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Dive Review of Olympus Dive Center/Oceanana in
The Continental USA/Graveyard of the Atlantic

Olympus Dive Center/Oceanana: "Sharks!", Jul, 2019,

by James Wise, AR, US (Reviewer Reviewer 5 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 10986.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food N/A
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 1 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments This is an excellent experience! This isn’t for everyone and has a few caveats. Caveats: 1: The weather is highly variable. I was booked for three days flew in and got canceled 2 out of 3 days in mid-July which is “prime season. Unfortunately Dive Centers don’t control the weather! 2: This isn’t a “ concierge “ service. You will have to carry your gear to the boat, carry your tanks to the boat and assemble your gear. Quite honestly I don’t really care for people messing with my gear. I had an o-ring on my DIN connection on my Poseidon Xstream Deep torn and leak air after someone else attached it to a tank. 3: There is No Guarantee that you will dive any given dive site. Lots of people want to do the U-352 for obvious reasons, but to me the experience with Sharks at Aeolus and Caribsea is hard to beat. 4: This isn’t for beginners! It’s diving 115 ft in the open ocean 30 miles off shore with current at depth. You need to be confident and Experienced! Have you ever been Experienced? Positives: The most incredible Sand Tiger Shark experience ever in my limited experience. Someone took a photo and counted 64 Sand Tiger Sharks at the Caribsea. At one point my dive buddy and I were cornered by 7-10 on the port side. I literally could have moved my hand 3 inches and touched the nose of a Sand Tiger right in front of me. The current was about a knot and a half. SE to Nw at site. They use weighted tag lines which are very helpful for ingress and egress. Surface temp was 88 f thermocline at 60 ft. Temp at depth was 74f. 3 mil wet suit kept me cozy. Some dove with no rash guard, but both got stung by small jellyfish. We did see a big group of barracuda hanging around the tag lines.
Websites Olympus Dive Center   Oceanana

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 26-50 dives
Where else diving Cuba, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Florida, Arkansas, NC
Closest Airport Jacksonville,NC -OAJ Getting There American into Charlotte hub, then Jacksonville, rent-a-car to Morehead City, NC

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas calm
Water Temp 84-74°F / 29-23°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 80-100 Ft/ 24-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Dive Buddy. We did have some guys with HP steel 130’s do Deco.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals N/A Tropical Fish N/A
Small Critters N/A Large Fish N/A
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 Camera dedicated rinse station. I’m not a videographer but there were some professionals there that had huge rigs that were well handled with no complaints.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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