I would be interested but I have never done one.
That is awesome and they are awesome!!! However as you can imagine doing everything in the dark requires some special tools (lights, tank markers, etc) and some special communication techniques and some special education to be safe and also some special procedures to not disrupt our ocean friends while they sleep to prevent them from becoming dinner to a night time predator.
So we are so lucky to have a fabulous instructor on this trip who can do one of the following:
1. Do the night dive portion of your advanced open water and sign that off so you will have one less dive module to do when you do your advance open water course. I am not sure of the fee but if interested I can get it for you. Its not too bad and is worth its weigh in gold because learning to do a night dive RIGHT means you will love them for life...if you don't you can end up hating them and they are FABULOUS!!!
2. You can just do your open water course and we will ensure the night dive specialty is part of it. I think one person was interested (maybe it was you) and we can get that set up now I am back in the US and getting everything lined up for this trip.
3. You can actually get your "Night Diving Specialty" certification and c-card. Its a fab cert and covers EVERYTHING you need to do night dives safely, enjoyably and easily including how to recover when something goes awry etc. Again there is a fee and I can find out what it would be. Usually classes are less if we have more people.
Why do this via education and not just 'wing it'? Mostly because its the difference between learning to do it right from a dive pro and possibly not learning everything you need to know from a well intentioned friend or worse ... someone you have just met but don't really know. The following is a true story...
My first night dive... by Kamala aka WreckWench
And while now I have thousands of dives and I feel as comfortable in the water as I do on land...it was NOT always like that. In fact I had every issue you could have with water both before my open water class, during my open water class and after my open water class. If you are really interested I'll tell you the whole deal during our famous Happy Hours & Socials on the trip...suffice it to say for this post...I had all sorts of issues and well learning to night dive would be no different. Only this time I was stupid (my words based upon my skills or lack thereof) and I let some friends take me night diving the first time instead of doing a class or at least doing it as part of the advanced open water class. I was part of a threesome (bad decision unless one or more were dive professionals) and so they had a buddy...I was a tag along. When we got in the water my light failed and I tried to find my buddies. I went up to several divers with lights but none were my buddies. And so now without any lights and unable to find my buddies I'm getting very worried. I am ready to abort the dive when the unthinkable happens and my tank's oring blows. Now I am in the complete dark with no way to read my gauge no back up light and no buddies losing air rapidly and no way to know how fast I am going up to reach safety NOR how much air was in my tank or how fast it would drain out. I somehow managed to ascend slowly by watching my bubbles and not ascending faster than they did (which for the record is still too fast but it was all I could do with no lights to see my gauges). I finally reached the surface and made it ashore and never saw my buddies until the end of the dive. They never really realized that they lost me and when they did they thought I had panic'd and went up on my own and so they did the rest of the dive figuring I was ok and never having a clue I was not.
Well so much for well intentioned friends, buddies etc. My suggestion...always do your first night dive with an instructor UNLESS you are a fish with tons of dav dives and have read about night diving and feel really confident in your ability to self rescue if an issues arises and you know all about underwater communications and critter protocols and night time underwater gear needs.
If not...its best to let a pro make it easy for you and then you can focus on the full WOW factor of night dives knowing you are doing it RIGHT and if an issue arises that you are in the hands of a PRO!!!
p.s Oh by the way...I never did another night dive after that until I became a dive pro and was FORCED TO DO IT. And then for a number of years I only did them because I had to and I tried to get out of doing them whenever possible. Its only been over the past few years that I have fallen in love with them and I've been diving since 1994. So I hope my story helps...and if anyone wants to do their first night dive in Bonaire (or try again) I am happy to help get a class set up for you at a very reasonable price. Just let me know
So if anyone is interested please email kamala@singledivers.com OR post HERE in the classes topic for this trip. Thank you! Kamala