Question Night Diving - requirements, insurance coverage, WRSTC

[Blackcrusader]

The confusion here is the difference between "allows" and "recommends." PADI says an OW card certifies you to 40m, but they recommend not going to 40m -- or 30m -- without additional training and experience. PADI does NOT control -- and cannot control -- what you do except while you are being trained.

AOW trains you to 30m; Deep trains you to 40m. Deco trains you to exceed your NDL.

What a dive operation or resort or a boat might request of you in training -- "certification" -- to allow you to go to some depth, or dive at night, or use certain equipment, is up to that operation or resort or boat (it is not up to the training agencies). But they are being arbitrary when they do that and have no basis for making such a demand. Other operations/resorts/boats will have different rules.

Some of the confusion between "allowed" and "recommended" is driven by fears of liability and enforced by insurance companies.

Yes, sorry, it is indeed confusing to new divers; it is confusing to old divers, too.

Training is always good. I did hundreds of hours of training over many courses as have many divers over the years. Outside of training though it is doing hundreds or thousands of dives that gives us experiences that dive training does not always give.

Have you seen training dives for a certification take people on fast drift dives in up and down currents?

 

[tursiops]

Have you seen training dives for a certification take people on fast drift dives in up and down currents?

I don't know how you would do that. All the up and down currents I've encountered or heard about have been sporadic and unpredictable. Not something you can readily plan for on a training dive.

 

[dumpsterpurrs]

Have you seen training dives for a certification take people on fast drift dives in up and down currents?

My AOW in Pulau Weh after Pulau Weh, Bali and the Maldives felt like quarries lol. People talk crap about the drift dive spec/portion of AOW, but doing it in Pulau Weh taught me the art of gecko diving and how to navigate currents instinctively, how to move my body to where the current is weaker and how to conserve/allocate my energy finning against currents. Not long after my AOW, Pulau Weh's currents also pushed me down to below 50m depth... At the end of a dive at 20-30m... Two instructors were with only me, one with a sling tank he had to share with the other who ran low. It felt like I had to grow up too fast xD

 

[Blackcrusader]

That is PADI.

Advanced Scuba Diver | NAUI Worldwide. Dive Safety Through Education

Advanced Scuba Diver

www.naui.org

NAUI still includes night night as integral of the course.
And 40m max for deep dive.

NAUI says night or low visibility. So a diver may do a day dive in low visibility. You would not know what course the student took.
There is no night dive certificate.

Taking the NAUI course does not prove the diver has done a night dive.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I don't know how you would do that. All the up and down currents I've encountered or heard about have been sporadic and unpredictable. Not something you can readily plan for on a training dive.

Certain island dive sites are known for the fast drift dives and are planned at high tides. Especially when the moon is about. Most dive centers I know won't take any students on those dives they are for experienced divers. For those sites they would ask about a divers experience in conditions like this. Some sites need diving hooks so if you lose your grip or your hook came out you are in for a wild ride.

No training for that lol So what I mean is that these types of experiences come from diving throughout the years not on a course. Perhaps some agencies might like to do drift diving courses? Drift dives at night can be a lot of fun.

I have with my dive buddy accompanied instructors with divers doing their first night dives. But those dives are done in very calm waters with very little current and are shore dives.

 

[Centrals]

NAUI says night or low visibility. So a diver may do a day dive in low visibility. You would not know what course the student took.
There is no night dive certificate.

Taking the NAUI course does not prove the diver has done a night dive.

You need not to worry about the fine detail of that dive because you will never have a chance to scrutinize it!
Time to wake up.

 

[Centrals]

Training is always good. I did hundreds of hours of training over many courses as have many divers over the years. Outside of training though it is doing hundreds or thousands of dives that gives us experiences that dive training does not always give.

Have you seen training dives for a certification take people on fast drift dives in up and down currents?

Where?
What certification/agency?

 

[mcohen1021]

So now resorts are setting the certification requirements for night dives? lol
Ask the resort to show you which agency requires a certification for night dives.
AOW certifications do not prove you have a night dive as part of the training.
Our dear friend DODY got to be a DM in six months and has never done a night dive.

Correct. But even though she clearly had the experience, and me as a 34nyr divemaster to vouch, they would not take her on a dive deeper than 60 ft. My AoW had night dives in it, but understand not all must.

 

[mcohen1021]

so, operator failure in >= 50% of the cases, and China is to blame. One assumes you spent at least half of your formative years on the mainland?

1st light yes 100% my fault. I can't tell you about the 2nd. It worked all week until that dive.

 

[mcohen1021]

How does AOW certify you for night dives?

It doesn't.