Requirement to do night dives

[Jim Lapenta]

While I technically don't cover night diving in my OW class, I do go over diving in zero vis/blackwater conditions. Those are what can be encountered in most of our local sites when poorly trained OW divers are present doing checkouts.
I do spend a bit of time going over light selection since they are useful on any dive. Then the blackout mask drills we do in the pool also would prepare them to a degree.
I remember my first outing after OW cert. Went with the same shop with plans to do AOW the next weekend. They would not let me do the night dive with them. I was told that I needed the AOW cert to do that and to go below 60 ft.
Then during DM training, I found this board and discovered a lot of what I was told were agency requirements, were complete and utter BS. Also discovered that there were other agencies, different types of gear and that the
"in conditions equal to or better than those in which you were trained."
statement is nowhere to be found in the RSTC Guidelines and is, in fact, nothing more than a cover your butt statement used to justify and excuse insufficient training.
Proper training should give new divers the tools they need to evaluate a site and decide if the dive is above their level of training and experience.

 

[tursiops]

i think this is pretty universal. we night dive as much as possible and have never seen any restrictions or extra certification requirements. quite the opposite. everyone is encouraged to try a night dive.

on bonaire we dive by ourselves, from a PADI operation. no DM present, but the dive op is fully willing to provide rental dive lights to any diver that is registered with them. they then let OW buddy diver teams do a night dive all by themselves (well actually the shop is closed and they have all gone home before the night diving starts).

on all or our other trips there is an instructor level DM present on all night dives. no need for for anything other than a short 5 minute "night" briefing and we are then free to night dive. There is also no need to stay with the DM while doing the night dive as we do not go to places that have mandatory DMs.

P.S. For those thinking there are official restrictions, please provide a reference to a formal definition of "night dive". If I go in at "dusk" am i breaking the rules? What about just before dawn? We actually do a very earling mornng dawn dive every trip to Belize.

PADI defines a night dive as underwater when the sun is below the horizon.

 

[Neilwood]

PADI defines a night dive as underwater when the sun is below the horizon.

Being facetious here - Is that the sun when above water or the relative horizon when underwater? Also what about if diving an area surrounded by mountains where the sun can go down early and then reappear (there are certain areas here where the sun will set behind a mountain but as it tracks across the sky might actually reappear through a valley later) ?

What do you really need for night diving?
Darkness - check.
Light (minimum 1 working light each but two is better) - check
Signalling (does everyone know how to) - check
Water - check

Right lets splash.

 

[KeithG]

So if an OW diver is not allowed to do a night dive (because there happens to be a special course for that) does it also mean that an OW diver is not allowed to do a boat dive? Or a drift dive?

 

[boulderjohn]

PADI defines a night dive as underwater when the sun is below the horizon.

Being facetious here - Is that the sun when above water or the relative horizon when underwater?

You were being facetious, but I have given some serious thought to those requirements. I have done a number of night dives for certification in a place called the Blue Hole, a sink hole in New Mexico. Because of its typical sink hole shape, it is dark enough at depth to be a night dive well before it typically qualifies under that definition. I would love to be able to start that night dive sooner if it were allowed.

A few miles away is another and much bigger sink hole, Rock Lake. It is dark enough at 100 feet to be a night dive any time of the day.

I have done certification dives at Homestead Crater in Utah. During the day, sunlight only enters through a hole in the dome, and the walls have lights to make diving possible. Sometimes those lights are not working at full capacity, and it is plenty dark any time of the day.

 

[Bennno]

So if an OW diver is not allowed to do a night dive (because there happens to be a special course for that) does it also mean that an OW diver is not allowed to do a boat dive? Or a drift dive?

Not YET! At some point you'll probably have to have a card to go snorkling or ride a bicycle.

IMHO it takes 10 min to 'teach' someone to dive at night... people need to stop taking these specialty courses.

 

[oldschoolto]

It's all about selling cards and " TRAINING " ... 90% of the crap they sell training for is no more than a 10 minute read or a 5 minute talk...

Jim...

 

[boulderjohn]

People are acting in this thread as if the requirement to have a special class before you can do a night dive is a widespread phenomenon. People are talking about agencies trying to make money by putting in these requirements, signs of things to come, etc.

Could I point out that the OP asked about a requirement in one place and one place only. It is not a requirement of any agency, and no one else in this thread seems to have heard of it being done elsewhere.

 

[KeithG]

People are acting in this thread as if the requirement to have a special class before you can do a night dive is a widespread phenomenon. People are talking about agencies trying to make money by putting in these requirements, signs of things to come, etc.

Could I point out that the OP asked about a requirement in one place and one place only. It is not a requirement of any agency, and no one else in this thread seems to have heard of it being done elsewhere.

Agreed, but some people (in this thread) actually think that silly rules like this make sense and are arguing for it.

 

[DevonDiver]

It's all about selling cards and " TRAINING " ... 90% of the crap they sell training for is no more than a 10 minute read or a 5 minute talk..

Who's "they" ?

As has been pointed out repeatedly, PADI doesn't apply such standards to 'fun' diving. The only instances where PADI require someone has a specific certification is as necessary prerequisites for training courses.

So... "they" must be what? A gross generalisation covering every PADI affiliate diving center?

Even when it's patently obvious that eacg dive center is free to set it's own policies, based on their interpretation of safe diving practices . . .