Moving to Columbia, MD - Looking for info!

[GoBlue!]

Hello, all!

It's been years since I was a regular scubaboard junkie, but an upcoming move has me wanting for info.

My family is moving to Columbia, MD next month and I'd love to start learning the lay of the land regarding nearby diving, dive shops, etc. We spent the last year in Michigan and haven't had time to dive, and prior to that we were landlocked in Nashville, TN for 6 years....

My wife and I are recreational divers, although we loved diving the cenotes in the Yucatan so much (several years ago now), we bought into the long-hose setup when we bought our gear in the hopes of cavern (doubt cave) training in the future. That probably won't happen in Maryland, but I only mention it to illustrate that we are interested in extending our skills and possibly exploring new types of diving with appropriate training.

Feel free to respond publicly or privately, although if you want to provide negative feedback on any dive shops I'd rather you send me a private message.

Thanks for any info!
Jim

 

[jrmiah]

We have a lot of fun wreck diving and spearfishing opportunities in Ocean City, MD.

 

[bikediver]

See www.atlantisrangers.org for good local info. The Rangers are the largest and most active dive club inthe area. Meetings are in Laurel, just off I-95 at Rt 198 not far from Columbia.

 

[fjpatrum]

GoBlue, if you want tech/cavern training, Gary Truslow seemed like a really good guy to me and he was based in Laurel as of this past spring. PCA Research -SCUBA. I have never dived with him but bought some used gear off of him when I took my OW class. He spent about an hour going through gear options and configurations with me as someone he'd never met and was an upright and straightforward guy.

As for diving shops, there is one in the area of Dobbin road in Columbia. I can't remember the exact location and I haven't been in there in about 5 or 6 years, but they had a pretty good selection of equipment at the time and regular trips scheduled that I would suspect will keep them operating even now when a lot of shops are closing.

If you're interested you can also dive the Baltimore Aquarium, which is something on my list just to say I've done it... There are about 20 shops in the Baltimore Washington metro area so doing some research will bring you lots of options from vacation rec diving to full on cave and tech training.

Good luck.

 

[Pearldiver07]

I actually started diving with Columba Scuba (they're the ones on Dobbin Road) when I was stationed in Maryland. I was very happy with them.

www.columbiascuba.com

If you drop in, you'll like the owner Bruce. I also remember Dan with good thoughts.