Night Diving - love or hate?

[Iralub]

I think I will get to like night diving, but will have to do more than my two night dives so far. I must say that I found the first one (part of AOW course) not entirely pleasant - may have had something to do with turning upside down on descent and not realising it! The second one was very nice and relaxing, although I didn't see that much, but at least it gave me some confidence that I can do it and it doesn't need to be scary.
I'm going on a liveaboard on GBR in a few days and hope to do a night dive there and see how it goes

 

[rhwestfall]

We do night drifts here in the Niagara River. The current is stiff enough you cant stop, so it is quite an experience. The tunnel vision effect in 10' vis is....... hard to describe. A combination of thrilling as well as nerve wracking.

 

[Hintermann]

Speaking of sharks on a night dive, one of the best ever for me was in Turks & Caicos n board the Aggressor liveaboard. It was over Rock 'n' Roll reef and the chef/divemaster, my buddy and I were the only 3 divers. There was a bit of a delay in jumping off the boat by which time it had drifted unnoticed by everyone so that we wre now over the wall rather than on top of the reef's 'roof'. My buddy and I kept glancing at each other as best as we could in the dark as we descended but when the promised sea bed at 18m did not materialise, I checked by guage to find that we were at 24m and going down! We later discovered that another couple abandoned the dive as a result but Stacey and I acsended slowly to see what had happened. At 10m the chef swam past beckoning to us and we soon ended-up on top of the reef. From then on all we could do was keep turning in one place to watch as much of the action around us as possible. There were these huge blue jacks darting about at unbelievable speeds while several nurse sharks vied with them for food. Fish and crustaceans were all over the place and at one point I swear that a nurse shark swam through practically between my legs! We saw pufferfish, queen angelfish hiding in nooks, huge ornate lobsters, turtles, moray eels etc. It was like floating in space between critters instead of stars. To date that is the second most exhilarating night dive that I have done. Really unforgettable.

 

[Kharon]

Before I did my first I thought it might freak me a bit. Nope. The only thing I hate about it is breaking down the gear after the dive and providing a buffet for the mosquitoes. Next time on Bonaire (or anywhere for that matter) I'm dumping the BC with the tank on into the back of the truck and hitting the gas for home. I'll break down inside, protected from the blood suckers.

 

[AdivingBel]

I enjoy night diving as another twist on diving in general. I'm landlocked much of the year, so any dive (without incident) is a good dive. My favorite dives usually involve big topography; walls; big coral heads; deep spur and grooves; wrecks. While I have been on some pretty interesting night wreck dives, by and large the majesty of the topography gets lost. I do enjoy a nice long bimble on a reef and going at night does put a unique twist on a reef you've been on lots of times in the day. Dusk/night trips are fun where you dive the spot just before dusk, SI watching the sunset, then dive the same spot after dark. You really see how the environ changes.

 

[drbill]

Of course many in my neck of the woods love to night dive... for lobster. I haven't taken one since about 1975 (but will gladly eat one if taken legally by a friend).

Back in the days of "Jaws" I had no interest in night diving. However, about 15 years ago I did an extended (3 month) dive/backpacking trip around the North and South Pacific and came away with an interest in night diving after my experiences out on the Great Barrier Reef.

About 8 years ago I started doing much more intense might diving, primarily during the late spring thru fall. I was initially filming for two episodes of my cable TV show (Munching & Mating in the Macrocystis) but found that I enjoyed the experience of diving at night because there was such a difference in the critters and behavior at night vs during the day. Since our dive park can get crowded, especially during the summer and on weekends, it was also nice to dive at night when I was often the only one in the dive park. With the unusually warm water here this year, diving well into late fall at night was great especially after the time change since I could descend a bit after 5:00 pm, do my dive, get home and shower then go out on the town!