Middle TN Diving

[darylm74]

I grew up down in Winchester, TN and used to dive in the quarry in Cowan or Tims Ford Lake, off of my friend's dock. I took a 9 year hiatus after moving to Pittsburgh PA and now am back into diving. Now that I'm used to the cold waters up here, diving dry and such, I was wondering what are some good places to dive in Middle TN so that I can get out of the house while my mom and wife socialize over the holidays. I get a bit tired being couped up in the house. I have heard of Martha's Quarry and went diving at Madison Water Park in Huntsville, AL this past May. Can someone point me to some other dive spots in the area?

Thanks

 

[steelslinger]

It is a little further than Huntsville, but Blue Water in Birmingham is a good dive and decent depth. (about 147’)

 

[mike_s]

I grew up down in Winchester, TN and used to dive in the quarry in Cowan or Tims Ford Lake, off of my friend's dock. I took a 9 year hiatus after moving to Pittsburgh PA and now am back into diving. Now that I'm used to the cold waters up here, diving dry and such, I was wondering what are some good places to dive in Middle TN so that I can get out of the house while my mom and wife socialize over the holidays. I get a bit tired being couped up in the house. I have heard of Martha's Quarry and went diving at Madison Water Park in Huntsville, AL this past May. Can someone point me to some other dive spots in the area?

Thanks

I doubt that Martha's will be open over the Holidays. He is only
open during the spring to fall. I highly suggest you call first
with them. Actually calling for with any of them would be suggested
since most of us here are "warm water wimps"

Check out these websites.

Marthas Quarry near Nashville http://www.marthasquarry.com
Rock Divers near Huntsville http://www.rockdivers.com
Blue Water south of B'Ham http://www.divealabama.com
Glenco Quarry near Gasden http://www.headsouth.com/diveland/
Cerulean Springs, Cadiz KY http://www.divecerulean.com/
Dale Hollow Lake, TN/KY http://www.willowgrove.com/diveshop.html

There used to be a quarry in the Moultan, AL area operated by the scuba store in Tanner AL, but they have gone out of business. SDI Scuba in Huntsville and Florence used to operate a quarry years ago in the Priceville, AL, but it too has closed. If anyone could find out who owns them now, I doubt they removed all the sunk cars, boats, etc in the bottom of the quarries. Would be a good new place to dive.

SDI scuba also does "night dives" on the Tennessee River I think on Tuesday nights.
Now don't get too excited. The Tenn river is like diving in chocolate milk for
the most part. I guess the reason they do it at night is the vis sucks so bad
that you just close your eyes and leave your light off. http://www.sdiscuba.com/tue_night_dives.htm

If you want to drive extra long you can visit Morrison or Vortex Springs in the Florida
pan handle. Of course the Gulf Coast is about that far also.

Hope this helps.

-mike

 

[vodolaz]

Martha's has closed for the season, although Fred may continue his tradition of opening on New Year's Day. Thereafter the quarry is closed until April.

Pennyroyal is around 90 miles from Nashville and is open during the winter. Considering you're in southern TN, that may be a bit too far for you though.

 

[darylm74]

Yeah, Pennyroyal is a bit of a haul from Winchester though I might get desperate. Perhaps heading south into Alabama might be a better option. Too bad I couldn't just hit a hopper down to the ocean for the day....though I know my wife would be a little po'd about that one. I might just see what the vis is like at Tims Ford after they drop the lake, though if I remember correctly it was pretty crappy.

 

[bigDave]

SDI Scuba in Huntsville and Florence used to operate a quarry years ago in the Priceville, AL, but it too has closed. If anyone could find out who owns them now, I doubt they removed all the sunk cars, boats, etc in the bottom of the quarries. Would be a good new place to dive.
-mike

SDI sold their quarry to a road builder. Maybe the builder will enlarge and deepen it, then turn it back into a dive park!

There has been some interest in re-opening old quarries, as it is less hassle than permitting a new one. The one in Glencoe was partially re-leased for rock extraction a couple of years back, on a basis not to interfere with diving. But I don't think there has been any rock extraction there for a while....

BD

 

[mike_s]

SDI sold their quarry to a road builder. Maybe the builder will enlarge and deepen it, then turn it back into a dive park!

There has been some interest in re-opening old quarries, as it is less hassle than permitting a new one. The one in Glencoe was partially re-leased for rock extraction a couple of years back, on a basis not to interfere with diving. But I don't think there has been any rock extraction there for a while....

BD

The quarry in madison was closed years ago and then re-opened when
they built I-565 which is litterally only a few hundred yards away. It
then closed again after the building of that road and it's interchanges
and overpasses, at which time Vulcan Materials gave it to the city of
Madison which now leases it's operation rights to Rock Divers.

I doubt that SDI will re-open their quarry now that Rock Divers is
in operation. It would cost them a great deal of expense to re-open
any quarry, especially providing facilities, insurance, compressors, etc.
for an operation that really only gets crowded the summer months
and only on weekends typically.

Another local shop, which I can't remember their name but their scuba store
was in "Tanner Alabama" had a quarry open out on the other side of Moultan.
It had absolutely no facilities at it. Just a broken down picnic table
and a rusty storage shed. It went under after that store went out
of bussiness but it's "remote" location wasn't going to draw people
to it either. It big sunken items were a old bus and a sailboat
(approx 22-25') with the sail in the "up" position.

There just isn't a big enough market in the North Alabama area for
"lots" of scuba "destinations" or stores. There are already more
stores there than the market allows. Historically we've had several
go under in the past. In Huntsville, Aqua-line merged with Rock Divers.
Scuba-Doo, plus one or two others, have gone out of business. SDI,
Rock Divers, and Dolphin Aquatics still exist. In Decatur, SDI closed
it's store years ago. Two more plus one in Priceville (outside Decatur)
have closed their doors leaving only Dive Sports. Stores in small
towns around here like the one in Tanner and Rogersville closed also,
which isn't surprising based on the extremely small "one stop light"
towns they were in.

As for a new quarry, would I go dive it? Heck yes. But not
any more than I do the other local quarry, which is only a couple
times a year at best.

-mike

 

[darylm74]

That is really sad that there isn't as much of a market there. I was wisked away from TN to PA when I got engaged and I didn't have time to learn much about the diving down there. I just knew about Rock Divers due to doing my refresher there with my original instructor. There are several shops here around Pittsburgh and really, there are not many quarries. No one in their right mind would dive in any of the 3 rivers around here, at least not unless they are commercial. The only place we have here is a place called Strawberry Quarry which drops to 38 feet, though there are some really deep holes that are known. The closest place other than that are the great Lakes (Erie is 2 hours north of here), Gilboa OH which is a 6 hour drive, a couple places down in WV or we head East. There are 2 quarries I go to, Banbridge (9 miles south of 3-mile island...yes the nuclear plant) and then one in Allentown which is only 80 miles south of NYC. We all pretty much dive dry up here. I have a 7mm suit that was used once and then I've gone with the drysuit ever since. The only thing about the quarries here is, you might as well just hit the Atlantic and go bug hunting because you're not that far away by the time you get out that direction.

I figured with the longer summer season that the diving would be more widespread. I know I miss the long summer season down there and if I ever move back down there I will have to find a year round diving spot because I will be doing ice diving in February here he he...

 

[mike_s]

[snip]The only place we have here is a place called Strawberry Quarry which drops to 38 feet, though there are some really deep holes that are known. ...

The Madison Quarry (Rock Divers) used to be about 55 feet deep at it's deepest spot with a normal depth of 45 to 50. Rock Divers and the City of Madison started pumping it down a few years ago so that the large area in the rear of the quarry could be used as a parking area and put in an entry dock. So the quarry is not about 5 to 10 feet shallow on average now. I can't seen any disadvantage to it really. Advantage is that you are now a little shallower and get more out of a tank of air.

We all pretty much dive dry up here. I have a 7mm suit that was used once and then I've gone with the drysuit ever since. The only thing about the quarries here is, you might as well just hit the Atlantic and go bug hunting because you're not that far away by the time you get out that direction....

We are kinds lucky there with that. We've got what I consider to be a "warm" quarry. In the summertime you really don't need much of a wetsuit in the Madison quarry. In the warm months of summer people dive it in a 3mm or a 3mm shortie. It's large north wall catches the southern sun and helps warm the quarry. In the warmer months you have 80-85f surface temp and a bottom temp of 70f or higher. Right now one of the people at work told me they have a water temp of 70 to 72 on bottom and surface this weekend. Pretty good for the end of October. Of course air temps here the past few weeks have been getting in the high 70's during the day.

During the earlier months (april, may) I dive it in a 5mm top and usually wear a dive skin under it to keep water from coming in around the legs. If I dive a 5mm top there in august then you'll get really hot if you go above the thermocline.

There are a few other quarries around here that are much colder. BlueWater in Birmingham and other quarries you'll need more wetsuit to dive it.

I figured with the longer summer season that the diving would be more widespread. I know I miss the long summer season down there and if I ever move back down there I will have to find a year round diving spot because I will be doing ice diving in February here he he...

Several of the quarries are open year round. Rock Divers (Madison) is. I know that Marthas (Nashville area) closes for the winter. You do have a dedicated group here that goes out during the wintertime, but most of us are "warm water wimps".

The season is extended here, but there just aren't as many "die hard" divers here, especially once football season starts. We were talking about going yesterday to the quarry, but it was supposed to rain all day, so we wimped out. Turned out only to sprinkle and would have been a nice day to go. But I did manage to run by the dive shop and pick up a new pair of thin Henderson gloves for my upcoming deep sea fishing trip (to keep my hands warm on the boat).

You also have a bunch of people here who dive, but never go to the local quarry but will go on a vacation once per year somewhere else where they will dive while there.

Of coure panama City is only a 5 or 6 hour drive from here, so lots of people will just assume go there for the weekend since you can do a trip like that from here over a weekend or long weekend.

-mike

 

[TheRedHead]

I figured with the longer summer season that the diving would be more widespread. I know I miss the long summer season down there and if I ever move back down there I will have to find a year round diving spot because I will be doing ice diving in February here he he...

I live in SW TN and the diving opportunities here are even fewer with Rockdivers and Heber Springs being about the same distance (I would rather go to Alabama). It is a shame that there are few diving spots in this area.

I was desperate enough to try diving some of the oxbow lakes in Mississippi. Don't even think about it - there is so much fishing line, broken bottles, rusted cans, and crap down there I will think twice about going swimming in Arkabutla again. Gave me the creeps ...

I was going to write a dive report but I got too busy at work. Forget diving in Mississippi. My good friend has become a travel agents which has opened up some new possibilites.