PADI Specialty of the month for October 2009; Night Diving

PADI Specialty of the month for October 2009; Night Diving

When the sun is about to set and you change into your dive gear and you descent on the same site that you dived regularly during the day time, this time around it's going to be a very different site because you're night diving and everything will look different and you will see different sea creatures and critters.

Chaweng Beach, where I do most of my night dives during the Instructor Specialty training, does become a different site since the amount of crabs on this reef is something I don't see anywhere else.

Giant Murray Eel at the Similan islands during a night dive
With a main torch, a back up torch and ideally also a small blinking light or chemical glow stick attached to your BCD or tank valve you're ready to hit the water.
You learn about night dive planning, equipment, communication and navigation and you practice these on three different night dives.


Blue spotted stingray at Chaweng Beach during a night dive
It's a very popular specialty the Night dive specialty and I've logged a lot of night dives already, closing in on a hundred but once you committed yourself to a night dive, you will understand why.
Shrimp at Chaweng Reef during a night dive
On Chaweng Reef and during night dives in general I've seen plenty of interesting things, like a dark shadow somewhere next to me moving around and as soon as I catch a small fish in my spotlight of the torch, a barracuda jumps out of the dark and catches the small fish in my light or a crab dining on a gills of a barely alive scorpion fish. Very interesting and unusual sights indeed and they can keep you glued to a spot.
Another interesting thing to try is to plan a dusk dive, where you start the dive at dusk and you not necessarily need a torch and during the dive the sun sets, it becomes dark and you see the scenery at the reef change. A very nice experience.
If you haven't done a night dive yet, it's time to get started and if you've done some already, you know you'll be back in the dark water surroundings of a night dive. Enjoy!
Camille


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