Ever go for a night paddle or night SUS?

[Zooport]

Have you ever strapped on some sort of lighting and gone for a night paddle?  How about a night SUS session in the surf.  I have a couple of extremely bright SCUBA dive lights, each as bright as car headlights maybe a bit brighter, and was thinking about rigging something up and going for a night surf.  The surf is so crowded here that it would be awesome to work out something where you could SUS at night with only a buddy out.  It could be a great idea, it could be a stupid idea.  Don't know.

[RATbeachrider]

I surfed Haggerty's in PV once at midnight and it was spooky.  As for SUP, I've done it twice in MDR Harbor.  I used a hat that has 3 LED lights and a blinking red tail light from my bicycle attached to the PFD.  As for SUS, not yet but it could be fun with spot lights from the beach. 

[starman]

I've done a bit of hoop netting when lobster season starts. So I've spend a lot of time paddling in the dark and sometimes heavy fog. I've found that head lights work well when you need to do work up close but screw up your night vision when looking into the distance. The light is too close to your eyes and prevent your pupils from dilating as much. So I turn the lamp off when paddling to see the water better. The lights from shore and if there is a moon tends to be enough to see your way around.

The surfing I have not tried yet as I haven't figured out a good way to spot incoming swells and then switch to just seeing what's in front of me on a wave. I've been out on more then one occasion when there have been really nice surf and was tempted to try a few. But with all the gear I'm hauling around when trying to catch a few of those little buggers it would be a big mess if I fell. Plus if you're alone you don't want to do anything too stupid out there.

I would love to hear any idea's on lighting for SUS. However, I do wonder what sea life would be attracted to all the light.

[hbsteve]

Too much artificial light at night makes you lose the horizon line.  Then your balance gets all messed up.

[headmount]

This last full moon you could be out at 4 in the morning and have all the light you needed... two hours before sunrise.

[UKRiverSurfers]

I paddle during the night a few times every week during winter!

You don't even need a full moon or light, as your night vision kicks into gear after a few mins. I do take a powerful head torch though and sometimes an LED spotlight fitted to the front of the board, using a Lipo battery. You only really need the lamp on twisty backwaters witrh low hanging trees and the like.

Full moon paddling is amazing! You can even see colour and moon shadows. Once saw a Moonbow in Ireland.

One of the nicest views ever is when the moon light reflects off of the wave face, into the lip as you pull in!!

[UKRiverSurfers]

This last full moon you could be out at 4 in the morning and have all the light you needed... two hours before sunrise.

Yeah!

The last few days the Moon has been amazingly bright!

[balance_fit]

I'm in ! I've had many night flatwater sessions around mangrove reservations and biobays. I do bbring a headlamp which I barely use. It's a very relaxing experience if the area is safe-boat free-and, once the balance is dialed, everything else flows. Regarding the return to the starting point, one really needs to set a point of reference, it's easy to get disoriented if landmarks are not really visible from the water.
Done a few surfing sessions too, on a small reef some 500 mts from shore, small waves, which benefits from the reflection of nearby lights. Whitewater is easy to spot. But the unbroken swells need to be felt, as movement of the water and slight air movement as the wave starts forming. Requires an awakening of senses beyond sight. Quite cool !

[1tuberider]

I have surfed at nite.  Seeing waves and setting up is different. Instead of looking for the darkness of a wave coming in daylight you are looking for the light reflection on the face at nite. It is also difficult to see others at nite.  A no moon nite is very dark.  It is best to wait for moon light, offshore winds and good swell otherwise it is not worth it. I used to do this at Huntington pier in the 70's. I now get all I want in the day and surfing at nite here would be really
spooky.

[Zooport]

I have surfed at nite.  Seeing waves and setting up is different. Instead of looking for the darkness of a wave coming in daylight you are looking for the light reflection on the face at nite. It is also difficult to see others at nite.  A no moon nite is very dark.  It is best to wait for moon light, offshore winds and good swell otherwise it is not worth it. I used to do this at Huntington pier in the 70's. I now get all I want in the day and surfing at nite here would be really
spooky.

Up there in shark country, at night?  Yeah, a little too spooky for me too.  I would think only extremely crowded places like here in Zooport...oops, I mean Newport, would give me the motivation to go to all that trouble.  

[JimK]

PLEASE BE CAREFUL I've had 2 friends that should NOT have died had they been on the water in daylight
Plus we are Vessels (not in the surf zone) and there are clear lighting requierments but still that didn't save my 2 friends

JimK
www.extremewindsurfing.com

[Zooport]

PLEASE BE CAREFUL I've had 2 friends that should NOT have died had they been on the water in daylight
Plus we are Vessels (not in the surf zone) and there are clear lighting requierments but still that didn't save my 2 friends

JimK
www.extremewindsurfing.com

Wow, you had two friends who were hit and killed by boats while SUPing at night?  What's the story?

[WingSuit]

Good point.  There are USCG requirements for vessel lighting if you are paddling in an area where there might be boat traffic.  With ambient lighting, moon, stars, city lights or whatever, you might not need a headlight.  But one of those suction cup sea kayak lights might keep you from getting run over by a power boat.  A red blinking bike light or headlamp can be very confusing to boaters, who have to discern between other vessels and shore lighting. 


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[levity]

Here's a short account of a sunset-moonlight paddle we did on the Colorado river in April.

http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=20171.0

Most of the pics were before dark, of course, but visibility on the water with the near full moon was pretty good.
We used reflective gear and marker lights for conspicuity and waterproof headlamps to help find our way.
Had the river to ourselves -- beautiful and serene being out there alone.

[SaMoSUP]

There's a group of us in MDR that paddle every Wed & Fri at 7pm. It was nearly full moon paddle Wed night. It's spooky going in the main channel where it's darkest. When you get to the jetty the payoff is a beautifully lit up coastline from Malibu to SM pier.

Come out and join us. We have all the USCG required gear. And dinner & drinks after.