Required night dive certification

[AdivingBel]

I've not seen it as a "requirement" by a dive op at a warm water, rec destination, but an op can do whatever they want. Their boat, their rules.

If you're booking in advance and they tell you in advance, all good. You can do as they say or vote with your feet. If they wait to tell you after you arrive...then not so good.

 

[caruso]

As far as what you're going to learn. I got a few tips from reading the chapter but you don't need to take a course to do that, in my case I already had the AOW book on my shelf. As for the course itself? I didn't learn a freaking thing. The only drill I recall doing was switching from my primary light to my backup which was about as complicated as you might expect- turn off one light and turn on another. Or maybe turn on the other before you turn off the first so you aren't enveloped in complete darkness. That pretty much covers it. Its not like the instructor even did the dive with us. After having each of us demonstrate that we could turn our lights on and off he sent us on our way.

 

[yle]

People are different. And people behave differently to certain situations. One of those situations is diving in the dark.

I know people that flat out refuse to even consider diving at night; they just don't like the idea, it's too spooky to them. And I know some (myself included) who dive at night any chance they get.

But the simple fact is that a lot of divers are somewhere in between. And when an "inbetween" diver decides to try night diving for the first time, it's impossible to know in advance how they will react and how they will behave. At least a guide or DM or buddy on a daytime dive can see something going wrong with such a diver and intervene. But on a night dive? A first-timer's light malfunctions and dies... and the new diver doesn't react well? The chance someone will be able to help is drastically reduced.

I'm sure for most of us, our first night dive was accident-free and incident-free... but that doesn't change the fact that the risk to a diver's safety is greatly elevated during their first night dive, compared to a typical daytime dive.

A shop requiring someone on their first night dive to pay a little extra for one-on-one supervision and/or some night dive course training is not a "money grab"; it's a shop that puts the safety of their customers first. Anyone suggesting this shop's requirement is a "money grab" is being truly irresponsible with their advice to novice divers; such advice is equivalent to telling new divers to find the shops for which offering the lowest price is the primary concern, but safety of their divers doesn't even make the list.

 

[caruso]

A shop requiring someone on their first night dive to pay a little extra for one-on-one supervision and/or some night dive course training is not a "money grab"; it's a shop that puts the safety of their customers first. Anyone suggesting this shop's requirement is a "money grab" is being truly irresponsible with their advice to novice divers

I must have missed the part where he's getting "one on one supervision" for his money, please link me to the post because I just reread the thread and couldn't find it. If it's not written anywhere then you are making a huge and incorrect assumption. As per my post, there was nothing close to one on one supervision during my SSI night dive AOW course- in fact the instructor didn't even dive with us.

 

[tursiops]

I must have missed the part where he's getting "one on one supervision" for his money, please link me to the post because I just reread the thread and couldn't find it. If it's not written anywhere then you are making a huge and incorrect assumption. As per my post, there was nothing close to one on one supervision during my SSI night dive AOW course- in fact the instructor didn't even dive with us.

You got cheated.

 

[yle]

I must have missed the part where he's getting "one on one supervision" for his money, please link me to the post because I just reread the thread and couldn't find it. If it's not written anywhere then you are making a huge and incorrect assumption. As per my post, there was nothing close to one on one supervision during my SSI night dive AOW course- in fact the instructor didn't even dive with us.

If your instructor didn't dive with you during your night dive course, then you're proving my point at the end of my last post... i.e. the difference between shops that put cost-cutting ahead of diver safety.

And your experience, fortunately, is definitely not standard. I've taken many students through an AOW course that included a night dive, and never once did I send them off on their first night dive without me.

My post did not say anything about the OP being asked to pay for one-on-one supervision; my post simply stated that suggesting any dive shop that requires supervision for a customer making their first night dive with the shop is engaging in a "money grab" is not accurate. I suggested there is a logic, based on safety, for a dive shop to insist that a first time night diver should have some kind of supervision (whether within a class, under the supervision of an instructor, or hiring a private DM.)

If you are having difficultly understanding my first post, I won't hold it against you. But if it helps you, I'll use smaller words next time.

 

[BlueTrin]

You got cheated.

Cheated of what ?

 

[dmaziuk]

Cheated of what ?

The arcane wisdom that is transferred from teacher to student through the water during the dive.

HTH

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Ah i think it’s probably because I told them it would be my first night dive.

They are SSI and it seems pretty easy diving here in Tenerife.

They are ok with me doing it as an adventure dive: so I would be only paying half the extra for the certification (25 euros more than a night dive alone), I may do this as I don’t get so many opportunities to do night dives

I've never been asked, but for €25 you might as well.

 

[tursiops]

Cheated of what ?

Having an instructor with him, to provide input, assistance, and comfort. He paid for it; why not get it, whether it is "required" by SSI or not.