Dutch Springs isn't Wreck Valley

[XJae]

Dutch Springs is a quarry in the middle of Pennsylvania. Wreck Valley is the vast ocean between Long Island, NY and New Jersery that is literally littered with wrecks.

This is a good point, I'm surprised hasn't come up sooner. When we created this club we made it for the entire states of NY, NJ and PA. We referred to it as Wreck Valley while we tried to come up with a more original name. Well, nobody liked Tri-State or Metro or any of the other names thrown out there, so Wreck Valley stuck. On a good note, from any point in PA, if you drive to the closest ocean you'll be in Wreck Valley.

 

[VTernovski]

Dutch Springs is a quarry in the middle of Pennsylvania. Wreck Valley is the vast ocean between Long Island, NY and New Jersery that is literally littered with wrecks. There are wrecks in all depth ranges. These wrecks are visited by numerous dive boats from New York and New Jersey. You don't have to be a techie to dive many of these wrecks. There are things to see. Marine life in form of growth, and fish. If your so inclined you can bag a bug or spear a fish. And on most wrecks you can also search for artifacts, pieces of history.
So come on get out on those boats and do some diving.

it's a training wheels, kinda like the 40ft deep NASA swimming pool is not an outer moon orbit.

 

[wheezl]

it's a training wheels, kinda like the 40ft deep NASA swimming pool is not an outer moon orbit.

yeah, but that NASA pool doesn't have the old couple hiding in a trailer selling me root beer.

 

[DEEPLOU]

Booking on the best boats usually requires you to commit well in advance. My favorite local boat is Dan Berg's "Wreck Valley" We book his boat in January and still sometimes have tbls getting specific dates in july and august...

When you get known by the boats they typically relax their deposit fees considerably..

The boats I usually use I just pay the day of the trip and if I miss it they get a check or CC the next day..

The reason for tbls getting dates w/ Dan are that there are couple of people (whom I know) jump in very early and book many dates. Now if you know the people who have booked the boat, you can get a spot a little later on.
Matter of fact, I know of two spots (as of yesterday) for a date within the next two weeks, but I ain't gonna tell you who has them as I may take one of them myself.

Another like to find a boat is the Eastern Dive Boat Association, http://www.edba.com/ or try Long Island Divers Association (link to dive boats), http://www.lidaonline.com/main.htm

Most of the larger boats don't book up that far in advance except on trips to certain "premo" dive sites

 

[grouchyturtle]

This is a good point, I'm surprised hasn't come up sooner. When we created this club we made it for the entire states of NY, NJ and PA. We referred to it as Wreck Valley while we tried to come up with a more original name. Well, nobody liked Tri-State or Metro or any of the other names thrown out there, so Wreck Valley stuck. On a good note, from any point in PA, if you drive to the closest ocean you'll be in Wreck Valley.

Actually it has been brought up before. Didn't we beat this one to death yet?

But your answer puts it perfectly. We decided we wanted a club for PA, NY, and NJ, then we came up with the name. All of the other names were kind of weak, so WV was the winner. Yeah technically PA isn't part of WV, but hey they're close enough, besides plenty of divers from PA do dive off the coast.

The club is about one thing...LOCAL DIVING. Doesn't matter where as long as it's in one of the 3 states.

Also everyone's forgetting about option 3...shore diving.
I popped my Atlantic cherry early in the season, but haven't been out too many times since. I just can't afford to get on a boat every weekend...but I'm also pretty bored with Dutch, so this season I've been doing a lot of shore diving. There are also plenty of lakes, rivers, etc. to dive in around here, but not many of us seem to be hitting them this summer, or at least not posting about it.

Yeah, sometimes it does seem like every post is about Dutch, but I haven't seen too many posts asking if anyone did want to do a boat. There were a few, but not many.

I still want to check out Round Valley. I'm up for doing the Delaware River train wreck silt dive again. Dual Wrecks...I failed at this one so many times (bad timing, 0 vis, etc.) it's almost becoming my Doria! Shark River...etc.

The few posts about shore dives...or anywhere besides Dutch and boats were mostly me and ScottyK.

Dutch and out on the boats aren't the only places to dive.

 

[VTernovski]

The few posts about shore dives...or anywhere besides Dutch and boats were mostly me and ScottyK.

hey, I was inviting everyone to Canada. Both Lake Ontario and St,. Lawrence are one of my favorite places to dive. Guaranteed crazy *** historic wrecks without long boat rides and no seasickness. I am going to run a few more trips next year, be sure to sign up. I know it;s not exactly Wreck Valley, but... still fairly close to us and a **** load of wrecks... not to mention, very cost effective!

 

[ScottyK]

We've been having a lot of fun diving in Montauk this year. Even though it's shore diving, it's so far out from the continent that it's like boat diving without the boat.

Besides the normal shore diving fare like flounder, blackfish and small crustaceans, we see a lot of marine life out there that I normally see only when boat diving. Some examples include big stripers and blues, porgies and "huge" lobsters.

There's even a wreck out there called The Culloden that can be reached from shore. We've had some bad luck trying to get that dive in, so I can't report on it yet, but some of us will be hitting it the first weekend in October. We've tried it twice. The first time was in spring and there was too much wind out there, although it settles out nicely this time of year. Our second attempt was ruined by "naked loser guy" (this is a story I'll only tell in person)

Money has been especially tight this year. This will probably be the first season since I started diving that I won't make any local boat dives (although I did get a few in this spring in Florida). Shore diving allows me to still do a lot of diving without getting overly bored from too many DS trips.

If anyone is looking for a good way to break up the DS monotony, they are welcome to join us. Looking in the "Where are you diving this week" section at wreckvalley.com is the easiest way to keep track of what's going on.

Happy diving,
Scott

 

[ScottyK]

hey, I was inviting everyone to Canada. Both Lake Ontario and St,. Lawrence are one of my favorite places to dive. Guaranteed crazy *** historic wrecks without long boat rides and no seasickness. I am going to run a few more trips next year, be sure to sign up. I know it;s not exactly Wreck Valley, but... still fairly close to us and a **** load of wrecks... not to mention, very cost effective!

Vadim- These are pretty much mandatory drysuit dives, yes?

I've always wanted to dive the Great Lakes. I understand that the cold, hypoxic fresh water preserves shipwrecks in incredible detail.That might be the motivation I need to finally pick up a pair of drysuits for Jen and myself. Keep us posted on those trips for next year.

Scott

 

[grouchyturtle]

Ok VT,

But I was talking about local diving, although both of those spots are on my list.
I would have gone with you if I didn't already have the NC trip booked.

Plus I am planning on hopefully hitting someplace nice and toasty this winter. We should try to do a big WV dive trip somewhere warm. How about a WV live aboard? Take over a whole boat for a week and dive all the sites we want to.

I'm sure I'll hop on for that one next year.

 

[wheezl]

When my arm isn't busted I go out on the Jeanne II most weekends with an occasional trip on the Wreck Valley. Through a few odd turns I have never made it onto the Eagle's Nest. What other boats do folks like? When I am able to walk on all four legs again.. (probably November) I am definitely up for hitting someplace warm. Also up for meeting people at Dutch. I may be going to Dutch one more time this year if I can get a ride... though sadly I will not be in the water

...well unless I can get my wrist seal over these pins