OP
Hi All! Really Need some input on North/South Carolina Diving!
- Thread starter Laura V.
- Start date
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- diving newdiver south carolina
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CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
North Carolina diving is really amazing if you hit it in the right season. It is very different from Florida diving. Just so that you are not surprised ...
1. Boat rides to the dive site could take two hours one way. This means that you get on these boats at 7:00 and get back at 5. In Florida boat rides are 15 minutes.
2. Ocean conditions can be rough and choppy and putting up with that for hours on the boat can itself be exhausting. I suggest taking sea sickness meds.
3. Current will almost always be strong near the surface but gets weaker at the bottom. You will want to use the ascent line both ways.
4. Visibility could be 100 feet in the right seasons but that is not typical.
Some people may find the above conditions challenging even if they have been diving on a regular basis in Florida. If NC is where you would like to dive, I suggest contacting Olympus or Discovery in Morehead and setting up a Deep-diving specialty course. You can explain to them that a refresher would be needed prior to that and they will first take you out with their open water students to get you comfortable again. Over the next two days you will be diving under instructor supervision to below hundred feet. You can finish this on the fourth day by diving on your own after your certification. It is important to schedule for 4 days because it is very likely that one of those days could get blown out. In fact I would give five days just to be safe if I could.
Now I always recommend deep diver specialty over "Advanced Open Water" because compass navigation and boat diving etc that make up an "Advanced Open Water" course are things most people would know (get to know) anyway. Deep course offers better value for your investment.
I think the above will not only address your concerns about getting into water after a long time but make you a more proficient and confident diver for deeper and more challenging environments.
1. Boat rides to the dive site could take two hours one way. This means that you get on these boats at 7:00 and get back at 5. In Florida boat rides are 15 minutes.
2. Ocean conditions can be rough and choppy and putting up with that for hours on the boat can itself be exhausting. I suggest taking sea sickness meds.
3. Current will almost always be strong near the surface but gets weaker at the bottom. You will want to use the ascent line both ways.
4. Visibility could be 100 feet in the right seasons but that is not typical.
Some people may find the above conditions challenging even if they have been diving on a regular basis in Florida. If NC is where you would like to dive, I suggest contacting Olympus or Discovery in Morehead and setting up a Deep-diving specialty course. You can explain to them that a refresher would be needed prior to that and they will first take you out with their open water students to get you comfortable again. Over the next two days you will be diving under instructor supervision to below hundred feet. You can finish this on the fourth day by diving on your own after your certification. It is important to schedule for 4 days because it is very likely that one of those days could get blown out. In fact I would give five days just to be safe if I could.
Now I always recommend deep diver specialty over "Advanced Open Water" because compass navigation and boat diving etc that make up an "Advanced Open Water" course are things most people would know (get to know) anyway. Deep course offers better value for your investment.
I think the above will not only address your concerns about getting into water after a long time but make you a more proficient and confident diver for deeper and more challenging environments.
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