Unsure about night diving?

[Hoomi]

I thought I would be at least a bit nervous on my first night dive, but since I was diving with a good group in an area I was already familiar with from day dives, I relaxed quickly and really enjoyed the dive. I've done one night dive in Mexico and one in Fiji so far, and both were great experiences.

I might have felt much differently, though, had I been with buddies that left me behind and dealing with strong currents.

 

[JTinSD]

A 4am in the water time assures plenty of life will be out as the dusk divers have been gone for 8 hours. And you can clean gear in the daylight.

I have a "night" dive Thursday 8pm on the Yukon. It's the tenth anniversary of its sinking this week, so lots of Yukon related things going on here. This particular dive, from the Humboldt, features an accompanying squid light boat with 30K wattage.

I'm curious to see what effect that kind of illumination will have at 65'-100'. Daytime viz on the Yukon has been reported at up to 40' lately.

 

[AfterDark]

Night diving is a tough act to follow. My 2nd decade of diving was almost all night dives. Friday nights if conditions allowed we'd dive after dark. The ocean comes alive at night. The light returns the colors to objects and creatures. Here in NE we see colors and creatures we'd never get to see during the day. I've only done 2 night dives this year both solo. It seems that people are still diving Friday nights but I work Friday nights:depressed:and I can't find anyone that is free to dive either Saturday or Sunday nights. Solo night dives worry Mrs. AfterDark and being the good husband I don't tell her when I go solo anymore. I'd strongly recommend to anyone that hasn't done it yet to dive after dark, you'll be hooked. Even if the 1st attempt doesn't workout try it again good choice lulubelle!

 

[DiverBeth]

The first time I dived at night I was a new diver on my first dive trip. Not having lights yet I rented a light for diving. The thing quit on me a couple of times and only by hitting it did the light come back on. I didn't freak that my life went out but I was mad because there was so much cool stuff I was seeing and then not seeing for a few seconds. As soon as I got back from the trip I bought a set of lights.

AfterDark is right about being hooked. I rarely pass up a night dive.

 

[BrianOrange]

I did my first and only two night dives in Belize on a liveaboard earlier this month. I was unsure just like yourself and sat out the first two night dives. Once I did get in the water it was totally fine. No issues. You might think it's pitch black down there but it's not. You can see the outline of the reef or whatever. You won't need a light to see around - you need the light to illuminate fish. But it's not pitch black. That's the one thing that kind of stuck with me.

Overall, it was okay. Personally I like seeing the blue of the water so night diving obviously takes that away. But it's a unique experience. Give it a try. Have a good buddy, stay shallower. Usually night dives are shorter too so if you don't like it, you wont be down there long.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

The first time I dived at night I was a new diver on my first dive trip. Not having lights yet I rented a light for diving. The thing quit on me a couple of times and only by hitting it did the light come back on. I didn't freak that my life went out but I was mad because there was so much cool stuff I was seeing and then not seeing for a few seconds. As soon as I got back from the trip I bought a set of lights.

AfterDark is right about being hooked. I rarely pass up a night dive.

Hi Beth:

I assume that you have purchased two or three lights of your very own by now. It's always the case, if you do a night dive with one light (or penetrate the wreck with limited ambient light), that light is always going to give you trouble.

I posted before, depending on conditions, I will turn my light out (with a cylume stick in the back of my rig), just to see what it's like in total darkness. I won't do that as I'm in a ripping current down the St. Lawrence Seaway, or a wreck dive off of Jersey, but I do enjoy this on a reef. It's fun, a little spooky, and I know I can turn my light back on quickly, or go to one of my two other back-ups I carry. Have fun & Safe Diving.

 

[Krenath]

My first night dives were on a liveaboard cruise in the Bahamas. The first one was on a wreck called the Miami Rita. We spent a nice, long dive in the shallow water exploring it during the day, and when we came back after dark, the layout was familiar, but it was like someone had completely redecorated, as the wildlife and plant life looked completely different. After exploring the wreck again, I turned around and shined my light into the blackness. Thousands of tiny points of light shone back like stars. Each one of them the eyeball of something looking back. I also covered my light and looked back at the wreck to see the lights of the other divers swimming around the wreck.

Another dive was on a wreck called the Hesperus, which was at maybe 19 feet. Our first dive was late in the day so we watched as it got steadily closer to dusk and stingrays and barracuda started coming to the wreck in masses. After our surface interval, we hopped back in and found numerous sea turtles had crammed themselves into nooks and crannies of the wreck to sleep.

Despite being told by the boat's divemaster not to shine lights directly in the eyes of the sea life, the other divers converged on one large turtle and proceeded to try to burn its brains out with their dive lights. It woke up and, dazed and blinded, headed directly away from all the lights and practically ran me over as I was the one diver not pointing a light at it and probably looked like the only exit.

On a night dive last summer, my buddy and I apparently stayed down so long that the boat's anchor line strobe ran out of battery power. We could see two nearly identical lights above us. One was the dive boat and one was the full moon. Rather than risking picking wrong and being in for a really long swim, we did a free ascent in the dark and ended up about 300 yards behind the dive boat.

On a night dive under a bridge in West Palm Beach, I was chased by a mating pair of horseshoe crabs for nearly an hour. Whenever I'd stop to look at something interesting, they'd trundle on up and try to bonk into my dive light. I also had a spotted moray swim between my legs while it was out hunting.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

My first night dives were on a liveaboard cruise in the Bahamas. The first one was on a wreck called the Miami Rita. We spent a nice, long dive in the shallow water exploring it during the day, and when we came back after dark, the layout was familiar, but it was like someone had completely redecorated, as the wildlife and plant life looked completely different. After exploring the wreck again, I turned around and shined my light into the blackness. Thousands of tiny points of light shone back like stars. Each one of them the eyeball of something looking back. I also covered my light and looked back at the wreck to see the lights of the other divers swimming around the wreck.
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I did the Miami Rita night dive on Blackbeard's. Cool Wreck. Your post is something that we did too. Lots of fun.............

 

[idocsteve]

If you time it right you can gear up and drop into the water just as it starts to get dark so you don't have the hassles of prepping your gear in complete darkness.

The fish act differently, they're not so quick to swim away from you, you'll see aquatic life that you probably won't ever see during the day especially crabs and octopus, and if you have a powerful dive light you'll see much more color than you do during the day.

A night dive is about the only way to really spice up that same old site that you visit all the time.

During our recent Curacao trip we did a few night dives and as I was swimming along shining my light under ledges I saw a distinctive pattern that stood out from everything else. Took a second to realize I was looking at the foot of a large turtle sleeping and tucked under the ledge.

Sorry to say I woke him up and he lazily lumbered away. The picture isn't all that good because of all the debris and resultant back scatter, but you get the idea.

 

[keyshunter]

One piece of advice I would offer is to leave your bright lights at HOME. My first night dive last week my buddy had a really bright light and did not want to dim it. That sucked. My second one my buddy and I both had a small TUSA reef light and were dimming it often. We saw SO much more on that dive...

lulubell,
I agree wholeheartedly. I have done quite a few night dives on LC. The very simple concept that many people (particularly the macho types) do not grasp is that "if the water is clear enough for 100'+ visibility in the daytime, it is usually just as clear at night". Thus one does not need the brightness of a cave light. Despite admonitions by divemasters in pre-dive briefings, they go merrily along, blasting their powerful lights into the eyes of sea creatures--not to mention other divers.

Although it is not necessary to go that small, on LC I use a pair of small Princeton Tec lights, each powered by 2 AA batteries. One light for backup. At times, when moving close to a creature, I block out part of the beam with my fingers. I try to make sure that my buddy(s) (I will not buddy with someone with a blaster light) and I are last off the boat. That way we can determine which way the "herd" is going and head in a different direction.