Night Diver Course

The PADI Night Diver Course
The PADI Night Diver course is designed to make divers into experienced Night Divers. The Knowledge Development materials will inform you of the differences between diving at day and at night. You will learn what is important in selecting a night diving site, the equipment requirements for safe night diving and some general night diving recommendations and procedures.

Why Go Night Diving?

Marine Life
The marine life you will see at night is quite different to that which you are accustomed to seeing during the day. All those photosensitive fish that are normally crammed under rock ledges are out swimming freely around the dive site. The Blue Gropers and other Wrasse are all asleep safely hiding under rocks making it safe for the Crabs, Shrimp and Urchins to come out of their hiding places. Octopus, Cuttlefish and Squid are more active at night making it possible for night divers to interact with these interesting creatures. One of the joys of night diving is looking at your favourite dive sites in a fresh new way while interacting and observing fascinating nocturnal creatures.

The Adventure
Re-discovering a familiar dive site by night is adventurous and fun. It can add some excitement to your weekly routine and give you something cool to talk about with your friends at work the next day. Night diving is the best way to see true colours under water with a good quality dive light. If you haven’t done that it yet you will be amazed at the difference. There are some dive sites that can only be dived at night. One such site is the wreck of the Currajong in Sydney Harbour. This site cannot be dived by day because to normal route of the Manly Ferries and Jet cats take them directly over this wreck site. This wreck can only be seen by divers after 1am when the ferries and jet cats stop for the night. The Currajong is a dive site that the Abyss Adventure Group dives every two months.

The Challenge
Wether you are diving new dive sites at night or diving at sites you are familiar with by day, navigating your way around at night can be challenging. Exploring new dive sites at night also offers a challenge to experienced night divers. Even sites you dive by day can look very different at night so your navigation skills will be put to the test.

Abyss Night Diver Course
Dive One - Night Adventure Dive
This dive is an introduction to Night Diving focusing on appropriate Entries and Exits, maintaining Buddy Contact, some simple Night Diving Navigation, identifying Nocturnal Aquatic Life and Buoyancy Control Skills. The maximum depth for this dive is 12 meters.

Dive Two – Under Water Orienteering Dive
The Under Water Orienteering Dive focuses on Under Water Night Navigation using both compass and natural navigation techniques. The goal of this dive is to give you practice finding your way around a dive site at night. You will be given a map including explanations of how to navigate around a predetermined course and collect objects to verify that you found each checkpoint of the navigation course. The maximum depth for this dive is 18 meters.

Dive Three – Night Boat Dive
The Night Boat Dive is the final dive of the Night Diver course. This dive will be more challenging than most shore dives because we will be able to dive to a maximum depth of 30 meters. In a night diving situation where you experienced primary light failure you would use your back up light to ascend but in the lights out exercise we will stay in the dark long enough for our eyes to adjust to the low light so you can experience complete darkness under water.