My night dive craziness

While here in Cozumel, I had decided to get my advanced open water diver certification.   There are many specialty dives you can do, and out of all the selections, night dive was the only one I absolutely had zero desire.  None whatsoever. Of all the dives I could possibly do, that is really the only one that absolutely freaks me out. I’d say terrifies me, but that’s probably too strong a word. Scares the crap out of me? Sure, let’s go with that one. So why did I do it? The instructor said “You really need to.” I was going to retort: I’m paying you, and there is no requirement that I do so, so suck on that mister! However, I was almost sold on it by reading the manual’s description of how it’s better for photography (but I don’t have a camera that can go beyond 3 m, and we’re talking 9-10 m), colors are different, some creatures are nocturnal. But I still wasn’t sure. “I’ll pick you up at 4.” Fine.

But, this is Mexico.  4 PM could easily mean 6 PM.  And in this case, it was more like we’ll leave at about 7:30 PM. Plenty of time to get my anxiety up.  So finally the car was loaded, and I was in it trying to not show my fear.  It only takes us about 10 mins to get to Paradise Reef, so I was doing my deep breathing. But no, that wasn’t our first stop. Apparently “I already picked up everything” didn’t include tanks. Kind of an important gear piece.  So we were headed there first, but we have to stop to pick up a master diver candidate first. She was dressed more like a hooker than a diver.  I watched her stumble to the car and heard her slurred speech, and I was a bit nervous. Then he had to put more credits on his cell phone.  I resisted the urge to scream. I was nervous enough as it was, and the further delay was putting me on edge.

When he got out of the car to get the tanks, Hooker Diver leaned forward to ask me something in Spanish, and the stench of cheap alcohol washed over me. When he got back in the car, I said to him in English: “You realize your friend is a bit drunk, right?” No, he didn’t. So we had to take another side trip to drop her off at her home.

Finally at about 9 PM we were parked at the beach.  With only a thin sliver of a crescent moon shining on the water, every wave made me want to not get out of the car.  We reviewed the signals used when night diving while I tried to slow my breathing and panic down.  There was a cool breeze which helped keep my sweat to a minimum.  “You okay?” he asked. Do I lie? Then I couldn’t believe it when I said “Maybe. Let’s go.” Who said that last sentence! “It will be fine. You’ll enjoy it.” So he’d like me to believe.

Masks were on. It was showtime. He gave me the sign to descend, and I had half a mind to put my fin down and say “Hell to the effin no!” But replace effin with a more adult version, maybe add a couple of other choice words, and it would be more correct probably. Instead I could hear my raspy breathing through the regulator as water covered my head.  With only our flashlights to cut through the inky black darkness, I followed my instructor closely.  Every kick cycle I reminded myself about my breathing.

The first time I saw his light flash up and down, I felt the adrenaline rush and I stared closely. Oh, it was just a coral head he wanted me to see. Phew!  The first several fish we saw were nice and blessedly small. I didn’t know if our barracuda friend (we had a slight run-in with it during the previous day’s dive) would be attracted by our lights or not.  After the first few unusual fish spotting, I was more relaxed. By the time we found our first octopus, I was hooked.  Then came the signal to go black and cover the lights.   Floating while hovering near a reef with all that coral when I couldn’t see was a new source of anxiety for me.  But then I waved my hand and saw the green sparks from the bioluminescence.  I looked at my instructor with a child’s glee on my face. He obviously couldn’t see me my face-wide grin, but his moving fins caused even more showers to appear. Panic was completely gone.  I could do this all night. Okay, I surrender. Night diving actually IS fun, I thought.

On our way back to our entrance/exit point, we found an octopus walking along the bottom.  To get to see them that close, see the colors change, etc., was just an incredible experience.  When we surfaced, I was positively joyous. But our adventure wasn’t over.  Walking back to the shore, I hear “Follow me very closely so you don’t step on any sea urchins.  They’re all over the place.” Nice.  So I followed him like a puppy dog over the slippery stones until we were finally on land, still completely elated by this experience that previously had almost, almost, terrified me before it began and now had me almost completely hooked on night diving.  “See these?” he asked, waving his flashlight at a bunch of gray, rectangular shapes that reminded me of trilobite fossils.  “They’re cucarachas.” I positively can’t stand cockroaches, and stepping on them in bare feet? Yeah, not so much fun.  I trudged on quickly and made it through the sea urchin and vile cucaracha gauntlet back to our car.

That’s when we discovered the car decided to stick to the apparent agenda for the evening that nothing but the dive would go positively smoothly.  It refused to start. I laughed quietly, shook my head, and looked up at the stars as I heard several new swear words in Spanish join the cacophony of nighttime songs in the air.

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35 Comments

  1. It would really take me a lifetime’s coaxing before I try night scuba diving. I really have these crazy phobia in open water much more for inky black water. But I really am happy for your amazing night adventure. 🙂

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    • You definitely aren’t alone. A LOT of people have trouble with their 1st night dive, but usually after that they’re hooked. 🙂

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  2. Wow that sounds breathtaking, except for the cockroaches. That would send me screaming away in tears. Seriously, I’m phobic! But the rest of it!! I’ve only been snorkeling and even that was during the day, but I’ve gone kayaking in Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bay at night. You describe the beauty of the moonlight and waves and those tiny sparkling organisms perfectly! I just may begin scuba training 🙂

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    • You should! It’s an incredible experience. If you like snorkeling, scuba is about 1000 times more fun. Loved it so much I became an instructor.

      Bioluminescence is one of my favorite parts of a night dive, and in Cozumel it was so spectacular. I later found out those “cockroaches” are actually chitins, but there definitely is a close resemblance. I am NOT a fan of cockroaches either! LOL

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  3. Good to hear that it’s not as scary as I think it’ll be.
    I’m diving off the south east coast of Malaysia tomorrow night, will let you know how it goes.

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      • It was my best dive of the day! I only jumped in at about 10 pm, but it was the perfect setting… the moon was shining like a giant spotlight, and the boat was pretty well lit, too.
        I was surprisingly calm underwater. The waters were warm and lovely. We swam over a patch of dead corals at first… shining a torch over them felt like I was walking through a field looking for something.
        Didn’t see too many nocturnal creatures, but that was probably a good thing, as I was sure I’d die if I saw teeth in my torchlight!

        Will definitely be doing more night dives soon.

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        • Sounds like you enjoyed yourself!

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  4. Sounds pretty amazing! I guess sometimes it pays to do something that totally freaks you out!

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  5. That sounds amazing! Except the cockroach part. What a cool way to spend an evening!

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  6. The fish and the octopus sound cool but stepping on cockroaches! I think you’ve just planted tonight’s nightmare in my head.

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    • If it helps, I managed to avoid stepping on them. 🙂

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    • Can’t wait! Let me know any recs you have.

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  7. There’s something about first night dives – I think they almost have to have things go wrong just to scare the crap out of you … I mean make it memorable. I did mine years ago through school (yep Australian beach town, we did scuba diving at school!) – we jumped in the boat and reached the dive site when fishing boats started calling us – turns out they’d just seen a great white in the water. We all started to laugh in terror … and relief that the dive was about the be cancelled as we were all nervous about a night dive anyway …then we found out they were just moving the boat 300 m closer to shore! The dive was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done … but I spent the whole time telling myself 300m is nothing to a shark!

    Cockroaches on a beach … I’m glad I missed that!

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    • See, I’m not sure I could’ve gotten into the water after that. Lol Scuba in
      school! Freakin awesome!

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    • Thank you! After doing my shipwreck dive yesterday, I understand why he
      insisted on a night dive.

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  8. I’m already trying to get past my claustrophobia fear by trying scuba but I am deathly afraid of the dark. I couldn’t imagine.

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    • That’s awesome! Have you done any of your classes yet?

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  9. Sounds amazing – I’ve never been diving and probably never will and I certainly can’t imagine going at night. Good on you 🙂

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    • If you snorkel, try doing that at night. Not quite as much fun as diving but
      pretty close.

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  10. So freaking happy and proud of you for overcoming that fear. That inner Tigger in you was the voice that uttered those words. Seriously, so happy. An awesome induction to your RTW.

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    • Thanks, man! Yesterday conquered more. That’s what gives fun to living.

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  11. YEAH! I’ve only been on one night dive in all my years – but I remember it vividly! It’s magic under the water (as you’ve now discovered!)

    nancy

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    • Yes indeed! Have wanted to do this all my life. Though not the night part.
      Lol Glad I did!

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  12. That was awesome!! Can’t wait to read more of your adventures!!! (And maybe I need to finally work up the nerve to get certified….)

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    • You really should. Yesterday I did my deep water dive & shipwreck. Saw
      turtles, a nurse shark, & other amazing fish. So amazing!

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  13. 4 words: Sharks. Feed. At. Night.

    Just kidding – good on you for overcoming your fears and going for it!

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    • That was one of my reasons for thinking this was insane. “Your lights may
      attract predators.” Oh thanks! Lol

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  14. I would have barfed at the stepping on cucarachas part (seriously. its making me feel sick right now!), but otherwise it sounds A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!

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    • They give me serious willies, so yeah, we have similar responses. LOL

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