Planning a NC dive trip in October and need advice

[OrlandoRogue]

Hi! I'm a Florida girl who is planning on hitting your part of the country at the beginning of October. My friend from Colorado and I will be visiting for a long weekend, so I wanted some insider tips on the best places to dive during our visit. I have read some literature on diving near Morehead City as well as parts of the Outer Banks, but I need your advice on where I can get the biggest bang for my buck-the most marinelife, best viz, best dive operations, etc. Also, we were thinking of renting a beach house or similar during that time, so any advice on the best locations (and restaurants, etc) would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your suggestions and feedback. I'll be glad to host you on a Florida dive if any of you make it down here...

 

[Lead_carrier]

Discovery Diving and Olympus Dive Center websites both have a lot of info on the wrecks they dive and what each wreck has to offer. Often they have sites pre planned so you already have that chose for you. It is just a matter of whether you want to dive those sites or not. I know that there are plenty of Lionfish floating around right now. Beautiful to look at but a real pain to hold.

 

[dwright]

I'm partial to the Morehead City / Atlantic Beach area for many reasons not to mention I have family there Olympus and Discovery both run good trips, but my favorite operation is Diver Down The only problem with them is getting a spot on the boat as it's usually booked in advance. Rental prices are noticeably cheaper in this area vs. the Hatteras area.

Most of the dives here are generally in the 100ft range..give or take. The Indra which is an inshore artificial reef is only about 70fsw and the Naeco which is pretty far out is about 140fsw. The U-352, Papoose, Schurz are from 100-115fsw. This is world class diving and we have clear blue gulf water that runs in the mid to upper 70's on the bottom.

I'm always down there diving so PM me and let me know which dates you'll be there and maybe I can show you guys around a bit