Best diving in USA poll

[BoltSnap]

Yes I figured. I am originally from Karachi, Pakistan and moved to the US in 2006. I fell in love with local diving in Florida and North Carolina. While the diving community in this country loves to fly to tropical islands in the Caribbean, I am more interested in exploring dive sites within USA first. I think the sheer diversity of diving in USA is greater than what is found anywhere else in the world. Ocean wrecks, fresh water wrecks, caves, ice diving, kelp forests, wild life, you name it you will find it without leaving the country.

In my next years dive list are the Great Lakes, Puget Sound and California. I think I owe a dive trip to these places BEFORE I head out to Bonaire or Cozumel etc. In fact I was thinking of going on a road trip from LA to WA and diving all the places in between Anyway... now that you mentioned MA and North Eastern USA, I am certainly interested in diving that area. I will be here in the summer. When you get here we will plan some dives. There are a lot of scubaboard members from there. Id love to see who else would join us. At this point most who have voted seem more fascinated with Florida and California.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Some People just want the "prestige" of saying they have been to some exotic far away island.

I came back to Libya after almost 30 years in the US just for my sons to learn about their home culture and language and then to go back home in the US. I also wanted to earn enough money to go back home in MA and be able to afford to own a small house in the Cape Ann area and perhaps buy a boat and just dive from Maine to Rhode Island. This is my dream anyways.

I traveled the world diving and leading tours but I only did that because my clients wanted to do that when I owned the dive shop. prior to owning the store, I was very content diving in the US and didn't bother to go diving anywhere else. America is blessed with such diverse environments for diving (and nature in general) one would spend a life time diving all of them before running out of places to dive. In addition to the continental US, there is Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Alaska and God knows what else we don't know about that is still US. Wow, now that I mention this, I am getting more and more home sick and want to go back now.

God Bless America!!!!

 

[Teamcasa]

California has the most diverse and beautiful diving in the states. That said, I love diving in Hawaii as well. It's hard to beat Niihau diving. I have not dived in Florida yet.

 

[adurso]

From Jersey on down through North Carolina the wreck diving cannot beaten. Although New York/New Jersey may get chilly, the waters off the coast of Carolina get the Gulf Stream and stay warmish.

The wrecks off the coast of Virginia are not to be sneezed at either, ranging from WWI wrecks to more modern and depths from new open water to dark and cold and deep, Virginia wrecks are within a moderate boat ride.

My wife prefers warm water and easy beach entries, so Florida, LBTS and Venice (for fossils) and the Blue Heron Bridge are return locations.

As someone else mentioned, where ever I am diving that day is my favorite...

 

[DiverLS]

I've dived the Caymans, Hawaii, Pt. Hardy, Puget Sound, Red Sea, Galapagos, Florida Caves and Mexico Caves and California.

The places I'll go back to over and over, California, Mexico Caves, Florida Caves and the Galapagos. I do want to try the Refugio's, the Mexican Galapagos.

Closest of these is California. The diving there is breathtaking. Almost more breathtaking than the caves in Mexico. Floating through a kelp forest with 50 ft vis with all the life, you don't get better than that. I don't do the beach entry, my beach entries are fine, it's the beach exits. I do boat diving there, the only way to go. It's sleep, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, dessert, sleep and start the cycle again for 2 more days. How do you get better than that?

But I do 2 dives in the morning, 2 dives in the afternoon and maybe a night dive if the vis is great. This getting old is starting to crimp my style a little.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

California has the most diverse and beautiful diving in the states. That said, I love diving in Hawaii as well. It's hard to beat Niihau diving. I have not dived in Florida yet.

Most diverse Let's look at this. Florida has twice the waterfront, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico with parts of it extending into carribbean waters. Springs, sinks, cavrern, caves and crystal clear rivers. Many wrecks and reefs, warm and cold water, deep and shallow stuff. Most diverse?? I think not!!

 

[FrankPro1]

Unless you go to a few select, expensive locations, the diving in CA is way over-rated. It is drysuit cold, the surf entries stink, the visibility is usually atrocious, its very expensive to visit here, there are very few lakes, and the currents can be nasty at times.

I won't debate which state has the best diving in the USA but it sounds to me like you've never been here But then again, everyone has different ideas of what is considered acceptable visibility and temperature.

Shore diving in So Cal is actually really cheap. 99 percent of the time it cost me 4 bucks for an air fill and the price of a gallon of gas to get me to the dive site. For visitors there are many lower end hotels, motels and hostels which cater to the financially strapped traveler.

Here is an example of a 25$ a night Hostel in San Pedro:

Visiting the islands can get expensive but a day of diving Catalina's Casino Point can be done for under a hundred bucks. 60 bucks for your Catalina Express Boat ticket, 15 in fills, a couple bucks for a hot drink and bring your own lunch. Boat diving prices range about 90-125 bucks depending on which charter you go out from but its not an unreasonable price seeing as it usually includes 3-4 dives, meals, snacks, drinks and air.

If you want the most bang for your buck on island diving, I would recommend a camping/diving excursion to Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island. It has become a yearly summer ritual for myself and it really is quite economical. 15 bucks a night for the camp site, 60 for the Island Packer boat ride and the cost of your provisions / tank rentals. I can easily make a few day trip consisting of scuba, free diving, kayaking and hiking for 250$ "or less if u don't eat expensive tasty treats like I do" .

Visibility on the mainland can be up to 35+ feet but usually is in the 15-20ft range on flat day. On the other hand the islands can have up to 100+ feet on an incredible day but average anywhere from 30-60ft depending on the site. What is your idea of good vis?

Shore entries vary from easy to hard, with some of my favorite sites being more difficult but that's part of the fun. The journey of conquering a nasty goat trail, braving a slippery rock entry and enduring the long surface swim makes me feel alive and increases the adventure/exploration aspect of the dive. This harsher more demanding shore diving can be a bit much for the average tropical vacation diver but is the extreme end of difficulty for So Cal diving. Laguna Beach on the other hand has a variety of shore diving sites which has mellow beach entries, little to no surface swims and even warmer water then the more northern So Cal sites. Anyone and I mean anyone can dive Laguna Beach, its no more physically demanding then any tropical shore diving.

Temps range from 50-70f in So Cal, usually only hitting the low end for a few weeks at the end of winter/start of spring. I personally dive wet all year round and have no problems with being cold. Now multiple dives off a boat, in 50 degree water and overcast top side conditions can get you pretty numb but that is the oddity not the norm.

As far as good diving being only in a "few select places", that's just not true. I'm not that versed in Northern California dive sites but I know So Cal has dive sites everywhere.
1. San Diego: Wreck Alley, Coronado's Islands and Point Loma Kelp Beds

2. Laguna Beach: Shaws, Divers Cove, Dead Mans Reef, etc.etc. "all very mellow and easy"

3. Palos Verdes Peninsula: World class shore & boat diving. Nutrient rich cold water upwelling promote astonishing amounts of invertebrate life here. A macro photographers dream. Dive Sites: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110058405229746498801.00048477473dd2a40f0bb&t=h&z=12

4. Catalina, San Clemente, San Nicholas and Santa Barbara Islands & the Oil Rigs all have their own unique sites ranging from deep offshore hydro-coral encrusted sea mounts to shallow warm water kelp beds.

5. Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands give visitors a chance to step back in time and see how Southern California was hundreds of years ago. These waters teem with life. From the smallest nudibranch to the big boy pelagics, they are all here and in abundance!


There are so many more places I haven't mentioned and many of them can be considered good if not great diving. If you have dove here, what places have you been too? What didn't you like? Were you here during a heavy swell period?

Critter Highlights from this year: "With the exception of the Island Kelpfish, all these shots were taken from various Palos Verdes Peninsula dive sites"

 

[JS1scuba]

Best is subjective and your list leaves out so many other areas. You may consider changing your poll and allow up to 3 answers per respondant

North East
Mid Atlantic
Florida
Florida Keys
Florida Springs / Caves
Gulf Coasts
South West
Southern California
Northern California
Pacific North West
In-land West Lakes (Tahoe, Mead)
Inland Mid West
Inland Lakes East
Great Lakes

Cheers
JDS

 

[j yaeger]

it's all good....

 

[FrankPro1]

Springs, sinks, cavern, caves and crystal clear rivers. Many wrecks and reefs, warm and cold water, deep and shallow stuff.

Exactly why I want... no.... must come to visit. I've got two friends who have migrated to Florida this year and some distant relatives who are there as well...

Calling Mselenaous. You said your couch was always available right?

 

[diveprof]

Yeah, the CA west coast folks have neat stuff if you are in a drysuit Seriously they have good dives, but so does the pacific northwest, and the NC/NJ wreck divers. I have had a most excellent dive in inland rivers. It is all good and you never know when that special moment dive hits!
All that said, my fav diving is Jupiter to Ft.Lauderdale FL (tend to the northern locales).