The new steps are just off the top edge of the photo, past the tennis courts.
Type:
inland tidal bay
Depth:
20 ft max, 15 ft in most places
This dive site, formerly known as 'L Street' has changed completely, and for the better. The town of Belmar has done something really nice for us divers and installed wide wooden steps down the bulkhead in Maclearie Park. This more than makes up for the loss of the boat ramp area, which is off-limits to all swimmers since it was rebuilt. I suppose the little cove by the ramp is still accessible from the beach, but the new site is much better, and far from all the dangerous boat traffic around the ramp and marina.
Low tide, winter. Beach replenishment has all but filled in the "L".
Type:
smallish tidal river inlet with stone jetties or bulkheads on both sides
Depth:
15 ft
This inlet has an L-shaped jetty on the north side and a longer straight jetty on the south side. Both jetties are made of loose stones - hardly any concrete - and the bottom is sandy and usually clean. You can walk over the bridge from one side of the inlet to the other in about five minutes.
The Shinnecock Inlet is located in the Hampton Bays on Long Island. The inlet is one of the only major inlets on the south shore and sees a great deal of boat traffic during the summer months. With that in mind, this inlet also sees a great deal of diver traffic as well.
Satellite image, showing the jetties and the never-used nuclear power plant.
Now, most people would look at the heading on the page and think that I was crazy for diving near a nuclear power plant. Just to calm your fears, this power plant was never brought online, so there is no chance of getting radiated at this location (barring a nuclear war while you're diving). With that said, Shoreham can be a very interesting dive. Located on the north shore of Long Island (I don't know the name of the town, look on a map), it is a shallow dive with an average depth of around 16 ft. Visibility tends to be anywhere from 3 to 10 ft.
The Shrewsbury Rocks are a wide area of rocky bottom that stretches from fourteen feet of water out to the fifty-foot mark off of Monmouth Beach. Some of the formations are twenty feet tall or more and can be very pretty under good conditions, which are unfortunately seldom this far north. The stone itself is a type of sandstone known as Greensand.
