Southold Town Beach, Long Island, NY

[TheOtherCraig]

Season is starting to wind down for me and my wet diving buddy! We are plannig a few more dives for this month. One we are eagerly anticipating is at Southold Town Beach. We've done a couple dive off the East side of the beach had great dives. Not much in the way of depth (12' avg) but the abundance and variety of life is amazing. Perfect for photo hounds like us! We have heard there are a couple of small wrecks, pleasure craft probably, on the West side of the boat ramp. Depths are reportedly a little deeper too. Just wondering if anyone has made this dive and could give us an idea of what to expect. Thanks to all who respond!

 

[ScottyK]

Season is starting to wind down for me and my wet diving buddy! We are plannig a few more dives for this month. One we are eagerly anticipating is at Southold Town Beach. We've done a couple dive off the East side of the beach had great dives. Not much in the way of depth (12' avg) but the abundance and variety of life is amazing. Perfect for photo hounds like us! We have heard there are a couple of small wrecks, pleasure craft probably, on the West side of the boat ramp. Depths are reportedly a little deeper too. Just wondering if anyone has made this dive and could give us an idea of what to expect. Thanks to all who respond!

I have not had the pleasure of diving the town beach. As far as I know, no one who posts here has ever reported diving there either. Give it a try, and post a trip report with some of your pics of it's nice.

We were just diving in Southold this morning. Did a fish feeding and had a great time. There is still a lot of marine life to see.

Enjoy,
Scott

 

[CaptSaaz]

Wrong thread

 

[TheOtherCraig]

Well Scotty, we have done three dives at the town beach already but we recently heard there were some pleasure craft wrecks off the far West side of the beach. We have photos too, I'll try to post a couple in the near future.

To CaptSaaz: Don't know if you meant this thread is in the wrong place, but I was under the impression any diving done in my locale would fall under the rather generous title of Wreck Valley. If you have a suggestion regarding a more appropriate thread for posts like this, please let me know. Happy diving!

 

[ScottyK]

LOL- I don't think Captsaaz's post had anything to do with you Craig. Once you post something on Scubaboard, you can edit it, but not delete it entirely. I think he meant he answered the wrong thread, and since he couldn't delete it, he wrote "wrong thread" to indicate his error.

FYI- The generally accepted definition of "Wreck Valley" is the continental Atlantic from the eastern tip of Long Island to the southern edge of New Jersey. For purposes of our club, it covers all of NY, NJ and PA.

Either way, your post falls well within the range of this forum.

Scott

 

[TheOtherCraig]

LOL- Oh, as you can see, I'm new here! I kinda figured that's what happened but wasn't sure! Thanks for definig Wreck Valley for me Scotty. I'm hoping we actually get to diving some wrecks next season. We're going for Rescue soon, I want to add Nitrox and Wreck specialties as well. Ever been to Dogfish Scuba? It's right in Nesconset. It's run by a couple of guys, one (Gus) who used to run a shop in Riverhead and also used to be an instructor at Divers Way. Nice folks there, and pretty close to home too. I tried ti upload some photos from our beach dives but got a server error. I'll try again in a bit. Thanks again for your reply.

 

[ScottyK]

Hey Craig,

Yes, I've been to Dogfish Scuba. I live right around the block, and they are very nice. I was also in their Riverhead store, and remember Gus from Divers Way too. That's where I bought my first set of gear back in 1997

I try to give Dogfish what business I can. They have a very basic gear selection, and I am technically a bit beyond what they have to offer. They were also a bit pricey on fills. BTW- do you know if they do Nitrox fills yet?

Scott

 

[CaptSaaz]

Hey guys.. yeah I typed my response in the wrong thread and there is no delete so just ignore it. Would like to do some shore diving myself with some experienced local people, I'm in Islip btw. My work schedule sucks this time of year but if you are looking for a another diver, I can usually free up Saturday mornings. I can do some middle of the week diving if so inclined.

Where is Dogfish Scuba in Lake Grove? I've been going to LI Scuba in Lindenhurst. Ralph from Diver's Way is one of the owners there. Also went into Ocean Rock the other day since it's near work. Except for some wet suits and odds and ends, they really don't have much in the way of equipment. Are they more of just a training facility?

 

[ScottyK]

We are trying to get a few of us together for a dive this Saturday, and you are both welcome to join us.

Captsaaz- Dogfish is on route 347 near the Smith Haven mall. Coming from Islip, you are probably better off with Ocean Rock. It's closer and Dogfish is actually a little smaller, and as I mentioned above, a fill will cost you more at Dogfish.

It's been too long since I received any training through Ocean Rock to give any rating as to how good they are. The guy who I trained with there has been gone for a long time.


I don't know how married you two are to a particular shop, but it pays to look around. For equipment maintenance and better gear selection, Hampton Dive is great. They are very knowledgeable and I feel comfortable letting them service my gear. For training they are also very good. I wouldn't make a major purchase anywhere on the island. All the shops here are way overpriced.

I can also help you out with another option for training. One of our members and his girlfriend are both PADI instructors. They can arrange private lessons or small groups for substantially less than any shop, and you don't have to take the class with 12 strangers.

For obvious reasons, contact me privately through a PM if this is of interest.

We will work on the Saturday thing as soon as this weekends forecast becomes more clear.

Scott

Another option

 

[TheOtherCraig]

Hi Scott,

For us, we're not really set on doing business with one particular LDS. In fact we visit quite a few that you mentioned including Hampton Dive. That one was kind of a fluke though. I needed a hood ASAP. Diver Bob set me up with one of the new style Henderson with a bib. It is so thin but keeps me quite warm in even the coldest water temps. To Bob's credit, he knew I was in a fix and could have steered me toward a more pricey hood me being so 'wet behind the ears'...sorry bout that but I ended up with a great product and confidence in him. Another shop we use often is Soundview Scuba in Greenport. We started going there for the obvious reason, we do most of our beach dives out there. Now we just like Rich, the owner and his staff and Rich is very good about treating his returning customers very fairly if you know what I mean. He is the one who recommended Southold Town Beach to us as a dive site. Nice guy. By the way, have you guys ever done kayak diving? This is something that intrigues Kris and I and we plan on giving it a try next season.

Hi Captsaaz! I have to agree with Scott, Dogfish is a small shop with a limited selection but for relative newbies like you and I, its a decent place to shop. I have to mention one particular purchase I still can't believe I made there. I had lost the compass out of my Suunto console up at Dutch Springs in May. Shopped around locally for a replacement, asked in Dogfish. They had two used Suunto consoles complete with Vyper computers on consignment. We bought both. Downloaded the Vyper manual from the Suunto website, studied it for a week and I can't belive how amazing this computer is and now I see what they go for new. A real steal @ $100.00 each. Kind of makes me feel better about how much I spent on gear at Tiedemann's Dive Center in Levittown, where we trained OW and AOW.

I apologize to both of you for the length of this reply but I have alot on my mind- LOL!

I just looked at the forecast for Saturday, looks damp and chilly, perfect for a dive or two! Seems for Kris and I its becoming a tradition to begin and end our season in this kind of weather! We are definitely planning to dive Saturday and Friday too. If you guys make plans, please PM me and maybe we can hook up. Thanks!

Craig