Moving to Colorado!

[Laustimus]

Unfortunately, I have done a few dives at Aurora and Chatfield.... when we lived in Colorado. :shocked2:
I guess if we lived in Denver area we would dive Aurora now and then. But from what I have found, most Denverites hop on a plane to go diving. With the direct flights to Coz, it seems to be their #1 choice.
Personally, my favorite US dive destination is California. It is a 12 hour drive for us from ABQ to LA coast. And the diving is amazing!

robin

What places do you dive on the LA coast? the deals to LAX are really good.

Oh and welcome to Colorado Sully.. the diving here is horrid though :doh:

 

[charlieo]

When I was out there, Colorado had the third highest number of divers per capita right behind Florida & California. I always assumed it was because of the higher disposable income and the general trend towards outdoor lifestyles. You'll be in good company. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, there isn't much in the way of local diving. My choice was driving to Cave Country in North Florida every few months which is a 2 day drive if you really push it. I finally got tired of the drive and just moved here.

This article states Colorado is number 1 per caita. Go figure!
Marine Bio Home
This should start a lively discussion, providing days of amusement.

 

[RonFrank]

Regardless of where CO stands in the Polls, it's a rather horrible place to dive for the most part. Diehards generally do several local trips to such spectacular spots as Aurora Res, and the lakes can be nice if you hit it right. However the lakes are frozen most of the year, and the vis at even places like Jefferson can turn to crap easily. CharlieO can confirm this as we did a dive at Jefferson where we had to almost hold hands to stay together! I'm sure the fish are abundant, but you don't see them often. Once I saw a log that looked like a fish, but it turned out to be a log. You can see fish, but likely not even one per dive.

Colorado may have a large number of divers, but they sure don't dive HERE! :doh2: However Coz is just a short flight away as is FL, and CA. If diving is your main goal, live elsewhere. If you like to ski however... well.. it's OK, like maybe some of the best in the world. We also have lot of pretty mountains! Pretty mountains can kill you, but coming from AK, I guess you are aware of the dangers of 14,000ft. mountains. Don't let me discourage you, living in CO has some awesome advantages, but diving is definitely NOT one of them.

 

[scubasully]

This is very discouraging as I'm doing my DM right now and moving to CO in August. I was hoping to hear how great the local freshwater/altitude diving is.

 

[syonker]

Hi Scubasully,

Well, for the most part, it's not particularly imaginative diving, but like any dive you get out of it what you put into it. If you expect to be miserable, you will. If you enjoy varying conditions and keeping your head and adapting to what they are when you discover them, you'll have no problem making a good time of it no matter the situation.

We've hit Kingfisher Ponds with over 30' of vis sometimes, and at others had to hold one to one another to stay together. We've seen schools of Largemouth Bass, large blue Channel Cats, and I have some video of a Walleye taking a Crawdad right out from in front of the camera...

However, one point that Ron makes is that a lot of people (myself included) find it very realistic to go to our major-hub airport and block a flight somewhere to dive. The flights to Mexico are generally cheap, and you can reach Atlantic and Pacific destinations on regular "Deal Flights" and surprisingly low prices...so it's very reasonable to hook up with a dive club and do trips. And a HECK of a lot of fun, too!

-S