relocating...advice?

[munkispank]

hello there y'all,
I will be relocating from the florida conch club to your NC divers club in August. Can anyone tell me what the dives are like off the coast?- I am specifically wondering about how long the boat rides out are, and how scheduling goes. (do you have to organize way in advance, what time in the AM do boats leave, size of baots etc)
Is it mostly drift diving out there?
I deciding whether to sell my tanks before leaving florida, or bring them with me.

thanks in advance for any info- oh BTW I will be moving to Burlington (nr greensboro/raleigh)

 

[Jason B]

Welcome to NC (well, soon anyway). Don't sell your tanks! World class wreck diving here. We are the closest land mass to the gulf stream other than the southern part of your state (FLA). The boat rides can vary depending on how far out you want to go. 30 minutes to 2+ hours. Lots of them (wrecks). Good marine life. Barracuda, sharks, queen angels, butterfly fish, lion fish...you get the idea. There are plenty of charter operations. Not really any drift diving. As for boats, you can find anything from a 6 pack on up.

 

[munkispank]

cool- thanks-sounds good. I have trawled around on here to check for particular recommendations, it all sounds good to me!!!
I will have to change my chant from go bucs to go panthers though right???

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

well to tell you the truth the weather is sometime unpredictable off the coast and rides can be rough but when everything goes right some great diving and warm in summer.
visability most simmer time is 60 to 100 feet with temps 80 most of summer or above.
as far as diving yes sometime can be little hard finding dive operator but like most us old timers we call them up and they get us spots if there anyway possible.
or we use some of the newer faster growing dive operators .like
http://www.dolphindivecharter.com/
capt tuck is excellent and most time have opening and most time will take you out even tech dives if you want.

 

[hex92]

You only will have to sell your tanks if they are < 100 ft3. The good dives are deeper off NC. ~100ft for most of the offshore trips. 2+ hours each way and it seems like every time I go I get beat up by mother nature.

The diving is EXCELLENT tho'. Great vis, tons of fish, sharks, etc. Two weeks ago I was on a wreck (Caribe Sea) I had barracuda zinging past me (within inches), 6 sand tigers within sight, thousands of bait fish all around , and then had a ray with an 8 ft wing span cruise over. This was all in the same spot.

Oh yeah...On the hang bar a pod of 9 spotted dolphins showed up and swam around me a few times.

NC diving rocks! :dazzler1: :07: