn to coordinate my light with watching my instruments in order to ascend. Since they had deserted me, I decided the best course was to try to backtrack and go up the sea floor gradually and see if my ears would clear. I found coordinating my compass and my depth gauge, on the first night dive too complicated, so I decided to ascend. I did go up faster than I wanted to, but did not rocket up. However, the divemaster did come up with my son and we went down together and he stuck with me like glue afterwards. I believe that main reason that I did not panic was that this was familiar waters as I had been diving this area a number of times during the day. The waters were clear and I knew that I was a very short distance from shore if I needed to find my way in. Also, I knew I would be missed and they would come up looking for me in a very short time. I cringe to think what would have happened if my first night dive had of been done under your circumstances.

The difficult thing was that the divemaster never took responsibility for his actions. I learned later that other divemasters/instructors paired up their students and led them as a pair. For our deep dive, the next day, I requested another divemaster. I did not accuse, but I said that I was a bit slow on clearing my ears and had an unfortunate experience the night before and wanted to go very slowly. The divemaster, still not taking responsibility, had already told the instructors that I was having trouble, and it was obvious that I was a "marked" diver diving with his very sharp athletic son. The deep dive went very well, but the babying was not necessary - but I decided that I'd rather be seen as a real amateur (which I was) rather than being under an incompetent hurryup divemaster. Within a week of our return home I contacted the Master Instructor with my concerns. I never received a response.

Well that was years ago, and I have done hundreds of dives since that day (including night dives and very dark places) and my son is a PADI Instructor. The results of the above experience is that I am very wary of who is leading the dive and will not descend with a leader I do not trust. My son is the best dive buddy one could ask for - he will never leave his daddy and I would never leave my son). Unfortunately, he has done hundreds of instruction dives in Israel's Red Sea (including night dives with his dad) and I can hardly get him to brave our cold Pacific NW waters!

 

[Diver0001]

Dr,

Welcome to Scubaboard. You certainly know how to make an entrance. !

It's really too bad that so may people have these kinds of experiences. I find night diving the most relaxing dives and I think that comes from my first experiences too.

My first night dive was in April of 1985. We dove on a perfect night. The air was 20C the water was about 12C. A full cloudness night sky illuminated with the full unadulterated grandeur of milky way. No wind. Not even a whisper.

We got our gear ready in a truly jovial mood and entered the water in a small shallow bay. Checked gear, checked each other, checked lights and then descended in about 15 ft of water to swim out the the inlet that the bay was a part of.

The lights seemed to bring the entire place to light. Everything seemed to jitter and dance in the flashing of lights. Visibility was good, my buddy was right beside me and the group had 10 metres of visibiliy.

We approached a wall falling off sharply to the right at about 40 ft. Suddenly, I saw .... something .... initially almost a feeling that something was there. It moved from the wall to the left.

Then again

and closer

the third time I saw it clearly. It was a seal. My heart thumped with excitement. I couldn't believe this was happening!!!!

Then again. I looked at my buddy to see if he was as excited as I was but he was busy looking at his gear and checking to see if his light hadn't flooded (back then lights were often made from transparent plastic so you could see if they were flooding...)

and then it happened. The seal that had been swimming back and forth in our lights swam STRAIGHT up to us. stopped at 1/2 metre away, sat right up in the water and looked right into my buddy's eyes as if to ask "what the heck are you doing?"

My buddy who still hadn't seen the seal looked at it.... frooze ... and then SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER through his regulator and started swimming away as fast as humanly possible.

In my inexperience I wasn't able to help him, mostly because I was doubled over laughing hysterically at his reaction....

AFter a few seconds the coin fell and my buddy realised what it was and turned tail again and started swimming back as fast as he had left....gesturing insanely to me .... "DID YOU SEE THAT?" "A ... <garbled> " "LOOK" "OVER THERE" even making gestures like masturbating... like "THIS IS FRIGGEN BETTER THAN SEX!!!"

And he was right. I was better than sex.

Our dive party carried on along the wall and over the sandy bottom to a depth of 70ft. On the way back we saw spider crabs. I knew they were crabs but they looked so creepy. If something like that had been on the wall in my appartment I would have freaked out and SLAMMED a big FAT book on it to KILL the bugger before it did something to hurt me..... but down here....like this....with these people, with this instructor, in this place at this time .... it just made my mouth fall open and I said "OOOOHHHHHHHWWWWWWAAAHHHHHH" through my regulator. The first "whale song" noise I ever made.... a sound that I still make to this day whenever I dive.... The sound that's so familiar to my regular buddies that they worry more about me when I *don't* make it.......

At the end of this dive we surfaced about 100 metres from the shore. The night sky was absolutely breathtaking. Spectactular. The water was as calm as meditation. The excited "wooottt" "wwoooooooott" of my fellow student fell deaf on my ears.

I was enchanted.

completely enchanted.

And 25 years later I still am......

R..

 

[Tigerman]

routner you are one lucky sob, I hope you know that.. I thought my first night dive was nice but now im not so sure anymore

We did also have a clear, calm night but we didnt have any friggin seals!
We probably had 15ish celcius air with 10c water. We did have loads of crabs, we had a bit of fish and instead of seals we had loads of marine phosphoresence. I think I sat for 5 minutes with my light off just being shut off from anything but the sound of me and my buddy breathing watching the tiny creatures cover the ocean in small green lights as I moved my hands. So calm and quite, so far away from the rest of the world and yet SO CLOSE!

Dang, now I feel like a night dive. Look what you did!

 

[AZjohn]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share that I'm diving in San Diego this weekend with my instructor and my regular buddy (finishing our deep water cert).

Our second dive yesterday started very late in the afternoon as the sun was starting to set. I was thinking to myself, cool it will be dark at the end of the dive. So got my lights set but just left them hanging on my BC and out of my hands during the descent. Dove down 60 fsw in a kelp bed (loved it but that's a different story). As it got darker it felt all good. Lobsters were coming out in full force and wish I had a net to gather up dinner (lol).

Anyways, the point is that my buddy and I felt this was a great way to start a night dive (as someone else posted) and just wanted to confirm I agree!

Thanks,
John

 

[drdaddy]

I would like to share a really wonderful night dive - with a very competent Divemaster named Zohar.

My favorite night dive was with a Divemaster in Israel. My son and I had been on a number of dives with her and I felt very comfortable. It felt like we were diving as a threesome, rather than as guide & tourists. However, she felt like she had to share us with another Divemaster for our night dive. I am, however very assertive, especially when it concerns safety (particularly my son's). I told her that I understood, but that I had develop a trust with her, and would not (because of previous experiences) go out at night with an unknown and untested/untrusted guide. She immediately understood and took us on that absolutely incredible Red Sea (Eilat, Israel) night dive.

Zohar went on in her training and became an instructor. My son also went on to become a PADI Instructor, and he credited Zohar's competence just a few days ago. What lasting memories and even positive life directions a professional (and a good person) can make.

Drdaddy

 

[IceIce]

Hi John,
Great post, I can really feel I am there and seeing what you saw.

My first night dive was not well enjoyed too. It was first time I saw shark and I was afraid of the dark, I held my buddy hand almost half a dive. I was afraid of dark water and fish to begin with..

80 dives later, in Komodo, we had to descend after the rest of the group was down due tu some situation. We were brought down fast by down current. It was dusk dive but everything was dark already when we descend. We only went down what feels like couple of second, next thing we know there were eyes surround us, we were in the school of jacks. It was surreal by quite spooky. When we checked the comp, we have hit around 17 meter because of the down current.

The rest of the dive went well, now night dives are my favorite dives.
Hope you have great ones in the future also.

 

[Pacific Taco]

I finally dove my first night dive last night. It was pretty epic, we stayed shallow, worked over some jetty areas looking for lobsters. Didn't find any legals but I did see my first green moray, a large octopus, tons of sea cucumbers, nudis galore, etc. I appreciated reading the original post and this whole thread. Be safe!

 

[sourcearun]

Just a thought - Would it have helped if you were familiar with the dive spot? You could have multiple recces during the daytime so that you had a fairly good idea of the location? Just a conjecture, nothing more