Ally

Is there a set amount of diving hours that have to be completed before doing night diving?

MgicTwnger

No set hours, but I would talk it over with an experienced diver, or the captain or DM, and get some advice about what to expect.
IMHO, the specialty classes offered like night diver, boat diver, etc., are a joke.
My pet peeve is the Cecil B. DeJerk who has a movie rig with enough lights to illuminate Yankee Stadium, and ruins the whole experience. It's terrific when everyone douses their lights. That's when the really cool stuff comes out!

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dalehall

To expand on what MgicTwnger said.. Since it is dark and you could very easily get disoriented, you should be pretty comfortable and confident with your diving abilities. And, since you can't see what's really around you or on you, you need to very familiar with your equipment and where everything is located. Nothing like needing your octo and not being able to find it in the dark.

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Scuba Mama

I teach the course. Unlike someone else's response its not a joke. I will dive the same area we dove in the daylight. Most divers feel better when someone is with them that understands night diving and what can happen. I let one of my divers who insisted he had the right course take the lead. I knew we were not going very deep. It took about 5 minutes and he signaled he was lost. I got him back on course, he was happy that I had the skills needed to do a safe dive and keep him from panic.

Most divers who blast lights have not been taught the proper technique, or manners needed for night diving.

I love for my light to be out most of the night dive, you really can see just fine.

Kev Martin

I must admit that I never look at how many hours a diver has or how many dives before we take them for a night dive.

I look on it as experiential and an excellent opportunity to see the underwater environment as they have never seen it before.

Like Scuba Mama I like to dive the area during daylight hours and then gear up and do it at night. Not only does it offer up some kind of orientation but it also allows your buddy to see the changes that take place underwater during the day and the night. They will see things that they would never encounter during the daylight hours.

Like every dive for experience it helps the diver concentrate on what new skills are required to complete that dive. Knowing where all your kit is so that using it is seemless, diving with a new piece of equipment - a light source, knowing how to use that light source, new kinds of signals and the old chestnut of "DO NOT POINT THAT TORCH IN MY FACE!!" all go towards furthering a diver's education and opening out new experiences to them.