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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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