wreck diving newbie

[Ironcat]

I live in SE Florida and we have a LOT of wrecks off our coast, I plan on seeing as many as I can and heck, some of those are even in the <60' range I am currently certified for. What is the appeal of the deeper wrecks? Is it just the challenge or so you can say "I dove the so-and-so." or is there something else? I see my dive time decreasing when I go deeper and I understand there are gas mixes to increase this time but even so at a certain point doesn't it just become okay everybody dive-there it is- surface?
The reson for this question is that some of my friends recently dove the deeper parts of the spiegel grove and said their bottom time was like 10 minutes. What's the use?

 

[bikefox]

Deeper wrecks usually stay in better condition longer. The vis. can be better farther from shore in the Gulf Stream. Bigger animals can be found on deeper wrecks. Of course there are exceptions to this, but just a few reasons.

 

[dfester]

The holy grail of scuba questions... why dive deeper? or in this case deeper wrecks... here in the Great Lakes area, many of the deeper wrecks are better preserved. Shallower wrecks, especially wood, tends to be broken up faster. That's one of the cool parts about diving wrecks in fresh water, the wood survives

Also remember that wreck diving is also about the history, and being safely able to experience a wreck that you have studied even if it is deeper, for a short time, can be a real thrill. I wish all awesome wreck were shallow, but some just aren't.

 

[TotallyNarced]

Deeper is a relative term. If you are used to 60' foot dives then 100' would be a deep dive. If you continue to dive, then 100' will become shallow.To stay at any amount of time past 130' you will need decompression.To stay level headed on deeper dives you will need helium in the mix. Once you've mastered decompression principles in advanced nitrox and taken trimix instruction, 200' and 300' will seem almost "easy". The trick with all this is to never take it lightly. I too live in SE Florida and have seen most of all the wrecks including the deep ones @ 290- 300 fsw off of Pompono.They obviously are trimix dives but are really no more fun than the shallow ones except that maybe they challenge your diving skills a bit. Although they all have their own character. When you swim down to the wreck (Robert B. Johnson) that sits literally across the top of the wreck (Chris and Corey) like a big X made out of 200' long ships at 260 fsw, you know why you came there. There are really great dives at various depths. As time goes on, I think divers progressively want to go a little further down to see what they can. I assume that as you dive out the 60' wrecks, you'll progressively go deeper. Just don't forget the training needed to do the deeper stuff, as shear will alone is not enough.