I'm now AOW!!! Hehe

[lottie]

Congrats Lottie! Why not descend just before twilight so there's still plenty of light to keep you well-oriented. By the time night falls, you've comfortably eased into your dive. When you eventually break the surface, a blanket of stars is already overhead. This might help ease you into night diving which is one of the reasons we love scuba (as Quero's posted song goes, haha, no escaping it )

Thanks for that.

The night dive was just just after dusk, there was a half moon and for the first 10/15 mins when we were in 20ft of water, with some light coming down besides the torches. After we dropped further, thats when I got a bit panicky and clausrophobic - plus having to equalise, hold the torch, try not to bang into the reef(s), try and stay buoyant, try and keep an eye on where the instructor was and everything else...i think thats why I got into a bit of a state.

But I'm not going to give up and "no, never again going on a night dive". I'll have another go in about 20 or so dives time

[Diverdaniel]

Lottie,
Congrats on the new cert
as for NAV... you'll get the hang of it night...... Love it myself but go in to it easy, know the site befor you dive it, its amazing how different a site that you know well changes 180 degrees when under the blanket of darkness WOW.
happy for you
may you have many more dives

[SeaDog]

Congrats Lottie,
You'll be a Dive Master before you know it. Like everything it all takes practice, and I'll be surprised if you don't fall in love with night diving someday.
All the Best
Seadog

[ereediver]

Congradulations Lottie,
Just courious, was the wreck the Lesleen M... I think thats who you spell it. roof of the wheelhouse is beautiful, not a difficult penitration, but some sharp edges. I did that dive in May Loved your Island, whos' things after Dean?

[lottie]

Hey EreeDiver - welcome to the boards.
Yes the wreck was the Lesleen M and no, it's not a difficult penetration. i noticed the top bit (can't remember the correct wording) was virtually open, apart from what looked like some large bars across it. I did look in, but couldn't see much. Some of the other divers were in the wheel house.

Things after Dean - check out my blog as I put some stuff on there.
The reefs aren't too damages - a few yellow tube sponges and sea fans have come loose and the viz is down to about 20 odd feet instead of the 60+ feet.

Glad you loved St Lucia - you'll have to come back

[hbh2oguard]

Pinay that's exactly what I was going to say, enter right at or a little before sunset when it's still light out, and keep the dive pretty shallow.

[Quero]

Night diving is a lot of task loading at first, but it gets more comfortable once you start looking a little beyond the circle of light of your torch beam. Getting comfortable with night diving requires "situational awareness" and it takes a while to develop it in any new environment. With several more night dives (ideally at the same site), you will learn how to "sense" things and plan your movements accordingly. You will figure out how fast to swim, how to move your torch beam so that it gives you an overview of the area, how to make a mental map of what is within the area a few finstrokes around you, where other divers are in relation to you, etc.

We keep coming back to the similarities between driving a vehicle and scuba diving, and here are other points of convergence--when you are a new driver, you are nearly overwhelmed with keeping track of the traffic, your own car, the turn signals, the side streets and driveways, the mirrors.... it's exhausting, and at night or in a rain storm it can cause real anxiety. But after sufficient experience, you check mirrors without even noticing, you "sense" where that blue car coming up in the other lane behind you "must be" by a certain point, you learn to "read" the intentions of other drivers around you, you are familiar with your equipment, etc. You can relax and enjoy the ride.

I have no doubt that sooner rather than later, night diving will be something you look forward to with relish.

[lottie]

Thanks for the info, Quero. I'm sure I'll get the hang of night diving at some point...perhaps once i've got more used to diving in the daytime and not having to think about things (breathing, equalising, buoyancy) as much as I do at the moment.

As for the analogy with night driving - LOL. I loved night driving straight away (I did one as a driving lesson)...didn't have any problems at all

[amtrosie]

Well, after all those indecisions - I've finally done it.

The deep - didn't seem deep - and I went into a semi-type cave
The UW nav - I got off-track LOL
The night - wasn't so good - got a bit claustrophobic
The wreck - absolutely fantastic. Want to do that again - AND I can penetrate it (those of you that do wreck diving, don't worry, this isn't complete penetration, as most of the bits that you can go into here are still classed as open water - if that makes sense
The Peak buoyancy- i was jumping through hoops

next stop - Rescue

Lottie,

Congratulations on the new card, remember it is only a licence to continue learning.

A thought about the night dive, what kind of torch did you have? A small hand-held one with an incandescent bulb? If so, consider getting an LED torch. The light cast by these small torch bulbs is awe inspiring! To coin a phrase, "it is the difference between night and day." Night dives are great experiences, and a good light source will be a great addition. These LED lights are a little more expensive, but with the increased light, your experience will be enhanced and your comfort level increased due to the enhanced light.

Good luck, and keep learning!!

[acelockco]

If so, consider getting an LED torch. The light cast by these small torch bulbs is awe inspiring! To coin a phrase, "it is the difference between night and day." Night dives are great experiences, and a good light source will be a great addition. These LED lights are a little more expensive, but with the increased light, your experience will be enhanced and your comfort level increased due to the enhanced light.

I have to agree. I have an older style light (halogen bulb and 8 D-Cell battery) and while it is insanely bright, the color it throws out is a little in the yellow spectrum. One of my dive buddies had a new Princeton 8 c-cell, and has 3 of the new 5 watt LED's. Let me tell you, I have never seen something light up the water so brightly and clearly. The blue/white light it emits really brings out the colors and is easy on the eyes. It also uses less draw, so the batteries last longer.

There are even better lights out there using HID technology, which are amazing, but they are very cost prohibitive ($600-$1500 area).

That being said, on my first night dive all I had was a little 4 AA batt. old backup light, but was fine without even turning it on as the full moon was so bright.

By the way, the next time you do a night dive, find a dark spot hidden from the moon, turn off your light and wave your hand forward and backward really quickly and you will see some organisms light up. It really is quite interesting to see, someone told me they are called Dynaflagalites, but I have not been able to verify that.