Night diving or low viz diving

[Kharon]

you need to work on better buddy positioning for situations like that.

Oh, give me a break. If I have to spend every second worrying about my position, the position of my light, can I be seen,as well as everything else I might as well not be in the water. Oh wait. That's why I dive solo.

 

[tbone1004]

OP followed a pipe without telling buddy, was back to back with buddy, turned around and obviously couldn't see him due to visibility and had inadequate lighting to signal said buddy despite being relatively close. Not buddy diving, that's two divers in same ocean diving

Better situation, get buddies attention, indicate you are following pipe, I lead-you follow signal, Ok, and no problems. Proper buddy diving.

If I'm diving with a buddy in low visibility I am never more than arms reach away from him because it's dangerous. Most of the time I dive in the "same ocean" principle where we are both solo diving and if he happens to need help I may or may not be available to help him, but we aren't relying on each other if something goes wrong, just enjoying a dive together. That generally is not condoned at the recreational level and as the OP is going on to be a Dive Master and Instructor, it would be ideal if he learned these types of buddy diving principles so as he's leading a group he doesn't lose one..... Not saying he would, but it's a lot easier to loose people when you're trying to herd sheep than it is to lose your buddy.

 

[Rich Keller]

I was thinking of getting 2 of the led sticks one for tank valve and one for front of BCD. I try to be green so I don't want to go threw 12 glow sticks either...

any suggestions.

On these types of dives you will probably have a light on in front of you anyway so just one for the tank valve should be enough. I have my light taped to my arm so my hands are free to do other things.

 

[Subcooled]

As is explained in the previous posts, you will not need a light stick unless the dive operator requires one. A focused light beam is better. Some divemasters ask you to carry a light stick though. Place the light stick high on your tank (or wherever the DM requires) so that it is visible on the surface and from behind.

If you have difficulty recognizing or struggle to stay together with your dive buddy, then mark him/her with a light stick of exotic colour

 

[Octopusprime]

OP followed a pipe without telling buddy, was back to back with buddy, turned around and obviously couldn't see him due to visibility and had inadequate lighting to signal said buddy despite being relatively close. Not buddy diving, that's two divers in same ocean diving

Better situation, get buddies attention, indicate you are following pipe, I lead-you follow signal, Ok, and no problems. Proper buddy diving.

If I'm diving with a buddy in low visibility I am never more than arms reach away from him because it's dangerous. Most of the time I dive in the "same ocean" principle where we are both solo diving and if he happens to need help I may or may not be available to help him, but we aren't relying on each other if something goes wrong, just enjoying a dive together. That generally is not condoned at the recreational level and as the OP is going on to be a Dive Master and Instructor, it would be ideal if he learned these types of buddy diving principles so as he's leading a group he doesn't lose one..... Not saying he would, but it's a lot easier to loose people when you're trying to herd sheep than it is to lose your buddy.

TBone... I really hate when people take a post and turn it into some HUGE mistake. I could have written a much longer discription... My buddy and I signaled I lead he follow and as I said in OP that I turn to make sure he was there and I could not see his light. He WAS right there, so to be SAFE I turned to make sure he was still there... He was only about 3 ft from me but his beam was pointed away from me he could have easily grabbed a fin but I could not see his light. A tank light would have been helpful I think...

I am a firm believer that you learns something new every day and on every dive... We planned on a deep dive ... We had lights with us but based on the VIS report we should not have needed them. On decent there was a layer of Silt sitting on thermocline and there was 5 ft of vis. We both came back to the line and turned on our lights. We signaled and agreed to continue down. Vis got better but dark. We were safe and continued on our plan to explore the parimiter of the hole. Originally the plan was to do a multi level dive. We signaled to each other to assend at the line instead of doing multi level dive due to VIS.

I have not yet done my Night Specality (not to mention it was 11am) and was asking for advice on purchasing lights for I will be doing night Specality. The OP was telling a story and asking about a tank light THATS it.

I thank this that have given info on their opinion of tank lights and hand held lights. Your oppinion is appreciated.... To all of those that like to pile on divers trying to learn from others experiences you should look at yourself and see why you jump to conclusions with all of the facts.

As far as become a DM the point to to gain experiance and I think a good DM is observant and learns how to adapt to situations safely which were unexpected. As well as be reassuring and teach instead of ridiculing and demeaning.

 

[tbone1004]

night specialty is probably a waste of money btw. Wasn't trying to ridicule at all, was nothing against you two, the way it came off was you went along the pipe and your buddy wasn't following you the 5-6 feet away and you lost him, hence the 20-30 seconds you said it took to catch back up. With visibility, that is the visibility light or not, if it was only 5 ft, you can only see 5 ft, you might see a faint glow of a light but no distinction at about 7-10ft. They can help, but when the diver as facing away from you the lights will usually be trapped in the small of his neck and you won't be able to see it from behind him anyway and in that situation you rely on a combo of touch contact signals and/or light signals if you can signal with them. In low visibility it is almost always touch contact

 

[Octopusprime]

As is explained in the previous posts, you will not need a light stick unless the dive operator requires one. A focused light beam is better. Some divemasters ask you to carry a light stick though. Place the light stick high on your tank (or wherever the DM requires) so that it is visible on the surface and from behind.

If you have difficulty recognizing or struggle to stay together with your dive buddy, then mark him/her with a light stick of exotic colour

good point about the front...

my summary from this thread is first my buddy needs a brighter light ... Looking at the DGX with wrist mount strap for both of us sounds like a nice light and for the price it is worth a try...Second tank light may be helpfull. We do not dive chartered dives that you have a DM to guide you. Most dives are inland lakes and quarries. Having one will not hurt anyone. Third I would like to know more about signaling with your light ... If it is just about pointing etc we do that... If there are unerversally known signals like the hand signals I hope they teach us that when I do night Specality.

 

[tbone1004]

I would save your money on the night specialty, not a whole lot involved in it... Buy the course book for one of you if you want it and then just dive....

Light signals

Circle, ok
slow waving side to side or up and down, "attention". Low on air, not feeling well, something weird is happening etc, or you just want to give him some other hand signal and need him to look at you.
quick motions side to side or up and down, emergency. out of air, something just bit you, any other emergency.

These are then followed by illuminating your hand
quick waving side to side or up and down, and telling your buddy what is going on.

That's literally all there is to it.... Problems in open water are you don't have a wall to make the motions on so you have to get the light up ahead of the guy and generally find out where he's looking or if he has a clear skirted mask get in the side of it.

Touch contact is generally two squeezes for OK or any other affirmation type signal, and then basically anything else means pay attention to me, generally I'm out of air and give me a regulator.

 

[Rich Keller]

I came across this and thought you might find it interesting.

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