Night Diving at Rawlings

[DivingPrincessE]

I'm going to be diving at Lake Rawlings this weekend with a local Scuba Meetup group and they are doing a night dive. I was wondering what Night Diving there is like. Is it worth doing? Do you really see anything? Or do people just do it to do it and get an extra dive while they are there?


Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Emily

 

[bvmjethead]

Do you have a dive light?

Don't think I'd night dive without one.

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Do you have a dive light?

Don't think I'd night dive without one.

I don't have one, but if I dive at night I will be renting one from Rawlings.

 

[BobbyWombat]

BUY or RENT a primary dive light AND a backup if you do a night dive.

My opinion is that it is a good place to practice and get comfortable with night diving. There is nothing "new" to see at night, but it will help you get comfortable with how things change when the ambient light goes to zero.

The payoff is when you do a night dive on a reef somewhere and there ARE new things out at night to see....you won't be worrying so much about the novelty of using the light, etc... and can pay more attention to the interesting stuff.

have fun.

-BW

 

[ichigolin]

If you haven't done a night dive before, Rawlings is a great place for your first one. It's a relatively controlled environment. You walk in from the shore. There is no current for you to deal with above or below. Lastly, you can't get lost. The pool is only so big. Rawlings isn't a glamorous night dive. However, it is a great opportunity to get acquainted w/night diving before you go somewhere where you 'want' to do the night dive. For instance, in the Keys, most if not all operations expect/require that you have done night dives previously before they drop you on one of the wrecks (Duane, Eagle, Bibb, Grove) for a night dive. In these cases, they'll also expect you to have some deep experience.

Anyway, I'm heading down tomorrow. I'll be diving w/a group from Splash Dive Center. We plan on having two night dives on Friday night and one more on Saturday night. You're more than welcome to stop by and join us either night. I'm sure we would have an extra dive light and tank marker for you.

 

[Scuba Do]

Like day diving at Lake Rawlings, night diving there is better than not diving, but no where near as nice as diving in the ocean. There are some fish, but not a lot. There are interesting diversions, like a bus, some boats, etc., to explore, but you can see them during the day too. It is, however, a great place to practice, as some of the earlier posters have said. If I were at Lake Rawlings and had the chance to get in one more dive, at night, I'd go for it.

 

[fedfirediver]

You will love. As soon as we check in we will be their around 730pm I hope.I just hope the traffic is moving when we hit richmond

 

[DGriffin]

If you haven't done a night dive before, Rawlings is a great place for your first one. It's a relatively controlled environment. You walk in from the shore. There is no current for you to deal with above or below. Lastly, you can't get lost. The pool is only so big. Rawlings isn't a glamorous night dive....

+1

I was a part of a night dive there last month. a great first night-dive.

Don't expect to see much. If Rawlings is busy dusint the day, then all the silt will still be kicked up and everywhere.

Please get a primary light, backup light, and invest the $2 for a chem light to stick on your tank so the people behind you can see you.

 

[ClevelandDiver]

I stayed there for a week this summer at one of their mobile homes and got in several night dives. It was fun doing an entire lap of the quarry at about 30 feet around 10pm. I did, however, have a really good light (http://www.diveriteexpress.com/lights/lightpkg10w.shtml). As my buddy put it, "technically, it is not a night dive with that thing".