How was your first night dive ?

[nolatom]

Labor Day 1999, Stetson Bank, 70 miles off Freeport Tx, on a liveaboard. It was my third dive trip after OW, maybe my tenth post-cert dive?

My buddy went in ahead and along the surface line, I jumped in (4-foot drop, a lot for a beginner) after telling the DM at the gate who I was.

And didn't put my reg back in my mouth after telling him...

Which (splash!!) loose reg bounced my mask upward, so I'm a few feet under the ocean, at night, can't see and can't breathe. Ooops.

Two choices here: a) panic, inhale water, and go limp..

or

Remember what my instructor taught us: "if you can breathe, you can solve all your other problems"

Fortunately even in my excited and bewildered state, I chose (b). So..

I remembered what else they taught me: "sweep your right arm way back for your lost reg". Which didn't get me the primary, but did bring up my little hockey-puck alternate. Which had air, so I was breathing!

Next was pull mask back over my eyes, and clear it the way they taught us in class. That worked too, this "OW class" is really good stuff, it seems, glad I listened..

My eyes stung like hell from the salt. Nothing to do about that but grin and bear it. Then I swept my arm again, got my primary, and switched out. At which time my secondary free-flowed. Remembered they said in class, "use your thumb to stop flow, then turn the mouthpiece downward". Which also worked they way they said!

So now I'm certifiably still alive, and back to "normal" diver gear configuration. Next thought--did any anyone see me, in my little cascade of errors and fix-its? Apparently not, what seemed like an eternity had probably taken no more than a minute and I must not have noticeably thrashed around. So my eyes stung a little less, and "hey, I got away with it, might as well descend, right?", which I did.

The dive itself was the absolute bomb, and my eyes watered and stopped hurting. If you haven't been, Stetson at night is like landing on the Moon--rock ridges and pinnacles, other-worldly-geology and cool soft coral and fishies, sea turtles, and lots of other lights (divers) roaming around like fireflies, even more so if you covered your own light with your hand temporarily. And really clear water, and fortunately no current.

So after a truly sketchy newbie start, it was a flat-out great dive. I have liked night dives ever since this one.

To our original poster. I got a little carried away here with my goof-ups. I wouldn't say night dives at Stetson are the perfect low-risk baptism into this wonderful genre, but it worked for me. You might want to be a little closer to shore and a bit shallower than our 85 feet, but you will really like it I think.

And put Stetson on your list for night (or day) dives. Just remember to put your reg back in *before* you depart the boat. ;-)

 

[Storker]

At first... I couldn't see anything. Not even my instructor. Then he started waving his hands, and millions of dinoflagellates lit up. In Norwegian they are called Morild and they are incredibly beautiful!

Same with my first night dive. It was one of my AOW dives. Seeing the plankton light up like sparks was simply awesome.

Night dives are still among my favorite types of dives. There's something about hanging in the middle of nothing, everything is pitch black, the world doesn't exist. The entire universe consists of what you can see in your lightbeam, and your buddy's light out there on the left flank. You join up, cover your lights, wave your hand in front of your face and see Nature's own fireworks go off. Fantastic.

But always remember to bring at least one backup light. Two is one, one is none.



---------- Post added April 30th, 2015 at 09:18 PM ----------

Sounds MAGIC !

It is.


--
Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug

 

[Phil_C]

It is my favourite sort of diving - often I will pop over the dive club after work and spend an hour or so on a slow, shallow dive over the rocky reef just offshore from the dive club. There are always loads of octopus and fish out that just hide in the daytime.

BUT - if you want a really cool experience you want to see a thunder/lighting storm when you are under water at night. It has happened to me on three occasions, and the experience of the sky and sea lighting up with the flashes is just awesome !

Thankfully every time it has happened we have all had plenty of air left to just stay down and sit it out and watch as it passes over - I wouldn't fancy trecking up the shore and beach with a lighting rod attached to my back

The other memorable night dive I have done was a boat dive in a high pressure weather system - when we came up, about a mile offshore, the sea was mirror flat and smooth, we inflated out BC's and just lay there chilling out, watching the stars and the lights on the shore until the boatman started getting tetchy because he wanted to get us back on board. It was really out if this world.

Prepare properly, make sure you have redundant light(s) and enjoy - for me it is a special type of diving. - Phil.

 

[diver 85]

Kinda dark & spooky------in our 'local' reservoir, Toledo Bend...But, that was almost 30 years ago, so they say time heals all....

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

First night dive was doing my AOW certification. Dive site was Cove 2 in Seattle, a spot that harbor seals frequent at night, as our dive lights light up the fish for them. It was great. Dive lasted about 55 minutes. One seal stayed with us for 35 minutes, the other for about 50. It was a lot of fun. One of these days I hope to catch the octo's coming out of their dens and go hunting.

 

[RJP]

This may sound weirdly semantic, but one of the things I like the most about a night dive is that "you only see what you're looking at."

 

[gfaith]

Our favorite dive for sure Cozumel Paradise Reef 42 average feet 53 minutes. Things we saw: Octopus 4 or 5, Angel Fish cut in half by Barracuda and became a meal for huge lobster.

Eels Sharp-tail and golden, Sea Cucumber out of cover, lots of sleeping fish

Snappers working in the lights above, Crocking of Splendid Toad Fish but we did not find any that dive.

 

[SeaHorse81]

I won't count the night dive I did for AOW, since that was just done in a body of water that usually has no visibility anyway.

My first ocean night dive was amazing. I had hesitated some time before trying it, because I've been afraid of the dark my whole life. I had to guess that ocean at night would be a special kind of darker-than-dark, not to mention the likelihood of somebody/something looking at me from beyond my field of vision--that thought creeped me out completely.

I don't remember how I worked up the guts to try it, but went with a group off our liveaboard, figuring we could just bail if it was too freaky. Somehow or other, comforted by the presence of everyone's lights, we made it down. I was shocked by the sci-fi, surreal, other-worldly scene of rays of light, backlit diver silhouettes floating in the nothingness, and various critters moving in and out of the light. It was so amazing I almost forgot to be afraid of the dark but truthfully, I just elected to keep my eyes on stuff I could see most of the time.

No night dive ever equaled that first one for me. I went on a number more of them because I liked that they were different, and I'm among those who likes to have my own light off and just watch the scene from everyone else's lights (there are always plenty). Eventually, I decided I liked looking out over the surface of the ocean at night (glass of wine in hand) more than wandering around under it (and coming up cold, salty and wet about the time I'd like to be getting ready for bed), so I haven't done a night dive now in probably five years. No biggie. It was kind of awesome for its time, though.

 

[cmneus]

I enjoy night dives other than the fact that they are chilly (but I'm always cold anyway...) and I admit, it's a little creepy to imagine what's out there in the blackness...but you know what? There's nothing out there...so steer your mind back to the task at hand, which is finding all the awesome critters that you don't see during the day!
Something I enjoy about night dives is that it is the most peaceful, serene, relaxing experience. You can only see where your light is pointing...which is calming, because during the day there is so much to see...sometimes you don't know where to look first and it can be overwhelming.
But seriously....it is really humbling to be under the ocean, in the pitch black vastness...you really feel tiny and insignificant in the vast ocean...

My first night dive was on a LOB in the BVI when I was 16. It was a three week Marine Biology/Dive program where we got certified up to rescue diver. I was very nervous.....I made sure to stick extremely close to our instructor but once we knelt on the bottom and turned off our lights....I was hooked. A few days later we were doing night dives with our dive buddys, without our instructors....

The best night dive I've done was in Roatan...the Strings of Pearls. Simply amazing. I've seen bioluminescence elsewhere but here it's different. There are these microscopic shrimp that come up from the depths (from thousands of feet) into the shallow reefs surrounding Roatan to find their mates. They attach to one another by a little string that also lights up, hence...stings of pearls...(excuse me if my description isn't very scientific). But....it was as if we were on an episode of Star Trek...or in the midst of the milky way, stars twinkling and moving all around us...my regulator quite literally almost fell out of my mouth because my jaw was open in awe and wonder...

Night diving is amazing, if you love diving because it opens up a whole new world below the surface then do yourself a favor and open up yet another world and jump in at night!!!!!!!!

 

[Keith.M]

My first night dive was in AOW class. We were on a boat in Monterey bay.

The instructor had an 800' reel and when we descended, he tied it to the anchor.

We then all swam out until we hit turn pressure and then came right back to the anchor, imagine that! ;-)

It was such a cool dive. Lots of crabs in the bay and when you see them during the day, they are very still, hardly ever move even if they are knocked off their perch.

So the thing that stands out in my mind is how active these very same crabs were, running all over the place, challenging one another, it was very cool.