Diving near Manassas, VA

[ScubaSteve85]

Looking at you @stuartv! I'll be heading down to Manassas for two weeks in late August for work. I've been laid up all summer, unable to dive following surgery, so I want to take advantage of the warm weather while we have it and get some diving in! Anybody have recommendations for shops, sites, buddies in the Manassas/DC area?

Did a little bit of research and found Lake Millbrook nearby, which seems like it could be a good option. Virginia Scuba is super close to where I'll be staying and is an SSI shop, so I may try to take a class or two through them and make some progress on my Advanced cert. Any other recommendations?

 

[tursiops]

Lake Phoenix, south of Richmond, is better viz and more pleasant than Millbrook.

 

[ScubaSteve85]

Lake Phoenix, south of Richmond, is better viz and more pleasant than Millbrook.

Looks pretty nice. It's a bit far from Manassas for a quarry, but Ill definitely look into it some more.

 

[AustinV]

Millbrook is run by Coral Edge Adventures, a primarily SDI shop if you have a preference for training. Great shop with great people. Have done OW and Advanced Buoyancy with them. Most of the locals that I have spoken with seem to prefer Phoenix or Dutch Springs by far over Millbrook, however in my opinion Millbrook is a great option when in this area if you want a dive site within a short drive.

 

[tursiops]

Millbrook is run by Coral Edge Adventures, a primarily SDI shop if you have a preference for training. Great shop with great people. Have done OW and Advanced Buoyancy with them. Most of the locals that I have spoken with seem to prefer Phoenix or Dutch Springs by far over Millbrook, however in my opinion Millbrook is a great option when in this area if you want a dive site within a short drive.

Great? No, just tolerable. It is the ONLY site within a short drive. Nothing really else to recommend it.

 

[ScubaSteve85]

Hey, for somebody used to driving 2 hours to dutch springs, having a quarry 15 minutes away sounds pretty great to me. Lol.

 

[stuartv]

I confirmed with one of the owners at Coral Edge Adventures. Both of the owners and at least 1 or 2 other instructors at CEA are certified as SSI instructors. Their website doesn't say so, despite them having done the SSI crossover a pretty good while back, I think. They do teach SDI as their default for OW. But, if you want an SSI cert, all you have to do is call them and arrange what you want.

The folks at CEA are great. So are the folks at Virginia Scuba. I would not hesitate to recommend either shop to anyone. I can be found hanging at either place on a fairly regular basis. CEA does do their OW training at Millbrook. VAS does theirs at Lake Phoenix.

Full disclosure: I am a staff Divemaster for Coral Edge. That is a relatively new thing for me. Thus, not knowing for sure about SSI until I confirmed it with the boss.

 

[AustinV]

Great? No, just tolerable. It is the ONLY site within a short drive. Nothing really else to recommend it.

"Great" as in it may work the OP as a dive site that will be local to him (<15 min or so) while he is in the area and would work for the training dives he was considering.

Definitely not "Great" as in one of the more memorable dive sites of his life.

 

[ScubaSteve85]

"Great" as in it may work the OP as a dive site that will be local to him (<15 min or so) while he is in the area and would work for the training dives he was considering.

Definitely not "Great" as in one of the more memorable dive sites of his life.

Exactly. Pretty much hit the nail on the head of what I'm looking for.

Maybe next time I'm down I'll plan a trip out to one of the local wrecks. I hear you guys have a sub (or at least a conning tower sticking out of the much) in the Potomic.