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21.04.2021 16:38:19
We may think we’ve got to travel great distances for great dives, but there are plenty of exceptional sites in our own backyard. Here are some of the top places to dive in the United States.
See full version: Top Places to Scuba Dive in the United States
We may think we’ve got to travel great distances for great dives, but there are plenty of exceptional sites in our own backyard. Here are some of the top places to dive in the United States.
If you’re an intermediate diver who likes sharks and wrecks, Morehead, North Carolina will deliver. Local dive shops conduct day-long charters to the Spar, a sunken 180-foot USCG cutter that is very much intact at 110 feet (34 m). The site is also easy to navigate for those interested in penetration training. And while there are never any guarantees, you are likely to see anywhere between five and 20 sand-tiger sharks, also called “raggies.” Although the raggies are not overly curious, they generally stick around and make for an exhilarating dive. The sharks are drawn here by the Gulf Stream, which delivers an abundance of prey with no need to chum or use other artificial feeding methods. Other nearby wrecks include the Aeolus, Papoose, Atlas, and Caribsea all well-known hangouts for raggies. more
Although the currents here are no joke, the diving is worth it. Fort Casey State Park is your entry point where the 250-foot (76 m) Keystone Jetty hosts a wall blanketed with white anemones. You’ve also got a good chance to spot the giant Pacific octopus out of its den here. Other cold-water dwellers you might find on this 45-foot (14 m) dive include wolf eels, lingcod, rockfish, decorator and mossy-head war bonnets, as well as a variety of nudibranchs. Visibility is 10 to 50 feet (3 to 15 m) and the water temperature is 45 to 52 F (7 to 11 C) degrees, so a drysuit is a must. [links]
If you’re lucky, you could even catch a glimpse of spinner dolphins, whales, hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, and manta rays among the colorful small species. more
Thanks to a wealth of shallow waters boasting interesting things to see, Dry Tortugas is ideal for those dipping their toes into the world of snorkeling for the first time too.
No mention of dive sites is complete without this top destination that attracts divers from around the world.
Some of the top spots for day time diving in Hawaii include: here
Both for diving and for snorkeling your nose is blocked by the mask you are wearing, so you are forced to breath though your mouth. Unless you chose to wear a combined ‘mask-snorkel’, where you can still breath though your nose too.
PADI refer to their course as ‘Skin Diving and Snorkeling.’ They explain the activity as a great way to explore the underwater world when you’re not able to scuba dive or if scuba diving just isn’t your thing.
Mostly when you snorkel, or certainly I recommend this, you will have fins on your feet. Fins will propel you through the water much faster. So you save your energy. Plus fins will also help you to dive down under the water with ease too.
The main limitation of diving is the length of time your air will last. So where this can be improved, the length of your dive will increase. Not only is diving expensive, but it is also great fun too, so making the most of each and every dive is important.
Currents present the greatest challenge to the uninitiated. Those unfamiliar with pinpointing slack tides should dive with an instructor. Then it’s a cakewalk through one of the most common places to encounter a giant Pacific octopus out of its den, cruising around. Put in at Fort Casey State Park to dive the jetty, home to a wall blanketed with white anemones. This small area is habitat to a wide variety of cold-water curiosities, including wolf eels, huge lingcod, rockfish, decorator war bonnets, mossy-head war bonnets and every local variety of nudibranch. One of the biggest highlights — literally — is a “lingcod the size of a Volkswagen bus,” says Charlynn Andrews, owner of Gone Diving. Because of the dense marine life, dive slowly and look in every nook to reap the full benefit of what this site offers. [links]
“This rivals any jelly diving you can do in the world,” says Mike Lever, owner of the Nautilus Explorer (which, unfortunately, no longer offers this itinerary, so you'll have to find a land-based dive operator to get you to the site). “Massive columns of moon jellies extend 80 feet deep,” he says of what is found at a Baranof Island site known simply as the jellyfish dive, first found with guest and underwater cinematographer Howard Hall in 2008. Like the famous jellies in Palau’s Jellyfish Lake, these similarly sized jellyfish too are harmless. (The waters are slightly colder than Palau’s lake, however.) “It’s a solid organic mass,” says Lever, adding that “the topside scenery is beyond anything you can imagine: a high-sided fjord with a snow-covered glacier, waterfalls and grizzly bears. What can I say? Alaska is very much an adventure.” [links]
The Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area allows no more than 30 divers a day; reservations can be made up to 60 days in advance. The restrictions may prove a challenge for impromptu types, but the reward is a pristine playground. “There’s so much there you won’t see in Monterey Bay,” including harbor seals, abalone, leopard sharks and rock cod, says Glenn Bernasconi, owner of the Aquarius II Dive Shop. Conditions can be favorable year-round; navigation is always easy, as rock formations run parallel to the U-shaped cove’s beaches. When visibility extends to 80 feet, encounters will be all the more memorable. “You can see leopard sharks swimming through sand channels; normally they get spooked when you get close, but with good viz, you’re far enough away.”
Three miles off Hawaii’s Kona Coast, dive “black water” where odd and bioluminescent creatures emerge from the depths, like this planktonic larval left-eyed flounder.
Looking for more local diving? Visit the U.S. and Canada section of our website.