Night diving without certification

[Thalassamania]

I do not think it is silly at all. We added two night dives to the 100 hour base because we thought it was important.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Certification: required
Specialty: Nice to have

Night diving is a specialty course.

 

[diver 85]

Where did you hear you needed a nite diver's certification??.......never heard of one---but then, there are alot of stupid certs out there these days.......

 

[Rhone Man]

You should also be careful about shining your light too long on a fish that is using the darkness to protect itself from predators. That neat fish you are staring at may become a midnight snack as you watch.

The place where we do a lot of night dives around here used to be patrolled by a big 600 lb jewfish. Of course I was far too mature to do this, but other people had fun making their light the "beam of death". Wait till the jewfish is following you, and then blaze your beam of death on a fish and the fish freezes, and then ... "whomp" swallowed in one. Very childish. But highly amusing. Probably how the jewfish got that big in the first place.

 

[Qnape]

My daughter and I love the night dives! We had an amazing night dive off Utila this April on a cloudy night - the DM led us to a cleft in the reef at about 60' that was particularly dark after we all shut off our lights and adjusted to the darkness. Aside from the bioluminescence you could see with every swipe of your hand or fin kick, we found in this cleft something she called "string of pearls" ctenophores (similar to a gooseberry comb jelly) that displayed a repeating vertical sequence of lights. They were amazing - perhaps 20 of them all around us like miniature stop lights. We spent an amazing 35 consecutive minutes with no lights on that dive. Our original dive plan was 40 minutes but we (a group of 6 divers) could not tear ourselves away and stretched it to 65. Yes, you better have good bouyancy control for a dive like that but otherwise it was just fantastic. And yes, have a spare dive light! I supplied one for a very relieved diver during our second night dive on that trip during less ideal conditions - surge and larger waves made getting back on the boat a challenge that night.

 

[sohnje]

I guess the question should have been, "Should I go do a dive where I am not properly trained". Whu not stop at night diving. Go do a deep dive, low vis, wreck penetration or something similar. what the heck, it's only your life. I get so nervous when people ask "should I?" when ther aren't prepared. How many divers have turned into a statistic after being talked into a situation where there should have passed on a dive. Maybe too harsh of a response, but might save a life.

 

[htn123]

A few of things to remember about night dives:
1. Make sure if you have a dive light attach to your mask strap, don't look at your buddy directly. That sure will blind him/her for a while. And of course don't point the spot light in your buddy's face.
2. When dive with a big spot light, cover the light with spread fingers so that the light is defused
3. Please don't use your light to light up a fish. You just painted a big red bullseye on the poor thing for a bigger one to swallow.
4. Bring spare lights, two, three if you have them. Will never know when you need it.
5. Always stay within visual contact of the boat's underwater beacon . The ocean is pretty big and you don't want to get lost at night out there.

I remembered one time, a lobster went out of his hole and was wandering around. I went down and put my hand spread open behind him on the sand and he just backed up and stay under my palm for more than a minute or two. Could had a lobster dinner that night but the thing was just too cool to catch so I lifted my hand and whoosh he went. That was an awesome dive.

Go slow, and enjoy the dive.

 

[Coldwater_Canuck]

I have not taken the night diving cert and cannot judge how silly it is but I can tell for sure that it's not as easy as it might seem from a first look.
IMHO as during the night dive or low vis dive you should be able to control your buoyancy well and have nav skills. You need to be able to check your depth quickly when necessary. And definitely know the signals and have a backup light. Absence of natural light just adds another task to manage.

While our gurus will tell you it's easy going I have not found it as easy as they say when I started doing it especially in cold water in a dry suit But in a warm water it can be easy probably. If you do it make sure you have someone in the group who knows what he is doing. That's my inexperienced humble opinion.

Agree with this. It isn't overly difficult, but at least in cold water it isn't a walk in the park either.

Having taken the course, in no way did I feel it was silly. I thought I learned a lot: the academics about different types of dive lights, signaling, etc. and for the diving having an instructor there was a huge help.

The one thing that is silly is how PADI manages to inflate their academic material prices by including the redundant DVD: mine sits shrink-wrapped on a bookcase somewhere.

Where did you hear you needed a nite diver's certification??.......never heard of one---but then, there are alot of stupid certs out there these days.......

I've seen places required "Advanced" certification to do a night dive (of course this isn't perfect since PADI doesn't make night dive one of the required specialties (although most instructors do it), I believe NAUI it's required.

 

[elan]

Money

And another item for "card collectors"

A general statement about some courses w/o facts presented can promote a bad attitude towards training in general especially when said by more experienced members. While I cannot judge PADI or another diving agency night course I cannot say that there is nothing to learn before going into the water in no light conditions. especially for a person who has just completed the OW cert. In the shoes of the OP I would probably put that idea away for another 20 dives or so until basics are taken under more or less control.
Just think about very simple scenario, blinded by the buddy accidentally lost control and cannot see the gauges lost sense of depth went up out of control and shoot to the surface. Very real scenario after OW if you ask me

 

[rollerboi]

I guess the question should have been, "Should I go do a dive where I am not properly trained". Whu not stop at night diving. Go do a deep dive, low vis, wreck penetration or something similar. what the heck, it's only your life. I get so nervous when people ask "should I?" when ther aren't prepared. How many divers have turned into a statistic after being talked into a situation where there should have passed on a dive. Maybe too harsh of a response, but might save a life.

The question was asked specifically in relation to going on a night dive with a provided guide in a resort setting. Not in a "should I go off on my own and get killed" context. The majority of us here feel night diving is fairly benign, especially compared to deep or wreck diving.

They told me that they provide a dive guide for the group and that it is fine for a new diver to participate. Is night diving risky enough that I shouldn't do it unless I have more experience and the night dive certification, or can I believe them when they say I can do it with the dive guide?

So the short answer is yes, and post #2 in this thread elaborates on that.