Dive Review of Discovery Diving/N/A in
The Continental USA

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Discovery Diving/N/A: "Mr. Pat takes daughter’s fiancé’ on first salt water dives", Oct, 2014, by Pat Wikstrom, NC, US ( Contributor 14 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 8609.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Mr. Pat takes daughter’s fiancé’ on first salt water dives Late last year I took my daughter, certified since 12 and very experienced, and my new “about to be” son-in-law on his first salt water dives. We wanted him to have a little supervised salt water experience before he dove on the honeymoon in Nicaragua. He’d been bitten hard by the scuba bug after he started dating my daughter. An athletic, adventurous, and experienced waterman he’d gone full tilt into fresh water lake diving doing enough depth, dives, and classes to obtain his ‘ink still wet” Advanced card. Since we’d be on Emerald Isle for a wedding anyway and I wanted to watch over them at a place I knew pretty well and let them both see the wrecks and sand tiger sharks off the NC coast. I inquired at both Olympus and Discovery Diving. Seth’s credentials just barely precluded him from the off shore trips with Olympus but just barely were acceptable with Discovery. I signed us all up for a trip with Capt. Leroy Crator on his venerable 6 pack “Captains Lady”. Leroy took a while to pull up a memory of me and my buddy who had dove with him for a week back in July 2000. But we’d had some memorable dives and are hard to forget personalities and eventually I saw the lightbulb of recognition flash on. After that we got his rock star/friends of the family treatment. First dive was on the Indra {71ft for 49min} which had collapsed considerably in the intervening 14 years. My dive log mentions schools of Atlantic Spadefish, lots of Barbeled Goatfish on the wreck, several cleaning stations with cleaners anxiously awaiting their assignments, and not much else. I was mostly concentrating on Seth & Jess –monitoring air consumption, situational awareness, buoyancy capabilities, and general comfort levels. He was a natural! As we climbed aboard I breathed a sigh of relief. My daughter had picked a good guy to marry, at least from a diving perspective - he was gonna be fine and could be counted on to save her life if necessary. Yea!!! – a Daddy’s biggest concern. Second dive was on the Titan {63ft for 48min -water temp 83 degrees- vis 20-35ft} If the Indra was the warmup today the Titan was the main attraction. Absolutely awesome!!!! Huge schools of waving Silver Sides, Wahoo jetting back and forth picking off prey, Atlantic Spadefish cruising by in sheets of piscine choreography, big aggregations of Barracuda on the mooring line during the safety stop, and yes there were the sharks. Poking in and out of the wheelhouse, other superstructure, and the open access lower holds we confronted again and again the spikey toothed men in the gray suits. Sand Tigers are perhaps the best first shark encounters. Big bodied, completely docile, approachable, camera friendly, and yet sort of frightening with their ragged in-your- face dentation. The wreck was mostly intact and we all went in and out of the various swim throughs until our pressure gauges led us back to the ascent line and the conclusion of a marvelous dive day. Discovery Diving runs a professional shop with a personable, practiced staff, a well-stocked shop, years of experience, and a proven track record of successful Sand Tiger Shark encounters. Leroy’s boat looks like he should spend a little money on some paint and aesthetic repairs, but his DAN O2 kit was pristine, engines were recently re-worked, head functioned as designed, and his knowledge of the sites and the waters of this area are without parallel. We had a great day on the water and accomplished all our goals for this trip.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas; Belize; Bikini Atoll; Bonaire; California; Cancun; Caymans; Cocos Isl; Costa Rica; Cozumel; Cuba; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Galapagos; Hawaii; Indonesia; Maldives; N.C; Palau; Puerto Rico; Red Sea; Roatan; Saba; Socorro; South Africa; Thailand; Truk; Turks & Caicos; Yap; Yucatan Caves;
Closest Airport	??	Getting There	???
Dive Conditions
Weather		Seas	choppy
Water Temp	83-83°F / 28-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	20-35 Ft/ 6-11 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	don't ask- don't tell
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Discovery Diving/N/A in The Continental USA

Discovery Diving/N/A: "Mr. Pat takes daughter’s fiancé’ on first salt water dives", Oct, 2014,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Discovery Diving/N/A in
The Continental USA