Where was your deepest, most interesting, and/or most challenging night dive?

[soltari675]

My most memorable dive is pretty simple, but it stuck with me. The very next weekend after I did my OW we went to Mermet Springs in Illinois. For those who don't know it, it is a very large quarry that has planes, firetrucks, train cars, and all kinds of other stuff down there. If you've seen US Marshals, the 727 they crash in the movie is in this quarry. They also pump music under water which is pretty cool.

So on this weekend, a buddy working on his dive master asks who wants to do a night dive. I've never done one before and I am a little unsure. He asks me if I want to go, and says he will be my buddy and that we will stay above 30ft and keep the dive short, since I am so new. So I jump on the opportunity. There are three of us and we decend onto a 15ft platform and then begin our dive. I notice our third is way above us, possibly on the surface. I can only see her glowsticks. We haven't gone far at all, so we go back to the platform and my buddy tells me to stay still while he checks if she is ok. No problem. I am on a platform hanging onto a rope attached to the buoy. I am good.

While he is checking on her, I get curious. I get myself completely neutral in the water, where I am not touching anything, or moving at all. I am proud of myself for doing that btw. Then I shut off my light for a moment. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is playing and I am floating completely weightless in pitch black nothingness. No moon that night, so I can't even see my hand touching my nose. It was ..... surreal. It's the closest thing I can imagine astronauts feel like. Perfect music for the moment as well. I only did this for a few seconds, and turned my light back on so my buddy would not look or come down and freak. But that moment is the most memorable to me in diving. It was that moment I knew I found a hobby I would never willingly give up. I was addicted.

 

[Bubblehead628]

I love night dives, I have two memorable ones. My fist one was doing my AOW in 1976 (yeah I know). Anyway we did a shore dive at “Cannery Row” in Monterey Ca. At that time the canneries were closed and the area was not the tourist attraction it has become today, actually it was kind of run down (if memory serves). We went in at dusk, I think I had maybe done a dozen dives prior to this, my light was more water resistant than water proof and my buddy’s light was less so (he had it in a plastic baggie). The plan was to surface swim a little ways and dive along the cement pier. I don’t remember where the other divers and instructor were, we were scattered about I just know it was just me and him (can’t remember his name). During the surface swim we encountered a sea otter mom showing her pup how to crack open an ab, really cool. I didn’t realize how big they were until I was five or so feet away from them. We went down maybe 20-30 feet and had a bit of a fright from the get go, this dark shadowy thing came hurtling at us and veered off at the last second. Of course it was a seal having fun at our expense; remember what year “Jaws” came out? Nuf said. Shortly after that my buddy’s light went out (no surprise there). He was a big guy in his early 20’s, a student at UC Davis and I was 17 in high school, so I looked up to him as the mature one (my bad). When his light went out he was out of there, he surfaced and swam back to shore fast, not bothering to tell me or anything. I surfaced, it was fully dark now and I couldn’t catch up with him. Actually at first I was a bit disoriented and my light was fading fast. I figured that the street lights indicated the shore and kept the pier to my left side, but I couldn’t judge the distance. I know we weren’t very far from shore, but it looked a long ways away in the dark. I started heading to mostly snorkeling. It seemed to me to be a long swim, I kept looking up and see the lights but couldn’t determine how far out I was from land. I was wondering when it would be shallow enough to stand (I couldn’t see anything). I was chugging away, when I heard my instructors’ voice tell me that I can stand up now. I was not a happy camper and let my buddy know, I didn’t have the guts to say anything to my instructor a retired Air Force Senior Master Sgt.. Overall the experience had some good (otter & seal) parts and some not so good parts (disappearing buddy). I survived and it didn’t deter me from doing more night dives.

The second memorable night dive was also a shore dive, this time off of Hollywood Beach, Fl near the Commercial Street pier in the mid 1980’s. My college roommate Bret and I did a dive to the second reef system, about 60 or so yards away. It was a full moon and lights were almost unnecessary, vis was great depth was 20-30 feet. We had not one, but two encounters with octopi. The first one was a rather large one (basketball size) just resting on top of a coral head, as we approached she (I thought of it as a she) came to us and let us touch it, she was rather friendly touched us back and showed no fear, finally she tired of us and jetted off. Shortly after that we met another one, much smaller (softball size) and almost as friendly. As we headed back to the beach, we were in about six feet of water when I heard my buddy scream through his regulator and he was hightailing to the beach, practically walking on water. Apparently a fish got lodged in the vent of his translucent fins and was slapping his leg trying to extricate itself. He had no idea what was hitting his leg, but it scared the poop out of him. Remember when Jaws 4: the Revenge came out? Nuf said. At about the same time (as I was trying not to laugh too hard) I fell back into the water near the shore when a small wave hit the back of my legs. It was about two feet deep and when I landed on my butt I braced myself with my hands and my right hand landed on a rock. I grabbed the rock to see what it was and it turned out to be a Slipper/Shovelnose lobster, hard to find when looking for one. It was an interesting night dive and none has come close to that ever since.

 

[RonFrank]

One of my favorite night divers was my first Ocean dive, and my first Ocean shore dive with Marvel and Jenny and Matt at LBTS. It was a twilight dive that turned into a night dive. We saw nothing outrageous except I was new so it was all outrageous! Parrot fish, Trigger Fish, Blenny, Bass, an Eel and all the usual like Loobsters, and Crab and urchins ohh my! I also experienced bio-luminescence for the first time UW at night. It was my Birthday and what a great day it was.

 

[XS-NRG]

Only ever done 3 night dives but it's the best diving I think.

1 Was at Sidney Marina in Victoria, BC (my first ever). The amount of crabs we saw and the anemones were just amazing!!! The dive wasn't very deep but it was exhilarating. The full moon was out but there was some clouds so we couldn't just moonlight it.

2nd was at Ogden Point again in Victoria and after all the confusion of getting in, walking the boardwalk only to find a fierce current going out to the ocean, walking back and then doing our dive it was extremely shallow, extremely short and wasn't that great. I think the cluster-you-know-what we had with the entry and walk sure makes it memorable but not in a good way

3rd way just this past weekend and was awesome. 60ft was the max depth and was 30 mins but half way through the dive we found the treasure we were looking for (1960's Ford Meteor car wreck). Great dive and at the end we did our safety stop in pitch black with our lights turned off.

Need to get this card. It is on my dream list for the next one to get!!!

 

[Seaduced]

My night dives generally aren't deep or challenging, but some are interesting. One that comes to mind was in Bonaire, last February. I was trying to take some pictures, but tarpon were using my focus light to spot 'dinner' and would swoop in and eat my subjects. I got mad and turned off the light. I was mesmerized by the bio-luminescent trail the tarpon left in the water. I had never seen anything like that before. I hung motionless for 15 minutes just watching the twinkling trails crisscross back and forth. Its one of the coolest things I have discovered underwater. Now, I regularly turn off my lights and look for critters that flash or glow.

 

[IDS_Bill]

For me it was Subic Bay, Philippines. We were doing one of our trimix check-out dives and got started late so it was a night dive. At 175fsw the instructor swam off, moving the guideline to the anchor and left the 4 of us students on the wreck. We had to do a free ascent/deco from 175 at night, in a current, in shipping lanes. We followed procedure and surfaced about a 1/2 mile from the boat and when we got to the boat, we found the instructor on the boat, on oxygen. He told us he got bored and decided to end his dive early and "finish his deco on the boat". We learned a lot from that guy about what NOT to do .

 

[SeahorseDeb]

Channel Islands near Santa Barbara, California with the Truth Aquatic's Aggressor fleet.

We did a night dive off of Santa Cruz Island, 80ft below the boat and 20ft off the anchor.
The entire dive group descended off the anchor line which was at a 45 degree scope. Since most people were new to night diving or new to diving in general, they all clung to the anchor line while negative, including my buddy. Despite the briefing and repeated encouragement by me and the boat crew (I was a paying customer) to not hang on the anchor line, pretty much everyone did just that with no air in their BC.

I'm sorry, what am I missing.....We jump off the boat with our B/C inflated......

 

[tracydr]

My husband and I did a very memorable night dive with a full moon off Oil Slick in Bonaire. I'm not sure if it was the full moon but there were so many creatures out that night!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Deepest was a solo to 110 feet in the lake we used have available for training. So peaceful and relaxing knowing there was no one else near me.
Most memorable was off the dock at Divi in Bonaire. Got far enough away to not see the lights from the resort and turned my own light into my chest. Closed my eyes to let them adjust and when I opened em the bioluminesence exploded like millions of stars. Would love to see that again.

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