A few others are joining us tomorrow on our river dive so I thought I'd post a little about this site as I haven't covered it in previous posts. We enter at the N. Augusta (SC) Boat Ramp near Riverview Park. There are two good ways to dive this site depending on your interests. If into collecting bottles - an old trash dump that has partly been pushed into the river is located just slightly downriver and across the river (GA side, river is fairly narrow here). Best dove as a rectangle. Dive across, drifting South slightly, to near the GA shore, search for bottles while working your way upriver. There is minimal current near the shore and it is easy to swim up river. when you reach the big, and I mean way huge tree laying on it's side underwater, this thing has a 4-5' diameter, you are pretty much done with the dump. you can continue upriver a little bit on the GA side, then move to the SC side. At 1/3 air, drift South on the SC side to the boat ramp - don't miss it. If marine life is more your interest, I find the SC side to a bit of the middle has more stuff. We generally swim up river on this side, until 1/3 air left, then drift south to the boat ramp. Depths are only about 18' here. the bottom is much different from the 5th street dive as this is in the fall line. The bottom is mostly solid rock with some sand. Expect boulders and rock ledges (freshwater eels found under the ledges). Look for arrowheads. Use a dive flag - a must as there is boat traffic and the water is only 18' deep at the max. The area above the boat ramp is not developed and dense trees come up to the water edge. This means that you may see a snake (just leave them alone and they generally leave you alone). Though I haven't seen a gator at this site in over 6 years, it is still possible. I had the experience of diving with a 10 footer here - high pucker factor - about 8 years ago.
)
