I Certified in 1985, did some diving in 1984 in a quarry in Virginia prior to certification. Moved down to NC in 1990, been diving offshore here ever since. I'm an extended range diver, and also Full Cave through NACD. Cave diving is a winter time pastime, my main love is shipwrecks, shipwreck history, and sharks. I have a Silent Submersion UV-18, and my GoPro mounted to it. I dive a 3 mm that is more like a 1 mm because it needs to be replaced. I do own a drysuit, but I dread donning it. Cold water is not my thing...I'll do it to get my fix, but I'd rather be out front where the water is blue and warm. I would rate my experience as "extensive" as far as diving goes, including mating and leading dives for 2 outfits. Most of my diving has been in the Carolinas, because I have been utterly bored to death with everything else I have tried. That being said....I haven't been to Truk or the Galapagos, and while those are on my bucket list, I have more pressing bucket list dives awaiting me here in NC....namely the USS Monitor and the EM Clark....both are trimix dives that I'm currently working up to. I'd love to try some west coast diving, one of my buddies is actually diving in Alaska, and has some pretty cool stories from up there. There are just so many targets for me here in NC, including reefs/ledge systems that have never seen diving pressure, that I'd prefer my diving dollars be spent out front. I'd eventually like to dive in the Great Lakes. I just think that it was a bit premature to warn the OP off from diving in SC and send them golfing. Yeah, I know we're talking about South Carolina. As the crow flies, Wilmington...where I live and dive....is about 40 miles north of Myrtle Beach. We share many of the same wrecks and waters when diving on the shoals and south of the shoals. The dive sites in Myrtle Beach...happen to be frequented out of NC as well. I guess Wilmington is still off most diver's radars, which is fine by me for selfish reasons, but we are very close to the border of SC, closer if you could drive over water.
I've made some trips to the Keys...a lot, every year for bug season. Bored of that, lots of coral....lots of coral. Saw a shark once in the Keys on all those trips, was dissapointed at how small the gamefish and lobster were. Particularly absent were grouper, giant grouper (I'm being politically correct), and the Hogs were really small. My brother worked for Cruz Bay Watersports and then on the Fool's Gold in USVI. Went diving all over down there with Mike on the Fool's Gold and private boats, including BVI...and the Rhone. The RMS Rhone was the only thing down there I enjoyed thoroughly. So, I guess you can say I like wrecks. Yep, that is a wreck in my initial post on this thread. Picture frozen from video, actually its the Hyde. Its only 14 miles offshore, about a 50 minute boat ride, and the bottom is 75 feet deep. The wreck is usually bathed in blue waters with Sandtiger sharks. The sand beyond it? A ledge system about 30 miles long, which contains grouper, tropical fish, lionfish, and meg teeth.
The Hebe and the St. Cathan are world class dives off Myrtle Beach, and can also be reached from near my home in Southport because they both lie off the south side of Frying Pan Shoals...which is my namesake FPSN. We dove them in 2008, and here is a video link from the St. Cathan SC dive..
[video=youtube;V8jFkoEXRPw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8jFkoEXRPw&list=FLxu1VDFnTKIDYgpumg-Xc1A&index=29&feature=plpp_video[/video]
That is me at 8:06, and my partner in crime behind me. As you can see, the visibility in the video is a bit different than your experience.
The visibility here can be fickle in the Carolinas at times, and I'll honestly admit that. Much depends on storms (especially hurricanes and tropical systems), tides, winds, and rain. Usually though, in the summer months and fall, the visibility is consistently golden beyond the tideline. Worst case scenario is usually 30 feet horizontal vis, best case is clear as glass and warm as a bath. Last weekend, I stood on the bottom on the stern of the Shipwreck Naeco off Morehead City, NC. It rests in 140fsw. You could see the dive boat on the surface. Video proof from my GoPro cam at 12:58:
[video=youtube;i4LzVkjeTM4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4LzVkjeTM4&list=FLxu1VDFnTKIDYgpumg-Xc1A&index=1&feature=plpp_video[/video]
Still working on the vids from the weekend before last, but here is an over-view of some of the Carolina Diving, and yes this was on shipwrecks, but the Sandies...check out the sandies. They were prolific:
[video=youtube;jTOoh5nFLEE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTOoh5nFLEE&feature=relmfu[/video]
I'll work on more of the vids from the epic trips in the Carolinas for this summer when it all slows down. I'll be on the Rosin Wreck at the tip of Frying Pan Shoals this Saturday...and they can run that one out of Myrtle Beach as well. That last video composite gives you a God's honest truth about diving in the Carolinas, this is exactly what you're going to get. The video above this paragraph was from 4 dives on back to back days 7/14 and 7/15/2012. The vis varied from cloudy 30 to crazy clear, and it depended on where you were, how close to river mouths, shoals, etc. I don't take much footage on ledges, because I'm usually hunting lobster or meg teeth when ledge diving, but I'll try and fix that this year. I do have some ledge footage from former NOAA CMAN manned weather station Frying Pan Tower FPSN7. Now the larger coral-laden ledges lie further away from the tower proper, but this dive was mostly right around the tower. (my apologies for the soundtrack...this video was shot in around 2002 or so) Here:
[video=youtube;rcfxzjXxmrc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfxzjXxmrc&list=UUxu1VDFnTKIDYgpumg-Xc1A&index=10&feature=plcp[/video]
Leslie, I am partial to diving in Wilmington as opposed to Morehead, but only because at home, there is no shipwreck unknown to me out front. That being said, I see no need for the OP to drive up to Wilmington to go diving. Nor do I see a need to send the OP golfing........this isn't golfoboard...its scubaboard. There is plenty of great diving off SC. I do think we have some closer sites than Morehead, especially the Hyde/Markham that are in clearer waters than the Indra. The H/M also usually house prolific populations of Sandtiger sharks. Basically, I love Carolina Diving, so much so that is the main reason I chose to begin my career here after college.
So long as I make enough money to dive, I'm a happy camper. When I retire, I'll manage to pull in all the exotics, but for now, I am content to dive out front every weekend the weather will allow me to, and weekdays too. I'm under no illusions that this diving is for everyone, but I'm also convinced that many people have no idea what we have here, and I'm proud to showcase it for those inquiring.