Tell me about your 1st Night Dive

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?

Well, it was reeeeeeeeeal dark !!!

Sorry, just in a mood today !!!

I think I'm starting to go into rut.

the K

debfife:

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?

Click to expand...

Well, my first night dive could best be described as :dropmouth

The thing I remember most was my instructor's first comment after we got out of the water ... "Bob, you're a nice guy ... but I don't ever want you that close to me again."



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Now for an honest response . . .

My first night dive wasn't too far removed from a daytime dive in low vis water.
We did a shore dive at a dive site with which we were very familiar.

Basically the only things which gave me any concern at all were the issues dealing with maintaining buddy contact. It can be very easy to become separated during the day at this site due to the low degree of visibility . . . so needless to say, it's even more of a problem when it's night time. We had discussed this at length in our dive planning/preparation so it didn't add any great degree of difficulty to the dive at all.

All in all, I think your biggest task will be the same thing, concentrating on maintaining buddy contact.

Plus you'll see a whole lot more critters!

the K

I saw more life on my first night dive than I had on all my previous dives combined.

Huge Ling Cod, a mated pair of Wolf Eel, an octopus with some HUGE suction cups (I think they're bigger at night), schools of rockfish and crab.

Some elements of a daytime dive become extraordinary at night... like the way your bubbles glow as they rise to the surface, the way your light slices through the dark.

I need to do that again soon.

Well, my first night dive was forgetable. It was off St Thomas, USVI.

It started out wrong when we had to switch dive sites because of strong current. Went to plan B. Current at that site was also too strong. Of course by the time we got to our third site it was pitch black outside. When I checked my Computer right before the dive it read 400 lbs of air remaining. Put it on another tank, that one read 2400 lbs. Finally ended up using an extra console they had on the dive boat.

The dive itself was not too bad after that, except that I'm a bit of a Hoover under the best of circumstances, and this time I was MUCH worse. I was a little disappoined though. From what I had read I was expecting to see lots of things you dont see during the day. Instead, it was the sam ethings I saw during my day dives, only less light.

My first night dive was in Fiji. The moon was near full and you could see about 20' without a light, so it wasn't too dark. I've done quite a few night dives since, and they're probably my favorite kind of dive. There is far more activity from the ocean life at night and far more to see. It is just like you probably tell your kids, there's nothing there in the dark that isn't there when it's light. Of course sharks are primarily nocturnal feeders, but I haven't been eaten yet. :05:

My first night dive was about dive #15 or so, part of my AOW class. I was a little apprehensive about it, because a friend had told me she had had to abort her first night dive from a claustrophobia/anxiety type reaction. But we actually went into the water before it was full dark, and that made the beginning of the dive easy. And I was buddied with my favorite instructor, which helped, too.

I actually didn't find it to be all that much different -- but of course, almost all the diving I had done to date was in pretty darned poor visibility. Whether you can't see something three feet away because it's green or because it's black doesn't make a great deal of difference The only thing that bothered me was when we would meet up with some of the other divers that were down with us, and then I had a hard time keeping track of which diver was my buddy . . . but I've had that problem since in the daytime, too.

The site we dove isn't one which is noted for a lot of "wildlife", but we did see some ratfish, sturgeon poachers and at the end, a beautiful little skate.

The funny thing was that, when we came out, we were talking about people tending to use more air at night because of the little bit of anxiety that the dark causes. My instructor said, "Oh, I used much LESS air on the night dive." When asked why he thought that was so, he said, "Well, I could either see Lynne's light or kick her, and either way, I knew where she was." I guess Bob and I had similar ways of coping with night diving

It was a good experience, and I would have no hesitation about diving at night again (in the right places, with the right people, as always!).

My first night dive was a shore dive on Maui. I felt like a little kid shining a flashlight around a dark bedroom looking for monsters. But it was also one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. You may have to push yourself to do it, but you will be so proud of yourself when you are done! Have fun.

I had an interesting 1st night dive. We were 3 divers (2 beginners and 1 advanced) and three staff (one DMC).
The life UW was FANTASTIC! and on the whole I really enjoyed my dive (something like my 10th dive).
The DMC was the one that panicked. He hoovered all his air, hoovered the Guides tank and then bolted for the surface trailing the other 2 staff...leaving the 3 of us on the bottom. I was too new to think and forgot all my training and just stayed there and waited (the other two too)...When the 3rd staff came back to get us, something like 5 or so minutes had passed. But like I said, I loved every minute of it and wish I could do it more often