New to Scuba in NYC

June 24, 2013 12:43 PM

[Scuba filter] I live in NYC and received my PADI open water certification this weekend (woo!). I'm interested in weekend dive trips for beginners.

As I mentioned above the fold, I received my open water certification the other day. Now I'm eager to get diving. I have a trip planned to Florida in a few weeks. I'm interested in taking advantage of the ocean in my backyard. I know that Wreck Valley is supposedly a popular spot. I think there are supposed to be some good spots in NJ as well. However, I've heard though of NY/NJ diving as being equivalent to the "Mount Everest" of diving, due to the temperature, boat traffic, visibility, etc. Not sure how true this is.

Anyway, key points: looking for beginner dives accessible by those living in NYC without cars, looking to meet other divers to buddy with, etc. Please educate me! Specific dive shops, clubs, ships, meetups, etc. would be helpful as well. Anecdotally, I've looked at a bunch of dive shops and clubs and it seems like most of the offerings are catered towards trips towards more exotic locations, which is something that I unfortunately can't afford to make a frequent habit of.

posted by prunes to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

"... However, I've heard though of NY/NJ diving as being equivalent to the "Mount Everest" of diving, due to the temperature, boat traffic, visibility, etc. Not sure how true this is. ..."

I got my Open Water PADI card many years ago in the Boston area, and did many New England area dives, of all sorts, including some wreck dives, beach entry dives, and even some volunteer time spent up in Maine helping with lobster census studies. And generally, for most recreational divers, what you've heard, compared to diving in better locales like the Caribbean, is absolutely true. In your area, not only do you have the disincentives you mention, but you also generally deal with higher tides and stronger currents than people in more southerly climes, and you see a far smaller variety of interesting sea life for your troubles. A lot of my New England dives were in summertime waters that still required 1/4" neoprene wet suits, with hoods and gloves, minimum, to get down on dive targets at 60 feet or so, where I'd find visibility of 3 to 6 feet or so, and maybe see a blue fish and a few scallops, if I was lucky. Coming up, I found myself, more than once, riding 3 or 4 foot swells, for 10 minutes or more, while waiting for pickup by the dive boat, which was enough for me to get seasick (and I've never, otherwise, been motion sick on boats, airplanes, or any other conveyance or in any other setting).

If you're a recreational diver, I think you'll find diving in warm water so much more pleasant and interesting, that you'll quickly come to budget differently, and spend your money on dive trips to those areas, if you don't wind up moving to such locales, as I have. Depending on where you go in Florida, I think you may be amazed by the volume and variety of sea life you see on most dives (and the old timers will consistently tell you that what you're seeing is but a pale shadow of what they used to see!). You'll find that there are many places where shallow 20 and 30 foot dives put you on interesting bottom structure, reefs, wrecks, or artificial reefs, with excellent water clarity, such that you can sometimes do credible underwater photography with only minimal flash or other lighting. And such shallow diving also means more time on your dives, with a lot better safety and less technical elements in your dive planning and execution. And night dives in warm water locales, particular around established reef structures, are really worth doing.

I can understand your interest in diving in the NYC area, and I'm not trying to discourage you. I think you should try some of it, for yourself, just to have the experiences. But I don't envy you those experiences, at all...
posted by paulsc at 2:16 PM on June 24, 2013

Dutch Springs is a former quarry now filled with a variety of vehicles and aircraft. It's in PA, about 90 minutes west of NYC. There's no current, but it's COLD. I wore 7mm Farmer John wetsuit, hood, and gloves in August but could still barely cross the second thermocline. If I still lived nearby I'd think hard about getting drysuit certified.

Kunuku Dive in Alpha, NJ was a good place to rent gear ten years ago.
posted by djb at 6:28 PM on June 24, 2013

Came in to recommend Dutch Springs as well. That's where I got certified (in May, because I wanted to get it done before a big trip). And because it was May, I *had* to also get certified in a drysuit, because it was so cold. Wasn't that difficult though, so if you want to dive in the northeast, I'd recommend getting drysuit certified anyway!
posted by Grither at 3:53 AM on June 25, 2013