Dive Into the Night: 8 Essential Night Scuba Diving Tips
Are you looking to take your scuba diving experience to the next level?
If so, you should try night scuba diving. When scuba diving at night, you’ll use a dive light or an underwater torch. But, before you jump into the world of night diving, there are some things you need to know.
While diving at night can be a lot of fun, it can also be intimidating to enter the depths of the ocean in the dark. Read on to learn the essential night scuba diving tips.
1. Choose the Right Dive Site
For your first night dive, choose a diving site that’s calm and shallow. Even if you’re a pro at daytime diving, you want to scale things back for your first night dive to reduce your stress and make your dive more enjoyable.
In addition to choosing the right dive site, don’t do anything too complicated. Now is not the time to try out new gear, carry a camera for the first time, or go deeper than normal. Going back to the basics will keep things smooth and safe.
2. Begin Your Dive at Twilight
You don’t want to start your first night dive in the pitch black. Gearing up and getting into the water at twilight will help you get acquainted with the darker surroundings.
Also, keep in mind that very little light penetrates the surface of the water. So, even if you start diving at twilight, it’ll still be relatively dark underwater. Not to mention, you’ll be able to see the reef creatures migrate through sort of a “shift change” where the day creatures go to bed and the night creatures come out to play.
3. Invest in a Lanyard or a Wrist Wrap
Your torchlight is going to be your best friend when diving at night (besides your dive buddy, of course). To ensure you don’t lose your light source, we recommend investing in a lanyard or wrist wrap.
Most dive lights aren’t buoyant, and if you drop one in the water, it’ll likely be gone forever. A wrist wrap or lanyard is cheap insurance against losing your light.
4. Review Your Hand Signals
Communicating during a night dive is a lot more complicated than diving during the day. To ensure your communication is flawless, review your hand signals with your dive buddy before entering the water.
When doing hand signals underwater, you have two options: you can either shine your light on your hands to illuminate them, or you can use your light to perform your hand signals. For example, you can say “okay” by moving your light in a circle, “yes” by moving your light up and down, and “no” by moving your light side to side.
What if you and your dive buddy become separated? You get in a vertical position and shine your light outward while turning in a full circle. Your dive buddy would do the same thing.
Night Scuba Diving: Time to Have Some Fun!
Now that you know these night scuba diving tips, you’ll be better prepared for your first night dive. Pretty soon, you’ll be a pro at diving at night, and you’ll have a whole new way to enjoy the underwater world.
If you’re looking to improve your scuba diving, check out our scuba diving classes! We can even teach you about our local diving. Do you happen to live in NYC. We can meet any NYC’er’s schedules.
