Moving to Durham area this summer, where to live/dive?
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Moving to Durham area this summer, where to live/dive?
I'm moving to the Durham area this summer for emergency medicine residency at Duke. I have lots of questions trying to figure out which end of the city to live on to minimize driving to work and recreation
Whats there for local diving up there?
Any good freshwater sites or is it all driving to the coast? Which ones are the tech friendly charters?
What dive shops are in the area, can any of them boost oxygen or do trimix fills?
Anyone figured out how to move north florida closer to Durham?
edit: and most importantly- any dive sites or charters that are solo friendly
RDU is about 160/170 miles from Morehead City, NC (MHC) and Atlantic Beach - some great diving there. There are a couple of operators I could personally recommend and others I've heard good things about.
James runs a six pack (my personal preference) and typically has several open seatings during the season... you can check him out at Charter Tortuga | tortugacharters.net.
Another operation that I believe has both the larger boats and one six pack boats is Discovery Diving in Beaufort. I've never used them personally but have heard nothing but good things from friends I trust. Discovery Diving Co.- NC's Diving Headquarters - Discovery Diving Co.
Last but not least, again from friends I trust, I've heard WONDERFUL things about Atlantis - but they seem to booked solid every time I try to get on. Again, another six pack. Diving
The graveyard of the Atlantic is fantastic diving - I have fallen in love with caves, but I will never give up my wrecks... they were my first love!
I live in Durham and Morehead City. My Durham house is near SouthPoint mall. It is 12 minutes from Duke, Chapel Hill, RDU and 25 minutes from Raleigh. Great location, with a lot to do near by. Water World is the only shop in Durham, but it is off Miami in east Durham. They have me booked 3 weekends this year, but I think they are doing training inshore. A couple of there instructors are tech divers, so they may be a good place to start. Bull City Divers is their club.
Lake Rawlings is a good quarry and 90 minutes up I-85 and there is a decent quarry in Rolesville about 45 minutes away. I can make it to the boat in Morehead City from my house in 3:15 minutes.
Carolina Dive Center in Raleigh books me at least once a month and you can get a single seat with them. They are a good group of divers.
Feel free to email or give me a call. I will help put you with some like minded divers.
For fills check out Down Under Surf and Scuba in Cary. Tech friendly and they can do any fills you need. Local diving is limited to Fantasy Lake Scuba Park and the PRDA Quarries. And, as an additional charter operator in Morehead City check out Olympus Dive Center. They are tech friendly and can also provide any fills you need Trimix, O2, 50%, whatever. Great operator and you cannot beat the staff.
Other diving options on the coast are Captain JT in Cape Hatteras, Aquatic Safari in Wilmington (about 2 1/2 hours) and Scuba Express in Murrells Inlet just south of Myrtle Beach. The Carolina coast has some amazing diving. Hope you enjoy yourself.
Welcome to the area. We have a very active diving community here. The Down Under shop ( I DM for them) is a full service shop, everything from OW to full tech, air to trimix and we have an active club that meets monthly with outing from May to Oct...actually we have a pool party coming up in April if you would like to get wet and meet some of the locals.. We are maybe 30 to 40 minutes from most of Durham, depending on where you are living.
Also, drop by the NC Divers site (link in my sig). We have an active bunch of divers that dive both locally, at the coast and NFl, many active cave divers.
I may be up there in april/may scouting for a place to live. I guess it looks like I will most likely be going to the coast for wrecks or still driving to north alabama or north florida for cave diving. From what I've been able to find it looks like none of those quarries are over 100' and likely wont satisfy my need for an overhead fix lol.
I'll probably try to find a place to work part time as a DM or do my IDC, depends on what the first year of residency is like. What tech agencies are the "main stream" up there?
What spearing outfits are tech friendly? I've been wanting to do some more deep spearing.
Congrats on your move to Durham and your addition to the medical team at Duke. What a great spot to study medicine as a diver. The Hyperbaric team there is great, I have had the chance to work with them now a couple times as part of DAN studies.
I recently made the choice to move to Durham myself in January from Key Largo and I am loving every minute of it.
I am a local independent Instructor and teach for PADI (Master Instructor / Tec / Rebreather), PSAI (Cave / Tec) and IANTD (Technical). Should you need any assistance with anything during your relocation process please feel free to drop a line.
I make regular trips down to Cave Country (at least once a month for a couple days or more) and could always use some company for the drive down (its about 8 hours).
There is a great collection of Tec Divers and Cave divers in the area. May want to consider joining ncdivers.com and also check out the area Facebook group. Both have a great group of people on them.
Regarding which area to live in my personal suggestion would be the southern side of Durham (hope valley area), its about 10 minutes to Duke from here.
The EM program there is great, but I would be lying if I said the opportunity to work in the hyperbarics facility didn't factor into my decision. I was very happy to receive my first choice for residency.
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