campgrounds for divers

[Randomsandwhich]

currently live in the hampton roads, va beach area looking to find a suitable beach campground that offers decent shore diving. or campgrounds near good shore dive spots. Thanks for any help.

-jon

 

[Randy g]

Not really anything on the ocean but Lake Rawlins is a great camping/dive location. We camped/dove last year and had a blast. Other than sleeping in my drysuit because a storm popped up in the middle of the night, it was a very memorable experience.

Lake Rawlings - A Scuba and Camping Park

Forget about shore dives in this area. Vis is 0 and the water is cold. We go to So Flo for shore dives. Morehead City has a shore dive at the Radio Tower but it has to be hit at slack tide.

 

[Nick A]

There's no campground at radio island and one or two dives you've seen it all. I've dove it more times than I can remember, we take students out there. Fun dive, quite a few tropicals in summer, really cool night dive, but if I was on a diving vaca it would be a dive I would do if the charter was cancelled or had a free night. You should check out the springs in N Florida. Theyre all kind of close and plenty of camping there. Ginnie and Blue springs come to mind.

 

[herbdb]

You can come up to Dutch Springs (Bethlehem, PA) and camp, but Fri and Sat night only. This is probably the best dive park you will find, but cold right now. Aug and Sept are the best months. This weekend temp was reported 60F at the surface, but 45F at 50'.

Dutch Springs - Scubadiving Homepage

 

[yardpro]

ditto on radio island..
it is a hike from parking to the jetty. We have a small motorboat so it is an easy dive for us.. not as far of a walk.
There is also a jetty at shackelford that is ok... but you need a boat (or can take the ferry) to get there.

---------- Post added May 12th, 2013 at 03:56 PM ----------

forgot to add...

TONS of sea urchins..

you can also dive the high rise... lots of sea urchins also.. vis not so great.. maybe 10'

you need to catch ebb tide.

---------- Post added May 12th, 2013 at 04:20 PM ----------

lots of sea urchins at the jetties...

you can also dive the beaufort side of the high rise bridge or under the port deck...
you need to catch them at ebb tide..as the current is pretty strong. and the vis is not so good, but it will help with tec diving skills.

LOTs of urchins at both locations..

 

[Akyla]

Jon your best shore diving opportunities are along the northern outer banks beaches. There are several sites that are very nice in the right conditions. Info can be found on my web site.

The camping in nags head you will have to do the research on as I don't know that area as well. The NPS campgrounds in salvo and further down in frisco that are very nice but further from the beach diving sites.

 

[Steve_C]

Fantasy Lake in NC also has camping. But like Rawlings it is a quarry.

South of Myrtle Beach there are lots of camp grounds but your diving would need to be boat diving. Express water sports is close to Huntington Beach state park.