North Carolina Outer Banks

[BouzoukiJoe A.K.A. wrecker130 AKA Chuck Norris AKA joeforbroke (banned)]

Originally Posted by DarinMartell

Shore diving was not on my list this trip, now it's REALLY not on the list! I LOVE the Atlantic! I have been going to Daytona, Cocoa & Jensen beaches my whole life (just never dove it). I would never underestimate the ocean.

The beach dives are not so bad, IF you know what you're doing. I was clueless. But even then, had I followed the rules I learned in OW - mask on, reg in mouth, while in the water it would have still been embarassing but would not have been life threatening. I guess it shows what complacency can do.

[setesh]

I just found out I'm going to the outer banks July 18th-20th for a friends wedding. We will likely stay about 5 days. My first thought was "WRECK DIVES!!!!" but after ready Joes's post I'm thinking it might be worth driving down to Lulubelle's neck of the woods for the visibility, warmth, and less powerfull currents. I'm not comfortable enough with my skills yet to take on strong currents and low visibility.
I've only done 2 wreck dives, the Sea Tiger and the YO-257, both in Oahu. The Sea Tiger was awesome and we had great visability for both. I would really like to do more wreck dives like that. Can that be had in your area Lullabell?
I've done several shore dives in rough surf and am pretty comfortable with that, but would prefer a boat dive, especially since it avoids the long surface swims.
Here are my answers to the same questions Joe asked earlier:

Do you have experience in currents and seas? Currents, not really. I have been on boat dives in 5' swells and medium (2 knot) midwatter currents. Had to keep a good hold on the anchor line, but only a very mild current once you got to the wreck.
Do you have good navigation skills? I would say average. I can find my way back close to the entry point using only a compass, but it really helps to have topography to follow too (sand ripples, coral formations, etc).
Do you like long boat rides? No. That comes from getting seasick. Scop patches kept me from getting sick last time I was on a ~4 hour boat ride, so maybe it would be fine, but I don't enjoy the ride so I would rather not if I don't have to.
Do you own your own gear, including tanks? I own everything but tanks (excluding a 19cf pony). We will be flying so taking tanks would be inconvenient anyway
Are you nitrox certified? No, but I want to be.
Are you comfortable diving with sharks and other large creatures? I would LOVE to dive with sharks. All I've come across so far are nurse sharks.
Do you know how to plan repetitive dives to 100-120 ft? Yes.
Do you know how much gas you would need? I've lost 35 pounds since my last dive and I'm in MUCH better shape now. I need to go get a tank and determine my SAC. In fact, I'm going to do that next week now that I thought about it.
Do you know how to make a negative entry? I have only done it twice, but it was no big deal.
Are you in decent shape? I've worked out 3+ times a week (treadmill or jogging mixed with weightlifting) for the last 9+ months, and I'm in pretty good shape now.
Do you have dive accident insurance? Yes, DAN.
Would you remain calm while drifting for an hour in the open Atlantic far from the boat? I wouldn't panic but I wouldn't be having a good time either. I have all the normal saftey signaling gear in case I need it.

I will need to rent tanks and find an group to go with. Hiring a DM would also be a good option especially if I don't get my Nitrox training by then (I likely won't have).
So what do you think? Should I head down south or would inshore diving on the outer banks be worth looking into? Thanks!

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by setesh

I just found out I'm going to the outer banks July 18th-20th for a friends wedding. My first thought was "WRECK DIVES!!!!" but after ready Joes's post I'm thinking it might be worth driving down to Lulubelle's neck of the woods for the visibility, warmth, and less powerfull currents. I'm not comfortable enough with my skills yet to take on strong currents and low visibility.

I would really like to do more wreck dives like that. Can that be had in your area Lullabell?

Hi Setesh, WOW, what a good mood I am in watching my TarHeels in the big dance. But I digress.

Where in the OBX will you be? It is a long and winding coastline, so your answer will help me counsel you a bit better.

Based on what you state regarding your experience, I think you would be OK diving here. I would recommend that you find an experienced buddy familiar with the conditions here or have the DM dive with you. I went right out of OW into our deep diving here. With a VERY experienced buddy. But I grew up on this coastline, am part fish, and I think that makes a bit of a difference.

The weather and sea conditions are quite variable even South of Cape Lookout, Joe's point was simply that they trend towards being a bit better, more diver friendly, and have a bit less current to deal with. I have not been diving in the northern outer banks, but I don't know any divers, regardless of experience, who prefer the diving there. Not knowing the conditions in Oahu, it is hard for me to make a comparison. I will say that one takes one's chances a bit when diving anywhere in NC, sometimes the conditions are favorable and the boats go out, sometimes not.

Speaking of boats, that part is unavoidable. There isn't anything to dive from the beach here, and the inshore dives are not my favorite. So you are looking at at 2 hour boat ride in each direction. Bonine works, take it.

Lastly, I'd really recommend that you do your nitrox prior, you can find the time before July. I had someone do mine with me in a couple of hours. Most ops here use 30% due to the depths we dive. For me it makes a sig difference in bottom time, how quickly I recover, etc. I'm not interested in doing anything beyond rec limits though.

I don't know at this point whether or not I can be down there that weekend or I would offer to buddy with you. I will be down there the entire week/weekend after July 4th with the extended family so it is iffy whether or not I will come down there again that soon.

Bouz Joe may have more to add, he has more experience diving the whole coast.

Oh, and GO HEELS

[setesh]

Hi Setesh, WOW, what a good mood I am in watching my TarHeels in the big dance. But I digress.

LOL, I'm glad they are doing well! I don't have a team of my own so I'll route for your Heels too!

Where in the OBX will you be? It is a long and winding coastline, so your answer will help me counsel you a bit better.

The wedding is in Manteo, so we plan on staying somewhere close to there, at least for a few days. We will be flying into Newport News or Norfolk on the 17th or 18th and driving down to Monteo. There is a rehearsal dinner on the 18th and the wedding is on the 19th. After that we are free to go whereever. My wife doesn't dive, but she enjoys the boat ride and usually snorkels on the surface where there are reefs to look at. If there's nothing to look at she reads on the boat.

Speaking of boats, that part is unavoidable. There isn't anything to dive from the beach here, and the inshore dives are not my favorite. So you are looking at at 2 hour boat ride in each direction. Bonine works, take it.

A 2 hour boat trip each way isn't too bad. I'm used to ~1 hour each way and I don't think 2 hours would be bad. I wouldn't want to do 8 hours round trip if I didn't have to though.

Lastly, I'd really recommend that you do your nitrox prior, you can find the time before July. I had someone do mine with me in a couple of hours. Most ops here use 30% due to the depths we dive. For me it makes a sig difference in bottom time, how quickly I recover, etc. I'm not interested in doing anything beyond rec limits though.

OK, I'll do that. I have been wanting to anyway. My comp is Nitrox ready too, so that will help.

I don't know at this point whether or not I can be down there that weekend or I would offer to buddy with you. I will be down there the entire week/weekend after July 4th with the extended family so it is iffy whether or not I will come down there again that soon.

That would be awesome if you do end up going back down, and I really appreciate the offer! I'm not very experienced, but I'll stick to you like glue and take any advice / orders you give me.

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by setesh

Hi Setesh, WOW, what a good mood I am in watching my TarHeels in the big dance. But I digress.

LOL, I'm glad they are doing well! I don't have a team of my own so I'll route for your Heels too!

Where in the OBX will you be? It is a long and winding coastline, so your answer will help me counsel you a bit better.

The wedding is in Manteo, so we plan on staying somewhere close to there, at least for a few days. We will be flying into Newport News or Norfolk on the 17th or 18th and driving down to Monteo. There is a rehearsal dinner on the 18th and the wedding is on the 19th. After that we are free to go whereever. My wife doesn't dive, but she enjoys the boat ride and usually snorkels on the surface where there are reefs to look at. If there's nothing to look at she reads on the boat.

Speaking of boats, that part is unavoidable. There isn't anything to dive from the beach here, and the inshore dives are not my favorite. So you are looking at at 2 hour boat ride in each direction. Bonine works, take it.

A 2 hour boat trip each way isn't too bad. I'm used to ~1 hour each way and I don't think 2 hours would be bad. I wouldn't want to do 8 hours round trip if I didn't have to though.

Lastly, I'd really recommend that you do your nitrox prior, you can find the time before July. I had someone do mine with me in a couple of hours. Most ops here use 30% due to the depths we dive. For me it makes a sig difference in bottom time, how quickly I recover, etc. I'm not interested in doing anything beyond rec limits though.

OK, I'll do that. I have been wanting to anyway. My comp is Nitrox ready too, so that will help.

I don't know at this point whether or not I can be down there that weekend or I would offer to buddy with you. I will be down there the entire week/weekend after July 4th with the extended family so it is iffy whether or not I will come down there again that soon.

That would be awesome if you do end up going back down, and I really appreciate the offer! I'm not very experienced, but I'll stick to you like glue and take any advice / orders you give me.

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I only have 36 dives under my belt myself. I still look for buddies with more experience than I have. I'm just fine in our waters, but I have a limited repetoire of "adverse events" that I have dealt with underwater. Looks mighty different when you are 120 feet under. I am well aware of what I don't know yet.

Many of the ops operate daily between mid June and the end of August, so you should not have a problem finding space. The bigger issue could be if you are diving on a weekday and not enough folks are signed up, the boat won't go out.

Manteo to Morehead is a 3-4 hour drive. Wilmington will be a HAUL. There is also an airport in New Bern to fly out of if you wish about an hour away from Morehead. Most would keep on going to Raleigh and fly out of there. But check it out.

As for your wife, there is not a darn thing to look at in the water when the wreck is 100 plus feet down. And as for sitting on the boat after bouncing around for 2 hours, I don't know. If I was her, I'd go enjoy a nice beach (Fort Macon has public access and is nice) or one of our lovely coastal towns like Beaufort.

All of the ops in morehead are good. I like the crew of Diver Down a lot, most of their stuff is charters. Discovery and Olympus both have more boats that are not chartered, i.e. more folks like yourself who are looking for buddies and such.

Have fun and be very careful.

L

WHOO HOO< 12 points up

[Lulubelle]

Setesh, when you call the ops, you might want to establish up front what their requirements are for your dive experience. It might be AOW or higher, a healthy dive log, or an experienced buddy. I'm sure if you hire the DM you will be fine.

I took the plunge here on dive 7. But my buddy had 500 dives and was well known by all of the ops. So they were fine with me going out.

[setesh]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I only have 36 dives under my belt myself. I still look for buddies with more experience than I have. I'm just fine in our waters, but I have a limited repetoire of "adverse events" that I have dealt with underwater. Looks mighty different when you are 120 feet under. I am well aware of what I don't know yet.

Many of the ops operate daily between mid June and the end of August, so you should not have a problem finding space. The bigger issue could be if you are diving on a weekday and not enough folks are signed up, the boat won't go out.

Manteo to Morehead is a 3-4 hour drive. Wilmington will be a HAUL. There is also an airport in New Bern to fly out of if you wish about an hour away from Morehead. Most would keep on going to Raleigh and fly out of there. But check it out.

As for your wife, there is not a darn thing to look at in the water when the wreck is 100 plus feet down. And as for sitting on the boat after bouncing around for 2 hours, I don't know. If I was her, I'd go enjoy a nice beach (Fort Macon has public access and is nice) or one of our lovely coastal towns like Beaufort.

All of the ops in morehead are good. I like the crew of Diver Down a lot, most of their stuff is charters. Discovery and Olympus both have more boats that are not chartered, i.e. more folks like yourself who are looking for buddies and such.

Have fun and be very careful.

L

WHOO HOO< 12 points up

3-4 hours isn't that bad if it means clearer water, and especially if we flew into Raleigh.

Thanks for all your help and advice

[setesh]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

Setesh, when you call the ops, you might want to establish up front what their requirements are for your dive experience. It might be AOW or higher, a healthy dive log, or an experienced buddy. I'm sure if you hire the DM you will be fine.

I took the plunge here on dive 7. But my buddy had 500 dives and was well known by all of the ops. So they were fine with me going out.

I have OW and AOW, but my dive log has a long time before it's 'healthy', so hopefully the AOW will suffice. I will probably still hire a DM though.
Forgot to ask about exposure suit. I used a 3mil full in Hawaii and I was comfortable because it was a short dive (air not nitrox). Temp was 67deg at 112'. I don't know how much longer nitrox gives you, but I now longer dives means more exposure to cold. How thick a suit do you use?

[Lulubelle]

If you fly in and out of Raleigh you will also be in reach of Wilmington.

Raleigh to Manteo is a goodly drive, 3-4 hours, and not terribly fast, so make sure you look at all of that carefully. Morehead to Raleigh is about 3.

New Bern is only an hour from Morehead, so do take a look at that. I have no idea what schedules they run or where they connect as I haven't used that airport since I live in the Midwest.

As for exposure suit, I dive in a shortie in July! But it is a little cool for some, low 70s, I think a 3mm is better. And the shorties leaves the jellies to have fun with your legs. All of the dives are relatively short. My first dive here, I used tables and air, it was a great 11 minutes or so at the bottom. I quickly moved to a computer and nitrox. But honestly, I am one who simply FEELS better using nitrox.

When you are looking at the time for air v Nitrox, use 30%, the ops all use that.

[setesh]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

If you fly in and out of Raleigh you will also be in reach of Wilmington.

Raleigh to Manteo is a goodly drive, 3-4 hours, and not terribly fast, so make sure you look at all of that carefully. Morehead to Raleigh is about 3.

New Bern is only an hour from Morehead, so do take a look at that. I have no idea what schedules they run or where they connect as I haven't used that airport since I live in the Midwest.

As for exposure suit, I dive in a shortie in July! But it is a little cool for some, low 70s, I think a 3mm is better. And the shorties leaves the jellies to have fun with your legs. All of the dives are relatively short. My first dive here, I used tables and air, it was a great 11 minutes or so at the bottom. I quickly moved to a computer and nitrox. But honestly, I am one who simply FEELS better using nitrox.

When you are looking at the time for air v Nitrox, use 30%, the ops all use that.

Is there any snorkeling to be done in or near Wilmington? My wife would really like to get some snorkeling in if she can. Are there any reefs to speak of? I did some searching and it seems like it's mostly just wrecks that attracts people, I didn't find anything on reefs or other natural structures, and not much on snorkeling either.