EDITORIAL September 2010: ENDLESS DIVING

By Mark Young

I know a couple who fell so hard for diving that they racked up close to 200 dives in just their first year. Living in South Florida made that easy. She would pick him up after a business trip, and head straight from the airport to a midnight dive. They dove the local charters; they bought their own boat which, since they were always under it, they renamed Two Down; they went east to the Bahamas, south to the Keys and into the Caribbean. They couldn’t get enough.

But there was more to get, like diving to the North. Any clue about Florida’s springs, just a few hours away, escaped them for years or they would have been there, next chance. He recalls that regretfully, like they were robbed.

Connect that to this. The nation’s highway system was built with materials that were mined along the way. The abandoned quarries filled with groundwater and many were reclaimed as recreation areas. Divers came along and populated the bottoms with things like airplanes of all sizes, helicopters, school buses, semitrailers, busses, boats and things you wouldn’t imagine. Some of the quarries are absolutely beautiful with a wide range of aquatic life, forests and sheer rock walls. Many have camping facilities and some even host outdoor music concerts. Their proximity to the highways that they built provides divers with easy access. As you would guess lots of quarry diving goes on in the United States.

Lots of other diving goes on too. Within our borders there is endless spring, lake, river and coastal diving. Heck, you can even dive in many of the nation’s aquariums, a theme park and in a major Las Vegas show. Local dive outings are an important business and social component for many of the nation’s dive centers.

The purpose of this editorial is to call your attention to a resource that we haven’t talked about much. It is the local diving component of our magazine and website. Many people who get certified limit their diving to foreign trips, and some of that is simply because they aren’t aware of the opportunities that are close by. It’s why we introduce two local diving spots in these pages each month. The couple that I talked about was also the inspiration for the “Diving USA: Dive Sites Across America” section at dtmag.com. That they were so nuts about diving but didn’t know about nearby dive sites raises the odds that lots of others don’t know about theirs either, especially newer divers.

For a number of years we have been compiling our local dive writings on the website, and now have hundreds of sites pinpointed on the map so that you can see the proximity and read about diving’s local opportunities. It is the most visited area of our website, and we encourage you to use it.

A great thing about diving is that it happens everywhere. Not many activities can match the experiences, the diversity, and the friendships that diving presents. Diving is literally available worldwide in such wide range. And whether you live in California or Arkansas, it is also close by.

Care to comment?

We add locations to the local diving site at http://www.dtmag.com/ monthly. If you come across a place that we haven't covered. or would like to tell others about a local site that you visit, post your comments below.