I took some friends on a trip to the Japanese Seaplane in Guam 2 weeks ago. We did 2 day dives on it (one to find it, the other to do some extra exploring...). We came back 12 hours later and did another dive on it at night...it was eerie coming up on it with our lights! There was a nice sized boxfish in the fuselage, a turkeyfish in one of the drop tanks, cleanershrimp ALL over it, almost swam right into a jellyfish on the way to our safety stop, and a nice black and white striped eel hanging out next to a conspicuous sea cucumber...one of the best dives yet! I'm planning on taking them out to the Tokai Maru/Cormorran in a couple of weeks!
Unsure about night diving?
- Thread starter lulubelle
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Sas
Contributor
Glad to hear you enjoyed your night dive lulubelle 
I love them myself, and do about a third of my dives at night as I often do a dive after work during the week.
There's lots of things that come out at night like more cephalopods, and I like the fact that it is spookier. Some nights the bioluminescence is amazing too so we switch off our lights and wave our arms around to make it shine. One night dive I did had such clear viz that I could see the moon and stars at about 10m deep
I love them myself, and do about a third of my dives at night as I often do a dive after work during the week. There's lots of things that come out at night like more cephalopods, and I like the fact that it is spookier. Some nights the bioluminescence is amazing too so we switch off our lights and wave our arms around to make it shine. One night dive I did had such clear viz that I could see the moon and stars at about 10m deep
beautybelow
Contributor
My favorite night dive spot out of many. This was all from one dive and every time it was the same...
Night Dive on Maaya Thila, Maldives
Night Dive on Maaya Thila, Maldives
OP
lulubelle
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Very cool Jon, wish you had been around to shoot our squid!
Jersey
Contributor
Me too! My first 'night dive' was to have been a 'twilight dive', but gear issues and kitting up put us in the water an hour after schedule, with 2 little critter pointer lights that barely illuminated gauges. No discussion about signals, or what not to do (like shine your light in your buddy's eyes) as it wasn't a planned night dive. 10 minutes in it was pitch black. I too was the remora firmly affixed to my buddy amazed I lived 45 minutes. Never again I said. Six months later, proper planning, some decent lights, back ups, strobes, tank markers and I was a convert. I now suggest the night dive! Last trip we had the pleasure of introducing a newb to night diving. I could tell Frank was anxious as he kept asking questions through out the day. I buddied him up with my normal buddy, a 20 yr+ veteran, and had a thorough planning session and review. After a 45 minute dive I asked "Well?" ~ the answer "One thousand times better then expected." He expected not to be able to see his hand in front of his own face. You never know until you try it.
I am NOT a fan of night dives, especially here in Puget Sound. It is just too dark! The junk in the water soaks up the light and, well, it is just too dark for me.
Tropical night diving can be interesting, and sometimes a much better dive than a daytime dive but because of the clarity of the water, the overall darkness isn't as bad.
I use a 21 watt HID to help cut the dark but it just doesn't work as well in open water as it does in the more confined spaces I sometimes enjoy.
Tropical night diving can be interesting, and sometimes a much better dive than a daytime dive but because of the clarity of the water, the overall darkness isn't as bad.
I use a 21 watt HID to help cut the dark but it just doesn't work as well in open water as it does in the more confined spaces I sometimes enjoy.
NC Wreck Diver
Contributor
Sounds like an intelligent idea. When I did all my NAUI certs years ago, they didn't have all these specialty courses offered today. I can see the training is much better now. When we dove at night, we geared up with lights and cyalume sticks and jumped in. Similar with Drysuit training...........rent one, get a 15 minute talk from the shop owner, and try it out in the quarry for a few dives until you felt comfortable.
I believe the class approach trains people better for these areas of diving. But I don't know the PADI AOW/Night Diver verbatum.
Hmmm, I'm transferring to Bremerton in 2 months...gonna have to give up the tropical paradise I know for that cold water!!!
Herk_Man
Contributor
My first night dive was also my two sons' first night dive and we will never forget it. Bari Reef in Bonaire. Tuling along looking at this and that when my I can suddenly hear my younger son audibly yelling through his regulator. As I turned to look at him a huge Tarpin smoked in over our shoulders and zoomed down in the beam of light from our [very modest] dive lights to snap up a fish. Just an awesome adrenaline rush!
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