Myrtle Beach S.C. Diving

[Bison]

This past end of June/early July we had a chance to visit Myrtle Beach S.C. as a family. While everyone had a nice time my wife kept the Clan busy on the beach, which allowed me get in some dives and explore the coast of South Carolina. Coastal Scuba Diving outfit I dove with would emphasize " Conditions change quickly here" and " this is not N.C. with gulf stream or Florida for that matter ". I learned quickly why they would emphasize this over the phone, in person at the shop and as I loaded onto their dive boat. Conditions did change during this dive outing with visibility dropping and half of the divers opting not to go in for the second dive. Little did I know these conditions were the best compared to the conditions on the next dive outing I had with my brother-in-law later in the week. In the end I still had the excitement of exploring a wreck I haven't seen before and lets face it...any day diving is better than not diving. I explored the Armored Personnel carrier on my second dive on the Charleston Tug wreck which was off the tugs bow.

 

[TMHeimer]

I did a couple of charters with them a few years ago--to the General Sherman wreck. Pretty good. As well, one of the instructors aboard (Russell Fleming) offered to help me work on my skills for the DM course at a local pool there. It helped to speed up my certification once I was back home, so all in all a very good experience with Coastal.

 

[Bison]

I did a couple of charters with them a few years ago--to the General Sherman wreck. Pretty good. As well, one of the instructors aboard (Russell Fleming) offered to help me work on my skills for the DM course at a local pool there. It helped to speed up my certification once I was back home, so all in all a very good experience with Coastal.

I wasn't familiar with Coastal Scuba at first but I have say they were knowledable,well organized, professional and ran a well maintained dive boat. I would have no problem diving with them again. The General Sherman will be on my list to dive the next time I make it down there.

 

[GreggS]

When did you take this video? My wife and I dove the Charleston Tug on July 3rd and visibility was awful. At the top deck of the tug, vis was about 5-7 feet. As soon as we dropped below that, it dropped to about 2 feet, including at the APCs. I had to be right down on the rope leading to them from the bow of the tug to see it. The vis in your video is world's better than what we had. It looks more like it was when I dove the site 2 years ago.

Nice video, BTW.

 

[Bison]

When did you take this video? My wife and I dove the Charleston Tug on July 3rd and visibility was awful. At the top deck of the tug, vis was about 5-7 feet. As soon as we dropped below that, it dropped to about 2 feet, including at the APCs. I had to be right down on the rope leading to them from the bow of the tug to see it. The vis in your video is world's better than what we had. It looks more like it was when I dove the site 2 years ago.

Nice video, BTW.

Thanks! I dove the The Charleston Tug during the last days of June.The vis on the Tug was 15-20' with vis dropping, slightly, down by the screw and the APC. Later in the week my brother-in-law came down with his family and I had moved my second day of diving to the same days you and your wife were diving. We dove the Barracuda Ally and the vis was 10 feet on the first dive with expectations of vis improving. This was not the case since vis dropped during the second dive to ~ 2 feet. Conditions degraded to point that you couldn't make out the APC at that site. The second dive was a short one since my brother-in-law is relatively new to this sport and the Captain told me it was good call to be cautious rather than be a statistic. Oh boy (sigh). The previous year the Captain said he could see the wreck from surface, but this was not the case since the Atlantic can be finicky and it was on these early days in July.

 

[Ioncloud9]

Glad to hear other people are having a good experience with them as well. I'm halfway through my OW certification with them and doing the rest of my OW dives with them very soon.

 

[GreggS]

Glad to hear other people are having a good experience with them as well. I'm halfway through my OW certification with them and doing the rest of my OW dives with them very soon.

Yeah, they're good people and run a nice operation. I've dived with them each of the past 4 summers and had a good experience each time.