Diving near Louisville, KY?

[Kberg]

Hello,
Going to be TDY at Fort Knox for a few months this summer, is there any good diving near the Louisville, KY area or should I leave the gear at home? Looking for something close enough to drive to, dive, and drive back in the same day.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[tstormdiver]

There's Falling Rock (aka Joe's) Quarry in LaGrange, KY, just NE of Louisville, about an hour away. There is also Pennyroyal, that's about a 3hr drive in Hopkinsville, KY & Mermet Springs in SE IL, is about a 5hr drive.

Joe's is a rather shallow quarry (about 40ft max). Good for getting wet & practicing skills.

Pennyroyal & Mermet are both deep (aka cold at depth) quarries (they go to about 120ft), but also have shallow areas for those who don't want to go deep.

 

[Kberg]

Thanks for the info, looks like I'll be bringing my gear. Probably will have to upgrade the puny 100g fleece though. Do those sites get pretty busy on the weekends?

I know this is more a question for the DIR forum, so I'll post it there too, but is there any sort of a GUE/UTD group in the area?

 

[tstormdiver]

Yes, some of those quarries get quite cold at depth. I primarily dive Pennyroyal, but have dove Falling Rock & Mermet a few times. Pennyroyal is just clser to me. Below 60ft, it is 42 degrees year round so, depending on how cold you get, you could be looking at 400+ gm weight undergarments for a drysuit. As for how busy they get, it really depends on the weekend. I've seen just a few divers, then again I've seen Pennyroyal with over 100 divers. Sometimes all the classes seem to chose the same weekend.

As for a GUE shop, I know there is one in or around Louisville, but can't remember which one it is.