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I don’t live there and I don’t know about the area you are talking about, but for NC as a whole, I can tell that the Outer Banks, off the coast of Morehead City are a MUST dive!!! The Graveyard of te Atlantic is AWESOME diving!! Olympus Dive Center (www.olympusdiving.com) is who we use when we go up there. WW2 wrecks (including the U-352) and sharks galore!! Being a diver, you aren’t going to regret this move!! :)
Dale
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Another vote for Olympus, I have used them a few times, summer and fall diving are great, the gulf stream is in close bringing warm clear waters and tropicals plus you have all of the locals so sometimes you can’t see the wrecks for the fish. It can be rough and the offshore wrecks are considered AOW but they do have some inshore wrecks too.
There are dive shops in Pa. and NJ that run trips there and it’s not like we don’t have a few wrecks on the Jersey shore, just not that vis or fishy, enjoy!
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Hey Matt,
I was wondering why you have been so quiet lately. Good luck with the move. I have to send you a link to a youtube video my friend just shot in NC. I’ll e-mail you direct.
Rich
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From there so I can fill you in all details. I lived in both Raleigh and Greensboro, and took many trips to the coast. I have been in Florida for the last three years, but been out with most of the opertors in NC and SC. Have been out with Olympus, however, it’s a cattle boat. My recommendation would be Discovery out of Beaufort. Smaller boats and crowds, and they dive the same locations and in fact can many times have more variety as they pair divers up to sites based on experience. If you like crowds, nothing wrong with Olympus and the people are nice.
Out of Wilmington, I recommend Aquatic Safaris and Captain Gregory. You can find them at www.aquaticsafaris.com. They have a nice ledge they were visiting for meg teeth, and also do Frying Pan Tower which is a cool dive. Long trip out, but cool dive.
Freshwater diving includes Lake Rawlings in Virginia, not too far from the NC line off of Interstate 85 and one of the clearest quarry lakes anywhere. They have a bus, airplane, boats, and filmed several movies there including The Replacements. Nice campsite and facilities including air fills right there.
Near Raleigh is Fantasy Lake near Rolesville. Large, very deep, very cold, and not good vis but if you want to get wet it’s a great place to go. I used to live 15 minutes from there and would go out after work and get in evening dives and we would camp there. They used to have a dive shop, but don’t think it’s there anymore.
There also is a private club in NC that owns three quarries and great place to network. They are called the Piedmont Diving Rescue Association and you can find them on the internet. Great people and for a low fee can dive all you want at their sites. There is one near Burlington, one near Charlotte, and I forget where the other one is.
Let me know where in NC you are going, and I’ll put you in touch with some good shops and people. Also, come to Florida and we’ll show you some great diving here as well.
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Eve - 8/13/2009 7:38 PM 
Currently living in NC, approx 45 minutes from Morehead, Beaufort. We love the area, other then Olympus dive there is also discover dive and they are both great companies. There are many more but only have experience with those 2 companies. We live in the woods on 27 acres, a quiet town, ( Trenton ) were everyone knows you. We are close , 15 minutes to large towns like New Bern, and approx 30 to 40 minutes from everything else a person can want. We love being near the ocean yet far enough away to not need to pack and run in case of hurricanes.
http://www.crystalcoastnc.org/
www.insiders.com/crystalcoast/
www.nc-wreckdiving.com/
I have included a few links for you to check out.
Havelock area is mainly military.
Have fun looking for a place to move to , if you need any help with information just let me know. By the way , my son Greg is the owner of this web site.
Eve
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Matt, great to hear you are coming our way. Three good dive charters are Olympus Dive Center, Aquatic Safari’s, and Cape Fear Divers out of Carolina Beach, - all have great boats and all over the coast is some excellent wreck diving. Let me know where you are moving to and come see us at the shop. SEAduciton Dive Services in Dunn, its between Raleigh and Wilmington off I-40 and just above Fayetteville. (910-892-7878) We go to Fantasy Lake alot and camp and it is a blast. The dive shop is gone but Doyle still has an airfill station. Take care
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