freewillie
Contributor
Night dives are my personal favorite and I never pass up an opportunity to dive at night.
If you are diving through a dive operator then tank markers are usually part of the price and definitely a dive light will be part of the price. Usually tank markers are cyalume glow sticks. One dive operator in Cancun had lights for us but no glow sticks. I've been in the habit of packing a few in my dive bag for night dives anyways and had one for myself and my daughter. They are not really necessary but are very helpful for identification at night. My daughter had a blue one and it does make keeping track of her much easier (everyone's lights look just about the same and you can't always see the color accents on wetsuits at night.)
I always like to take my own light with me as well. You don't really need a huge light cannon and sometimes the really bright beams scare of the fish. I have a small hand held dive light with 220 lumens and more than adequate for a night dive. One really neat part of night dives is bioluminescence. At some point during the dive cover the light by putting it to your chest (try not to turn it off, that's when most light failures occur) and wave your hands in the darkness. If you are lucky then the bacteria responsible for bioluminescence will sparkle. It's really cool.
Do be sure to go over signals with the light at night as well. They are a little different but worst case if you don't understand then shine your light on your hand and go through a normal hand signal.
Have fun.
If you are diving through a dive operator then tank markers are usually part of the price and definitely a dive light will be part of the price. Usually tank markers are cyalume glow sticks. One dive operator in Cancun had lights for us but no glow sticks. I've been in the habit of packing a few in my dive bag for night dives anyways and had one for myself and my daughter. They are not really necessary but are very helpful for identification at night. My daughter had a blue one and it does make keeping track of her much easier (everyone's lights look just about the same and you can't always see the color accents on wetsuits at night.)
I always like to take my own light with me as well. You don't really need a huge light cannon and sometimes the really bright beams scare of the fish. I have a small hand held dive light with 220 lumens and more than adequate for a night dive. One really neat part of night dives is bioluminescence. At some point during the dive cover the light by putting it to your chest (try not to turn it off, that's when most light failures occur) and wave your hands in the darkness. If you are lucky then the bacteria responsible for bioluminescence will sparkle. It's really cool.
Do be sure to go over signals with the light at night as well. They are a little different but worst case if you don't understand then shine your light on your hand and go through a normal hand signal.
Have fun.