Requirement to do night dives

[KeithG]

You are right, dog with a bone...

Are your environmental issues night related or tide related? I have never been affected by tides, but was made aware of tide issues on the east coast of bonaire by a recent thread.

 

[CT-Rich]

New diver stress goes through the new roof with limited visibility. A novice diver in ten foot visibility is going to have a lot harder time than 35 ft. Take away the sun and that 35ft is now a ten foot cone of light. Why would you want to add that much task loading to a novice? You could splash on new sight in the dark, but if it weren't necessary why would you? The reason most people night dive is to see a new varieties of sea life, not practice nav skills.

 

[KeithG]

... Lights from the shore are disorienting if you have done much night diving in an inlet. This is not a beach where you can get lollygag out anywhere you please and do the walk of shame....

This is a great point for people doing "dusk" dives. You go in when you can see shore things, but when you surface the shore is dark with a bunch of strange lights here and there. All of the surface references you looked at before you splashed are now gone. Instead there are a bunch of lights on poles randomly scattered about...

Maybe a good idea to try new sites as true after dark dives and not dusk dives?

 

[KeithG]

New diver stress goes through the new roof with limited visibility. A novice diver in ten foot visibility is going to have a lot harder time than 35 ft. Take away the sun and that 35ft is now a ten foot cone of light. Why would you want to add that much task loading to a novice? You could splash on new sight in the dark, but if it weren't necessary why would you? The reason most people night dive is to see a new varieties of sea life, not practice nav skills.

You have good points about new divers and novice experience. I fully agree.

How do you feel this relates to only holding an OW cert? Which was the original topic before we went down various rat holes....

 

[Bubblesong]

Giffenk mentioned shore surface references:

In the PADI dive course they suggest that you place two lights at your exit, one higher and directly back from the other. When you surface, you swim along until the top light is in line with the bottom light and then you know you are aiming for the correct spot on the shore to exit. This expects that your lights won't get stolen from the shoreline!

 

[KeithG]

In the PADI dive course they suggest that you place two lights at your exit, one higher and directly back from the other. When you surface, you swim along until the top light is in line with the bottom light and then you know you are aiming for the correct spot on the shore to exit. This expects that your lights won't get stolen from the shoreline!

Interesting - this aligns a bit with the process for night diving at CoCoView (but not really?).

They hang a marker light at the gear lockers along with a bunch of tags. First diver out takes their tag and the marker light. Tag and marker light is attached to a buoy chain (which we were all introduced to during the checkout dive). Subsequent night divers only take their tag out and hang it on the chain. On return you take your tag. If there are no more tags, you also take the marker light back to the shop.

I have experienced this exit light a few times at the Divi in Bonaire and it was mostly annoying as the light was way too bright and generally not needed in those conditions. The dive op provides several very easily detected markers for the exit point (rope along bottom, several floating plastic things in the water column).

On the liveaboards we use there is a light on the bow and stern. Sometimes only 1 of them is flashing. In general a liveaboard makes so much noise and has so much excess light that the underwater marker lights are not really required. They do provide extra visibility distance as they swing about.

 

[NAM001]

My AOWD card doesn't specify which dives went into my AOW class. They are only documented in my first logbook, which was retired quite some time ago. I'd be very hard pressed if an operator required documentation that night was one of my AOW dives, since I don't bring my old, full logbooks when I go on a vacation. And since winter up here means it's pitch dark from about four o'clock in the afternoon, even my most recent night dive - at six o'clock in the afternoon - might not be regarded as sufficient documentation about my night diving experience.

So how do you advise me to document my night diving experience and "training"?

The issue is not with AOWS dong a night dive it is OWs doing them. Most AOWs i know did the night dive as part of their AOW as weol as a deep dive. The AOW card it self suggests that you probably , not necessarily, have the experience of a limited vision/night dive. Not so with a OW card.

 

[NAM001]

What do you mean by most basic level?
Back in 1996, PADI AOW included night dive as one of the core dive. So any PADI's AOW divers would have been trained on night dive then. However, PADI has changed the standard few yrs afterward.

If you are oging to try to use a 20 year old course cert to justify a OW cert that is relative new then we are talking apples and oranges.

 

[NAM001]

Here is tha tback of one ofn my cert cards from SSI. All certs should have this. If PADI did this the adventure dives would be part of the card. I applaud ssi FOR THIS.

 

[KeithG]

The issue is not with AOWS dong a night dive it is OWs doing them. Most AOWs i know did the night dive as part of their AOW as weol as a deep dive. The AOW card it self suggests that you probably , not necessarily, have the experience of a limited vision/night dive. Not so with a OW card.

Please elaborate on why you think OW can not do night dives. Then explain boat dive restrictions. And drift dive restrictions. References to supporting formal material would be helpful.