Night incidents cluster on lost buddy, missed boat, and panic when a light dies. This is not a briefing or medical advice.
A dead primary without a backup is the end of the dive, not a reason to follow someone else’s beam into a hole.
Hazards
- Lost buddy — Easier than by day and more frightening.
- Boat props — A dark head is invisible.
- Light failure — Disorientation and a fast ascent risk.
- Stinging hydroids and lionfish — Night walkers on the reef.
- Disorientation / vertigo — No horizon, silt, or a spinning beam.
- Combining night with wreck or cave — A risk multiplier this atlas scores separately for a reason.
Rules
- Two lights or no dive — The whole rule.
- Closer buddy than by day — If you cannot see the signal, you are too far.
- Known site only — No exploration brief at night.
- Surface light discipline — The boat’s pattern, not a disco.
- No unplanned overhead — Holes look like rooms in a beam.
Red flags
- A shop offering night as dive one — Walk.
- A buddy whose light already flickers — New light or no dive.
- Feeling lost for more than a few seconds — Ascent on the plan, SMB, boat.
- A manta or turtle changing path because of the beam — Back up.
First response
- Lost buddy at night — The taught search is short; then surface and the boat’s plan. This page is not the drill card.
- Light failure — Backup, then end the dive.
- Not medical advice — Stings and DCI are clinical.
Night safety is redundancy and a short leash. The dark does not forgive a sloppy day habit.