What's it like being a diver living in NYC?

[Mr. Dooley]

I'm a relatively new diver (certified about a year ago) currently living in Portland, OR. I currently go on a local dive trip once a month, and am in the pool training pretty much every weekend as I continue to get additional certifications or just practice various techniques. I feel pretty passionate about diving, and am eager to continue my instruction into more technical areas and rack up dives. Basically happy to dive any opportunity I get.

I'm curious if there any serious divers who can tell me what unique challenges / benefits there are to living in a place like NYC, which I don't exactly associate as a diver's mecca.

Like, how do you store gear in a tiny apartment? Do you lug stuff around on the subway? Are there solid dive shops in the city? Can you be an active diver without owning a car? Do you pretty much have to love wreck diving, and say goodbye to your dreams of diving with actual wildlife? I'm curious how the undersea explorers live in an urban jungle like New York.

 

[Omisson]

New York has over 100 wrecks to see including the USS San Diego the only WWI American warship sunk in American waters.

There are now over 60 miles of diveable artificial reefs established in the waters off Long Island, and Marine estuaries in the Bays and Sound have had major remediation done over the past decade bringing hundreds of species back to the Atlantic seaboard.

NYC and Long Island have dozens of shore dive sights like Beach 8th, Ponoquogue Bridge, Prybil Beach, and OBI to name a few...

read Long Island Shore Diver by Dan Berg, or Long Island Wreck Diving by

I drive my Ramcharger to most shore dive locations and most dive boats... but hey apparently you think NYC is all concrete jungle and subways....

 

[-JD-]

Something to look into: Home | The New York City Sea Gypsies I'm a new(er) distance member ...

In addition to the club sponsored dives listed on the site, there are also member-sponsored dives and quarry training/fun dives.

I can't speak to living in NYC and diving, sorry.

 

[-JD-]

Something to look into: Home | The New York City Sea Gypsies I'm a new(er) distance member ...

In addition to the club sponsored dives listed on the site, there are also member-sponsored dives and quarry training/fun dives.

I can't speak to living in NYC and diving, sorry.

@doctormike had a cool close encounter: Thar She Blows!

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Living in NYC kind of sucks for local diving unless you have a car and live in an elevator building. Try lugging your whole rig and tanks up a fourth floor walk up including weights. I thought about, researched it, and thought better.

It's a logistical nightmare for me.

Figure at least 3 hours back and forth to the site, three hours back and forth to PanAqua for tanks, and the long walk up floor flights of stairs with all your gear and tanks and no, thank you.

LGA is a 30 minute cab ride, 6. 5 hour flight to Coz (with layover) and 30 minutes from the airport to Fonatur. You can change on the boat.

NYC is great except for diving.

 

[tridacna]

Living in NYC kind of sucks for local diving unless you have a car and live in an elevator building. Try lugging your whole rig and tanks up a fourth floor walk up including weights. I thought about, researched it, and thought better.

It's a logistical nightmare for me.

Figure at least 3 hours back and forth to the site, three hours back and forth to PanAqua for tanks, and the long walk up floor flights of stairs with all your gear and tanks and no, thank you.

LGA is a 30 minute cab ride, 6. 5 hour flight to Coz (with layover) and 30 minutes from the airport to Fonatur. You can change on the boat.

NYC is great except for diving.

Ahem. NYC is NOT only Manhattan. Peeps in SI, Queens and Da Bronx generally don’t have issues carrying gear up and down four story walkups.

When I lived in Manhattan, I used to keep gear in my car in my garage. Rented tanks in NJ and dived mostly there too. Great wreck diving - not a PITA at all.

 

[oly5050user]

I own a boat to dive locally in LI sound. Have 2 steam ships and 3 tugs in my gps and assorted barges. Have taken it down east river to dive wrecks on the south shore as well. Have sites for antique bottles lobsters fish etc.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Ahem. NYC is NOT only Manhattan. Peeps in SI, Queens and Da Bronx generally don’t have issues carrying gear up and down four story walkups.

When I lived in Manhattan, I used to keep gear in my car in my garage. Rented tanks in NJ and dived mostly there too. Great wreck diving - not a PITA at all.

Are you saying boroughs folk are tougher than Manhattan? Do we need to take this outside?

 

[doctormike]

NYC is TOTALLY a diver's mecca. I swear that I'm not kidding when I say this, but I would MUCH rather dive here (Jersey Shore and Long Island) than in the Caribbean.

Our club is all about diving in the NYC area, and I'm passionate about this stuff. Tomorrow night is our zoom meeting where I release the local diving schedule, but I'm more than happy to chat with you on the phone (I'm the past president and current dive chair).

The wildlife here is AMAZING, we live on the edge of a vibrant marine ecosystem. Plus, since it's right in our backyard, you can visit it every weekend in the season, without air travel or taking time off work.

The wrecks here are real wrecks with a lot of history. NYC has been a major shipping port for 500 years. A lot of WW2 was fought just off our shores, and there are U-boats and their victims to visit.

Here's the club.

Here's my wiki on diving in the NYC area.

And here's my children's book on NYC area sea life.

PM me if you want to talk, there are answers to all of your questions.

 

[Mr. Dooley]

Thanks to everyone for the responses - very helpful.

As I sort of alluded to in my original post, since getting back into diving it has become something of an obsession of mine. I'll likely be moving to NYC later this year and while the prospect is incredibly exciting to me, the *one* thing that has given me reservations has been diving - will I be able to continue doing it on a regular basis, while enjoying worthwhile dives and continuing to advance my training? It sounds like the answer could very well be "yes".

If I were to move to Manhattan, then sure, I can imagine certain inconveniences involved with lugging equipment around in that kind of environment. But for what it's worth, I feel like Portland, OR (my current home) is a surprisingly good place to be for diving and the closest high quality diving is (arguably) Hoodsport, WA which is a 3-hour drive, and I have no problems with that.

I'm ignorant but for whatever reason I don't associate the Long Island / New Jersey coasts with exciting marine life - just wrecks and only wrecks. I'm glad to be corrected and it sounds like there is some diversity of things worth seeing in the area. Also I've never dived a wreck (yet), so I'm eager to do that. As some have mentioned I'm sure it's most valuable when knowing some of the background of the vessels in question.

Again, thanks to everyone for sharing their NYC diving experience. While it might not be the typical diving destination, I'm glad to hear that my passion won't have to take a back seat just because the Big Apple is home.