Night dives = AOW?

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It may have changed. I just checked my old logs, and yep, my NAUI AOW was five dives. The search was silly. They threw a weight belt in off the back end of the boat and told me to go get it, solo. Deep was too deep--42 meters. Night was okay. Wreck was a little boat (7-m long) at about 10 m depth. There were lobsters in it, and that's all I remember about that training dive. Nav--I remember having to swim a triangle. There was no manual. Just goes to show you that it's the instructor, not the agency....
 
OW certification today just barely qualifies one to dive during daylight. I would think it wise to at least require AOW certification to do so, although I'm not personally aware of it being so.
 
PADI doesn't even require a night dive for AOW, so an AOW requirement really doesn't make much sense. You could have a 9 dive diver who has never been in the water at night (but at least did the navigation dive for AOW) or somebody with 50 dives, who has never been in the water at night, but is much more comfortable with the whole act of diving and buoyancy control.
 
I've done night dives with three different ops. Not one has asked me for the AOW card. In fact, the only time I was ever asked for an AOW card was by Rainbow Reef going to Spiegel Grove.
 
PADI doesn't even require a night dive for AOW, so an AOW requirement really doesn't make much sense. You could have a 9 dive diver who has never been in the water at night (but at least did the navigation dive for AOW) or somebody with 50 dives, who has never been in the water at night, but is much more comfortable with the whole act of diving and buoyancy control.

You are so right. When my Newley minted OW daughter came down to dive I had her do her AOW during the 3 weeks. She kept telling me that the night dive was not required and she had all the required dives and I just told her she would keep doing the dives that I had laid on the calendar until I was satisfied that she was at a level for me to feel good. 27 dives later her AOW was signed off. She is a very safe and confident diver with experience with all types do Rec Diving that most take 100's of dives to do.

She also Learned to dive Twins and a long hose during what she cauld her diving Bootcamp Vacation.

When she went back to the University she had been the only one to dive since getting certified and had her AOW, NITROX and had done surf, Ocean, Deep, Boat and a lot more other types of dives. She can sling a 40 pony and does not think a thing about it. And she learned how o be self reliant and hate cattle boats.

And as much as she was afraid of the night dives she now loves them as she sees so much more on the reef than the day.

I really think that all agencies should require at least one Night Dive for their AOW...
 
PADI used to require a night dive for AOW--I had to do one. It was changed a number of years ago. My understanding is that it was because a lot of places have trouble getting night dives done. For example, in the northern latitudes, diving is a summer activity, but during the summer it doesn't get dark until very late--if at all. (See the Al Pacino movie Insomnia). Perhaps this rule is a holdover from those days. I have never encountered it, myself.
 
I was told during my IDC that the reason PADI stopped requiring it was that night diving is illegal in some places, and for that reason all dive shops in those areas had to ask for waivers. I offer night diving as part of the AOW whenever possible, but sometimes it's just not possible. This is especially true at this time of year--summer and fall, during monsoon season. Our liveaboards stop running during the monsoon season (the marine parks close) and only one of our day boats offers night dives (and only one day a week). Shore diving is impossible because of rip currents. So if I've got an AOW student during monsoon season, more often than not, I can't teach night diving.
 
Seems to depend on the dive op and the site.

I recently dove in the Keys, and one dive op would not allow me to do night and other certain dives (speigel grove) as I was not AOW (I've got about 80 dives, and am more competent then most AOW divers I know - just never bothered to do AOW). The 2nd shop didn't even ask about my cert level and allowed me to dive the very same wreck that Op #1 wouldn't let me dive (which is an absolutely AMAZING dive by the way - it's a must-do if you go to the keys!).

I will say - my very first night dive in Bonare with my dad several years ago, I did get disoriented and panicked a bit - this is rare for me, and hasn't happened again or since. Dad has thousands of dives under his belt, and we were shallow so it was not the end of the world, but did I not have a buddy I trusted completely I would not have gone on that dive (I've done tons since - love it now!) Night dives are a whole different world, and not all divers are created equal.
 
The majority of certification agencies have no night diver course, no drysuit course, no ice diver course, no boat diver corse, no lamp-holding diver course. So no, it can't possibly be required. I would say that for most circumstances (confined area, good vis, no deep areas available etc etc as common sense dictates) it is not even remotely necessary.

We usually graduate new divers in mid-June and do our first night dive a couple months (hopefully about 10-15 dives) later.
Then again we don't never to buddy newbies with newbies & then again earlier than that we don't have dark nights :D

Night dives can be big fun in shallower local lakes & quarries that might be downright boring in daylight. Shallow depth makes people more comfortable, rock faces & any underwater structure look much cooler at night, and fish are hugely less skittish and at many sites you will critters you never/rarely see in daytime (esp. big fish and crayfish).
I would stongly recommend this for a club activity, esp. a end-of-summer event. Offer hot coffee & grill sausages, and note too that many divers underwater with lamps will make a neat photo opportunity.

See also
http://www.diversnight.com/
Everyone, all over the world, let's get underwater at 8:13 PM local time on Nov 7!
 
socaljohn, my AOW was NAUI, but unless I'm mistaken, I had to do only five dives. The required ones were Deep, Nav, Night. And I also did Search and Wreck. I really don't remember a sixth dive for it....has it changed?

The NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver requirements include a total of six dives: Navigation, Night or low visibility and Deep Diving are specifically required. The other three may be chosen from a list of 14 other dive types. Socaljohn's instructor may have given him credit for documented dive experience outside the program. For example, if he had been on a supervised boat dive when his OW training was all shore diving.
 

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