Hi. New to VA

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MegaWatt731

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Location
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What are some good dive spots? I live in Leesburg and I'd rather stay away from or go around the district if at all possible. I dove Millbrook Quarry this past weekend. It was ok, I guess, but visibility wasn't that great. Are there any other suggestions?
 
Next closest is Lake Rawlings - better clarity, more stuff, dive shop on premises, open 7 days/week. Google Lake Rawlings SCUBA.
 
Thanks! I'll have to check it out.
 
Depending on your location, inland v. coast, there's a lot of diving off of Virginia Beach thru Dive Quaters or Lynnhaven DC, not too deep but gets cold so a semi dry helps. Also, great wrecks off of Hatteras, NC........Johnny Peony or JT Barker run great boats out of Teaches. Just my .02.
 
Awesome! Thanks! VA BCH isn't too far...about 4hrs, but that's not bad. And I love wreck dives, so Hatteras would be well worth checking out. Thanks so much for your input! I appreciate it!
 
Ted Green runs the OC Diver out of Ocean City MD.

OC Diver

Gerry McDonald runs the "To Dive For" out of Indian River Inlet (between Ocean City and DeweyBeach)

To Dive For

In addition to the Virginia Beach, Nags Head and Hatteras options, there are several boats that operate out of Moorehead City NC - about 6 hours away

In terms of quarry diving, there is dutch springs about 3-3.5 hours away.

Dutch Springs

Bainbridge is also an option:

Bainbridge
 
Also, for freshwater local diving there is Mt. Storm WV. It is about 2-3 hours from you. Vis isn't great but the water is 80 right now. I live in Winchester and work in Leesburg, so if you ever want to hook up let me know. In fact my wife and I are going up there this weekend, we are camping. If you want to dive let me know.
 
That's awesome! Thanks to everyone! I've definitely got some researching to do!
 
There are several local quarries. Lake Millbrook is the closest and you have experienced the visibilty there. Lake Rawlings is the warmest and Dutch Springs is the nicest. There are a couple of other ones like Bainbridge and Guppy Gulch, but they really aren't worth the extra drive from your location.

There is pretty good ocean diving within 3 to 4 hours from our area - Ocean City, MD or VA Beach and just a little farther north gets you to New Jersey diving. I have done both OC and VA Beach as day trips from Rockville, MD. This is not warm water diving and a good day has about 40ft of vis - 15-20ft would be more average. But it sure beats quarry diving. There are lots of good wrecks right off our shores. If you like low vis diving, there is also the U-1105 - MD's very own shipwreck preserve, although it is an advanced dive and you'll want to be comfortable in no-vis diving before you try it. There is no need to go too far for ocean diving if you can take water temps in the mid to high 50s - which is warmer than most of the local quarries at depth anyway.

The shop with which I am affiliated does monthly trips to NC which has fabulous diving, but you need to be AOW to go on those trips with us as we stick to the offshore wrecks if conditions permit. That is almost always high vis warm water diving.

Anyway, as you can see, there are lots of diving opportunities in the area - there is a volunteer diving program at the National Aquarium in Baltimoreand two local underwater archaeology groups, the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society and The Institute for Maritime History.
Hope to see you in the water,

Jackie
 
OMG, this is all so awesome. Thank you all!
 
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