Night diving without a light?

[swimmer_spe]

I was wondering, if you were to do a night dive in a familiar spot if it would be safe to leave the light off?

Before everyone screams NO!, hear me out.

In land your eyes will adjust to low and no light levels. That is known as night vision.

I noticed that if I shine a light on my gauges, they do glow in the dark.

So, if you ensured your gauges were glowing in the dark, and If you let your eyes adjust, and if you had a working light with you but not turned on, could it be done safely?

Because your light is not disturbing anything, would you see different things?

Your thoughts?

 

[elan]

In my experience that might work if you dive shallow, the vis is good and the moon is up otherwise it does not make sense.

You eyes adjust to low light like on the surface, but if there is no light at all then there is nothing to adjust to.

 

[undrwater]

Do it. It's quite enjoyable. There are definitely things one can see when the lights are off that are not obvious when they are on.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Your eyes adjust to LOW light. They do not adjust to NO light. If you're on a very shallow reef on a clear night with lots of moon, you might be able to see, but not very well. I'd do the dive with LESS light, not NO light.

 

[Crass3000]

Some people say that they dive on nights with a full moon with their lights off and are able to see quite a bit in areas with GREAT viz. If you are comfortable with the conditions, I don't see the problem as long as you have a couple lights with you. Note that I have been told the most likely times a light burns out is when it is turned off or on. If you are going to be bumping into all sorts of things or are thinking of doing it in low viz water, I would say no.

 

[elan]

In land your eyes will adjust to low and no light levels. That is known as night vision.

You eyes cannot adjust to no light levels. If there is no visible light you will not see anything.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

You eyes cannot adjust to no light levels. If there is no visible light you will not see anything.

Maybe the OP is an elf...

 

[Dondon462]

I often do it and recommend it be done "conservatively"! just for a short time..it is the "natural" world then...same as we turn the outboard "off" in Antarctica when zodiac cruising..just to hear the "silience!"

 

[Damselfish]

sure. You're bound to see less of some stuff, just because you really can't see as well. But you'll see phosphorescent critters if they're there (turning off your light at least for a bit to see these is a very common suggestion.) And perhaps other things that you're not scaring away.

If there's a full moon, in clear water you can see quite well just by that; not sure how viz is where you're diving.

You want to make sure your light is secure, if you drop it and it's off you're unlikely to find it. You also want to make sure you really can see well enough so you're not crashing into stuff. Also, keep in mind your light not only helps you see stuff, but is useful for signaling and helps your buddy keep track of you at night.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

I live in Florida and have done night dives in very shallow and clear water (15' or less) on a full moon, where I rested on the bottom before I turned off my light. After about 3-5 minutes, it was lovely, with a dim blue glow over everything, you can see the reef structure and general contour of the area. I would not try swimming around or navigating with the light off. You cannot not see much detail, forget about looking for small or macro things that come out at night, but larger shapes were visible and you could see larger fish swimming around. It is a very nice experience that I have done more than once. IF the bottom is smooth you can swim around, slowly.

I would not, however, do it in anything except the most benign conditions (FULL MOON, shallow, sandy bottom to reflect the light, very clear water, no current and a very familiar area).

The moon is very dim and below 15' or so the light really fades out. Vis also needs to be really good. Otherwise, you just hang in the gloom and it's not really much of a thrill.

If you are in Florida in the summer you might get lucky enough to be diving water during a lightning storm (happened to me once on a beach dive). That is really something.

You, however, are in a cold water difficult diving environment, with less vis than we get in the tropics. With that in mind, be very, very careful before you try anything like this, and you should get a decent # of night dives under your belt before thinking about, and of course have close buddy and surface support and a back-up light just in case yours does not turn back on!