Night dives = AOW?

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My main point was that a 1st night dive has no need to be a particularly challenging dive. Try doing one (or your first 10) in a shallow, good-vis lake or quarry and you will find that the most overworn dive site is completely different and hugely fun, esp. if there are fish or other critters to see. Buddy with someone more experienced and everyone should carry at least 2 lights.

If I had to take 1st timers in a larger, deeper or otherwise more challenging environment, well (A) I'd be rather unhappy about it. THIS is why we do small-water night dives fairly frequently: so that no one ever needs to be a 1st timer in big water. I would recommend making a route in advance by placing a series of lights on the bottom (we use ancient dive lights the size of 32 gallon drums for this) or maybe a line with lights tied on at set intervals. A brilliant full moon is also a big help. At least for the newbies lights should be 3/diver so it is extremly unlikely that a stressed person would be w/o a light.

I don't distain the value of education but I don't like new divers being boondoggled into believing that they must always pay cash for each and every advance in their diving experience. You can often find a way to make the fence lower, or get someone to help you over and into the realm of some new experience. In general I would check on whether most agencies seem to think a certain activity requires a course. If they do, get proper instruction from a certiied instructor. If not, consider your options before opening your wallet. You might be able to join a night event somewhere, or buy a more experienced diver a pizza for taking you on your 1st night dive in an otherwise low-challenge environment.
 
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I am taking naui AOW now and night / limited viz is one of the 3 that are required for the 6 dives.

For PADI only deep and navigation are obligatory. The student then has 3 more electives but peak performance buoyancy usually the next specialty the student chooses and leaves 2 other choices. Night diving is an option if the student wishes.

My daughter did two night dives with only her OW certification when we were on vacation in Hawaii including the Manta Ray night dive in Kona. When she did her AOW certification she opted to do wreck and scooters instead of a night specialty.
 
My third dive out of OW was the night Manta dive. It was fairly benign and a good way to get an intro to the feeling of night diving. I did a half dozen more shore night dives in fort Lauderdale. AOW is probably a good introduction for folks that aren't comfortable but it's far from necessary. If an operator made it a requirement I'd show them my log book and have a discussion with them to see how fixed that rule was. If they wouldn't let me do a night dive then I'd probably look for a different operator to dive with, assuming there weren't actual local laws/regulations requiring it.
 
oh my how times have changed.... we actually did a night dive at the end of our OW dives as a "bonus". Ah, the good old days when it was just diving.....
 
oh my how times have changed.... we actually did a night dive at the end of our OW dives as a "bonus". Ah, the good old days when it was just diving.....

I'm not sure things have changed all that much. This thread was the first time I have ever heard of a special certification being required for a night dive. If you had asked me about this before this thread started, I would have scoffed at the idea. I would guess that for almost the all of the rest of the world, doing a night dive after the OW dives as a bonus would not be anything out of the ordinary.
 
When I did my OW cert a few years ago, after we finished the dives and all passed, the instructor invited us to come on a night dive he was running the following week.
 
I don't think night has to be AOW, but I think that a diver's first night diving experience should be supervised.

I worked for an operation that required 10 dives to be a supervised night diver, that seemed like a good bar. And another operation required that night divers dive the site earlier in the day.

I think it depends where you are. The only place I've ever been that didn't allow night diving was the Galapagos, probably a good thing.

Some animals freak me out at night. Heck, some eel grass freaks me out on a surge-y night here.
 
For me, having the AOW navigation and peak performance buoyancy definitely helped me feel more comfortable with my first night dive. AOW wasn't required as far as I know, but it definitely made me feel better about it.
 
OW certification today just barely qualifies one to dive during daylight. I would think it wise to at least require AOW certification to do so, although I'm not personally aware of it being so.

i have to say that i agree with you but only 50% of the time, i have many student that get the hang of things very fast understand buoyancy on the first ow dive and are very comfortable by dive 4, i would be happy to do a night dive with them any day, Having said that there are Aow students that i would not like to do an open water dive to 12 mt with 30mt vis with. certification level and diver quality are two different things :)
 
I would suggest that there should be no mystique or anything special about night dives versus many other dive "conditions". It is just another situation that you need to learn about, train and master.

I am suggesting that you should NOT combine your first night dive with any other factors for the first time. Learn one thing at a time. You do have to build up to it by developing the appropriate skills.

A night dive requires a relatively small set of "new" skills not required in the equivalent day dive. But I think the minimum threshold is basic buoyancy and basic visual navigation (since you can stay within sight of the boat / dock light).

I get to see the night dive "crash course" every time we do a live aboard:
- you need a light!
- your dive pair should have 1 spare light (at least! more is better)
- do not shine your light in other peoples eyes
- do not shine your light in your own eyes (mandatory rule for slow learners)
- hey look! - my gauges glow if i shine the light one them! Who knew? (this also works for some very old dive computers like my uwatec's)
- do not shine your light in the fishies eyes
- the boat / mooring line has a flashing light on it, come back there when you are done
- no one can see your hand waving at night! shine your light on your signal hand. There are a few simple signals rules - signal in front of your chest, shine your light on your chest...
- there will be warm towels along with Baileys & hot chocolate when you return
- and the final rule: DO NOT swim toward the moon! It is not the boat / dock light.

Night dives are fun. Night dives are interesting. My night dives are never challenging.

As a vacation diver, every day of diving includes a night dive. So we get either 1/3 or 1/4 of our dives as night dives. All very easy, simple, shallow, fun & interesting. No challenges other than darkness.
 

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