Greetings from North Carolina

[Jay Adams]

You're not far from Fantasy lake might even be where you got certified? Nice freshwater dive location, lots of people go there. I went in March of this year, was a murky dive but I understand it was post tornado. welcome to the pool

 

[Matt Lochansky]

Thank you all for the welcome. One thing I've found is that we have a great dive community in Raleigh and through the Carolinas.

I've been to Fantasy Lake for every dive I've made, except my last one to the Charleston Tug off the coast of Myrtle Beach. I plan on heading back out to Fantasy this weekend, including giving night diving a try. The viz at Fantasy was awesome over the summer, but it's currently pretty poor from what I hear. I will make it out to Mystery next year - I understand it is more of an intermediate dive site and I wanted to get a little experience at a familiar site. In October I'm heading up to Lake Phoenix in Rawlings, VA for a weekend of diving. Once the waters warm next year we would love to hit up some of the other good out-of-town dive spots, especially ones that aren't as expensive as an ocean charter. Hoping to do Nitrox cert this winter and AOW next Spring/Summer.

I'm on RAD FB group and hope to see you all there as well as here on SB.

 

[Jay Adams]

Thank you all for the welcome. One thing I've found is that we have a great dive community in Raleigh and through the Carolinas.

I've been to Fantasy Lake for every dive I've made, except my last one to the Charleston Tug off the coast of Myrtle Beach. I plan on heading back out to Fantasy this weekend, including giving night diving a try. The viz at Fantasy was awesome over the summer, but it's currently pretty poor from what I hear. I will make it out to Mystery next year - I understand it is more of an intermediate dive site and I wanted to get a little experience at a familiar site. In October I'm heading up to Lake Phoenix in Rawlings, VA for a weekend of diving. Once the waters warm next year we would love to hit up some of the other good out-of-town dive spots, especially ones that aren't as expensive as an ocean charter. Hoping to do Nitrox cert this winter and AOW next Spring/Summer.

I'm on RAD FB group and hope to see you all there as well as here on SB.

I understand Mystery is a great dive, I am sorry we didn't get there while we were down there last spring. we were going to stay at pheonix when we came down, But a last minute change put us at Fantasy instead. I will make a trip there again in the coming years. what you consider to be cold water is still warm to me, especially in the winter months when our water is frozen, yours is still in the 50's. thats a wetsuit dive for me...

 

[Matt Lochansky]

Jay, I grew up in NY, though that was over 20 years ago - my blood has thinned. Never have been a fan of cold water and not sure about my cold tolerance vs wetsuit thickness. I currently only own a 3mm, though I had a 5mm for my checkout dives. Even at 68F below the thermocline at Fantasy I felt fine. I'm happy to be a "fair weather" diver for now.

 

[Jay Adams]

I dive dry in the coldest months, and dive a 7mm semidry (Needs a new zipper...) in the warmer months. depending on depth and thermal I've even been known to dive a shorty here in the northeast. our thermals range from 65 to 42 in the summer depending on the depth and water source of the location. river does not have a noticable thermal even at 55 feet deep... I can either dive the cold green water and do 50+ dives a year or do the warm tropics and go every other year for 6 -14 dives...