Night diving - what is it like?

[Storker]

BTW To not get hurt on land, always keep 1 or two headband (i.e. handsfree) lamps in your car.

They're quite nice to have when you're breaking down the gear and for making sure you haven't left anything, as well

 

[Todd Bissonette]

Hi @Dogbowl. You should definitely try out night diving! Every new type of diving that you do gives you more options, more experience, and more opportunities to move forward with your diving! If you haven't done your Advanced Open Water you can even do a Night Dive as one of the dives in that! Here's a little vid I did down in the Keys a cpl of years ago... the vis wasn't great, and there was some surge... But still a super fun dive!

 

[Dan]

FTFY

Good point. I forgot to mention about the backup light, which part of my safety gears that I always carry with me in my BCD pockets, as shown below.
1. PLB1
2. Knife
3. Whistle
4. Dive Alert
5. Flashlight
6. Mirror
7. DSMB

 

[Storker]

Good point. I forgot to mention about the backup light, which part of my safety gears that I always carry with me in my BCD pockets, as shown below.
1. PLB1
2. Knife
3. Whistle
4. Dive Alert
5. Flashlight
6. Mirror
7. DSMB
View attachment 431349

That's one thing I've adopted from the GUE/tech crowd: the BP/W with a backup light on one of my shoulder straps. That way, I always carry at least one light. It's always attached to my harness. I never go diving without a cutting device (usually a BFK on my left calf, and a trilobite on my harness), and I usually stuff a dSMB in my DS pocket as well.

 

[TMHeimer]

Dan _T, What do you do with the mirror--shine your light on it?

 

[Dan]

Dan _T, What do you do with the mirror--shine your light on it?

That mirror is for day time signal to reflect sunlight to a boat when you are lost at sea.

 

[RayfromTX]

The coolest creatures come out at night. Take it slow and keep your buddies swimming as a team, especially in a popular site as it can get a bit confusing if your group mixes with other groups and you just become a big knot of lights and fins. There is whole new set of signals to learn with your lights. On surfacing, purging your reg while shining your light into the bubbles can alert your boat and other boats to your presence. The dives can end up shallow and really long as they are quite relaxing.

 

[Richard Alexander]

Love night dives. It’s a completely different world. Dived in Curasao and first night out I turned around and was accosted by a sizable squid that seemed to glow in the dark. Way cool.
Night dive in Cozumel. The world comes alive. Our guide took us to a barren area of sand. Turn off our light and wave our arms.
The ocean lit up with bioluminescents.
Very exciting

 

[Anthony Jones]

It depends on where you dive. I got some of my night dive videos on my YouTube page.

Earl Jones III

 

[Barmaglot]

To help have peace of mind:
* Carry at least 1 backup. 2 backups is good too because you can always give one away or leave it hanging somewhere as a landmark.
* Test all your lights both before getting in the water and again right after getting them throughly wet.
* Make sure your backup is secured where you can lay your hand on it immediately (usually from a chest D-ring). You don't really need it IMMEDIATELY, but it's easier to feel calm when you know you can.

Here's a few noob questions, if you don't mind:

When I'm diving with my camera, which has two wide-beam video lights mounted on arms, do I need to bring a third, narrow-beam light as a backup?
If yes, what's the best place to put it? Clip it to the BCD by a lanyard, put it in a BCD pocket, mount it on the camera housing with a cold shoe adapter or a triple clamp?