Recommend US Warm Water Non-Trimix Beginner Wrecks

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Call Discovery Diving in Morehead City North Carolina. Plenty od Fun to be had out there in warm water. Most wrecks between 60 and 130 feet. You will love it there. You may need to also check around Morehead for other providers if they can't get you the helium. I know they do EANX but not sure about Tri Mix
 
Sounds like you need to come visit me again :D

SoFL: Castor (Boynton Beach) - some penetration (kicking currents though),
Mispah (WPB)- drift dive (85 ft or so) - mostly lots of swim throughs - I taught alot of AOW classes to noobs on this wreck. Both have oodles of goliaths.
There are also some wrecks up in Jupiter as well.
HydroAtlantic (on my do list)
FL Keys: Vandenberg, Speigel Grove, Duane

I know your predilection for mal-de-mer
Panhandle: Oriskany (on my do list) - long boat ride :vomit:
NC - lots of cool wrecks cold water (also on my do list) and longer boat rides :vomit:

Cold water but nearest to you: San Diego - Yukon (51deg wet not fun, dry suit actually very do-able).
Also Ruby E (not much to penetrate 85-90') but looks like a pretty parade float of pink anemones.
 
:huh: Erm, I always liked O2% = 1.4 / PATA.

But probably 160' until I can get some experience.

Jax... I'm not biting. :no:

Seriously, I'm guessing you are looking for extended bottom times in what, the 130' range? NC has some good wrecks but I think you'd be too cold. I concur re S FL... there's a lot to see there, I could spend weeks on the wrecks in the Keys alone. Plus you have friends there! In both Key Largo and the West Palm Beach area, that I know of LOL!
 
Your best bang for the buck would to be to stay at wrecks that are within recreational limits and extend the bottom time. For instance a wreck like the speigel grove that has tons of penetration above 130 feet. You could do this dive for 45 min on 32% and have less than 30 minutes of deco if you use two gases. As opposed to the Hydro Atlantic where penetration is mostly at 165+, now you are diving air because of depth and your stipulation of no trimix. Now you have cut your bottom time to 20 minutes to stay within your 30 minute deco limit and are diving air at 165ft. Not a good plan or pay off in my mind. Stay shallower and get the better bottom time and use of nitrox. Save the Hydro for mix.

Go to the keys where you have the spiegel, the Dwayne, the Bibb and the Eagle all recreational depths with penetration options.
 
+1 What Kim said on depths vs run time.

:idea: So Kate, Kim and bring Terry and with Jax we'll make a gals wreck trek :D
 
Not in the US but I just read a post by diverjay regarding the west wall of Grand Cayman where you go as deep as you want with no thermoclines and spend Deco time on the Kittiwake wreck.
 
I'll assume you were not serious about wreck penetration at 160' on nitrox since it's a really really bad idea at any experinece level.

If you are talking about "fall" as in right now, NC is still fairly warm off shore in the gulf stream. The weather is less predictable, but you can still have some great days in October and November.

The common touristy wrecks with regular boat runs to them are mostly in the 100-110' range and some, like the Spar, would be great for penetration training. The Indra also offers a lot of poenetration possibilites, and as an earlier artificial reef project it is a lot less clean with cables hanging from the overhead, etc. It is however an inshore wreck with lower viz and colder water temps - probably 60-65 degeees now.

You can also charter a 6 pack and that will expand the potential wrecks and the depth range substantially and would be more training freindly than one of the larger recreational oriented dive boats.

South Florida is very nice given the number of artifical reefs (read in tact, farily clean, easy to penetrate), warm water and the close in nature of the wrecks (short boat ride and 8am-9am departures rather than the 5:30-6am NC departure times.)
 
When the Mispah gets to be easy for you to penetrate, the Castor or the Hydro are the next 2 to plan on, in that order...the Castor is more like 118 at bottom I think, and the Hydro at 165 or so....but I do NOT think you should be playing with penetrating the hydro without Trimix... If you have to penetrate the hydro, I will loan you one of my tanks :-)

As opposed to the Hydro Atlantic where penetration is mostly at 165+, now you are diving air because of depth and your stipulation of no trimix. Now you have cut your bottom time to 20 minutes to stay within your 30 minute deco limit and are diving air at 165ft. Not a good plan or pay off in my mind. Stay shallower and get the better bottom time and use of nitrox. Save the Hydro for mix.
I have nothing against deep air. I do it myself routinely. However I have to agree with Dan, Kim and the others on this. The difference here is the familiarity factor. For you and I, aliens to Florida, these wrecks are brand new dives with current dynamics we've never experienced and unforseen challenges in totally new settings. In Florida I've done the Hydro, the DeWitt Clinton (I met Kim on that dive), and the Spiegel Grove. I did the Hydro and the Clinton on mix. We did multiple deck penetrations. I did the Spiegel Grove on air. No penetrations on the Grove, not just because of the lack of mix, but also because I had an insta buddy with 12 dives of experience. I don't think it would have been prudent of me to penetrate the Hydro or the Clinton on air. I go deeper air on wall dives here in my local western Canada waters. But even though these waters are colder, darker, and usually have less visibility, I am very familiarized with the sites. I can practically navigate them blind (have done so in about 5 ft vis). I now where to expect current surges. And there are no physical overheads and less entaglement opportunities. Penetration on a wreck at 165' where I've never been before is another challenge. A clear head is a prudent choice for such challenge.

In addition to the Grove, I also want add a couple of names of wrecks I've looked into doing on my next trips to Florida: The Deep Freeze, The Ophelia Brian. I think the Freeze is at 130ft and the Ophelia is at 100ft. Both are in the Miami area, and I've seen both advertised as recreational dives on Miami dive shops.

All my dives in Florida have been with just a 2mm shorty, even when going to 160' for 30 mins in early January. However, people say I have a good tolerance to cold. And no, I'm not nickel rocketing dry suits away. I do have two and have carried one in trips like the time I intended to do some dives in the Boston area. I just feel there's so much more freedom when you wear less plastic over you.

Also, I, like you, am prone to motion sickness. I got very sick on my trip to the Grove. I did manage to maintain trim and depth while doing the 15' stop with my buddy and spewing out my guts timing each hurl to happen as I took the reg out of my mouth only to put it back in after the hurl and grab a gasp of air in preparation for the next cycle. I know you can spew through your reg, but I would rather not have it happen to my babies. Just make sure you take the proper dosage of motion sickness medication.
 
Jax, IMO the Spiegel is the best wreck penetration training / practice ground in the USA. Very strong structurally, lots of long straight fairly silt-less passages at 70 - 110' levels. Warm water, usually good sea conditions.

Of course the other (and more important) aspect of wreck penetration is the ascent / deco. On the Spiegel you can practice coming up the line, using a john line, drifting off the wreck with a very predictable heading for the crew to follow etc.

The Pompano wrecks are also good and seem to have no current whenever I go up there (yes, I know thats not normal :))

The hydro has to be the easiest engine room penetration ever on a wreck of its size.

Same
 
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