Track our Progress...

2023

2024

2025

2026

*Apologies for the backlog, more blog posts coming soon!

South Carolina

The Idea Becomes Real

South Carolina started as a road trip—a seven-hour haul to catch the Southern 500 NASCAR race with friends. Naturally, we decided that a race day wasn’t busy enough, so we got up at an ungodly hour on 9/3/23 and drove to Murrells Inlet for a two-tank charter before the green flag even waved.

We dove the Captain Chris Chong Reef with Express Watersports, a 105-foot steel tugboat resting on the seafloor with three decks and the wheelhouse still fully intact. The reef is named in honor of Captain Chris Chong, a boat captain and instructor who tragically passed away in a diving accident in 2017. The tug was intentionally sunk in his memory.

Conditions couldn’t have been better. Visibility hovered around 40 feet, our max depth was 73 feet, and the ocean behaved all day. While hunting for shark teeth along the hull, we spotted a large stingray cruising the sand, and during our safety stop an entire squadron of barracuda hung out beneath the boat with us—casual day at the office.

On the charter, we met a couple from Pennsylvania, including a scuba instructor named Ted. Somewhere between dives, we mentioned our half-serious, half-ridiculous idea of scuba diving all 50 states over the next “decade". We bonded quickly—helped by the fact that Ted was the only other diver rocking a wing and backplate (because yes, it’s a cult, and yes, it’s the only way to dive).

By the end of the day, Ted had invited us to dive the quarry he uses in Pennsylvania. This was really the trip that inspired us to put this crazy idea of scuba diving all 50 states into action and it went from a product of our imagination to a reality.

Completion Date: Sep 2023

location: murrells Inlet, NC

Virginia

Where It All Began

Our scuba journey kicked off in Virginia in 2021 with our instructor, Ed Finck of Woodbridge Scuba. After earning our Open Water Diver certification, we wasted no time logging dives—lots of them—at Lake Phoenix, which quickly became our training home base for the next two years.

Lake Phoenix is a freshwater limestone quarry located just south of Richmond in Rawlings, VA, and it’s basically a diver’s playground. Beneath the surface you’ll find a helicopter, a plane, buses, cars, tunnels, training platforms, and plenty of swim-throughs to keep things interesting. Add in bass, perch, and crayfish, and there’s always something to see.

Above water, the facility is just as solid. The staff keeps everything well maintained, upgrades are always in progress, and after a long day underwater, we could reliably count on hot showers and clean bathrooms—an underrated luxury after hanging out on the bottom of our favorite flooded industrial site.

For nearly two years, we made a lot of single-day and weekend glamping trips to the quarry, trusty tents in tow. Between fun dives and training, we knocked out a stack of certifications including Search & Recovery, Navigation, Perfect Buoyancy, Dry Suit, Deep Diving, and Enriched Air Nitrox. All that effort paid off when we officially earned our Advanced Open Water Diver titles.

When we committed to diving all 50 states, it only felt right to make Virginia official on 9/10/23. We arrived during a torrential downpour, had the entire quarry to ourselves, and watched a classic southern thunderstorm roll through—from underwater. As we scrambled out to strip our gear, we couldn’t resist sprinting back and jumping off the pier into the quarry one last time. A staff member watched the whole thing from the dry comfort of a golf cart and laughed at us.

To this day, Lake Phoenix remains our home for local diving—and the place where this whole adventure truly began.

Completion Date: Sep 2023

location: rawlings, va

Pennsylvania

Chasing Cold Water: A Winter Quarry Dive in Pennsylvania

Back in 2022, we scored the same Seac drysuits at a steep discount during Simply Scuba’s going-out-of-business sale. After getting a few dives under our belts, we realized winter diving was absolutely for us. As a warm-up for an upcoming ice-diving trip, we reached out to our South Carolina boat buddy, Ted, who owns a dive shop in Pennsylvania.

Ted invited us to dive with him at Ted’s Scuba in Volant, PA, so we jumped in the car early on a cold February morning (2/4/24) and made the five-hour drive north from the D.C. area. Our destination was Strawberry Quarry, where we dove in 38-degree water. Strawberry is a former rock quarry that’s now flooded and commonly used for local dive training. The shallow end had a thin layer of ice, which confirmed this would be a solid workup dive.

Despite the cold, visibility was great, and the dive went smoothly. We logged a comfortable 24-minute dive using the layering and weight setup we’d planned, and everything performed exactly as hoped. Afterward, we celebrated checking another state off the list with beer and tacos at a local Mexican restaurant with Ted before heading home for the five-and-a-half-hour return trip.

Ten hours of driving in a single day for a relatively short dive taught us one important lesson: that was the first—and last—time we’d ever do that again.

A note from Mike

One lesson I learned the hard way was glove layering. I hadn’t quite dialed in my thermal setup, and about 15 minutes into the dive my hands were completely frozen, forcing me to call the dive earlier than I wanted and signal that I was cold. While uncomfortable in the moment, it turned out to be a valuable learning experience and allowed me to fix my drysuit glove layers before our Minnesota trip.

Completion Date: FEB 2024

location: volant, pa

Minnesota

Lessons on Thin Ice: Ice Diving in Minnesota

With a cold-water warm-up dive behind us, the next state on the list was Minnesota. Most people don’t think scuba diving in a frozen lake sounds fun, but we fully embrace what we like to call type 2 fun—so we said, “Bring on the suck!”

Ice diving had always looked incredibly cool to us, and while researching options, we discovered North America’s largest ice diving festival in the Twin Lakes region of Minnesota. Hosted by the Midwest School of Diving, the event offered everything we needed: multiple instructors for certification, opportunities for fun dives with already ice-certified divers, scuba manufacturer reps, drysuit rentals, and support from local fire, rescue, and police agencies. Friends, family, and all the specialized equipment required for ice diving would be there—as long as the ice held.

Everything sounded perfect going into the trip… until we arrived to 60-degree Fahrenheit sunshine during the first week of March (3/2/24). The warm weather was melting the ice so quickly that there was a very real chance the entire festival would be canceled at the last minute.

The night before diving was scheduled to begin, we completed our classroom training in a hotel conference room with our instructor, Ron Knafla. We clicked with him immediately. After dunking our heads into a cooler full of ice water to prove we wouldn’t panic during the real thing, Ron stayed late to answer our endless questions about setup and gear configurations.

It truly came down to the eleventh hour. On the morning of the first day, we showed up—and it was on. While conditions weren’t ideal, there was still enough ice to proceed. Because the ice was thinner than preferred, multiple rectangular lanes were cut side by side from shore, like bowling alleys, and we entered the water from those walk-in lanes.

With so many divers walking in from shore, visibility near the lanes dropped to just a few feet, especially in the shallows, which caused more than a few challenges. After pushing through tough conditions and earning our SDI ice diving certifications, we were rewarded with fun dives in an area with significantly better visibility. There, we were finally able to fully enjoy both the challenge and the beauty of ice diving.

In many ways, earning our ice certifications under less-than-ideal conditions prepared us exceptionally well for future demanding dive environments. After the diving wrapped up and cleanup was complete, Ron generously spent more time with us, letting us pick his brain about diving. We learned a tremendous amount during those two days with him.

Sadly, we later learned on a different ice diving trip the following year that Ron had tragically and unexpectedly passed away. We both wished we could have had the chance to dive with him more than just that one time.

Midwesterners really are something special, and Minnesota treated us incredibly well. Friends we’d met on a previous dive trip in the Bahamas let us couch surf in downtown Minneapolis and showed us some fantastic bars and food spots. We’re deeply grateful for their hospitality—and for everyone who helped make this trip, and future Midwest adventures, possible.

Completion Date: MAR 2024

location: menahga, mn

North East Trip

Seven States in Four Days: A Truly Questionable Plan

Sometime during a winter night—probably bored and sitting at a bar—we hatched a very silly plan. It was beautifully simple: dive seven states in four days. All the New England states are close together anyway, right?

On 6/15/24, we landed in Burlington, Vermont at 10 a.m. already on a time crunch and immediately got to work. We had seven hours to grab our bags, secure a rental car, drive to a Vermont dive shop, pick up cylinders, dive both Vermont and New York, and return those cylinders by 5 p.m. If that didn’t sound ambitious enough, we also needed to be back in Boston for a 9 a.m. dive charter the next morning. No problem.

Waterfront Dive Center on the shore of Lake Champlain was fantastic to work with and fully supported our ridiculous plan—provided we got the tanks back on time. They recommended a nearby training site about 15 minutes away. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long walk downhill that we knew would be far less fun on the way back up. We humped our gear down, splashed in, and were rewarded with a glorious five feet of visibility.

We swam out to about 17 feet and spent 26 minutes mostly just trying not to lose each other while keeping an eye out for the lake’s local cryptid champ—the Champlain monster. Honestly, it was pretty fun. The poor visibility, unusual for this lake, was due to bad weather the night before, and we’d love to come back someday to dive the wrecks Lake Champlain is known for.

After climbing back up what somehow felt like a much bigger hill, we packed up and drove an hour south to Lake George, New York. We arrived at the site at 3:03 p.m. Problem solved by squeezing in an absolutely wonderful 20-minute dive in nearly 100-foot crystal-clear visibility. We found a hat, dropped to about 33 feet, popped back to the surface, complained that we didn’t have a boat and a full day to dive the lake, and drove back to Burlington to return our rentals.

We rolled into Waterfront Dive Center at 4:50 p.m. The owner spent time chatting with us about the trip and recommending other local sites to come back to—hospitality we really appreciated. With our New York–Vermont sprint complete, we drove three and a half hours to Boston and crashed for the night.

The next morning, we walked our gear down the street and boarded a Boston Scuba charter bound for Graves Lighthouse in Boston Harbor. This was our second dive on their boat, the Keep-Ah. The first time had involved rough seas, strong currents, cold water, and eight-foot visibility—but there were lobsters, which is really all we need. This time, conditions were far more manageable, with double the visibility.

The underwater terrain around Graves Light is a rocky playground packed with starfish, lobsters, and more fish than you’d expect so close to a major city. Shoutout to the Deer Island Water Treatment Plant for making that possible. The lighthouse itself looks like it belongs in a dark New England thriller, though we had it on a sunny summer day.

After the charter, we rented cylinders from Boston Scuba and spent the afternoon bar-hopping downtown with friends—including drinking a cold Sam Adams across from Sam Adams’ actual gravesite.

Early the next day, we drove to Stonington, Connecticut for a shore dive at Dubois Beach. We spent 30 enjoyable minutes underwater with lots of small fish and crabs before packing up and heading to Rhode Island. At Fort Wetherill State Park, we dove both coves. The first offered about 10 feet of visibility and a healthy population of flounder that repeatedly jump-scared us. The entry was easy, the rock formations were fun to explore, and we’d happily dive it again.

After an hour break, we splashed at the second cove just as the sun was setting. We took things cautiously since it was a new site with some current, and while the bottom would have been flat and muddy without it, the sheer amount of life made the dive fantastic. We saw flounder, large fish, crabs, and even a Chesapeake Bay blue crab—instantly recognizable from eating so many back home. Midway through the dive, we encountered a school of small bioluminescent squid, one of which aggressively attacked its reflection in Shaker’s mask. Sadly, we couldn’t stay long with our cephalopod friends and had to turn the dive.

We rewarded ourselves for not dying with a luxurious dinner at Chili’s and a two-hour drive back to Boston.

Day four started early with a drive to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We had arranged to meet a local shop owner to show us dive sites in both New Hampshire and Maine. Problem: they never showed up. After waiting outside the shop for over an hour, we headed to Fort Stark State Park and dove a site recommended by scuba forums.

The water was a chilly 49 degrees at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, but visibility was excellent. We swam through seagrass and watched tiny shrimp until a leaky drysuit ended the dive at 16 minutes. We returned to the shop that forgot about us, and to their credit, they apologized and filled our empty cylinders for free. The owner also gave us advice on diving Nubble Lighthouse in Maine.

Nubble Lighthouse is allegedly the most photographed lighthouse in the U.S., and after diving it, we understand why. The lighthouse sits on a rocky island just offshore, and we dove the narrow gap between. It’s an excellent cold-water dive and one we’d recommend to anyone prepared for the conditions. We saw fish, plants, and plenty of lobsters. We spent 41 minutes and reached 44 feet exploring the island’s edges—and would’ve stayed longer if we could.

We had been told the entry and exit point was a little dicey and didn't believe it because we had an easy go of it getting in other than a short rock scramble down to the water. Getting out was a completely different story, we had to time the wave motion just right to get pitched up on the rocks then get out of the way before the next wave hit us and we got to do it with a crowd watching above us.

We celebrated with lobster rolls in Maine, returned our rentals in Boston, and officially called it a trip. We love diving in New England—it’s cold, challenging, and different in all the best ways. Nubble Lighthouse is a top-10 dive for both of us, and there’s still so much we want to return and explore… preferably not all in four days next time.

Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine

Completion Date: JUN 2024

locations: burlington, vt; lake george, ny; boston, ma; stonington, ct; jamestown, ri; new castle, nh; york, me

New Jersey

Lost Keys, Lost Time, Lost Dive Computer

We really don't want to talk about this trip.

On paper, it was supposed to be one of the easiest trips of the entire project. Drive up to northern New Jersey, do a shore dive, hop on the ferry to Delaware for another dive, then knock out Maryland on the drive home. Simple.

It was anything but.

Our first stop was Horseshoe Cove in Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area, a site recommended by none other than the experts of the internet, whom we trust far more often than we probably should. A storm had rolled through the night before, leaving us with poor visibility and less-than-ideal conditions. The dive itself was shallow, and we spent most of it crawling along the bottom, trying not to lose each other while stopping to admire the occasional hermit crab. It wasn't the most exciting dive, but every dive teaches you something.

This one taught us several things.

First, Mike's truck keys don't manually unlock the driver's door.

Second, that's important information to know before locking the key fob inside the truck while you're underwater.

After spending far too long attempting to break into our own vehicle, we officially missed our ferry to Delaware. In the rush to throw our gear back together and salvage the day by driving instead, Shaker realized his dive computer was missing. So we turned around, drove all the way back to New Jersey, searched the dive site... and eventually discovered it had been sitting inside his drysuit in the truck the entire time.

Not exactly our finest hour.

We eventually made it to Delaware, determined to salvage at least one more state. Unfortunately, every option we looked at turned into another dead end. The bay side was either too shallow or little more than a muddy field, while the ocean side had enough surf to make shore diving a bad idea. We tried several different locations before finally admitting defeat and pointing the truck toward home.

Even though this trip didn't go according to plan, it was far from a waste. Every frustrating dive trip teaches us something, and this one helped us become more comfortable diving in low visibility while also reinforcing the importance of slowing down and planning logistics carefully—especially when multiple states, ferries, and rental schedules are involved.

We also know New Jersey deserves a second chance. The state is home to some of the best wreck diving in the country, and after reading Shadow Divers, we've wanted to dive those wrecks for years. Horseshoe Cove was probably just a victim of bad timing after the storm, and we're looking forward to coming back to experience New Jersey the way it's meant to be dived. When we do, we'll be sure to write a proper redemption story.

As frustrating as the weekend was, it ended up giving us an unexpected silver lining. Since Delaware would have to wait, we decided Maryland would become the 50th and final state of our entire diving project. There's something fitting about finishing close to home, surrounded by the friends and family who have supported us through all the questionable ideas, long drives, frozen dives, and unforgettable adventures along the way.

Completion Date: jun 2024

location: highlands, nj

North Carolina

Wreck Diving the Outer Banks

With just a little planning and a desire to spend a weekend at the beach, we packed up the car with friends in early July 2024 and headed down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. With just a little planning and a desire to spend a weekend at the beach, we packed up the car with friends in early July 2024 and headed down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We stayed at an Airbnb that felt like spending the weekend at “Grandma’s House”—which was the actual name of the Airbnb listing—in the best possible way. It was warm, cozy, and full of the kind of charm and character that makes a place feel like it has a story to tell. It definitely felt like stepping back in time a little, and honestly, it added to the experience.

For diving, we chose Olympus Dive Center, a shop known for being a little more selective about who they take on their offshore charters—and for good reason. The Atlantic Ocean, especially along this stretch of the East Coast, is famous for rough conditions, big swells, and long boat rides to reach the wrecks. You need a boat that can handle the conditions, and you need divers who are comfortable with deeper dives, boat diving, and everything that comes with offshore wreck diving.

Thankfully, we checked those boxes.

Our first dive was the incredible wreck of the Atlas, a 450-foot gasoline tanker built in 1916. Unfortunately, the Atlas found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and was torpedoed in April 1942 by the German U-boat U-552. Nearly 80 years later, the wreck has transformed into an artificial reef and is absolutely thriving.

The amount of life on the wreck was incredible. We were surrounded by marine life and, of course, Sand Tiger sharks. Swimming alongside these prehistoric-looking sharks is an experience that never gets old, and it’s something we hope to do many more times in the future.

The next day, we headed back out with Olympus to dive the Aeolus, a 409-foot U.S. Navy cable-laying ship sitting at a maximum depth of around 110 feet. Conditions were again excellent, with around 60 feet of visibility and plenty of Sand Tiger sharks cruising around the wreck. Diving with Olympus is never boring—the wrecks are amazing, the conditions are challenging, and there is always something new to see.

Olympus remains high on our list of places to return, and we especially want to make it back to dive the U-352. Because, obviously, submarines are cool.

We also have to mention another North Carolina dive site that played an important role earlier in our diving journey: Blue Stone Dive Resort. Before the idea of diving all 50 states really existed, Blue Stone was one of the first quarries we visited outside our normal home waters at Lake Phoenix.

Blue Stone is a former blue slate mine, which is where it gets its name, and it’s a fantastic place for divers of all experience levels to practice skills and explore. The quarry has plenty of underwater attractions, lots of freshwater fish, and some enormous koi that hang out around the entry areas.

We drove down for a visit, and the staff stayed open late so we could check in and camp on the grass outside the facility. Everyone there was fantastic, and we quickly became friends with one of the staff members who drove an airport baggage cart around delivering cylinders to divers who needed them. Honestly, that’s the kind of dive community experience that makes places memorable.

There are also supposedly paddlefish in Blue Stone.

We did not see them.

Not seeing paddlefish would eventually become a recurring theme. After this trip, finding these prehistoric filter feeders became something of an obsession. We tried four separate times at different quarries before finally finding one in Ohio. They are incredibly cool, and Shaker has even convinced Mike to visit aquariums just because they have paddlefish.

North Carolina has an incredible amount of diving, both offshore and inland. We’d jump on the chance to dive more of the offshore wrecks anytime, and there are still plenty of quarries we want to explore. But Blue Stone will always hold a special place for us.

Whether you’re a brand-new diver or someone with hundreds of dives, it’s a place we’d recommend to anyone looking to get wet.

A note from Mike

It is not obvious yet, but you will start to notice a common theme with the issues I will start to accumulate with my dry suit due to various leaks or failures. During my first or second dive at Blue Stone, my inflator valve completely busted off my drysuit and it instantly flooded my suit and all the undergarments underneath. Luckily I brought my 7mm wetsuit as a backup. This came in handy as I had an alternative way to continue diving, even though I wouldn't be nearly as warm as in the drysuit. This became a good lesson early on in my diving career that anything can happen with your gear and/or equipment. It is really important to maintain your gear properly and and know how to troubleshoot issues on the go.

Completion Date: Jul 2024

location: morehead city, NC

West Virginia

Canyons Beneath the Surface

After doing extensive research from multiple very reliable sources (also known as the internet, and maybe a book written by someone who literally did the same thing we’re doing—shoutout to Jennifer Idol), we came to the conclusion that Summersville Lake is the place to dive in West Virginia.

One important thing to know: the dive shop that runs trips on the lake is seasonal and only operates during the warmer months, so timing your visit is pretty important if diving is the goal. Thankfully, we got the timing right.

Summersville Lake is a freshwater inland dive site, which means no current, no tides, and much more predictable conditions than many of the places we’ve dived. During the warmer months, the surface temperatures are actually pretty comfortable, making it a great place to spend a day underwater.

We booked a two-tank charter and were immediately rewarded with exactly what we came for. The lake offered huge open visibility, dramatic rock formations, deep canyons, and massive undercut sections of rock that felt almost like underwater caves. The landscape was completely different from our typical quarry dives and offshore wrecks, which made the experience stand out.

We spent our dives exploring down to around 90 feet, averaging about 40 minutes underwater, surrounded by freshwater wildlife and the unique geology that makes Summersville Lake such a popular dive destination.

West Virginia ended up being one of those states that reminded us why we love this project. Not every great dive needs a shipwreck, sharks, or exotic marine life. Sometimes a quiet freshwater lake with incredible visibility and interesting terrain is exactly what you’re looking for.

Completion Date: Jul 2024

location: summersville, wv

California/Arizona Trip

Sunken Ships and Desert Depths

Originally, we set out to dive Nevada and Arizona with the goal of checking Lake Mead off the list. As usual, our plans didn't quite survive first contact with reality. The dive charter we had planned to use in Las Vegas wasn't taking anyone out and, to put it politely, wasn't particularly interested in helping us either. Looking back, we're actually glad things worked out that way because it led us to a much better experience later on.

Instead, we pointed the rental car west and decided to knock California off the list first by diving with Waterhorse Scuba in San Diego. From the moment we arrived, they were fantastic to work with, and we'd happily dive with them again.

On a cloudy late-August morning, we analyzed our Nitrox mixes, boarded a 40-foot twin-engine boat, and headed out to the HMCS Yukon in San Diego's famous Wreck Alley. We absolutely love wreck diving, and this one instantly became one of our favorites. The crew told us we had some of the best visibility they'd seen on the wreck all year, and they weren't kidding.

The Yukon is an incredible example of what an artificial reef can become. Marine life covered nearly every surface of the ship, with schools of fish weaving through the wreck, countless swim-throughs to explore, and massive guns and propellers still standing guard decades after the ship was sunk. Even the bow had transformed into a colorful underwater garden covered in soft corals and nudibranchs. It was one of those dives where every direction you looked had something worth stopping to admire.

The following day, we headed back out for another two-tank charter, this time diving through the giant kelp forests of La Jolla before finishing at The Pinnacles. Drifting through towering columns of kelp with sunlight filtering down from above is something every diver should experience at least once. It's peaceful, beautiful, and unlike anywhere else we've ever dived.

With California complete, we loaded up the car and drove five hours through the deserts of California and Arizona, passing some incredible rock formations on our way to Lake Pleasant near Morristown, Arizona. As a fun side note, the lake is only a few miles from where Mike spent a good part of his childhood.

The next morning, we met up with one of Mike's dad's work friends—someone neither of us had ever met before. It turned into one of those funny moments where three complete strangers immediately bonded over a shared hobby that basically amounts to swimming silently underwater for long periods of time while wearing gear that costs far too much money.

One of the best parts of the day wasn't even the diving—it was the logistics. For once, someone else handled everything. Our new dive buddy picked up six tanks, hauled them to the dive site, and returned them to his dive shop afterward simply because he wanted to meet some new people and go diving. After planning so many of our own trips, it was a refreshing change of pace.

The diving itself wasn't spectacular, but it was still a fun day underwater. Around 100 feet we found some surprisingly interesting sand formations, along with several impressively large catfish cruising the lake. While Lake Pleasant probably (but honestly we might) isn't a destination we'd travel across the country to dive again, it would make an excellent local dive or training site if we lived nearby.

Before heading home, there was one final stop that wasn't optional. Mike's mom would have never forgiven him if we came all the way to Arizona without visiting, so we wrapped up the trip with a great breakfast and some much-appreciated time with family before flying home.

Completion Date: sep 2024

locations: san diego, ca; morriston, az

California and Arizona

Tennessee/Kentucky Trip(s)

From Losing a Fin to Finding Paddlefish

In September 2024, we headed to Nashville for the IndyCar Championship and figured we might as well squeeze in some diving while we were there with friends. That's become a recurring theme for us—if we're traveling somewhere, we're probably going to try to find a body of water to jump into.

The original plan was to dive Loch Low-Minn in Tennessee before the race, but that fell apart when we learned their compressor was down. With no practical way to rent and return cylinders in time to make the race, we pivoted and rented tanks in Nashville instead, heading over to Percy Priest Lake.

That plan lasted about five minutes.

Almost immediately after entering the water, Shaker managed to lose one of his Hollis F1 fins. Rather than actually enjoy the dive, we spent the next 40-plus minutes crawling across the muddy, rocky bottom putting our Search and Recovery certification to work in a completely unsuccessful attempt to find it.

The fin won. The fin always wins.

Defeated, we climbed back into the truck, returned our cylinders, and started the drive toward Kentucky while Shaker ordered a replacement pair of fins from his phone.

Thankfully, things turned around in a hurry.

When we arrived at Pennyroyal Scuba Center, we were immediately impressed—not just by the size and scale of the quarry, but by how welcoming everyone was. We arrived a little later than planned and apologized, only to hear, "No problem, we're night diving tonight. Take all the time you need." and rented Shaker a set of much needed fins.

The staff hauled tanks up the enormous hill on UTVs, chatted with us before and after our dives, and genuinely made us feel like regulars despite it being our first visit.

The diving itself was fantastic. Visibility was excellent, and the quarry is packed with attractions including a Cessna 172, a fire truck, buses, cars, tunnels, and numerous underwater training platforms connected by guide lines to the deeper attractions. It's obvious how much effort has gone into making Pennyroyal an incredible dive destination.

We had an absolute blast and can't recommend the place highly enough. It's firmly on our list of places we'll happily return to.

Fast forward to October 2025.

We finally avenged our Tennessee dive.

On our way to a group trip in Gatlinburg, we stopped at the place that had originally escaped us—Loch Low-Minn.

Shaker has a slight obsession with paddlefish. Okay... maybe more than slight.

We've traveled to multiple states chasing the chance to dive with these prehistoric filter feeders, usually coming home empty-handed. Loch Low-Minn has a reputation as the paddlefish quarry, so our expectations were cautiously optimistic.

Naturally, we spent nearly an hour swimming all over the quarry, following the owners' recommendations and searching every paddlefish hotspot they suggested.

Nothing.

Eventually, we surfaced, admitted defeat, and decided to simply navigate underwater straight back to shore instead of swimming on the surface.

Thank goodness we did.

Halfway back, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by at least half a dozen paddlefish calmly feeding all around us.

Best.

Dive.

Ever.

Watching these massive, prehistoric fish glide effortlessly through the water was worth every failed attempt we'd made over the years trying to find them. We probably spent as much time staring at them as they spent completely ignoring us.

Naturally, we celebrated the only appropriate way—we bought T-shirts.

If you're anywhere near Tennessee and you're a diver, go to Loch Low-Minn. The owners are wonderful, the quarry is well maintained, the visibility is great, and if you're lucky, you'll get to spend some time with some of the coolest freshwater fish in North America.

Honestly... what more could you ask for?

Completion Date: sep 2024

locations: nashville, nn; hopkinsville, ky

info@eteachdiving.com

© 2026. All rights reserved.