Cooper River

A truly great place to find all kinds of artifacts. I have found prehistoric teeth, arrow heads, old bottles, old tobacco pipes. A great dive experience to add to your log book.

I had heard about this site from a dive buddy of mine in Florida. Although we have plenty of diving to do right around Gainesville, Florida, we decided to take a road trip for a long weekend to see what all the commotion was about. Turns out it was much more than we expected. We could have spent a week just visiting the various wrecks at the site. Our favorite was the Mepkin Plantation Boat -- very eerie and surreal. Perhaps it was the moderate viz below (10ft) or quietness above the water. We were diving at a time of little current, so we were able to float easily over the wreckage site. The Mepkin dock is nearby, and worth checking out, too. The water temperature in February was 50degF, but it gets a lot warmer in the Carolina summer (viz is worse in the summer, too). We made it down to around 40ft, but I think you can go to 100ft if you wanted. There are at least 6 underwater structures to explore, but you really need a map to find them all. There are few dive shops in the area, so you can get an underwater map to take along. We got some really good advice from a local dive shop, so took off on our own. I'd probably recommend getting a guide if you have limited time -- we spent too much time trying to ensure we at the right spots. You'll need a dive flag, a good knife (lots of fishing line down there), and a powerful flashlight. Get some tide tables, and try to dive only on the incoming tide as it will offset some of the river current. The local dive shops can help you out with that part. The best part of the trip? I found an old shark's tooth! This area is known for the fossils, apparently, so I feel pretty lucky to have found something so old. Would I go back again? Yes, it was worth it as a sight seeing trip, a technical dive, and an archeological dig. Nothing like a Carolina river dive to talk about to your Caribbean dive buddies. :-)