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
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