Local & Regional Diving Activities

This is a WONDERFUL area for scuba divers -
Great diving / Great dive shops / Great dive clubs

The Diving First ~

Quarry Diving:
From the Triangle, this generally means Fantasy Lake, a rock quarry located near Rolesville. (Call us for directions to Fantasy Lake, information about Fantasy Lake, and our most recent reports on diving Fantasy Lake. Or call them: 919/556-1803.)

Another great quarry not quite so convenient to the Triangle, but still very much worth a visit, is Bluestone Quarry near Thomasville. Go here for details on Bluestone. Tell them we said hey.

And another great piece of inland water is Lake Rawlings, located in Rawlings, VA. 

Wreck Diving:
North Carolina has truly awesome wreck diving. Dive boats run pretty much daily throughout the dive season (May through October) from Nags Head, Ocracoke, Beaufort, Morehead City, Swansboro, Topsail, Wrightsville Beach, Wilmington, Southport... you get the idea. The main attractions are the wrecks, real wrecks sunk by storms and U-boats. People travel from around the world to visit these sites. We're extremely fortunate to live only 2 - 6 hours from some great charter dive boat docks.

We feel compelled to get a little serious whenever we discuss Carolina wreck diving, however.
It is NOT for every diver. The boat rides are long (averaging 2 hours) and often arduous, since we are diving the open Atlantic. The wreck sites are often right at or deeper than the accepted 130' sport diving max depth limit. Environmental conditions such as sea state, visibility, current, are volatile and can change quickly... sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

We freely admit that swimming down the anchor line (see photo top right - Margie Rhodes descending on the Naeco) through schools of huge jacks and seeing the ghostly hulk of the U-352 slowly materialize in front of you is one of life's great adventures. But we encourage you to understand that you may have just completed a 2-hour boat ride over 5-foot seas and you may be pulling against a 2-knot current as you descend... So please make sure you're prepared mentally and physically for the task and that your equipment is adequate for the job. Remember: this is supposed to be fun.

Gypsy Divers runs coast charters. We love 'em. But we have one condition that each of our charter participants must meet:

  • He or she must have an advanced open water rating (from any agency), and at least two previous logged dives offshore North Carolina to depths exceeding 100 feet.
We didn't impose this rule as a punitive measure against divers from other areas, or to line our pockets with additional income from instruction. We use it to assure those who choose to dive with us that their day will not be ruined by misadventure from an under-trained or inexperienced diver. And while we do understand that this rule is probably un-necessary for some divers, we have yet to develop a test to tell who's who. So the rule is applied equally to all without favor or prejudice, thus assuring an acceptable threshold level of competence and experience among the charter participants.

So if you meet the above requirement, welcome aboard. If you don't, you are still welcome aboard. It's just that your first 2 days offshore with us will be spent diving with an instructor. See the calendar for our wreck charter weekend dates, and call us for more information on signing up for the charters and/or the wreck diver and deep diver instruction.

Our 2008 Charter Dates with Discovery Diving

May 24 / May 25
June 21 / June 22
July 5 / July 5
August 2 / August 3
September 6 / September 7
October 4 / October 5

And here's some links to some great coastal wreck charter folks:  

Here's a list of local dive shops (besides us):

Here's a list of our local dive clubs (besides Gypsy)

We try to keep this page current. If you know of some diving activities that belong here, please give us an email.

© 2006 Gypsy Divers Aquatic Center by Allyson Clagett
3651 Bastion Lane; Raleigh, NC, 27604. 919-255-1931