North Carolina beginning technical diver

[damayn83]

Hello all. I am a new member to Scuba Board and current resident in North Carolina. I am a beginner technical diver with advanced nitrox and decompression procedures certifications. Are there any wrecks or areas to practice decompression diving that Scuba Board community would recommend? I am comfortable in depths ranging 120 to 160' on deep nitrox. Thank you in advance.

 

[Bjparris1990]

Where are you located in nc? Not a tech diver but I know a lot of the people around here go to Mystery lake in Wendell as it is a bit deeper than Fantasy lake. It is also not as crowded.

 

[GreggS]

Look into joining NC PDRA. Piedmont Diving and Rescue Association It owns 3 quarries in the Piedmont area and since you're in Greensboro, one of them is just outside of Yanceyville (JMR quarry) and would be reasonably convenient to you. It is small as far as surface area goes but is around 90+ feet deep. Last time I was there last year I was pushing going into deco. I'm not a tec dier so avoid deco.

Another quarry PDRA owns is at Lake Norman just outside of Mooresville. It's a bit larger than JMR bu is maybe a little deeper. Unfortunately, it has been closed for a couple of years as they are trying to eradicate a zebra mussel infestation. Currently, there is no planned reopening date.

The third one is American Quarry just south of Salisbury. It is small and rather shallow at around 45 feet deep overall with the exception of "the Pit" which drops down to 65 feet. Since I live in Thomasville, this is the closest to me and is thone I go to the most.

You can join by going on-line and filling out an application form and paying a membership fee. There is a small application fee to pay but you only pay that once just as long as you don't let your membership lapse. You'll then receive your membership card(s) and gate key(s) which gives you 24/7/365 access to all 3 quarries ( except, of course, the Lake Norman quarry at this time.

Another local quarry is Blue Stone Dive Resort just outside of Thomasville. It has a rather large surface area with a depth of around 50 feet but does drop down to around 90 feet in one area. Blue Stone is a privately owned quarry and does required an entrance fee each time you go. It is, however, a full service facility with air and nitrox fills, gear rentals, gear service, etc.

Other than Mystery Lake @Bjparris1990 mentioned, these are pretty much going to be your only options short of going to the coast to do some wreck dives, of which NC has an abundance. But that can get rather spendy, especially to get to the deeper wrecks. But there are some great wrecks to dive off the NC coast.

 

[damayn83]

Where are you located in nc? Not a tech diver but I know a lot of the people around here go to Mystery lake in Wendell as it is a bit deeper than Fantasy lake. It is also not as crowded.

I am in Greensboro and have experienced the Mystery of Mystery Lake. I hear it is a good place to dive in winter since the sediment settles out and visibility improves greatly.

 

[damayn83]

Look into joining NC PDRA. Piedmont Diving and Rescue Association It owns 3 quarries in the Piedmont area and since you're in Greensboro, one of them is just outside of Yanceyville (JMR quarry) and would be reasonably convenient to you. It is small as far as surface area goes but is around 90+ feet deep. Last time I was there last year I was pushing going into deco. I'm not a tec dier so avoid deco.

Another quarry PDRA owns is at Lake Norman just outside of Mooresville. It's a bit larger than JMR bu is maybe a little deeper. Unfortunately, it has been closed for a couple of years as they are trying to eradicate a zebra mussel infestation. Currently, there is no planned reopening date.

The third one is American Quarry just south of Salisbury. It is small and rather shallow at around 45 feet deep overall with the exception of "the Pit" which drops down to 65 feet. Since I live in Thomasville, this is the closest to me and is thone I go to the most.

You can join by going on-line and filling out an application form and paying a membership fee. There is a small application fee to pay but you only pay that once just as long as you don't let your membership lapse. You'll then receive your membership card(s) and gate key(s) which gives you 24/7/365 access to all 3 quarries ( except, of course, the Lake Norman quarry at this time.

Another local quarry is Blue Stone Dive Resort just outside of Thomasville. It has a rather large surface area with a depth of around 50 feet but does drop down to around 90 feet in one area. Blue Stone is a privately owned quarry and does required an entrance fee each time you go. It is, however, a full service facility with air and nitrox fills, gear rentals, gear service, etc.

Other than Mystery Lake @Bjparris1990 mentioned, these are pretty much going to be your only options short of going to the coast to do some wreck dives, of which NC has an abundance. But that can get rather spendy, especially to get to the deeper wrecks. But there are some great wrecks to dive off the NC coast.

Thank you @GreggS. I dive JMR frequently to keep my skills up and practice with new equipment. I have only dove with Olympus Diving in Morehead City but hear Atlantis Charters is also a great operator. What are your thoughts?

 

[macado]

Morehead City / Atlantic Beach area is your answer. There is a reason they call it the graveyard of the Atlantic.

The offshore wrecks can be awesome if you are in the gulfstream. I always say that when the conditions in North Carolina are good it is some of the best wreck diving in the United States. When it's bad, welll, it's like diving in New England with lovely 10-25ft of visibility. I'm not a fan of the in-shore stuff but I've actually had some really good conditions on wrecks like the Indra before. I've also has braille-like conditions on that wreck.

The trouble is the two main operators in that area, Olympus and Discover is that they basically run recreational cattleboats. You can get away with "lite" deco usually they try to limit your runtimes. It be honest it has been a few years since I've been out with either so things may have changed.

You would have a much better experience diving with Atlantic Charters, or one of the other smaller sixpack boats if they have space like Mutiny (Capt Al) or Instigator Diving Charters.

We used to always use Tortuga Charters but unfortunately the captain passed away a few years ago. I miss diving off his boat

 

[GreggS]

Thank you @GreggS. I dive JMR frequently to keep my skills up and practice with new equipment. I have only dove with Olympus Diving in Morehead City but hear Atlantis Charters is also a great operator. What are your thoughts?

I've not dived with either of those but still know Olympus is an excellent charter company just from reputation. I'm really not familiar with Atlantis. When we go down to that area, we have dove with Discovery Diving across the bridge in Beaufort. They have a nice larger boat that will accommodate around 16-20 divers and they have a 6-pack as well. We've dove from both boats and had great dives each time.

 

[WinfieldNC]

Welcome to ScubaBoard. There are a few operators that will run extended/tech charters out of the Wrightsville and Atlantic Beach areas but they usually want to see you dive within recreational limits to make sure you know what you’re doing. Out of the Outer Banks you can hit deeper wrecks, 150ft+, but they fill up quick and will definitely want to get to know you before doing anything deep/technical.

Getting to know the local tech divers is a good way to get your foot in the door. I head out to JMR fairly regularly when it warms up. Feel free to message me if you would like to meet up sometime.

Raleigh Area Divers on Facebook is a good resource as well.

 

[GreggS]

The offshore wrecks can be awesome if you are in the gulfstream. I always say that when the conditions in North Carolina are good it is some of the best wreck diving in the United States. When it's bad, welll, it's like diving in New England with lovely 10-25ft of visibility. I'm not a fan of the in-shore stuff but I've actually had some really good conditions on wrecks like the Indra before. I've also has braille-like conditions on that wreck.

Exactly right. And the weather can change in a heartbeat.

And I've had the same experiences on the Indra that you mention. The first time viz was about 15 feet at best and we had a surge across the boat that one second you'd be over the wreck and the next you'd be over the sand with the wreck nowhere in sight. Then suddenly, you'd be over the wreck again. The next time, we had crystal clear water with no surge what-so-ever. I've found that if you can charter with a flowing tide, the better visibility and the current/surge will be.

 

[macado]

I used run dive trips down to North Carolina every year. I truly love the diving down there but it is always a gamble especially when you are driving ~16-17 hours to get there like me. We usually try to book 5-6 days and are happy if we get out 3.

For tech diving, the smaller six pack boats are usually more lenient / accommodating but it sometimes depends on the group and of course the weather window. Once they get to know you they're a bit more trusting.

You couldn't pay me to ever use Discovery again. It's been years since I've dove with them and I'm sure things have changed but it's total clown show of a dive operator. For what it's worth - I would recommend any dive operator but them.

I've posted this before so it's probably a repeat but it's worth posting again. Slightly edited from my original post to remove some profanity.

Discovery Diving is TERRIBLE operator. A complete unorganized mess. I will always warn anyone I meet about diving with them. I briefly used to run group trips through them and I'll never use their operation again. The shop is also dirty (dust on every single piece of display gear) and filled with outdated gear. The staff in particular is not on the same page at all. None of this stuff is arguably a big deal but it just speaks volumes about organization and maintenance.

I stopped using them after they messed up everyone of my customer's bills and tried to charge us for dives that we didn't go on or never committed to or gear that we never rented. For example, my group brings down their own tanks already filled with Nitrox. We brought several rebreather divers who obviously did not rent tanks. We bring our own gas and booster with us. All of this is communicated ahead of time and explained to people in the dive shop.

They tried to charge us all for tank rental fees and the associated tanks fills. You would think this would be an easy fix for them to take off the bill when it was pretty clear we had our own tanks. Not so much. They told me they wrote it down so we must have rented it. Finally they did take it off the bill after an argument.

There were other issues like telling us our load time was 630am communicated in writing and verbally but then they communicated with another group that the load time was 530am (the other group requested an early departure) and of course never bothered to tell my group so we showed up "early" and of course we are late and the other group is pissed off because they wanted an early departure.

I should also add that we had chartered the small six-pack boat (Captain's Lady) only to be told they were double-booked and put us on one of the larger boats with a very large group of inexperienced divers. To be fair this only happened twice but it's very annoying when you booked the small boat almost 6 months in advance. Leroy is a nice guy but his boat is a bit of hoarder's mess. He also does not really believe in dive ladders so you'll need to belly flop your way onto the swim platform, not great in technical gear in rough seas but whatever, it works for him.

On the larger boat when we got to the dive site (this happened two days in row) the other group was not ready to splash and took forever gearing up. The captain made the decision to hold my group back from jumping in because he wanted everyone to jump in the same time to make timing easier for him I guess. So of course my group is at the dive site completely geared up and ready to splash only to be told they had to wait for everyone else to get ready in 3-5ft swells. This pissed me off the most. You don't hold people back that are literally ready to splash. You get them off the boat to free up deck space for other divers. The other group of divers in question were doing very short dives. You want to get people in the water first that are doing longer dives.

Another story..I was on a rebreather and clearly have all my own tanks. The manager/owner Jay (I don't actually know his actual role or if he even works there anymore) runs out to the boat and tells me I have tanks in the dive shop reserved with my last name on them and I must have forgotten them. I look at him dumbfounded and politely tell him that "I'm sorry but everyone in my group has their own tanks and we never rented anything. Must be a mistake." He proceeds to argue that they must be mine (really?) and I need to go back into the dive shop and analyze and sort these out before the boat can leave. We went back and forth about 5 minutes wasting everyone's time. I had to argue that I have my tanks and someone clearly made a mistake. I don't need them and I don't need to analyze tanks in the shop if they're not mine. We kept going back in circles. Finally he let the boat leave when they discovered they were another customer with the same last night. It should have been a simple fix but no..