The New York City Sea Gypsies

Once again, the NYC Sea Gypsies will be running our always popular "Introduction to Northeast Diving" program!

Divers in the New York area are lucky to have an incredible marine environment right in our backyard. Not only are there hundreds of shipwrecks of historical significance, our local waters are a vibrant ecosystem with thriving populations of marine life - including sharks, ocean sunfish and even whales!

Our Intro program is geared towards people who love diving but who haven’t had experience diving locally. Why limit your diving to when you go to the tropics, when you can get in the water here every weekend during the season? No air travel, no baggage restrictions, no hotels, and no need to take days off from work. Yes, it requires special considerations for the conditions, but that’s what the Intro program is about - getting you ready for local diving.

Our volunteer mentors (instructors and other experienced northeast divers) happily give their time to help get new people into the local diving scene. We go over gear considerations, exposure suit selection, special techniques and protocols to make your first local ocean dive safe and fun.

The program starts at Dutch Springs, where we spend several days diving, camping and eating together. Some people just come for the day, others make it into a big social event and spend all weekend - we typically get around 40 people for this party. The diving and teaching is free to all paid club members (apart from the Dutch Springs admission fee).

While many of the club members who sign up for the program are relatively new to diving, we welcome divers of all levels who don't have experience in our area. Over the more than ten years that the Intro program has been running, we have even had warm water tech divers sign up to help them get started diving locally. The Dutch Springs event is especially inclusive, many divers who don't fit into either the "newby" or "mentor" category show up just to learn and enjoy the day!