While movies like “Finding Nemo” and “Avatar” – the forest of which was based on underwater life – give a glimpse of that other world that makes up so much of our planet, there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself, according to local diver and instructor Bill Byles.
Divers from Leisure Time Dive Center explore the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.“There’s so much there to discover,” says Steve Newman, who’s been diving for 41 years and now owns Choo Choo Diving & Aquatic Center. And that’s coming from a man who’s seen more than most. In addition to swimming with great white sharks he also helped bring up the USS Monitor, the iconic ironclad that sunk off the coast of North Carolina during the Civil War. “There’s always another exciting reef or new wreck,” he says.
A mere six and a half hours away, just off the coast of Pensacola, lies the biggest wreck in the world for divers, according to Newman. There are plenty of places even closer to home to whet divers’ curiosity. The Loch Low-Minn quarry in Athens, Tenn., is a popular spot and is stocked with fish. Although visibility is bad, the Tennessee River actually offers scavenger hunters a treasure trove. Leisure Time Dive and Snow Ski Center, where Byles works, has a display case full of recovered items including old guns and cannonballs and more recent historical artifacts like pagers.
“Just being underwater you’re in a different world, there’s so much to look at and see,” says Byles. “Seeing the different animals and seeing how they interact with each other is what keeps me in it. Depending on what you see it’s exhilarating.”
The 21-year diving veteran has played tug of war with an octopus but says he can’t rest until he’s shared the water with a manta ray.