Where do you live and dive? What kind of diving?

[Peter69_56]

I live in Michigan and love diving the Great Lakes. I also dive inland lakes and nearby quarries. The viz really varies - the Great Lakes can have viz as low as 30-40ft or as much as 100ft+ depending on the lake, weather, etc. The diving around here can be pretty cool (~40 degrees F at about 100ft two weeks ago), however I consistantly dive a 5mm wetsuit with 3mm hooded vest. As for equipment, I don't have anything special, wouldn't mind a dry suit though. Just my opinion, but if you want to dive wrecks then you need to try the Great Lakes.

What sort of depths are in the great lakes?

 

[mat4ov]

What sort of depths are in the great lakes?

The deepest points are as follows:

Superior - 1,335 ft
Michigan - 925 ft
Huron - 748 ft
Erie - 210 ft
Ontario - 804 ft

With that said, you can find wrecks as shallow as 10 ft and as deep as a few hundred.

 

[TSandM]

I live outside of Seattle. I have half a dozen reasonable shore diving sites within a thirty minute drive of my house (if there's no traffic -- it can be more like 90 minutes at the wrong time of day!). It's cold water diving and requires heavy exposure protection and a lot of lead, and you have to be comfortable with limited visibility, but it's worth it.

I have dived off Australia, Indonesia, the South Pacific, Cozumel, the west coast of Florida, and the Hawaiian Islands. It's my opinion that the best diving in the world is up and down the west coast of North America. From the California kelp forests with the Garibaldi, to the massive, hydrocoral-covered pinnacles of Monterey, to the sheltered waters of Puget Sound and the color-drenched walls of British Columbia, the diving in the eastern Pacific is fantastic.

 

[tracydr]

I live basically in downtown Seattle (Capitol Hill) and mostly dive locally. I can be at Cove 2 (our local "mud hole") in about 15 minutes drive if there's no traffic or to a variety of other shore diving sites (no need to charter a boat) within an hour. It is cold water diving (42F-51F depending on the season) which means you do need a drysuit (thick wetsuits are an option but few serious local divers use them). It's also green water without amazing visibility but we do have an abundance of life (including our star attraction the Giant Pacific Octopus among other life) and rarely do conditions get so bad that you can't dive anywhere. There aren't many other places in this country with such abundant shore diving so close to such a large city/metropolitan area.

I dove Puget Sound my first year of diving, when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis. We usually dove around Octopus hole and areas close to there, which I absolutely loved. Occasionally we dove the Seattle and Tacoma are but the visibility wasn't nearly as good.
I would love to go back up there, even live there again. My husband is starting to look for a new job now that he's almost done with his PhD. I'm pushing for the NW.

 

[Panama Jones]

I've been diving for only three years. My first 20 dives were warm and took nearly the first two of those years . Once I discovered cold and dark, the possibilities for diving became suddenly endless. And the question of where to dive no longer mattered.

BTW, In my opinion only, the post dive(s) socialization is always more exciting with the cold water divers. The Carribean dives all seem to involve getting off the charter and back to your hotel room. And post dive beers is a good part of the fun.

 

[Onewolf]

I live and dive in Florida. Orlando is 3 hours from west palm or if I want to do a local dive I have many springs to choose from, if I want to soil myself I'll do a 5 hour trip to the keys. It really doesn't get better than this!

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I _assume_ you meant "spoil"

I live just north of Orlando. Most of my diving is done between Pompano Beach and Palm Beach and occasionally down to the Keys. We usually also do an annual liveaboard or dive resort for a week.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Hawaii diving is good but not unique as far as being a good place to dive. The world is a big place. You could pick a different Caribbean island every year and have great diving without visiting the same place again for many years. I learned to dive in San Diego but did not dive locally because the water is too cold for my liking. I moved to landlocked Atlanta a dozen years ago and do not dive in the relatively cold lakes or quarries of this region. A couple of times a year I will fly to the Florida Keys to dive for a long weekend, as it only takes about half a day to get there. Once every year or two I will fly to a Caribbean destination or Asia and spend a week diving. Diving is an expensive hobby and even more expensive if you have to fly to dive. I spend thousands of dollars every year on dive travel. I would love to live in a region where I could drive my car in an afternoon to great dive sites, but like most of us, I live where I must live because of my chosen career.

 

[Diver Beth]

I live in the middle of MO. I have less than 20 dives & they've all been in quarries. Mermet Springs in southern IL, Dive Alabama in Pelham, AL, & soon will be going with my husband to do his OW check outs at his DI's quarries south of Jefferson City, MO. My husband & I are going to Gulf Shores in September & plan to dive there. As long as my husband falls in love with diving like I have, we'll be planning a lot of dive trips!

 

[TomZ]

Where do you live: Central Ohio. and dive? Ohio, Caribbean
Is it close to your house? Favorite Quarry is Gilboa, 2 hours away.
Anything special required to dive there? Depends on depth (thermoclines) and time of year. Ranges from 3MM wetsuit to drysuit. Temps right now are high 60's to low 70's above 15'-20', mid to upper 40's where the springs flow into the quarry.
What kind of diving is it? Recreational/Technical. Max depth at Gilboa is 130', however due to water temps (reg freeze-ups), equipment redundancy is prudent (doubles with two sets of regs, or bailout bottle).

 

[USFpsychDiver]

I spend half my time in Tucson, where the diving is not so good. Lake Pleasant, a murky reservoir, is a couple of hours to the north, San Carlos MX is 4 - 5 hours to the south and there's decent diving there (my favorite by far is diving with the sea lions), and San Diego is 6 hours to the west and there's wrecks and shore dives out there.

The other half of my time is in Tampa, and there there's an embarrassment of riches. The gulf is an hour to the west for some wrecks or manmade reefs -- conditions vary widely but usually only modest vis; Jupiter and West Palm beaches are 3 hours to the east for drift dives along the deep ledges, the keys are 6 hours to the south for reefs and wrecks, and the freshwater springs are two hours to the north for cave diving.