Well, the unthinkable finally happened. Didn't ever think I would even consider the idea yet alone go for it. As a kid I never snuck out of camp and went for a late night skinny dipping session with friends. Then again, I never really attended much in the way of summer camps when I was a kid. Maybe that's why I never went skinny dipping.
After running into trouble getting used to bad visibility I finally decided to take the big the step and force myself into getting used to bad visibiltity diving and I put aluminum foil and duct tape over my pipe goggles. This made it so I was diving in zero visibility. I knew I could just use my hands as my eyes to let me know when I hit bottom or anything else in the water.
After blind diving both Monday and Tuesday afternoon I was hoping to do so again today since it sounds like this was the last day for warm temps until next summer, highs forecast for the mid 80s, normal highs right now are in the mid 60s.
Before noontime I realized that things at work weren't going the best and it looked like I was more than likely not going to get the chance to go diving today. The more I thought about the misfortune the quicker I come to realize that I have spent the past two days, quite comfortably, diving in zero visibility, only having trouble once getting a tuck accomplished so I even make it under the surface. This got me thinking, what is the difference between zero visibility/blind diving and night diving without lights. My answer...NOTHING.
I got off work earlier than I thought I would but not much earlier. I could have easily pulled off the normal two to three dives before sunset but I decided instead to wait until after it had grown completely dark before I headed out to dive. I knew for my version of the ultimate diving experience this would take care of every aspect of it except the lack of ice covering the water and the ice cold water temps to go with it.
I knew that the moon was almost full, I figured it would probably be at full moon either tonight or tomorrow. I didn't know for sure which though. The weather forecast for here yesterday had been for showers and storms for today and tonight. The storm front that is coming in didn't move as quickly as they thought so I ended up seeing mostly sunny skies all day long and had humid and hot conditions as well. The rain has held off so far and it hasn't started raining, yet, as I type this.
I ate supper and waited around for a little while before suiting up and heading for the lake. I got to the lake around 8:30PM under a clear full moon. I knew that this would make the dive site quite ideal. I had been questioning it earlier in the day and did have a back site, not far away, in mind that I knew I could use otherwise. I knew I liked this site better though.
I got into the water and finned out to where I figured was 15 foot deep water. Since I have went zero vis/blind diving I normally swim out with my head above the water and goggles off, then I put the goggles on once I'm out there. I left the dive line in the car since I knew it would be of no use since I wouldn't be able to see it anyways, thanks to the darkness. I pretty much knew where 15 foot water was anyways. So I thought.
One thing I like about freediving is actually the breathe up. I love playing dead in the water. I know you can't truly relax on land. Their is no such thing. You need a weightless environment like water or outer space to be able to truly relax and left all your muscles hang limp. Pressure points will always cause you to hold some muscle tight and keep you from totally relaxing. In the water I can totally relax and just focus on my breathing and nothing else. With the blind goggles makes it even easier since I can't see anything out of the goggles. It makes for a fantastic experience. The main problem is with daytime diving you have boats to deal with or people that get antsy when you don't move for a while, at night time both of those problems aren't prsent.
After putting on the goggles I find myself in the unusual position of truly enjoying being in the water. I know I don't have any boats to deal with and I know I don't have any people to deal with. I found myself just hanging limp not even really trying to breathe up but just enjoying the relaxing setting, enjoying playing dead. It was the most peaceful experience I think I have ever experienced.
Finally I did come around to remembering why I was in the water, oh yeah, and tucked and went for the first dive. One problem...the tucked sucked on the first dive...second day in a row now????? Instead of diving down I felt like I was fish flapping around on the shore trying to get back into the water. I bailed and let myself rise to the surface. I took off the goggles in time to see someone shooting off fireworks on the other side of the lake. I know, it doesn't sound quite right does it.
I breathe up again and give it another shot. This time I get it right and head down. BAM! All of a sudden, UNEXPECTEDLY, my hands hit the bottom. I know something is quite wrong with this picture. I'm only 5-7 feet down and I'm hitting the bottom??? I surface and take a look and start questioning if I'm too far to the right or what. I decide to swim further over to the left and as I do I notice that it does look like I have managed to misread my crosshair markings that I found yesterday to indicate 15 foot water.
After repositioning myself I breathe up and try it again. This time I do end up in 15 foot water and find myself diving all the way down to the bottom. I don't spend anytime at the bottom on this dive. I get back to the surface and breathe up again. I'm still quite relaxed compared to when I'm out during the daytime. I tuck and dive again. This time I make it down to the bottom and I decide to spend some time on the bottom finning around. I soon realize that I better watch myself or I could easily get trapped in this environment and forget that I even have to breathe. Everything seemed so automatic, so programmed. I bail and let myself float to the surface before I could even start to get into trouble.
Since I was already starting to get cold before the last dive I decide to play it safe and call it quits. As I'm changing clothes in my car I notice that the clear full moon is getting clouded over. Granted it was back out shining fully a short time later when I got home.
I can say that I have no desire for daytime diving anymore. My first night time diving experience hooked me MASSIVELY on the concept. I'm still trying to figure out how I could fully block out all the light since even the moonlight does have a tendency to filter through the googles. At one point during the session tonight I was caught off guard and had to raise the goggles to make sure something wasn't going on thanks to the full moon shining so brightly. I know with the face mask I had a kid it was quite easy to use aluminum foil to totally block out all light but the pipe goggles make it much harder to accomplish the same objective. Closing my eyes does help some and I do find myself closing my eyes more often then not since I can't see anything out of the goggles anyways.
There is definitely a ton more night diving in my future. More night diving than daytime diving.
Ryan
After running into trouble getting used to bad visibility I finally decided to take the big the step and force myself into getting used to bad visibiltity diving and I put aluminum foil and duct tape over my pipe goggles. This made it so I was diving in zero visibility. I knew I could just use my hands as my eyes to let me know when I hit bottom or anything else in the water.
After blind diving both Monday and Tuesday afternoon I was hoping to do so again today since it sounds like this was the last day for warm temps until next summer, highs forecast for the mid 80s, normal highs right now are in the mid 60s.
Before noontime I realized that things at work weren't going the best and it looked like I was more than likely not going to get the chance to go diving today. The more I thought about the misfortune the quicker I come to realize that I have spent the past two days, quite comfortably, diving in zero visibility, only having trouble once getting a tuck accomplished so I even make it under the surface. This got me thinking, what is the difference between zero visibility/blind diving and night diving without lights. My answer...NOTHING.
I got off work earlier than I thought I would but not much earlier. I could have easily pulled off the normal two to three dives before sunset but I decided instead to wait until after it had grown completely dark before I headed out to dive. I knew for my version of the ultimate diving experience this would take care of every aspect of it except the lack of ice covering the water and the ice cold water temps to go with it.
I knew that the moon was almost full, I figured it would probably be at full moon either tonight or tomorrow. I didn't know for sure which though. The weather forecast for here yesterday had been for showers and storms for today and tonight. The storm front that is coming in didn't move as quickly as they thought so I ended up seeing mostly sunny skies all day long and had humid and hot conditions as well. The rain has held off so far and it hasn't started raining, yet, as I type this.
I ate supper and waited around for a little while before suiting up and heading for the lake. I got to the lake around 8:30PM under a clear full moon. I knew that this would make the dive site quite ideal. I had been questioning it earlier in the day and did have a back site, not far away, in mind that I knew I could use otherwise. I knew I liked this site better though.
I got into the water and finned out to where I figured was 15 foot deep water. Since I have went zero vis/blind diving I normally swim out with my head above the water and goggles off, then I put the goggles on once I'm out there. I left the dive line in the car since I knew it would be of no use since I wouldn't be able to see it anyways, thanks to the darkness. I pretty much knew where 15 foot water was anyways. So I thought.
One thing I like about freediving is actually the breathe up. I love playing dead in the water. I know you can't truly relax on land. Their is no such thing. You need a weightless environment like water or outer space to be able to truly relax and left all your muscles hang limp. Pressure points will always cause you to hold some muscle tight and keep you from totally relaxing. In the water I can totally relax and just focus on my breathing and nothing else. With the blind goggles makes it even easier since I can't see anything out of the goggles. It makes for a fantastic experience. The main problem is with daytime diving you have boats to deal with or people that get antsy when you don't move for a while, at night time both of those problems aren't prsent.
After putting on the goggles I find myself in the unusual position of truly enjoying being in the water. I know I don't have any boats to deal with and I know I don't have any people to deal with. I found myself just hanging limp not even really trying to breathe up but just enjoying the relaxing setting, enjoying playing dead. It was the most peaceful experience I think I have ever experienced.
Finally I did come around to remembering why I was in the water, oh yeah, and tucked and went for the first dive. One problem...the tucked sucked on the first dive...second day in a row now????? Instead of diving down I felt like I was fish flapping around on the shore trying to get back into the water. I bailed and let myself rise to the surface. I took off the goggles in time to see someone shooting off fireworks on the other side of the lake. I know, it doesn't sound quite right does it.
I breathe up again and give it another shot. This time I get it right and head down. BAM! All of a sudden, UNEXPECTEDLY, my hands hit the bottom. I know something is quite wrong with this picture. I'm only 5-7 feet down and I'm hitting the bottom??? I surface and take a look and start questioning if I'm too far to the right or what. I decide to swim further over to the left and as I do I notice that it does look like I have managed to misread my crosshair markings that I found yesterday to indicate 15 foot water.
After repositioning myself I breathe up and try it again. This time I do end up in 15 foot water and find myself diving all the way down to the bottom. I don't spend anytime at the bottom on this dive. I get back to the surface and breathe up again. I'm still quite relaxed compared to when I'm out during the daytime. I tuck and dive again. This time I make it down to the bottom and I decide to spend some time on the bottom finning around. I soon realize that I better watch myself or I could easily get trapped in this environment and forget that I even have to breathe. Everything seemed so automatic, so programmed. I bail and let myself float to the surface before I could even start to get into trouble.
Since I was already starting to get cold before the last dive I decide to play it safe and call it quits. As I'm changing clothes in my car I notice that the clear full moon is getting clouded over. Granted it was back out shining fully a short time later when I got home.
I can say that I have no desire for daytime diving anymore. My first night time diving experience hooked me MASSIVELY on the concept. I'm still trying to figure out how I could fully block out all the light since even the moonlight does have a tendency to filter through the googles. At one point during the session tonight I was caught off guard and had to raise the goggles to make sure something wasn't going on thanks to the full moon shining so brightly. I know with the face mask I had a kid it was quite easy to use aluminum foil to totally block out all light but the pipe goggles make it much harder to accomplish the same objective. Closing my eyes does help some and I do find myself closing my eyes more often then not since I can't see anything out of the goggles anyways.
There is definitely a ton more night diving in my future. More night diving than daytime diving.
Ryan
