White Star Quarry Scuba Diving

For scuba divers or non divers, White Star Quarry offers a fun day out at a low cost.

Kristina SchwabApr 6, 2012
Located about 20 minutes east of Bowling Green, Ohio, White Star Quarry attracts scuba divers from all over the Midwest during the scuba diving and summer season.

Parking at White Star is free, and the scuba diving fee is only $15, which is much cheaper than other quarries in the area. Additionally, if there are non-divers in the group, there is Wi-Fi provided by the scuba concession and a park on the east end of the quarry for them to visit. The diving area provides a scuba rental gear and air tank refills, as well as free hot dogs and coffee. The west end of the quarry also has a swimming beach separate from the diving area. The swimming fee is $4.00 for the day.

White Star’s average water temperatures in the summer usually stay in the mid to upper 60s at depth. In the early spring, the water temperature averages in the upper 40s. White Star is renowned for its excellent visibility year round, which ranges from 15-25 feet or more. However, toward the end of the summer diving season visibility diminishes significantly around the training areas.

For novice or experienced scuba divers, White Star offers several practice platforms and dive trails in escalating difficulty for them to exercise skills. The website provides PDF documents with information about bearings for the trails and approximate time. Even for experienced divers, using these maps is a great way to improve compass skills for open water dives in lakes or oceans. A quarry in general is a perfect environment to practice navigation skills as well as brushing up on basic safety skills, as there is usually a rescue diver nearby to assist with any emergencies, and it’s a relatively short distance to shore no matter where one surfaces.

Diving Features and Trails at White Star

White Star offers interesting underwater features for divers to explore. Like many other quarries or lakes, White Star contains several sunken boats in a variety of sizes. Other vehicles include a Frito Lay truck, a police car, and a motorcycle. Throne Mountain, which is a giant rock formation with a toilet on the top, is a favorite spot of frequent divers. The Enchanted Forest offers underwater trees as well as a PVC pipe diver. The main draw for White Star though is the crusher pit area, which is where rocks were processed back when the area was a functioning quarry. The pit goes 70 feet down and there is also a 100-foot tunnel divers can swim through in that corner. Other various statues, like plaster pigs or seahorses, are scattered throughout the quarry. Additionally, PVC pipe structures allow divers to practice buoyancy skills. Lastly, the quarry has a variety of fish for divers to see, including blue gills, various trout, perch, crayfish, and turtles.

Diving groups and vendors often visit White Star and host events for the visitors. Dry Suit, re-breather, and other merchants, like Poseidon, spend the weekend at the quarry and give divers the opportunity to try out their newest gear in the water for free or for a minimal fee. Also, diving groups like the MAST (Maritime Archeology Survey Team) organization and the Ohio Quarry Divers group host large gatherings for divers at the quarry. The MAST group practices surveying the sunken boats at the quarry so they don’t damage the historical wrecks they study.

Accommodations at White Star Quarry

White Star Park offers a campground across the road for overnight accommodations. Often dive groups that come in for the weekend stay there overnight and have huge cookouts or barbecues. The campground is rustic with rustic facilities, but it’s cheap and perfect for an overnight camping adventure after a long day of diving.

For camping, diving, or swimming, White Star Quarry is a great place to spend a day for both divers and non-divers looking for water to escape the summer heat.