Hello from the Nations Capitol

[Hoyden]

Welcome to scubaboard and to the DC area. There are lots of divers and diving in the area - if you are interested in meeting local divers, you could check out the Mid-Atlantic Bottom Feeders section on this forum, check out local dive clubs - Olney Scuba Adventure, Atlantis Rangers, Patowmack Divers or Ocean Rovers or get more involved at a local shop which offers dive opportunities. Taking additional classes is a good way to meet new buddies and some shops set up local dives which they organize at no charge.


There is pretty good ocean diving within 3 to 4 hours from our area - Ocean City, MD or VA Beach and just a little farther north gets you to New Jersey diving. I have done both OC and VA Beach as day trips from Rockville, MD. NJ diving requires an overnight. This is not warm water diving and a really good day has about 40ft of vis - 15-20ft would be more average. But it sure beats quarry diving. There are lots of excellent wrecks right off our shores. If you like low vis diving, there is also the U-1105 - MD's very own shipwreck preserve. There is no need to go too far for ocean diving if you can take water temps in the mid to high 50s - which is warmer than most of the local quarries at depth anyway.

The shop with which I am affiliated does monthly trips to NC (from May through November) which has fabulous diving. That is almost always high vis warm water diving.

There are also some other dive opportunities in the area - there is a volunteer diving program at the National Aquarium in Baltimoreand two local underwater archaeology groups, the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society and The Institute for Maritime History.
Hope to see you in the water,

Jackie

 

[Meg]

Welcome to the board!
We're in SW Virginia - about 3.5 hours from you. We do a bunch of quarry diving in VA when the weather is warm, but we like to dive year-round, so we travel a bit. We visit Lake Rawlings from May - October. Chuck's headed to Florida next month to dive the Oriskany and we'll probably get to Florida a few more times before it's warm enough around here to dive. We can't help you find local buddies but you are more than welcome to join us on any of our dive adventures.

Meg

 

[Red Sea dvr]

Thanks Jackie
I did work at a local dive shop here in the area for about 3 months, had to leave because college was my priority and they wanted me to do more than I wanted to give up time for. They didn't seem to do many dives here in the local area (V.A, N.C. M.D, or NJ). The shop seemed to do more Carabbian dives than others. I am sorry, I didn't see which dive shop you're affiliated with.

After I red what you had to say about the aquarium I spent some time looking into the volunteering there and will be back in touch with them later this week.

I have been searching around the internet and did find the site for the U-1105 and that looks like it could be an interesting dive. Have you dove the U-1105 yet?
Low vis, would have to say that I have limited experience in that area, but have been in no vis situations and did fine. Would like to be with someone that has been there before though.

Thanks again for all the info and links.

 

[Red Sea dvr]

Hey Meg and Chuck

SW Virginia should put you in or about the V.A Beach area? I have family that live in the Norfolk area and try and see them on a regular bases.
There are a number of dive shops on Coliseum drive in Norfolk, have you been or do you go to any of them?
Thanks for the invite and on my next trip down there (when it warms up some) I will drop you an e-mail to see what you have on your dive schedule.

Hope Chuck has a great series of dives while in Fla, I envy him right about now!

Thanks for the info.

 

[Meg]

We're a bit further West than VA Beach - the Roanoke area is closer to West Virginia. We get to Virginia Beach sometimes, though!!

Chuck loves to dive the Oriskany (this is his third trip!) and will undoubtedly go again before the end of the year. Keep an eye on the website (linked below) of the Dive Shop we teach for...we always post our trips.

Meg

 

[Hoyden]

Thanks Jackie
I did work at a local dive shop here in the area for about 3 months, had to leave because college was my priority and they wanted me to do more than I wanted to give up time for. They didn't seem to do many dives here in the local area (V.A, N.C. M.D, or NJ). The shop seemed to do more Carabbian dives than others. I am sorry, I didn't see which dive shop you're affiliated with.

After I red what you had to say about the aquarium I spent some time looking into the volunteering there and will be back in touch with them later this week.

I have been searching around the internet and did find the site for the U-1105 and that looks like it could be an interesting dive. Have you dove the U-1105 yet?
Low vis, would have to say that I have limited experience in that area, but have been in no vis situations and did fine. Would like to be with someone that has been there before though.

Thanks again for all the info and links.

I work at Virginia Scuba in Manassas and will dive anywhere there is enough water to completely submerge (just last weekend I did a couple of dives that had a max depth of 9' - in the bay snagging oysters), although I admit that my preference is for salt water. As I mentioned before, we run monthly trips to NC and use a 46' six pack so we aren't crowded and dive the profiles we want. We also have many divers on staff who do a fair amount of local saltwater diving (I am working on the rest of them) and run trips to FL as well - so there is no need for all this quarry diving unless you are just desperate to get into the water or to try out new gear.

As for the NAIB, if you are interested, go to the NAIB websiteand click the volunteer button - it will take you to a volunteer from - fill it out and check diver. Our process to take in new volunteer divers starts with a written test and it will be given on Monday, Jan 7th. That is my volunteer dive day and my whole dive team will be there to help proctor the test. If you have any questions about it, pm me and I'll try to answer them.

I have dove the U-1105, but would do it again in the right conditions - say towards the end of the summer after a long dry spell. I'd say that unless you hit the right conditions, it is one of those dives that everyone should do once and that will be enough.

Jackie