Tell me about your 1st Night Dive

[AlaskaDiver]

I loved it. It inspired me to do many more night dives.

We dove during the day for our AOW at Koloa landing. My husband and I liked it so much, we returned that evening and dove with the instructor. I remember watching the many creatures crawling all over the landing area which appeared barren during the day. There were so many things to see in a shallow area around the shore. The bioluminescence was easily stirred up and looked interesting with the lights out.

 

[carldarl]

My first night dive was with an instructor and my wife. I had a WONDERFUL time. Saw two small sharks along with a multitude of critters all over the place. My wife said it was interesting but not her cup of tea.

Second night dive was the next night with an instructor and my son and daughter. My son thought it was ok but not interested in more. My daughter had a panic attack at about 40 feet. I got my first intro into dealing with a paniced diver. Got her to the surface and aborted the dive. Didn't realize someone could cry and sob with a reg in her mouth. (SHE actually thumbed the dive after she got my attention, THEN she lost it.)

Jamaica in 7 days. My daughter said she will try another night "shore" dive with just the two of us. (NO kelp) Wife and son said no thanks.

 

[jonix]

Bauan, Batangas, Philippines

my 1st night dive was part of the AOW course. Was with 4 other divers, shore entry, huge swells, but had to abort because of the swells...made us really dizzy.

a few weeks after that i resumed the Night part of the AOW course...shore entry, no current and damn the reef was absolutely amazing that night this was my first "real" night dive

i and paolov went critter hunting...night photo op. saw lots of amazing reef creatures. ended the dive past 9PM hahahahahaha

navigated back to the resort and after ditching the empty tank we did the shallows with snorkel and lights...still saw huge slugs mating

i don't know really but previously i wouldn't even think of night swimming at beaches... now it's quite different. i really enjoy night dives

 

[ramblinpaul]

My first night dive was the second dive of day on a wreck, the Wexford, a 250' package ship (www.shipwreckwexford.ca) on Lake Huron.

This dive trip wasn't supposed to include a night dive, but things got all mixed up with the boat charter, and we ended up leaving the dock at 6pm, instead of 8:30am. The wreck is almost 9 miles from the small lakeside town of Grand Bend, and our first dive was at dusk. I was diving with people I'd never dove with before, and my dive buddy on the first dive didn't want to penetrate the wreck so we just circled the deck and the outer hull. She backed out of the second dive because of the coldness of the water (the thermocline was about 7-9 feet above the wreck's deck).

I joined with the other buddy team for dive number two and it was now dark. They had penetrated the wreck on the first dive, and made it down to the boilers which are massive. They wanted me to see the boilers, so I followed them into the wreck on my first night dive, and put my complete faith in their skills, and experience. It was an exhilarating, if not somewhat unsettling, night diving experience. WOW, what a dive!!

On the trip back to the harbour, I sat by myself on the charter boat's deck quietly reflecting on the dive, while watching fireworks from the local small town fair in Grand Bend.

It doesn't get much better.........

 

[tedtim]

My first night dive was on the AOW course. Not much of a dive.

My first night dive after the course was in Cozumel. It was an interesting dive with lots to see. The exit from the dive was most interesting. We had a rookie boat captain who was having some trouble just keeping track of us. We surfaced near with the DM, waited in the water for a couple of minutes and the boat headed for us. My buddy and I had to duck back under to avoid being hit. It was a cattle boat type of operation. They picked up half of our group and headed off to pick up another group. Four of us were left drifting on the surface, in sight of land, for about half an hour. My buddy managed to keep her light held above her head for the whole time. Two of us spent the time trying to keep the other diver calm.

The captain never left the wheelhouse. No words were spokend by anyone on the crew.

No tips that evening for anyone.

 

[Firecracker]

My first night dive was with my wife and another guy during out AOW course. Vis was maybe 1-2', SO much silt it was terrible. My wife, panicked when she seemed to "sink". She dropped her weights, actually she placed them on the platform and surfaced. Said she was kicking and adding air to her BC but couldn't come to the surface. I think she had a bit of vertigo.

all was fine after that, the other diver went down and retreived her weights and we continued the dive for a short while longer.

Needless to say, my wife said she will NEVER do another night dive.

Oh well................

 

[dunderburg]

We were thinking about doing one when in Cozumel (we'll be there until 11pm).

My husband thinks I'll chicken out and that I won't get off the boat.

What was your first dive into darkness like?

Mine was really fun. I was a bit tentative at first, but it was an easy dive near the Cayman Turtle Farm after doing the same dive earlier in the daylight. (I wonder if the place is still there after the hurricanes.)

We say lots of life that wasn't there when it was light out. The ?bioluminescence (sp) was really neat. I will remember that dive for a long time.

 

[nkw5]

Okay. I'll share.

It took me 5 years after OW cert to even want to dive at night. Even the pics of pretty creatures weren't alluring enough, but finally I got up enough nerve during AOW. It was a lake shore dive. I wanted to turn on all 3 lights that I was carrying and leave them on, but I got talked out of that. We walk in and stick our heads in the water. Not too bad. We start to descend. I pop right up. Stupid snorkel doesn't breathe underwater! I freaked my instructor out. He knew I was pretty nervous already. We really descend this time. It's not too bad. I know there are no sharks in the lake. I've got a death grip on the light and I'm keeping my instructor about a foot away. I start to relax and even enjoy the experience. We see this big bass (quite a treat because in the daytime you rarely see fish in this lake). It's just hovering there, a few inches off the bottom. Our lights and presence aren't disturbing it at all. I'm using my hands to guess how big it is. It's probably 18 inches. My instructor tries to measure it with his arm, but he scares the fish. It turns and darts and BAMMM! it slams into my chest. Again my instructor is really freaked, thinking I'll panic or something. I start busting up. I about drown laughing so hard.

Since then I have done several night dives. I really like them. The ones in the ocean are much better (more to see), but I'll admit sometimes the imagination still plays tricks on me.

 

[midwestdvr]

My first (and only one so far) was in Coz. It was awesome. No currents. All sorts of critter out in the open and some of the fishes were sleeping (a boon for taking pics). Will definitely try it again when another opportunity pops up.

 

[DiverBuoy]

Okay. I'll share.

It took me 5 years after OW cert to even want to dive at night. Even the pics of pretty creatures weren't alluring enough, but finally I got up enough nerve during AOW. It was a lake shore dive. I wanted to turn on all 3 lights that I was carrying and leave them on, but I got talked out of that. We walk in and stick our heads in the water. Not too bad. We start to descend. I pop right up. Stupid snorkel doesn't breathe underwater! I freaked my instructor out. He knew I was pretty nervous already. We really descend this time. It's not too bad. I know there are no sharks in the lake. I've got a death grip on the light and I'm keeping my instructor about a foot away. I start to relax and even enjoy the experience. We see this big bass (quite a treat because in the daytime you rarely see fish in this lake). It's just hovering there, a few inches off the bottom. Our lights and presence aren't disturbing it at all. I'm using my hands to guess how big it is. It's probably 18 inches. My instructor tries to measure it with his arm, but he scares the fish. It turns and darts and BAMMM! it slams into my chest. Again my instructor is really freaked, thinking I'll panic or something. I start busting up. I about drown laughing so hard.

Since then I have done several night dives. I really like them. The ones in the ocean are much better (more to see), but I'll admit sometimes the imagination still plays tricks on me.

So true, I've done hundreds of night dives, my imagination must still be whipped into submission.