What equipment do I need for night diving

[MauiScubaSteve]

Errr, last time I checked the Caribbean is part of the ocean. And somehow my compass took me from the the plane wreck to the bow of the ship wreck on a 90* heading.

Was it during the day &/or did you use the surrounding terrain to help with navigation. The point I was making was that "instrument only" navigation, like at night with no bottom visible, maintaining depth and heading by "just" compass and depth gauge (no visual reference), is pretty inaccurate when the water has current and surge.

In my opinion if you did a night instrument only navigation in the ocean with no visible reference and it was successful, that was pretty miraculous.

 

[farsidefan1]

I'm very glad you were able to make your jaunt using instruments only. Obviously there wasn't any current and perhaps minimal surge. Now the facts. If you are in signifigant cross current and you are depending only on your compass and not paying attention to other features to help you navigate you may end up in Florida when you started on a carribean island - if you don't run out of air etc (just making a point). Navigation using a compass is a nice skill. Paying attention to other features is also critical. If the current moves you then your nice compass setting could leave you a hell of ways off the boat or your entry point. Use everything you have, leave the blinders at home. They are nice for an exercise but when your life is on the line use EVERYTHING in concert. Enjoy.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

In your situation, if I was YOUR buddy and WAS task loaded, why wouldn't you make it as easy as possible for me to locate you?

@sdiver68:If you were my buddy, we'd sit down before the dive and have a serious talk about expectations for buddy diving. I'd do everything I could to mitigate your task-loading. I'd make it very easy for you to locate me without a tank light. Trust me on this.
Tank lights are a poor solution to the problem of buddy identification. Most people affix the tank light to the first stage or BCD "handle," and often times the light is obscured by the tank or the BCD. Even when visible, the tank light can only be spotted for the most part when the diver faces away from you.

$15? If were worried about $15 I'd have been dead many times over doing the sports I've done. I'm going to turn the $15 argument around, if you have any question in your mind about buying a tank light it is only $15. If nothing else, your buddy may appreciate it, the dive op may require it, or you may be someone's "hero" by lending it out.

I'd feel the same way if I had only spent $1 on that tank light. It's the principle of it, I suppose. I hate wasting money on superfluous dive gadgetry. It's the opportunity cost of not spending that same money on useful equipment, gas fills, gear maintenance, additional training, or dive vacations. My dive buddies feel the same way I do about tank lights. We don't use 'em.

If on the other hand you are so experienced you know you don't want one, then you don't need to come here and ask the question in the 1st place. This is the new diver forum, buy a tank light or wish you had.

For the record, I have not asked any questions in this thread. Perhaps you mistook me for someone else. I just shared my opinion on tank lights in the hopes that it would save a little pocket change for some novice divers. If you are adamant about purchasing a tank light, then by all means go ahead and purchase one. In fact, if you think it's such an important piece of safety equipment, you may want to consider using two tank lights...just in case one goes out during the dive, you know.

I disagree with the practice of dive ops requiring that every diver has a tank light. I don't see how using a tank light could make my diving any safer. I carry a primary light and a backup on every night dive (often times during the day as well). My buddy does the same. We test functionality of our 4 lights during our pre-dive checks and during post-dive rinsing. The odds of all 4 of our lights going out are exceedingly low. If I were on a dive boat that required tank lights, well, then I guess I'd have to play by their rules or else choose not to dive with them at all. Just my 2 psi...

 

[BDSC]

While I do not use a tank marker at night myself my wife wanted to have one on her tank so I bought here a "nice one". (It cost over $20 I think it was) It is a little white light that flashes. So guess what happens when you do a night dive from a boat that hangs a strobe over the side for marking the boat? Right! They don't want you to use it. They said someone could possibly mistake it for the boat marker and follow you thinking they were headed back to the boat.

So that is something to consider if you're gonna buy one. Now I have two. The second is a pretty little light with a red glow. But it was only $15 I think. So now I have over $35 in tank markers and the wife has decided night diving isn't all of that.

 

[sdiver68]

I'm very glad you were able to make your jaunt using instruments only. Obviously there wasn't any current and perhaps minimal surge. Now the facts. If you are in signifigant cross current and you are depending only on your compass and not paying attention to other features to help you navigate you may end up in Florida when you started on a carribean island - if you don't run out of air etc (just making a point). Navigation using a compass is a nice skill. Paying attention to other features is also critical. If the current moves you then your nice compass setting could leave you a hell of ways off the boat or your entry point. Use everything you have, leave the blinders at home. They are nice for an exercise but when your life is on the line use EVERYTHING in concert. Enjoy.

Not luck nor a miracle. Pilots used to do the same thing all the time. Granted, modern pilots have GPS

Yes in real life vision is all important. If conditions are appropriate, take a heading, pick a visual reference as far as you can see along the heading, swim to that reference, and repeat until you get to visual range of your destination. That technique takes current out of the equation.

 

[sdiver68]

nevermind

 

[1_T_Submariner]

I have a couple Pelican Recoil LED's take 3 C cells and twist on/off. Make sure to Silicon the Oring on the turn part before the first dive (they replaced the first 2 I had after they flooded great customer service) I also have a UK 3 c LED light another good one.

 

[Drowning]

Thanks for all of the great advice. I ended up buying a Priceton Tec Attitude which is an LED light powered by 4 AAA batteries for my back up and I also picked up a retractor so that I can clip it to my BCD. That way I will also be able to carry it during day time dives just in case I want to peak under a crevice or something.

 

[diver_pirate]

I find tank lights make finding your buddy easier and keeping track of him or her. Its quite an issue if they turn off the lights to look at the phoporsence or some other reason and you cant find your buddy. I do not use the chem-lights as they are a disposal issue. There are plenty of good inexpensive tank lights that work quite well.
DP

 

[Darnold9999]

Hate tank lights. Own one for liveaboards that require them - tend to dive with it once and then "forget" to turn it on for the rest of the trip.

I dive at night using the focus light built into the strobe, very dim light, as a primary. Once in a while I will turn on my other light (Princeton tec Torrent LED) if I need to see any distance or find the next coral head or feature I want to swim to.

If I turn off the light I want it to be dark, lit by the moon if it is up. A tank light can swamp this ambient light. (If you turn off your light make damn sure you know how to turn it back on - in the beginning just put your hand over it)

A bright light just scares the shy creatures away. Unless the vis is abysmal even a dim light carries sufficiently far for your buddy to keep track of you and for you to see enough of the features around you to know where you are going.

I find the landing lights the tec crowd carry somewhat amusing - yes they can be used for communication but when your buddy is within 3 feet of you???? These things can light up an entire reef if the vis is good - and scare all the night critters back into their holes for the rest of the dive.

On a working dive where you have a task to accomplish these lights make sense, but for the night diving I want to do (see what life is there at night that is not there in the day) I want minimal light. Bright enough to allow me to see the features around me and if possible a second setting that allows me to dim it to a minimum and see what is hiding from the light.

So don't necessarily think bigger/brighter is better.