Vacationers
I'm from [ Ohio, Florida, Michigan, California, Spain, Brazil, etc ] and will be vacationing in New Jersey and would like to go diving ...
I get this inquiry all the time. Diving here, compared to most vacation destinations, is cold, dark, deep, strenuous, and difficult. Chances are, if you already own all the cold water gear, and dive with it where you live, then you will be ok here. I'm talking about folks from Canada, New England, the UK, and Scandinavia, and similar places where cold-water ocean diving is practiced. On the other hand, doing a few cold-water dives in a quarry in Ohio ( or wherever ) is in no way qualification for the North Atlantic.
Compared to the tropics:
- The depths here are greater
- The waves here are bigger
- The currents here are stronger
- The water here is colder
- The visibility here is worse
- The equipment here is heavier
If you are strictly a tropical diver, then I must strongly discourage you if you think that you can simply rent gear and hop in the water for a day here. It does not matter how many entries you have in your logbook, this is not what you are expecting, you will not enjoy it, and you will endanger yourself and those you dive with. There is no hand-holding here. There is no divemaster to lead you through your dive, navigate and watch your profile for you, and lead you back to the boat. Once you go in the water here, you are on your own, and in the low viz you will quickly find out just how imaginary the buddy system really is.
It is possible to rent dive equipment in New Jersey, as most shops keep rental gear on hand for instructional purposes. Dive shops are listed in the Directory section of this website. However, operators around here are not like in the tropics, where you can rent gear in the shop and then cross the street to the dock where the boat is waiting with your tanks already onboard. Shops and boats are typically separate entities here, and you will have to make all the arrangements yourself.
If you have never worn a heavyweight wetsuit and weight belt before, your first North Atlantic dive is no place to be learning. Showing up at the dock with all rental gear instantly raises a red flag for any responsible dive operator. Unless you can demonstrate a level of experience and ability that shows that you are not going to be a hazard to yourself and everyone around, no one is going to risk taking you out. Even if you do, the planned destination may not be any place that a newbie could be safely taken to, and it is unlikely that a boat full of regular customers is going to be rerouted for your sake, so the answer will probably still be no.
Finally, the weather here is often less than cooperative, and Murphy's Law says that the week that you come ...
As for snorkeling, there is really no snorkeling in New Jersey. The water is neither clear enough nor shallow enough to see anything. Occasionally I see kids snorkeling around a jetty or inlet, but it is nothing like what you might find in the tropics, and certainly not worth coming all this way for.
Sorry to be so discouraging, but for vacationers from elsewhere, diving in New Jersey is simply not a good option, and I would not plan on it. Even if you are qualified, you may have difficulty booking a spot on short notice. For those who enjoy the sea, there are miles of beautiful beaches and boardwalks, and great fishing, both from the shore and from a huge fleet of charter boats. Believe it or not, tourism is the state's biggest industry, and there are a lot of great reasons to vacation here, but scuba diving is probably not one of them.
