#244
How much of your time is in night diving?
Gaucho223 - 6/02/2016 1:04 AM
Category: Health & Safety
Replies: 12

I was night diving last week and someone asked if there is anything to see at night. I had to think about it for a moment. So....

I am running a quick and short survey to understand:

1. If divers (in general) engage in night diving on a regular basis or is it something special?
2. Who you go if some shop sponsored regular activities, locations, guides, provided UW lights or provides lights across a large UW area UW?
3. Would you attend a demo day if night diving was part of the offering? I am passing the results to a shop for consideration.

Peace
#51828
Greg - 6/02/2016 7:22 AM
I have only been night diving once. If I lived near the ocean, I would probably night dive more to see all the critters that come out to play.
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ChristopherBurgert - 6/02/2016 7:39 AM
I went night diving two weeks ago as part of the Advanced Scuba Diving cert. I saw some trout and bass. Night diving my favorite part of the certification.
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DiverfromBaskingRidge - 6/02/2016 8:42 AM
Since January 1st this year I have done 7 night dives out of 28 dives. I enjoy night dives - less divers and more (or different) activities / critters are easily found at night. The heat is not a factor when diving at night and less traffic to get to the ocean - there are a lot of pluses.
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LatitudeAdjustment - 6/02/2016 11:57 AM
1. It varies by location, there seems to be more night fish in the Atlantic than the Pacific. One spot in NJ we usually do at night because less boat traffic, less students stiring up the bottom and a better chance of finding seahorses. :)

2. A group of us from DB do encourage new divers to join us on the above dive. It’s a good intro to night diving and NJ’s limited vis. Because of the lights it’s actually easier to keep track of your buddy. Night diving is not dark with everyone wearing marker lights and using lights brighter than your cars headlamps!

3. Me no but for someone shopping for lights it would be great to compare lights in water.
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Eric_R - 6/02/2016 12:38 PM
I try to do at least three or four night dives a season. Night dives force you to focus in on your environment and you’ll discover things you would normally swim by. Watch this video and you’ll see why.
youtube.com/watch?v=ej24EQw5Qkk
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Diver_Diva - 6/02/2016 1:13 PM
The only place I night dive is in Bonaire, and it is spectacular. You can go back at night to the same spot you dove that day, and a whole different bunch of critters is there waiting for you. Its like the day shift punched out and went home and the night shift punched in LOL.

Definitely not to be missed if you go to Bonaire.
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DiverfromBaskingRidge - 6/02/2016 1:17 PM
Here is one from Blue Heron Bridge - a few more critters...

youtube.com/watch?v=Z-E2QYRtH0o&index=2&list=PLO...CR8LjCv5qY6BoKHwH1Lk
#6400
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BillParker - 6/02/2016 3:24 PM
About 2% of my dives are night dives. I would like to have done more but either lack of an agreeable buddy, less than the minimum required to get a boat to move, being tired from diving all day, or knowing that I’m already committed to getting up early the next day to dive again has kept me from doing more. People are usually too tired by dark to dive. What I think some of these dive operations should try is do night dives really early like 5am. The schedule could be to start before dawn and do a night and twilight dive, go take a nap, eat lunch, and do a couple more in the afternoon. The shop also needs to provide food as part of the package since restaurants at many dive destinations aren’t open at that hour and it’s hard as a vacationer to find time to go grocery shopping while on a trip.
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LatitudeAdjustment - 6/02/2016 3:25 PM
From Diver_Diva: The only place I night dive is in Bonaire, and it is spectacular. You can go back at night to the same spot you dove that day, and a whole different bunch of critters is there waiting for you. Its like the day shift punched out and went home and the night shift punched in LOL. Definitely not to be missed if you go to Bonaire.

Did a night dive in Bonaire with full moon light only, fantastic, you could see everything plus the bioluminescence coming off your hands or others fins :)
#20281
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Smithsgold - 6/02/2016 7:06 PM
Out of 149 dives 7 are night dives !!!!
If i lived near the ocean I’d do more night dives
all 7 came while on dive trips
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ram04769 - 6/03/2016 1:23 AM
I haven’t done any night diving yet except for a limited light dive during my AOW course.
#244
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Gaucho223 - 6/03/2016 1:57 AM
Very interesting! I get a sense that we have something in common: we actually have something different and positive to say about our night dives. This is encouraging.

fwiw: I have hundreds of related night dives in various ocean, tidal, and inland waterway conditions. I guess I find a certain peace and solitude with night dives. In all, I wish to thank all for the views and willingness to share their experiences. What a great community.

Very nice indeed.