Scuba diving at night?

[bch7773 0]

hey has anyone here ever done a night scuba dive?

I am gonna go on one in a week, and i really have no idea what to expect. Are they more difficult then normal scuba dives? Are they worth it? I imagine that its just like a dive with 1 foot visibility right? do you have to do a lot of compass navigating?

Do you see different types of fish then during the day? Do they act differently at night?

last question: the requirements for the lights are one primary, one secondary, and a glowstick correct? i can rent the lights for $20, or do you think it would be better for me to just buy them, even though i won't be doing any more night dives for the next few years. someone told me it was like $80 for both lights, that sound right?

MB 3528, RB 1182

[DrunkMonkey 0]

Yep, have made several night dives in the bahamas.

You'll want to stick close to the group, have a glow stick and a good light. A backup is a good idea also.

Rent them once to see if you like night dives.

You will see much more sea life...

It's as close to being in outer space as most of us will ever be...

[watchdog2 0]

DUDE it's awesome.....kinda like a freak show with flashing lights and strobes.....carry spare lights and be sure you are not claustraphophic....

[ScubaSteve 0]

I got training for Night Diving before going out. I would make sure you are with someone experienced before attempting it. It has its own challenges.

Besides that it is really fun and good way to cool off in the summer. I found that I use far less O2 during night dives. Are you diving ocean or lake? Sometimes you see how fish sleep. They wedge their heads under stuff and think they are hiding.

I hope you know how to navigate in 0 visibility. I had silt out once at depth and had fun trying to get back to line with Deco Bottles.

It also sucks when diving offshore and some local fisherman steals your lanterns and you try to navigate back to a moving ship......

[markd_nscr986 0]

Totally different critters than a day dive,depending on where you are,you could see octopus out feeding,sleeping parrot fish,sea slugs and really big crab & lobster!!!!A couple of good lights a must and usually tie off a glowstick on your gauge console so you can see where you are how much gas etc. and one on your reg. 1st stage.Underwater Kinetics makes some good reliable lights that are reasonably priced.....$80 sounds a little "light" for 2 good quality dive lights though...I think you could expect $120-160 for a "main" and a "reserve".PM if you would like some more tips, suggestions.......

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004

[John4455 0]

I was in Grand Cayman diving all last week. I wanted to do a night dive, but beer-thirst got the best of me.

How do ya like it Johnny?

[lemonjelly 0]

Plagued by Lionfish on my first night dive, they were seriously on the hunt for food.

Torchlight beam goes on and on- Magnifique!You do see a lot more sealife as there is virtually no one else diving to scare them away

*************************************************
RED LIGHTS & OFF LANDINGS ARE JUST MY THANG
http://www.redlightrob.co.uk

[TheAnvil 0]

Skydiving at night KICKS ASS!

I'm jealous. Have fun.

Vinny the Anvil

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[kelpdiver 2]

The key to night diving is to slow down. Most divers are far too hyper at all times and it hurts their air consumption. At night you won't see much at that speed. And if you keep things slow, I believe you're less likely to get nervous about what fish are lying outside of the range of your light.

Where are you diving? If the viz is usually greater than 20ft, you'll see about 20 using your light. If it's very clear, you can see off other people's lights as well. With a full moon in the caribbean you can even see without lights if you let your eyes adjust. But in murkier water, a bright light becomes a negative due to backscatter.

My 8D UK1200 looks impressive, but rarely is useful in Monterey. I find the 4D handhelds to do fine, and they're small enough to carry on a day dive to point into a hole. Quite cheap too. But if you don't see a need for lights in the near future, go ahead and rent. If you do a lot, then the rechargeables become more environmentally friendly. Not cheap though - my canister cost me over 300.

2 primary lights and a glowstick? That may be the party line, but I can't recall the last time I actually did it.

[riddler 0]

What you can expect depends on where you are.

In general - get an LED flashlight. The beam is less bright (but just as easy to see by) and you won't attract as many annoyances (jellyfish, etc). I did a night dive on Cayman Brac two months ago and had a POWERFUL Halogen flashlight, which attracted nearly every bloodworm in the cayman trench. They swarmed so much they actually blocked out my light. I swam over to my "buddy" turned off my light so they went to hers, swam away, and turned mine back on
It becomes easy to become confused about up vs. down. Watch your bubbles for clues.

It's also kind of rude to pop open the mucus bubbles of the parrotfish - they won't get any sleep. Just scatter a small amount of sand on them to see the bubble. It's rude to shine your light right on fish. Unless it's a three-foot warm-water Octopus like I saw on a night dive in Honduras last year - six of us nailed him with the high beam, and the poor guy was sporting plaid, paisley and every other pattern of color to try to hide from us. Finally he got exhausted and slumped over a big rock and waited for us to eat him
If you're in the Pacific, watch out for schools of barracuda - they hunt at night. The great barracuda you see in the Carribean aren't as active at night, but the schooling ones are more aggressive after dark. Also if you're in the pacific, the Tigersharks come out to feed on the turtles at dusk, and they're usually hanging around into the early evening. They prefer turtles, but some of them treat mealtime as a buffet and bite anything that moves.

Night is a great time to see sea-bugs - lobster, crabs, shrimp, etc, as well as octopus.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Canuck278 0]

Glowsticks are a great cheap way to know where you and your buddies are.....Night diving I attach one to my tank and one to the front of my BC. Works good as you can be seen from almost any angle. Have fun and remember to relax

Steve
Therapy is expensive, popping bubble wrap is cheap.

[bch7773 0]

I'm diving in the atlantic, off north carolina. both the dusk and night dives are gonna be off a sunken tug, about 50-60' deep. they say visibility during the day is like 50 feet! so I'm getting excited.

I see what you guys are saying about the lights... i guess i'll rent them this time, and not waste money buying really cheap lights. if i decide night diving is my thing, then ill buy some good lights.

on night dives, is compass navigation the norm, or can you still figure out where you need to go by just flashlight? this totally dark water thing will be new to me... only water that i've been in after dark was pools with lights. the good news is that its supposed to be a full moon... if its totally clear skies, how far down does the moonlight help you see?

thanks for the quick replies everyone, keep em coming.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[riddler 0]

Quote

I'm diving in the atlantic, off north carolina.

If you see a Lionfish, be sure to point it out to everyone. Lionfish are not native to the Atlantic or Carribean, but after Hurricane Andrew destroyed a Florida aquarium and released six Lionfish in 1992, there are now estimated about 1,000 of them from southern Florida to North Carolina.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[DrunkMonkey 0]

Quote

Quote

I'm diving in the atlantic, off north carolina.

If you see a Lionfish, be sure to point it out to everyone. Lionfish are not native to the Atlantic or Carribean, but after Hurricane Andrew destroyed a Florida aquarium and released six Lionfish in 1992, there are now estimated about 1,000 of them from southern Florida to North Carolina.

Sweet!

[flighty 0]

Be careful. A night dive is the only time I've ever freeked out on a dive. It snuck up on me and I found myself panicing inside my head. Had to close my eyes and concentrate on slowing down my breathing then was fine for the rest of the dive. Could have been bad if something important was happening.

~Cindy~
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Spelling and grammar errors are left as an exercise for the reader.

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

on night dives, is compass navigation the norm, or can you still figure out where you need to go by just flashlight? this totally dark water thing will be new to me... only water that i've been in after dark was pools with lights. the good news is that its supposed to be a full moon... if its totally clear skies, how far down does the moonlight help you see?

If you need a compass in the day, you'll need it more in the night. Since your light range is short and a narrow beam, you won't be able to work with landmarks as effectively. But a boat anchored to a sunken wreck is usually easy to relocate by noting which direction to go from the wreck to the anchor line.

Moonlight may, may not penetrate, and you'd have to have lights off for a couple minutes to make use of it. Depends also when it rises in the sky. But I've seen streetlights along a jetty at 40ft under.

For fun I like to kill my lights and swim along behind other divers. With a large boat you can wander all over the dive site using people's lighting.

[headoverheels 333]

A friend told me about taking his kid night-diving for the first time. When they got back, the kid said "Dad, did you see all of the jewels!" What he had seen was the reflective eyes of all the shrimp, hanging out in crevices in the coral/rocks.

I love night dives. It's just different and creepy enough to add an edge of excitement. You can see things at night that you might never see during the day. I saw one of these, http://www.dejavideo.net/palau-cucumber1.jpg, about 5 feet long, a couple of inches in diameter. We called it "the Hoover" since it looked like a vacuum cleaner hose.

[Shawndiver 0]

Shore dive or boat dive? If going in off the shore, make sure you have an easily identifiable landmark to get you back to your exit point. Compass navigation is the norm, but don't try to cover as much ground as you would on a day dive. If exiting off a boat, we recommended turning the flashlight on before entering, makes it much easier to find if dropped going out the gate! A backup light was required.We required the cylume be attached to the snorkel. Reason being if you are on the surface at night, trying to get the boats attention, a cylume attached on the tank is invisible to the safety diver on the boat.
Have fun!

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