Beach 9th St.

[aujax]

I was wondering if there are any other beach dive sites in the NYC area besides Beach 9th St. in Queens. Also, what is that site like - depth, vis, distance you have to go out from shore, fish and lobster? And how do you figure out when to go so that you don't get screwed with the tides?

 

[TTSkipper]

Dan Berg's book LI Shore Diver lists some other Queens dives but I do not have the book handy.

You do not have to go out far to see any life, only about 50-100 feet from the beach in about 15-20 feet of water. The channel drops off to about 45 feet but is a sand bottom with not much life most of the time. Late last fall there were hundreds of spider crabs that sat at the bottom of the channel. They literally carpeted the bottom and as you swam over them they reached up with their claws, it was one of the creepiest dives I have done and it felt like something from outer space. Like you were floating over some planet and there were aliens trying to reach up and grab you.

As for Beach 9th I have not seen any lobster in the few dives I have done there. I have seen a few stripers, flounder/fluke (I can never tell the difference) and blackfish. I have not seen any keeper stripers, but I have seen some realy big blackfish. There are also tropicals there in the later summer and early fall months.

As for the tides, well I still have not figured that out. I tried to do one dive there without my LDS and I think we missed the tide window by about 1 hour and had a strong current, I think that you basically want to hit it about 15 minutes before slack and I think that high slack is best.

If you dive there make sure you have shears and a knife because there are 2 breakwalls that people fish from on either side so there is some fishing line and hooks that are broken off.

 

[XJae]

Here is a great article on tides recently added to our website.
http://www.wreckvalley.com/html/tides.htm

Thx to the editor of Sources magazine for permission to reprint it here.

 

[merc97]

I have been diving there for over ten years and I can say that it's really a great local spot. In previous years I would ride the current to the ATLANTIC BEACH BRIDGE and spearfish for blackfish. Now a days I use it mostly to work on bouancy and test out new equipment.
The maxium deth is 40 ft and that is in the middle of the channel. There are two large gauge wires that are used as guides lines. One runs south to north , south being the beach and the other runs east to west. Entry from the beach is an easy walk to the bulk head where there are some huge rocks.
Right now no one is really sure about acess ,because the property has been bought and condos are suppose to be built.Alot of people are presently working on divers having acess to the site.

 

[aujax]

Thanks, guys. very helpful. Also, how do you know where to enter the water at the site? Are there any landmarks to help you out?

 

[TTSkipper]

The easiest way to enter the water is along the bulk head on the east side of the beach. at the end of the bulk head and the beginning of the rocks you can find one of the cables that merc97 is talking about and follow that out.

I may be planning a weekend or early evening (daylight) weekday dive there in the next few weeks with 1054EDP and anyone else who is interested when it happens I will post it here.

 

[aujax]

someone said no one's really sure about access - anyone know if you can get in there these days? I was thinking of heading over this coming weekend. They can't own the whole beach, right? I'm sure there's gotta be a place where you can park your car and walk over via the beach, no?

 

[VTernovski]

I was wondering if there are any other beach dive sites in the NYC area besides Beach 9th St. in Queens. Also, what is that site like - depth, vis, distance you have to go out from shore, fish and lobster? And how do you figure out when to go so that you don't get screwed with the tides?

ahmmm, we always dove off the beach 6th street. same thing as far as diving is concerned, but no convenience of a toilet, showers, parking, etc... basically you setup at your own risk there. But then again, you don't pay anything.