Is Puget Sound the best diving in USA?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

The last issue of Scuba Diver magazine referred to Puget Sound (Washington) as possibly the best diving in USA. While I understand that cold water diving there is very good but Florida has caves, California has kelp forests, North Carolina has sharks, and great lakes have the best preserved wrecks anywhere. Plus there is also Hawaii so I was wondering ... can any of the local dive businesses pay these magazines to make their region "THE BEST" or was there really an element of editorial objectivity in calling Puget Sound the best?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Scuba Diving Magazine = show me the $$$ ... after all, it is a for-profit magazine and lives on ad revenue.

I have no doubt Puget Sound diving is awesome. I look forward to diving there some day. But so is California (Monterey, Channel Islands, etc), Florida Keys, SE Florida, Flower Gardens, North Carolina, Great Lakes wrecks, etc, etc. There are many great diving locations in the US and calling any one location the "Best" can't be anything more than one person's opinion, or in this case, what locations best serve the interest of the magazine growing it's ad revenue.

 

[BoltSnap]

Cathedral Rocks in Rockport, MA, is the best!!!!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think different regions offer different experiences and views, and so it really is hard to say which is the best in the continental US. (I would put Hawaii on top, but that's just me). My wife is not a cold water person, so the likes the Keys the best. I love the kelp forests and the diving off the Channel Islands, but have not had the joy of Puget Sound yet. I think there are a lot of "bests" including all places mentioned in this thread. BTW, no one paid me to say that. And I am not affected by allegiance to my local dive sites. While we dive here, no site in Colorado can by any stretch of the imagination make the top 5000. Probably not the top 10000.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Scott L]

Any waters which translates into significant shrinkage would not be at the top of my list.

Let's have a video clip contest of the best diving areas in the USA. I am picking Jupiter, FL...

 

[spectrum]

You certainly need to qualify the term best. Puget sound is surely know for some special diving but if ones goal is warm water caves then there's not too much bling there.

Eastport Maine is regarded as the best on the eastern seaboard. However not everyone wants to deal with diving only slack tide in cold water with unpredictable visibility.

Florida Caves caverns and such...... Nifty geology and mild water. Not a lot of life to enjoy in them holes.

I always get irked when I see "best" used this way. I'd much rather see a diverse selection of premiere sites.

Pete

 

[g1138]

Carmel, CA

We have a canyon!

 

[iluvtheocean]

Didn't Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach make their list as well?

 

[TMHeimer]

It was a silly statement. I'm a cold water diver at home and know that a number of SB veterans love their area out there, but let's face it, it's the NORTH. The further South you go the more interesting it gets, PERIOD--- IMHO! No contest. Reefs, coral, more varied and colourful fish and of course, BETTER SHELLS. Don't get me wrong, diving is good anywhere, even in Nova Scotia, but come on! And that doesn't include diving in a shorty or less! What a nice change THAT is.

 

[Darnold9999]

The further South you go the more interesting it gets, PERIOD--- IMHO! No contest. Reefs, coral, more varied and colourful fish and of course, BETTER SHELLS.

Have to take issue with this. Having dived Browning Pass (North of Puget Sound), Caribbean diving leaves something to be desired re interesting. More varied and colourful life in those waters than any Caribbean destination that I have been to.

However there is a LOT to be said for diving in 100 foot vis and a 1/2 shortie over a drysuit