Thanks for the welcone. I moved here for the job. While I miss the water and ultra convenient diving, I really do like ATL. My wife is happier with seasons and I like being close to the north Georgia and Carolina mountains. I didn't grow up with seasons (Florida and California), so don't really care, but have enjoyed the mild winters so far. My other major distraction after diving is motorcycling and that sucked in Florida because of the boring straight roads and mixed assortment of bad drivers. Here, I'm 40 mins from the mountains and can roll out of bed and take a morning ride up to the hills for 4 or 5 hours and enjoy some great twisties. I have friends south of town who do the same on the twisty back country roads too.
To dive, I usually head to the gulf, Destin, PCB or Gulf Shores. They're all about the same drive time. I've also dove Morrison and Vortex. I've dove Loch Low Minn a couple of times thIs summer and was planning on a dive at Dive Georgia this weekend, but it got too cold for me. I've also taken about 10 trips back to the Keys since moving here. I get to Florida for work and if I can swing in a weekend side trip to the Keys , I'll do it. I'm only getting in about half the dives annually that I used to do while I lived in FL, but putting infinitely more miles on the bike..... there's trade offs to all places.