PADI Night Diving Specialty
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Note: This review originally written in April 2000 and published on http://www.epinions.com/
Pros: More confidence in night diving, adds towards Master Scuba Diver cert
Cons: Can be expensive
Night diving you say? Well, you probably did one on your Advanced Open Water course.... and how many night dives have you done since?
You may wonder why a Night diver speciality exists - I mean anyone can do night dives after they've done advanced, right? Well... yes, but how much enjoyment do you get from them?
The PADI Night Diver speciality course aims to give advanced (and higher) divers more insight into the amazing world of night diving.
Having just completed the course, I must say it was great fun, and I certainly will get more out of my night dives.... I'll also pester any dive operator for night dives at any opportunity!
You get a small booklet to put in your logbook, and a video to keep. Of course, there is a lecture, around 1 1/2 hours.... and then the dives themselves.
Our instructor decided we would do ours in the local quarry, with the full moon. So we spread the course over 2 1/2 months -- we did 2 full moon night dives, and a "fool moon" night dive on 1 April - with no moon!
Our first night speciality dive was an eco-tour - we paid attention to the crabs, bass and snails in the quarry - obviously if you can do this in the sea there's more interesting stuff to see!
Our second dive the following full moon was a navigation dive - with unfortunate low viz too! We had to navigate from buoy to buoy with a compass, collecting ribbons at each buoy at 10 meters.
Our third and final night speciality dive involved sitting on the bottom for 3 minutes with absolutely no lights - no torches and no chemical light sticks. Eerie to see your buddies by starlight alone - bearing in mind this was the "fool moon" - new moon - dive on 1 April.
All in all - a good course! All of us learnt to appreciate night diving more, and to feel more comfortable in total darkness situations. I can certainly recommend this course to any Advanced or higher diver!
Bookmark :
Note: This review originally written in April 2000 and published on http://www.epinions.com/
Pros: More confidence in night diving, adds towards Master Scuba Diver cert
Cons: Can be expensive
Night diving you say? Well, you probably did one on your Advanced Open Water course.... and how many night dives have you done since?
You may wonder why a Night diver speciality exists - I mean anyone can do night dives after they've done advanced, right? Well... yes, but how much enjoyment do you get from them?
The PADI Night Diver speciality course aims to give advanced (and higher) divers more insight into the amazing world of night diving.
Having just completed the course, I must say it was great fun, and I certainly will get more out of my night dives.... I'll also pester any dive operator for night dives at any opportunity!
You get a small booklet to put in your logbook, and a video to keep. Of course, there is a lecture, around 1 1/2 hours.... and then the dives themselves.
Our instructor decided we would do ours in the local quarry, with the full moon. So we spread the course over 2 1/2 months -- we did 2 full moon night dives, and a "fool moon" night dive on 1 April - with no moon!
Our first night speciality dive was an eco-tour - we paid attention to the crabs, bass and snails in the quarry - obviously if you can do this in the sea there's more interesting stuff to see!
Our second dive the following full moon was a navigation dive - with unfortunate low viz too! We had to navigate from buoy to buoy with a compass, collecting ribbons at each buoy at 10 meters.
Our third and final night speciality dive involved sitting on the bottom for 3 minutes with absolutely no lights - no torches and no chemical light sticks. Eerie to see your buddies by starlight alone - bearing in mind this was the "fool moon" - new moon - dive on 1 April.
All in all - a good course! All of us learnt to appreciate night diving more, and to feel more comfortable in total darkness situations. I can certainly recommend this course to any Advanced or higher diver!
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