Night Diving

We can promise you this without reservation, you will never forget your first night dive. Everything is a little different right from the moment you start gearing up as it grows darker outside, the walk down to the shore and entering the dark water. The ambiance is amazing, as you descend with your flashlight in hand waiting for the bottom to come into view stop for a minute and soak it up.

So what can you hope to see? Something that surprises most first time nights divers is that there is a lot of ambient light, it’s not just what you get to see in the beam of your flashlight. Whilst the dark water does provide a magnificently eerie atmosphere, once your eyes adjust, you will be able to make out a lot of detail.

What your flashlight does illuminate will be in more vivid detail than daylight, water absorbs natural light from the surface, reds appear to be brown, yellows dulled. When you pass your torch beach over the coral you will be amazed at the difference.

As you go you will see nocturnal marine life scuttling left and right, cuttlefish will provide their own light show for you as they flash red, green blue and white in a few seconds, be careful not to shine your light directly at the sleeping turtle and wake them up. Crabs, crustaceans, squid and docile reef fish are much easier to spot at night.

At a time when everyone in the dive teams agrees, press your flashlights to your chest to block out the light and wave your spare hand in front of you, this stirs up tiny phosphorescent plankton in the water that glow green when displaced. Look behind you when you kick and you will notice you leave a wake of them behind your fins.

Diving safely in any conditions is made possible by a balance of training and experience, sufficiently experienced open water divers can join night dives, but advanced training is recommended. Either way you should dive the same dive site in daylight with one of our divemasters so they can check your skills and you can familiarize yourself with the layout.

Firstly you need to be in control of your buoyancy, with limited visibility there is less margin for error, second your ascents and descents need to be very well controlled. In addition to normal dive equipment you will need to learn how to use a flashlight for communication and do so without blinding your dive buddies.

Night dives are conducted every day from shore. Just schedule one with our front desk and your dive master.
Experienced divers can conduct night dives (and dives at dawn) on their own, just pick up your tanks at the dive shop and off you go.
Once a week we schedule a night dive at Pescador Island; even more often on your request and if we have a few other divers who like to join.
If you have no experience with night diving, take the Advanced Open Water Course or Night Dive Specialty Course with us.

Talk to dive staff today for a suggested training package tailored for you.