I surfaced from a dive in the New River and stammered to the fisherman in the nearby Jon boat; “I didn’t know there were freshwater barracuda!”  The fisherman’s expression changed from one of annoyance to interest.  “That was no barracuda, it was a muskie and where did you see him?”

A surprise to many, including the fisherman, is that there is a core of scuba diving enthusiasts that practice their sport right here in the rivers, lakes and quarries of the Blue Ridge.

There are a number of dive shops in the Blue Ridge area that don’t need to go far to find waterways for their open water training and recreation, but the season is limited to mostly May to October. (Becoming SCUBA certified is comprised of three components: academics, confined water like a pool, and Open Water.  The academics and confined water aspects may be accomplished year round in heated indoor pools.)

The New River at Peppers Ferry on Peppers Ferry Road between Blacksburg and Radford, Virginia is one of the most popular sites.  Most of the diving is done at a landing shared with canoeists, kayakers and fishermen. If you see familiar red and white dive flag on a float you know where the divers are.  Peppers Ferry has its own version of a freshwater reef, a rock ledge where the fish like to hang out. On the day I saw the muskie, the visibility was 15+ feet, however, water released from the dam at Claytor Lake or a sudden thunderstorm can increase currents and take the visibility to zero, so it pays to do your homework before you go.

South Holsten Dam on the Virginia/Tennessee border near Abingdon is another good training site.  As you approach South Holsten you will see the stair-stepped dam. This site has the same stair-step design on the underwater side, which provide excellent training platforms.  You can plan and train for multi-level training by just following the steps.  Visibility can also be 15+ feet, but if you don’t control your buoyancy, you’ll stir up the silt.

Lake Storm near Bismark, WV is a dive site that may defy the May-October season for mountain diving.  This lake is used for cooling a coal fired electric generation facility, which can result in very warm water that extends the diving.  The temperature range may be in the 80’s in late fall.  I have been diving there with snow and ice on the ground and the water temperature in the in the 60’s.  The big chill occurs when pulling your surface interval.  The down side to the warm water is that the constant circulation of the water through the plant results in limited visibility rarely exceeding 10 feet. However, there are multiple training platforms at various depths and lines connecting the platforms. The Mt. Storm landscape and the ride there are incredibly beautiful.  Also, since I am a diver that also travels for his stomach I highly recommend stopping at Monterey in Highland County for anything with maple syrup.

Blue Stone in Thomasville, NC and Lake Rawlings near Emporia, VA are both flooded quarries.  Both sites have full dive shops on site and multiple platforms for training.  These are great dive sites for the day or weekend.  Blue Stone has a bunk house on site and barbeque facilities.  Lake Rawlings has camping and barbeque facilities.

Smith Mountain Lake’s popularity with boating enthusiasts, and its abundance of submerged trees make this a challenging location for scuba diving.  However, it does make a good training site for specialty training such as navigation, limited visibility, search and recovery and stress/rescue. Claytor Lake near Pulaski, Virginia has many of the same issues like those at Smith Mountain but there are some hardy souls that choose to do their open water training dives at Claytor Lake.

Of course if you are willing to devote an entire day driving to your dive site you can have access to some great dive sites.  Within 12 hours you may be in some of the clearest waters in the world of the North Florida springs which also host manatees in the winter.  The same distance to the north will put you in the 1000 Islands area of New York and the wreck diving of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. Half that distance puts you in the Graveyard of the Atlantic off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Many dive shops also offer, week-long or longer dive trips to places like the Keys.

Add another adventure option to your repertoire. Call your local dive shop to sign up for training and trips. Visit these additional websites for more ideas: Blue Stone Dive Resort (NC), Mount Storm (WV), Lake Rawlings (VA)

Rick Wolfe