Night Diving Sucks – Am I for real?

Oh my god, did I just write that? I mean… how do I dare? Did I forget that diving is fun. That diving takes me places, that diving helps me meet people, do things? (sound “PADI” familiar?)

Well, do I seriously think that Night diving sucks? Oh yeah! I think it sucks…I mean, I really don’t like night diving. I think it is overrated, I think you get colder than normal.. and I simply find that each night dive I do, I end loosing gear, and complaining about how cold it is… and how rough the conditions are at my local dive site.
So overall… I don’t like it and I stand up today saying: I’m a Scuba diving instructor and Night diving sucks.

But that’s the point of this article – it is OK not to like some sorts of diving.

Ladies and Gentleman, diving girls and diving boys I don’t like night diving… and by saying this I feel like I just freed myself from a huge weight on my shoulders. The reason? It seems the diving community can’t accept that you don’t LOVE all types of diving.

It all started with my wife, (I met her thanks to diving) , while I was working in Egypt… that’s when I heard the terrible words:

I only like doing 1 dive per day and I only dive when it is good visibility.

What? Are you serious…? What are you talking about – I asked. Don’t you know that REAL divers, we dive anywhere, everywhere, that’s what REAL divers do.

But then she answered with a simplicity that destroyed my EGO of Super-amazing-diving-instructor:

Well… if I don’t have fun while diving… what’s the point?

And that’s when I started to understand one thing about scuba diving: this is something we do for fun.

If Diving is a way of life, I will presume we want to live a life surrounded by pleasure and fun. Unless you come from catholic roots like me (mom this goes to you!) and you grew up with the guilt syndrome … the main purpose of life is to achieve happiness and to have the best time possible while we are here. Therefore if we take scuba diving as a way of living, we should take that not all types of diving are fun.. and in fact avoiding the type of not-fun-diving can help us have a better time, the next time we decide to dive in the conditions we prefer.

You may think that diving in a lake with zero visibility and in a dry suit is fun.
You may think that diving trying to find small animals in coral gardens is fun
You may think that gearing up with twin tanks and 1 extra tank for deco stop is fun.
Fair enough…
but what if you don’t think it is fun… what if you just want to dive, in good conditions, in warm weather, with excellent visibility.

Then? Be brave enough to do it and be brave enough not to dive in places and locations you don’t want to dive.

That’s why if I say that I hate night diving in a “public” divers meeting, I can guarantee everyone will point their fingers concerned about my afirmmation. It seems that we have allowed the “divers society” to define what a REAL diver is all about.

“REAL Divers dive anyday at any time…”
“For a Real diver any day diving is better than any day at the office”…

Are you for real?

I don’t remember when “at the office” I have been dragged against rocks and have had my equipment damaged thanks to an aggressive swell and horrible winds.

I believe we have to remember the basics of recreational scuba diving: We are supposed to have fun… we are not navy divers, we are not police divers.

It took me over 5 years to understand this concept, to understand and respect that for my wife diving is a way of enjoying the marine environment … at her time… on her rhythm on her own rules.

She is a Divemaster, she is not tough like a SAS diver,neither is she a tech diver trying to break the next depth record… she is a recreational diver, a diver that understands that her love for diving is like any other “love relationship”. It needs to be nourished, it needs to be cared for gently.

Why is there the need to push us to jump in the water when the water is rough?
What is there the need of “having to dive”…
Sometimes allowing other divers to say no without launching a series of retoric comments… shows more respect to each persons passion and respect for their own scuba diving …

Scuba Diving changes depending on the sea, the color of the water, the type of diving, the dive buddies and the objective of each dive.

So free yourself from loving and hating some parts of diving, free yourself from enjoying what you want from diving and let the rest of the world judge what type of diving they will do trying to find what they define as Fun.

And if you want to know what REAL divers are? Anyone who respects and loves going underwater to enjoy life, silence and the peace of being one with the sea. Nothing else, nothing more…

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