Night Diving, Friend or Foe

There is something about night diving that really peaks the interest. A dark world with no light except that narrow stream being emitted by the primary light and a back-up if that flashlight fails. Following a guiding line down further into the enveloping blackness, passing through a thermocline the water becomes cool.

Becoming almost omnipotent, acting as a decider for what will live and what shall die. Revealing a fish from the shadows only for a predator to shoot past making an easy kill, always knowing there are groupies’ following the diver’s every move.

Looking up on a clear night and being able to still see the glimmer of the stars and constellations piercing the water’s surface and the heart of this gorgeous sight. Diving with a large group of divers all equipped with multi-colored tank lights it was truly a show when water activated the sensors that lit up the strobes. Explosions of green, red, and blue bursting in the shadows and revealing the whereabouts of lost friends.

Similar to a child afraid of the dark I had some unease of jumping into water that I couldn’t see. The first leap off the dock with the primary light directed downward so not to flail about blinding others. Chilled cool water entering into every opening of the wetsuit as your body plunges downward. This was my personal experience of night diving. While it was more of a crash course since I received the textbook only hours before the sunset over Lake Rawlings Virginia it was still one of my favorite experiences of scuba diving.