Question Night Diving with a Beacon?

[Rob9876]

I always use a marker glow-stick or light on night dives. Glow sticks work well for a couple of hours, but you end up with a lot of waste if doing a lot of night dives.

I've used the no-battery sticks that glow for a good while after shining your light on them for a minute, but even though they looked good in the store, their performance seemed to fade pretty quickly in actual use.

For lights I usually try to use a light color other than white, because I've been with some dive ops that set white strobe beacons from the boat, and they usually don't want others using white marker lights.

I like the auto-on lights, and have used the Innovative Scuba lights mentioned above, but they are not buoyant and for my son and I they seemed to have a habit of jostling around where they were obscured by the tank often. Some people attach cork floats to them, which could help.

Lately I've been using these lights that come with a float and come on automatically. Those are a bit bigger than I thought they would be, but are generally working out pretty good. Because these are fairly cheap and instant on, we just leave them on our BCDs for every dive -- sometimes still helpful for daytime dives in the Gulf of Mexico or quarries.

 

[W Jamrok]

Curious about what people do. I've been with ops that give a glowstick to everyone and ops that don't. I am considering getting a small battery powered beacon for night dives.

Feel free to elaborate on your answer in the thread.

A lot of the resorts now ban glow sticks. I only use them when I am diving with my wife, I use both the flashing and solid lights, the Innovative 500 self activating is my first choice and the Trident light stick is my second choice

 

[boulderjohn]

I have gone through 3 stages regarding these kinds of lights (and lights in general) on night dives.

Early days: Yes, I owned one and used it regularly. (If you buy something, you have to use it.) I was also proud of the power of my reef burning flashlight.

Middle phase: This was my shift to my "least light possible" phase of night diving. I would spend long sections of the dives moving away from other divers and going without any light at all. You would be amazed at what you can see--including light from various living beings--when you aren't flooding the zone with your unnatural light. (This requires an understanding buddy--my buddies on the great Barrier Reef night dives were not always happy with me.) I only used a beacon if required.

Current Practice: I no longer do night dives. Oh, there's nothing wrong with a night dive, except you are required (without exception) to do them at night. In my dotage, I prefer to sit back and enjoy a nice drink with friends at that time.

 

[rmorgan]

Ditto the Innovative. We take a couple extra and leave them with DMs or guides.

 

[Damselfish]

We use small marker lights (but definitely not flashing ones, think those are annoying to have close and should be reserved for boat or whatever exit point.) Doesn't hurt and might help. And with an op many require one anyway.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

The only time I use a beacon is if someone feels better if I have one and hands me one, or when dive operators require it. They are unnecessary because a diver's team awareness is made so much easier with proper lighting, and a tank light is probably not going to be how you relocate a lost buddy. They are also ecologically unsound. Glow sticks add to plastic pollution. Battery-operated ones are more environmentally friendly, so if you want to use one, that would be a better way to go. The Ballroom at Ginnie has gardens of plastic glowsticks in every cubby hole on the ceiling.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

When required we use these (with a little duct tape on the removable cone to dim them down). 1 set of batteries is good for a whole week of night dives. They also have a built in beer bottle opener...

AMP 1L with Cone | Princeton Tec

princetontec.com

 

[mkdubik]

This (Beaver Spectrum LED Strobe Light) is on my right shoulder D ring and activated + moved to the butt D ring when viz is less then stellar in the sea.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

My AI lights up, but used to use a Scuba Pro little marker thingy and have used light sticks. Most the operators require this end, but if its just me and a buddy its not something we think about tbh

 

[scubadada]

When I do a night dive with an operator who requires it, I dive with one of these from Dive Gear Express. It is constant glow, not flashing and is not overly bright. The battery lasts a very long time.

These days, my most frequent night dives, just several per year, are solo drift dives in Boynton Beach, FL. In that case, I fasten one of these marker lights to the top of my flag. When at the safety stop, I shine my primary light up at my flag. It makes the flag more visible in the bright circle of light and the captain knows you will be surfacing in a few minutes. I carry a regular strobe light and my backup light has a strobe function. I have never had to use them.