As the sun sets, you don your dive gear, slip on your mask and bite down on your regulator. A deep breath and you step off the side – into the underwater night. Although you’ve been on this dive many times before, this time you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light.
The adventure, thrill and excitement of night diving can be yours when you complete your PADI Night Diver Specialty programme. You learn about night dive planning, equipment and navigation. You practise these on three exciting night dives, plus introduce yourself to the whole new cast of critters that comes out after the sun goes down and I don’t just mean under the water!
Minimum age: 12 years
Course prerequisites: PADI (Junior) Open Water Diver
What will I do?
You will have four evenings of night diver training to complete. In our fully equipped multi-media classrooms, you will learn how to deal with many different scenarios, from how to plan a dive at night, right up to how to prepare to and use specific night diving equipment.
You will put into practice what you learn in a combination of skills in three open water training dives including the use of torches and other night diving related equipment, culminating in some challenging navigational exercises, all in the dark!
During your programme you will:
- Learn to plan, organise and safely conduct open water scuba dives at night
- Learn the techniques used, the unique problems encountered, and the potential hazards involved in night diving
- Learn emergency procedures to deal with these problems
- Learn the proper procedures for buoyancy control, navigation and communication at night
- Use various types of dive lights and other related night diving equipment
- Orientate yourself to the amazing nocturnal aquatic life encountered, even in the local quarry
How do I get started?
Just pick your dates if you can and pay your £125 deposit and you will receive your PADI Night Diver eLearning materials. Don’t worry if you can’t commit to a date straight away. There are plenty scheduled throughout the year and you can get started on the home study as soon as you have received your eLearning login code.
How long will it take?
The PADI Night Diver Specialty takes place over three evenings. Starting on a Wednesday, you will review the theory sections from the PADI Night Diver manual and watch the PADI Night Diver DVD. Then over the Thursday and Friday evenings (depending on sunset times) you will cover all the practical elements of the course during three open water training dives.
What will I need?
The PADI Night Diver Specialty is open to all divers over the age of 12 years who hold the PADI (Junior) Open Water Diver certification or equivalent. Maintaining your buoyancy is a little trickier in the dark, at least at first, so we recommend that you have a minimum of 10 logged dives before starting the course. You will also need experience of diving in a drysuit. If you haven’t dived in a drysuit before, then you may want to consider completing the PADI Dry Suit Specialty first.
Once you have booked onto your PADI Night Diver Specialty you will receive your PADI Night Diver self-study materials to start you on your way. All the standard scuba equipment you need to complete the programme is included. You will also need your own dive torch and backup light, both of which can be purchased from the shop when you arrive for your course. You will look at the different types of torches in the theory section of your course and your Instructor will be able to advise you on the best options for the PADI Night Diver programme and beyond.
You will need to fill out a self-certification medical statement. If you have any medical conditions that you think may prevent you from scuba diving, please feel free to contact us and we will try to be of assistance.
All the PADI materials and standard scuba equipment needed to complete the programme are included in the cost. You will need to pay for your entry to the open water dive site and any required air fills while away from the centre. This is approximately £30 an evening.
Where can I go from here?
Once you have completed your PADI Night Diver Specialty you have opened up a whole new world of underwater life to see. Every dive site you have done during the day will now need to be explored at night. The PADI Fish Identification Diver or the PADI Underwater Naturalist are two specialties which may help you make the most of your newfound skills.
Once you have completed five PADI Specialties, the PADI Rescue Diver course and have 50 logged dives you hold all the prerequisites for the PADI Master Scuba Diver certification. This is the highest non-professional rating in the PADI system of diver education.
Here at Aquasport all our Instructors hold this level of recreational certification. We recommend that every diver takes this route regardless of their further ambitions as we see it as a commitment to education and a real achievement.
