Night Diving

[creamofwheat]

I was supposed to go diving this morning, but silly buddy slept in, and i have to work soon, so there is no longer enough time. he feels bad and said he'll take me out on a night dive tonight if i wanted.

now, i have never been on a night dive before. this will be dive number 15, and we are planning on going to a site i am familiar with.

he is one of my good friends, and an instructor to boot (and has somewhere around 700 or 800 dives). so i'm getting, like, a free night dive lesson, if we can work it out. because i am at work all day, he said he'll pick me up a torch for my tank and whatnot.

anyway, my question is, what should i know before i go out tonight? i know i need to learn the light signals and whatnot, which he'll go over with me. but what other stuff should i know? what is different about diving at night (besides it being dark) and is there anything i can do to prepare myself or anything? thanks for any info in advance!

 

[Cacia]

watch out for hitting urchins with your butt, don't blind anyone with your light, pay attention to reef life behavior, keep close track of your stuff, if you get disoriented look at your depth gauge, take a jacket and a watch cap. Don't mind the boogey man right behind you.
ask your instructor friend for navigation pointers. take a little knife in case of fishing line.

 

[Darnold9999]

Not done a lot of night diving, but so far it is very similar to diving when the visability is very low in terms of skills. No references to help with boyancy until you get close to the bottom or a wall. Keep close to your buddy. Don't shine your light in someone's face (sorry jeckel) they will be blind for a second or two. You will see things that you don't normally see in the day. The shrimp come out, and predators like to hunt in your lights - seals up here, other fish in the tropics. If you are comfortable and not wearing a tank marker you can turn your lights off and the biolumenesance(sp?) can be very cool.

 

[jeckyll]

Darnold: Man that made me laugh.

The 'light in the face' thing happens. I've done it, everyone has.

COW: Some good tips so far. I'm not sure if you are going to Whitecliff or elsewhere, but here are some tips.

1) Relax. Yes yes, I know that's always a something people tell you, but I think that for your first few night dives this is especially important. You will naturally be more tense on your first night dive. Take the time to discuss all the standard procedures before the dive. First and foremost: what to do in case of seperation. I've gone on night dives where the first 10 feet were so milky, I had to 'find' my buddies after the descent. We discussed it up front, no problem.

2) Have 2 lights. Then practice turning on your backup light so that you are comfortable doing so if your primary fails (lights fail quite often, get used to the backup).

3) When trying to use handsignals, hold your arm up and shine the light down on the fingers you are signalling with. I've seen people shine their light on their buddy so they could see them and keep their fingers in the dark. Not so usefuly On that subject, you now only have one hand for signals. Some signals are hard to do with only one hand (think "get with buddy" etc). Discuss those up front.

4) Keep an eye on your depth. It will be easy to follow a contour at night and not realize what's happening to your depth. If you have a computer, figure out how the backlight works. If you have a manual depth gauge, it should glow once you shine your light on it. Get use to shining the light on your instrument, then look at it after. It's easier.

5) As Darnold mentioned, try not ever shining your light into your buddies eyes. It will happen, but if you are aware of it you'll significantly reduce the occurances.

6) This may take a bit longer, but I try to ensure that if I'm the buddy following, I frequently keep my light close to where my buddies light is. This allows them to know you are still there. If my buddies light disappears from my view for more than a few seconds I actually check to see where they are. I also try to not have rapid movements of my light (this will make more sense once you go over signals).

7) Gear setup is tougher in the dark. Double check things and make sure you have flashlights etc to be able to assemble and break down your gear. Once you're packed up, sweep the area behind your car with your flashlight to see if you've forgotten anything (watches, computers, compass etc). I don't use my dive light for this as I like to keep those batteries charged for being _in_ the water

That's all I got on short notice. Enjoy your first night dive! And if the seals hunt in your lights, enjoy them. They will probably freak you out at first. I had one dive where the viz was poor an they were withing 2 - 10 feet of us for 20 minutes!

Bjorn

 

[creamofwheat]

Bjorn, yes we are heading out to Whytecliff. Hopefully a seal will decide to join us on our dive, that would be awesome.

As for having two lights, i currently only have one, but it has 2 bulbs i can switch between if one burns out and i am charging the battery right now. I will also have a torch on my tank, and i'll throw a glowstick or two in my BCD pocket just in case.

And thanks for all of the tips. I shall keep it all in mind tonight. And I am such a dork, I am reading the night dive section in my AOW manual right now (when i registered for the course, i got all the materials, so i have the book already) to see if there is anything else i need to know (so far, it has told me how to clean my light after a dive. not useful, as i already knew that. )

 

[SheriffMedic]

Jekyll hit the nail on the head, +1 to Jekyll.

Night diving is a B L A S T, you will love it. I would rather night dive than anything. The fish are more relaxed and everything seems so much more vivid as you only focus on what your light is looking at. If your instructor friend has offered to take you he obviously knows your a good diver and can handle it, so kudos to you.

Be sure and report back on how it goes, I know your gonna love it.

 

[DandyDon]

I did a night dive on my first trip and loved it. Then went back home and took the course for it. :doh:

Your approach is better, with an Instructor.

:cheering: Enjoy it!!

 

[spectrum]

Good advice abocve. I love night dives. If you can go in at duck that's a nice way to break into ti. Being at a site you know is SOP whenever possible. If conditions are not favorable this is not the time to practice right water entries and exits. You will be relying of feeling your gear more than ever so this is not the time to mess with your configuration.

The intimacy of diving in your small pool of light is really nice, almost like a private show. Expect to see a different mix of active critters. Remember that your instruments have phosphorescent dials/markings so saturate them with light every now and then.

I like to cover my light and dive by following my buddys pool of light. We did night dive 1 as my 32nd dive but I was ready to go for it well before then.

Have a nice evening and report back.

 

[JeffG]

anyway, my question is, what should i know before i go out tonight? i know i need to learn the light signals and whatnot, which he'll go over with me. but what other stuff should i know? what is different about diving at night (besides it being dark) and is there anything i can do to prepare myself or anything? thanks for any info in advance!

It will be wierd getting into the water in the dark for the first time. So once you get in...just relax a bit before you go under.

You will find it is actually easier to keep track of your buddies during a night dive.

I found night diving to be the most enjoyable type of diving.

 

[Diveral]

Night diving is so cool. You are going to love it. It is perfectly natural to be nervous the first couple of times. Keep up with your buddy. Get a backup light! I have done some night diving in the sound so the first time you see the giant pacific octopus out and about is very memorable. Just don't forget to check your pressure gauge so that you don't run out of air as you are following him around. Bring a compass and take a heading as you enter the water so that you know which direction the exit is. It is easy to get disoriented on a night dive. Relax and have fun. Also don't try to cover as much ground as you would during the day.