There's a whole different world under water, and the Piedmont Diving and Rescue Association is dedicated to helping people explore it.
"(We're) all about showing you the other two-thirds of the planet," said Teresa Shaw, owner of dive shop Aquatic Pleasures in Kings Mountain and wife of PDRA president Calvin Shaw.
The association is made up of individual and family divers predominately from North Carolina, southern Virginia and upper South Carolina.
The organization owns three quarries, one of which is on N.C. 150 just west of Mooresville, near Lake Norman. The quarries allow members around the clock access to diving for a low fee.
Each member receives a key to the quarry so they can dive any time day or night.
The PDRA currently has about 800 members. Last year was their highest membership ever at 1,300.
"There is no other place you can dive 24/7, 365 days a year for $45 and add each additional family member for $10," Shaw said. "There is also camping at some of the quarries, swimming, fishing and canoeing. It's great for the whole family even if they don't dive with you. We also do events like treasure hunts at the quarries and you can win fun prizes like cruises, scuba gear and free training time."
Each member of the PDRA receives a key to the quarry so they can dive any time day or night. The PDRA currently has about 800 members for the year and is growing. Last year was their highest membership ever at 1,300.
To learn to dive, Shaw said there are more than 10 shops within a 50-mile radius that have certified instructors.
"You can start off learning the coursework in a classroom with books or by doing the work online," she said. "After your bookwork is completed, you go to the pool to learn and hone your skills in a confined water environment so you become confident. Some of the things you might be doing are flooding your mask, taking your regulator out of your mouth and learning how to purge it without swallowing water and taking your weight belt on and off. It's better to learn and tackle your stressors in a pool and conquer them rather than face the unknown in open water."
"After the pool, they'll take you to open water, to a place like the quarry to complete four to five dives successfully over a period of two days," she continued.
"The first day, they're really just getting you comfortable, letting you watch the fish. At the Lake Norman quarry, we've sunk a bunch of really neat things like a Volkswagen Beetle, a rocking horse and a bowling ball. It's hilarious to watch these guys rock on the horse or throw the ball back and forth. Once you have a bit of fun and forget you're actually underwater, you relax and from then on, you're usually OK."
Shaw said diving promotes self-confidence, because when you're in the water, you are the only one in control of you.
"You can go anywhere in the world and dive; it's such an awesome sport," she said. "You can watch coral reefs and fish on Discovery, but you can't really grasp what it's like until you're actually down there. There is still treasure out there to be discovered. Just recently in Beaufort, S.C., divers were exploring a sunken German sub and found a gold coin with a Swastika on it."
The North Carolina coast is nicknamed the graveyard of the Atlantic, Shaw said, "because there were so many wrecks and some are as old as Blackbeard. It's just an amazing world waiting to be discovered."
To learn more about diving and the PDRA, go to http://www.ncpdra.org
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