New divers to the Tucson AZ area

[narcedoutscuba]

Hey guys,
My wife and I will be moving to the Tucson area from upstate NY, in the next few months and I would like to know how the local diving is and the dive shops in the area
Thank You
Alex

 

[diversteve]

There's 3 shops in Tucson -

The Dive Shop
http://www.desertdivers.com/
Planet Scuba - Home

NAUI shops in Arizona:

ProTech Scuba LLC
Inland Water Divers Adventure Scuba Diving Serving Metro Phoenix Arizona USA

Most diving from Tucson is done somewhere else. Either Lake Pleasant north of Phoenix, San Carlos MX, Rocky Point MX, or San Diego. San Diego is good cold water diving, there's the Kelp forests off La Jolla, Wreck Alley and Los Coronados Islands nearby in Mexico. Also good shore diving at La Jolla Cove and other nearby sites.http://www.divebums.com/

The Guadalupe Island Great White trips leave from San Diego or via shuttle across the border in Ensenada but are cage/surface supplied air only. Also the Channel Islands off Los Angeles of which Catalina is probably the best known to divers. California Dive Boats : The Official Page

People also dive Lakes Mead, Mohave and Havasu on the AZ/CA border and Saguaro, Canyon and Roosevelt Lakes east of Phoenix. All the Arizona lakes are typically cold all year - they're fed by some tributary of the Colorado River. Saguaro, Canyon, Roosevelt and Havasu can be cloudy - often there's a lot of boat traffic also.

San Carlos (near Guaymas) is popular - in the summer the water is 80+, winter drops to high 50's. Desert Divers has a boat there and there's about 4-5 other local dive operations. There's a seal/sea lion colony off San Pedro Island nearby, a submarine canyon just south of it so we often see larger pelagics, whales, sharks etc. Around the island are puffers, octopus, stingrays, Cortez angelfish, etc. Scalloped Hammerheads school pre-migration there in October, many shops/divers go down for that. San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico Diving

Rocky Point and nearby Himalya Bay are closer options also but the tidal exchange in the north Sea of Cortez often makes viz less optimal.

Part of the year the Rocio Del Mar liveaboard leaves from Rocky Point and dives the Midriff Islands in the Sea of Cortez. It's a very nice boat - newer and built to be a dive boat. Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard

In addition to Scubaboard, there's an Arizona dive forum: Arizona Scuba - the header picture is Lake Pleasant afaik.

One other thing people don't realize is that Hawaii is very accessible from Phoenix. USAirways has their hub here and other carriers compete on price and service. There's even several non-stop flights that are relatively affordable.

 

[narcedoutscuba]

Thank you for the input looking forward to the move

 

[AZ-DivePro]

Check into www.AZ-DiveBuddies.com

 

[koozemani]

Diversteve has pretty much summed up Tucson Diving. My family frequents planet scuba. San Carlos offers excellent diving year round, but we usually wait until April when the water starts creeping up toward 70. Sept and oct offer the best conditions with warm water, great vis, without melting in 110 degree heat on the boat. El Mar is our op of choice in San Carlos, they've always provide excellent service with a great boat.

---------- Post added January 27th, 2013 at 06:40 PM ----------

If you don't mind me asking, what brings you to Tucson? Like many here, I'm also a transplant from the NE.

 

[beaverdivers]

Welcome to the Southwest!

 

[Dive-aholic]

Steve posted some great information. Here's some additional information more specific to Tucson and the local dive shops. First, I can't comment on Planet Scuba because they weren't in business when I lived there (I moved in 2007). The Dive Shop was more of a family oriented dive shop when we lived there. They hosted trips to San Carlos, but also to a semi-private beach about an hour north of San Carlos where you camped out on the beach and got to dive a couple of shallow coves all weekend. The trips were a lot of fun and the coves were full of life. Desert Divers seemed to cater more to the college kids. We stopped in at the shop a few times but never got a great vibe from them. That's not to say they aren't a good shop. They just weren't what we were looking for. Neither shop was interested in diving the lakes. They were both all about heading down to San Carlos and tropical trips. We wanted to dive more often than just trips to Mexico and started heading to Phoenix to dive the lakes. Lake Pleasant was about a 3 hour drive for us (we lived on the east side of Tucson). We quickly became the red headed step child because of that. We ended up dealing more with a couple of Phoenix area shops after that.

Keep in mind, this was all 2007 and before. Both shops could be completely different now.

 

[koozemani]

Steve posted some great information. Here's some additional information more specific to Tucson and the local dive shops. First, I can't comment on Planet Scuba because they weren't in business when I lived there (I moved in 2007). The Dive Shop was more of a family oriented dive shop when we lived there. They hosted trips to San Carlos, but also to a semi-private beach about an hour north of San Carlos where you camped out on the beach and got to dive a couple of shallow coves all weekend. The trips were a lot of fun and the coves were full of life. Desert Divers seemed to cater more to the college kids. We stopped in at the shop a few times but never got a great vibe from them. That's not to say they aren't a good shop. They just weren't what we were looking for. Neither shop was interested in diving the lakes. They were both all about heading down to San Carlos and tropical trips. We wanted to dive more often than just trips to Mexico and started heading to Phoenix to dive the lakes. Lake Pleasant was about a 3 hour drive for us (we lived on the east side of Tucson). We quickly became the red headed step child because of that. We ended up dealing more with a couple of Phoenix area shops after that.

Keep in mind, this was all 2007 and before. Both shops could be completely different now.

Planet Scuba is located at Desert Divers former location. I believe the came about in the fall of 2010. I've only been up to Lake Pleasant once to finish off a cert. if you need to dive, lake pleasant is a cheap option that can be a day trip, but its not for me. I like good vis and plenty to see. But like diveaholic said, the Tucson shops don't head up there all that often. Then again, there's no need for them to, just grab your gear and head up there.

 

[narcedoutscuba]

Work is sending us to Tuscon so we should be in the area for the next 3-4 years
Thanks for all the information. I like to dive as much as I can. One or two trips to mexico just wouldn't do it for me. That is the problem I have up here, most divers will only dive from May to October or go on a trip once or twice a year. So for me, From November to April I'm mostly Solo Diving
Thanks again
Alex

 

[scubajcf]

A great dive community in Tucson. Highly recommend the folks at Planet Scuba! Check them out.