Diving around Edisto Island SC

I'm trying to plan a couple of trips for this summer, and would like to return to Edisto Island for some camping. Last time we were there was many years ago before we started diving. Most of our trips now revolve around diving, so my question is whether there is any diving around Edisto Island that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. We prefer beach diving, but will consider a charter if thats all that is around. I can find scuba shops and charters on Google, but I'm looking for recommendations.

We were in Edisto last year. It is a wonderful place, but to my knowledge there are no charters any closer than Charleston. I also don't think that beach diving would be any good, as the viz right off the beach is awful due to the tidewater rivers nearby.

We did a dive with Charleston Scuba and it was nice, but be prepared for a long boat ride to the dive sites. I hear that the diving off Myrtle Beach can be nice as well, but it is over 2 hours from Edisto.

Let me know if you find any charters that are closer to Edisto, as I love that place and the only thing that would make it better would be good diving close by.

AE

I am interested in this as well. Edisto is known for being a fossil rich beach. I love collecting fossils.

I have heard rumors that someone is doing some fossil shelf diving about an hour off the coast of Edisto. The shore diving would be like diving in soup. I have played about a bit with my mask and fins there and you can't see anything. Great place to surf fish especially near Jeremy Inlet. Park at the state park, get on the beach and head north about about a mile. Fun place for the kids to ride the current in the little stream at low tide on tubes too. Lots of nice shells in that spot too and you can some times find some nice fossils. My Mom found some pottery fragments.

I have lived in the area for 10 years and have dove the area for 15 years. I can share with you what I know.

Edisto beach is known for fossils, BUT where they are hiding is a different story. I found references that fossils were found at Jeremy Inlet (about a mile north of Edisto). So I walked up the beach to Jeremy Inlet and found fishermen and billions of shells. I have never seen so many shells. I snooped around for hours and dug up shells and more shells. The shells were literally in layers. Not "pretty" shells. Just your plain oyster shell type variety. I did not find ANY fossilized material what so ever.

Having been a diver for 15 years one develops a sense of what the underwater profile looks like. My estimate of what one would find diving off the Edisto beach is a bare slowly sloping featureless pure sand bottom. A word of caution, we do have large shrimp boats slowly running the coastline so you would not want to get in their nets.

There are some walk-ins in the Edisto River. Johnny Cercoperly can tell you their locations

I dove a ledge offshore Charleston SC last season and found limestone. Did not take long to see that it was filled with fossils. I dug out a large fossilized scallop. The other divers traversed on past basically because they did not know what they were looking at, or had no interest in fossils. The ledge is named the "Anchor Ledge" and is a dive site visited by "Charleston Scuba". It is on their website on their list of "reefs and ledges"

For offshore Charleston diving I use Charleston Scuba. There is a newer smaller shop in Mt Pleasant but they focus on spearfishing. Not my cup of tea at the moment.

Next stop for offshore diving for me personally would be 1.25 hour drive north to Murrrels Inlet and Express Water Sports. Great boat. Good outfit.

ps: There is an infinite number of very rich potential dive site locations in and around Charleston. I imagine many are overrun with civil war artifacts, early American artifacts, and fossils. Most will be found in the inland waterways. Or I should say most will not be found and will lay hidden forever. Most divers, including myself, stay on the well beaten path. We do have old Spanish and French shipwrecks in the waterways. We do have local divers with underwater metal detectors finding old Spanish and French coins. The materials are there. Its just a matter of searching the unknown and finding it.