Diving Spots

[DawgPaddle]

Howdy, I've just finished my first lesson and loved it! Looking forward, I was curious if there are good websites that list diving locales by state. I live in Pennsylvania and wanted to find convenient spots to dive in, not only in PA but the surrounding states as well. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

HI! Welcome to the board! I don't know if there are sites that list dive sites by state but the people around here will have all kinds of ideas about places you can dive.

Here are a couple in Ohio:
Gilboa Quarry near Findlay OH (best in the state IMHO!)
Portage Quarry near Bowling Green OH
White Star Park near Bowling Greeen OH
There's one near Circleville, I think it's called Twin Quarries but I'm not sure
France Lake Park, New Paris OH--near the IN border off of I-70 (good for beginning divers but not much to see)

Hope this helps!
Ber

 

[socaldiver]

Hey Dawgpaddle,

If I were you, I would first go to my local LDS and "pick their brain" on divesites they would recommend for you skill level or ambitions.

If you search the web, go to a search engine (I personally use Mamma.com) and type in PA scubadiving and it should give you an assortment of websites to browse. Another option would be to pick a city and check out what water activities they might have.

Along those same lines, if you pick a city you might want to visit, check out their LDS's and visit their websites. Sometimes they list dive excursions in the neighborhood that could be helpful.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[SpyderTek]

Well teh jersey shore is just over a hour's drive from you and has over 400 charted wrecks to dive and no telling how many more not charted.

http://www.njscuba.com/

I found tobe an ecellent jumping off poin for exploring NJ diving.

SpyderTek

 

[fiddler]

Being as how I am in your neck I'm assuming your certification dives will be at Dutch Springs. They have a lot of neat things to see. Willow Springs is another close Quarry. My buddies and I do dives in the schuykyll in Reading and Phoenixville,will probably do Norristown in the spring. We also dive Havre De Grace and Manasquan. These are what we call bottle dives shallow water minimum visibility but you never know what you will find. Also as previous post said there are many dive boats off Jersey. A good Dive shop is Northeast Scuba Supply in Norristown Pa.(610) 631-2288 They also have two dive boats they run out of Jersey. One in Mystic Islands the other in Pt. Pleasant Lots of luck and enjoy the sport. Don't get caught up in "if it aint deep it aint diving".

Fiddler

 

[DawgPaddle]

Fiddler, Well Alrighty Then, We definitely do live in the same area. In fact, I pass the dive shop you speak of Monday through Friday (I work in Norristown)...Perhaps after my certification, and when I get some experience, we can dive together. I don't want you to feel like you have to babysit. I plan on doing some NJ wreck diving in July. Thanks again for the info and have fun diving. I know I am thus far.

DawgPaddle

:fly:

ps. Ref Dutch Springs...Affirmative

Originally posted by fiddler
Being as how I am in your neck I'm assuming your certification dives will be at Dutch Springs. They have a lot of neat things to see. Willow Springs is another close Quarry. My buddies and I do dives in the schuykyll in Reading and Phoenixville,will probably do Norristown in the spring. We also dive Havre De Grace and Manasquan. These are what we call bottle dives shallow water minimum visibility but you never know what you will find. Also as previous post said there are many dive boats off Jersey. A good Dive shop is Northeast Scuba Supply in Norristown Pa.(610) 631-2288 They also have two dive boats they run out of Jersey. One in Mystic Islands the other in Pt. Pleasant Lots of luck and enjoy the sport. Don't get caught up in "if it aint deep it aint diving".

Fiddler

 

[voodoogas_diver]

You are a mear hop, skip and a jump, from the five greatest and largest freshwater lakes in the world. New wrecks are found every year, before rail moved in the lakes were the highways of trade and commerce and the many storms took their tolls on the strong and weak vessels alike. The nice cold deep water (41 deg @ 220 ft first week of December) preserves wrecks in fabulous condition and the much dreaded zebra mussel has done wonders for the visibility in the lakes by filter feeding. Do yourself a favour its more than worth the drive........

voodoogas_diver