It was really awesome for first time divers. There was a lot to see and a lot of divers there. Ultimately, my husband and I were very happy. We loved the trains, planes and buses underwater. The only complaint we might have is that the water was very murky and hard to see our instructor but I heard that it clears up throughout the year at different times. There were a lot of fish that will get really close and personal with you, too. I like that they had a food and drink truck there for people that were hungry or thirsty after their dive. I also like that there is a campsite there that is first come first serve for people that dont want to get a hotel or leave the site. I dont know how much the camping costs but I do know that it is $32 per diver per day. You no longer need cash, they have a card machine now. Upfront parking is free but if you want to park in the back, it costs money. I dont know how much because we got there early enough to get a spot up front. Parking is also only first come first serve. Also, I just thought I and might add that there are changing room and restrooms!
Under new ownership and management, this quarry is a fantastic place to dive and spend the weekend. Lots of improvements to make things safer (oxygen bottles underwater, tread on the steps getting in, major potholes filled in...), but also more comfortable. Bathrooms are more private with actual doors on the stalls, the musty mildew smell is nearly gone, the staff is helpful and friendly, and the parking lot has plenty of designated spots. Its a great place to dive and train! (Theres a sweet winery and ice cream shop in town if youre hungry, too!)
Gilboa Quarry is under new management and everything about it is terrific!! The staff are so friendly and welcoming. The place has been cleaned up, repaired, added new attractions and underwater sights (including a beach so family and friends of non-divers are welcome), and they now take all kinds of payments. Its a super fun place to camp with the family. And definitely the best diving in Ohio! Thanks Andy, Gabe, and the entire Columbus Scuba family for making the trip so much fun!!
Nice diving, well organized. Pleasant experience overall. Feed the fish, they love it
This place is awesome amazing diving with tons of stuff to see bus plane helicopter just to name a few would definitely recommend to any diver beginner or advanced and the staff is awesome
Amazing teachers, great place to practice and learn new skills diving. Good camping.
Loved everything about this dive. Our small group had the best time exploring on a rainy day.
This quarry and its staff are fantastic! As a PADI Scuba Instructor, I love to take my students here. Its honestly the best place to dive in Ohio and the new management has excellent customer service.
Had an amazing time there. Great points of interest to dive on, quiet camping. Really great place.
Hopefully I am able to get back, great spot to complete technical training. Great spot for the OW recreation diver too...lots of items to explore. Management were great to assist with rules for new diver
Many new improvements, management is awesome. The owner cares and makes sure you enjoy your experience there.
Very nice place to dive. I love the pieces that were sunk to explore. The fish were amazing to see. I will be going back.
New ownership, and loving the much needed changes! Huge thanks from the Livingston County Dive Team !
New owners doing a lot to fix this place up. Keep up the good work
Scuba diving in the Midwest? Can’t wait to go back. Plenty of things to see and the many fish are very friendly!
I took a course to be a a diver, I did my in-water portion here. I loved it. Everyone was very nice and tank fills are cheap.
Diver friendly, visitor friendly! New ownership works diligently to ensure safety & promotes a friendly & welcoming atmosphere amongst visitors & with staff. A fun dive park & a nice training place! Also a great place to meet ppl & make new friends! 😁😆🤿
This place is for precertified or in certification training people. Not for the general public since there is no instructor on staff. This not mentioned on current website that is under construction. I was greatly upset having driven hours to try it out only to find out this. Clairification for nacent folk such as myself would go a long way to avoid this.
Probably top 5, if not THE best quarry diving in the United States. On par with the best diving on Germany and better than Austria by far!
Diving here was great. Lots of super cool things to see, water is relatively clear, and was still warm in late September.The facilities were not that great, or well kept. The staff I interacted with were friendly, however the owner was not. My first and only interaction with him was him hitting me in the leg with a wagon full of air tanks, looking at me, not apologizing, and instead giving me a somewhat dirty look, as if I had purposely jumped in front of him.
Open Water Diver Cert with Pneuma Diving, great time, air refills were quick, campsite was convenient, staff was friendly and personal, thank you for the great time, recommend it and well be seeing you again very soon.
Staff are very helpful. The new owns have really cleaned the property up and are making it a great place for diving and relaxing.
This place is incredible with new owner it feel like home. Super mega great place to camp and scuba dive
Nice functional set-up. Everyone was professional. Im probably going to just keep taking courses here.
Great place to dive, not only the office but also the diving areas were all very clean.
This is where my open water certification started, so many years ago. Great controlled environment. So much to see, great open platforms to practise skills, different things at different depths so there is something for everyone. Good spaces on platforms to get geared up and store gear in between dives. Sturdy stair cases bring you from land down into the quarry, with railings. Safety first!! Prices are reasonable to enter quarry and they offer some rental gear if something breaks or you forget. They also do air fills so you know you will have a great day diving. Staff are friendly and courteous. Nice selection of gifts shop items if youre looking for a first time momento or if you been coming here for years, theres bound to be something for everyone. There are flush toilets and showers onsite, which is a huge draw! Dont forget they also offer camping!
Great place to scuba dive, Andy and the crew very customer friendly
Great diving, lots to see! Under new management. Friendly staff. Sign up for padi classes through Columbus Scuba.
Awesome place to dive and awesome staff that run it.
Best dive site in Ohio! Incredible dives and great service.
Visibility is A1! And there are so many things to explore. Loved feeding the trout. I wore a 5mm suit and hood and the second thermocline was a bit too much, but still a great experience and an obviously well maintained spot.
Good dive site for training
Great Place!!! We went early in the season and were very impressed. Visibility was close to 100ft. To verify the distance, we could see the whole 65ft helicopter from the airplane. Staff and owner were very nice. You could also tell they were keeping up with the place.(New docks and new benches to change.) I will recommend this spot to all my friends and i will be back frequently.
I love diving there
Great place to dive. Lots of stuff to keep the dive interesting. New docks for easy entry. Cash only!
Clean place. Friendly staff.
The water visibility was good, and there were lots of friendly trout and other fish
Awesome experience
Great diving!
Nice place to dive and they offer camping.
New docks and great diving. Don is always helpful.
Not enough staff took forever to get tanks filled waited over an hour. Visibility was good seen a lot of fish and they have nice platforms.
We came for deep dive training and had a great day. Mike the owner was awesome and we appreciate his genuine concern for the safety of divers at his quarry. He took the time to get to know us and we had a great conversation. Water was great too! Well definitely be coming back.
Great place to learn to dive and everything, highly recommend going to this place if you want a fun day adventure!
Have used the quarry over the years for training, refresher and fun dives. Have spent the night camping several times. For quarry diving in Ohio it is a very nice facility. This is one of the few quarries that is deep enough to do deep training dives.
Best there is in Ohio!
Absolutely an amazing dive experience! You will not regret it. They are strict on the deep side so be prepared if they say no you cant dive deep. But other then that the owner is fantastic and there is so much to see and enjoy!
Wonder place to dive!!! Mike is great, this is the most unique dive quarry I have ever been to. It’s so versatile as it offers a great experience for beginner OW divers as well as Seasoned Tech Divers!
Great diving opportunity. Lots to see under water and Viz is usually pretty decent. If youre going on a weekend get there early. Newbies will kick the bottom and screw the Viz. Facility maintenance leaves something to be desired but dont let that keep you away.
I really liked getting certified here. It was easy going and easily accessible. Here fishy fishy 😉long walk to be prepared. My advice drive your gear back there. People fight over carts. Haha
Best place to dive and train in Ohio. Vis is good and the fish are cool. Training platforms are ample. Resist weekends there unless youre training with a group and thats the only choice you have. The place is very crowded on Saturdays.
Great dive, not thrilled with the owner.
Well setup for an enjoyable dive experience!
Great quarry for scuba diving. Lots of things to see to keep it interesting. Water is colder. Camping sites are extremely basic but functional. Staff is friendly. Grounds are well kept and clean.
A pretty good place to dive. The quarry has a lot of sunken boats, a plane, a helicopter, and other things to see on a dive. Its only open for diving so it is a great place for training dives. Visibility is pretty good.
Great place to dive ... Excellent viz. Be careful on the docks with many loose boards ... The porta-potties are disgusting and are rarely serviced ... Dont park by one or youll regret it... Other than this I love this place and I have done more than 100 dives here ... Tons of stuff to see ... I love seeing the Paddle fishDid the New Year Dive with GLWC 2021. Fun but the weather was yucky. I love this place. Mike & his crew does a great job keeping this place maintained. The docks are nice and a changing booth by the docks is a welcome & appreciated touch. There was even salt spread on the steps (thank you Mike). We divers appreciate that extra effort. Hey, the bathhouse was spotless clean and warm. I have dove here for a number of years and this is the place to dive in Ohio. Well done Mr. Mike ... Keep up the good work and much success in the New Year!!! 🇺🇸
Had a lot of fun diving here. Service was okay, diving in the quarry was great, and I really want to go back and tent out at the campground. Really fun experience. With a little elbow-grease, paint, and better management, this could be a 5-star experience.
Very nice place for a walk.
Dove once before and had a great day. This time drove over two hours yesterday only to find it locked up and zero answers to phone calls, no voicemail ability, no signs on gate that it would be closed Monday and nothing on Facebook other that the normal summer hours that says it would be open. Three in our party and two other divers from Springfield, Ohio tried to contact someone to no avail. Will probably try again if Im ever in the area and can confirm it will be open but definitely dont recommend a spur of the moment trip without prior confirmation.
Who knew it would be cold in December?! Good clarity despite the unrelenting rain. The people are friendly and there is plenty to see and I enjoyed my trip despite the water being 47° and wet surface temps of 38°.
Had a blast but the site says $50 for 2 days its $56. Not a big deal but they only take cash. The owner was a prick about it it. I dont carry cash normally. He says theyve tried to updates their site. Its not that hard to change 1 digit. If you cant update your own site and the regulars are still saying its $50 for 2 days then dont be such a hard A about it...If it cost what THEIR site said it was itd be 5*, if there was a mix up as there currently is, but MR Grumpy pants was not so grumpy itd be 4*
Best quarry for diving in the Midwest!
When my dive buddy arrived, traveling 5 hours to this site we were greeted by the owner who had a note on his door to call if not in office. We called and he was not able to answer, he was using lawn equipment. We followed the noise and found him. He looked at us and continued for five minutes before he stopped. We greeted him and said that we had called the day before regarding coming up with our RV to stay and dive for the next two days. He said he was real busy and started complaining about how he couldnt find any help around here. He then walked ahead of us very quickly to his office/dive shop. Not having any conversation with us. He told us to fill out the forms that he had on the table. When we didnt fill out to his liking he belittle us and said to try again. No credit card to pay for our stay. I told him that we needed electric 30amp and water. He was very grumpy and just got worse. Had we not paid cash we would have found another place to dive.He told me where to park my camper and said that I would only have 20amp service because he didnt want me to drive my rig on his lawn and make ruts. (we could have parked next to his permanent residents if he thought out of the box) I asked where the water hook up was and he said oh it over there (tooo late for us as we were already unhooked and set up) (there was water hook up close to us but we couldnt use that) He asked us if we would be leaving the Quarry in the evening? we said we would be going out for dinner, he then lectured us on how to keep the gate closed and belittle us as if we were not competent to do it right. He yelled at me on where to park my truck at dive site decking and told me I had to move truck. I was in my wet suit finishing our first dive going on second. He never cleaned the area where my truck was our entire stay.Now the quarry was great and well worth the dive. That being said, I would never recommend this site to anyone unless the owner gets medicated or finds someone else to manage. What a disappointment for a dive trip and traveling 300 miles to get there.
Very nice, quiet area. Weekends are busy with SCUBA classes which is to be expected. Plenty to see when diving, great vis, an abundance of fish to see and test your Fish ID skills. There is an area to deep dive, need to make a plan with management before doing so. It was nice they provide dollys to transport your equipment in to your setup site since vehicles are not allowed. Parking is cramped, there are no marked spots. Other than that we will be back, it was a great time!
Great place to dive! You just have to remember to stay off the bottom like any other fresh water dive site. I have always been treated well by Mike and his staff.
Lots of fish & things to explore. Visabilty 30 ft. Nice Deck down to the water. Camping sites available. Deep dives off north wall.
What can be more awesome than a quarry filled with boats, jets, christmas trees, motorcycles, a bus and more? Seriously! This is a great spot to scuba since you will have a lot to see.
Professional and courteous staff ( if you know what you are doing ) ! Incredible dive location with lots to see. It is best to visit with someone that has been there before. Because of our societys propensity for litigation do not expect any shortcuts here regarding safety and training. Bring your certification and dont forget your camera I was able to tour a new Bed and Breakfast the owner is going to operate and its a perfect compliment to the Quarry.
I agree with a previous reveiwer. Come any Friday or Monday, and you will be amazed. Please plan on wearing a hood, both for warmth, and you dont want the swarms of beautiful fish to mistake those hanging things for fish food. WE went on a Friday, and had the whole place to ourselves!!! This place is a treasure.....please note on weekends, plan for long lines, COME DURING THE WEEK, wear a hood, and the enjoy the amazing structures and fish
Amazing!. Incredible visibility...100+ Could see the entire plane✈ from the helicopter🚁. Not sure the exact size of the plane maybe 60 to 70 but crystal clear. Incredible spot for new or advance divers. Must stop spot. The fish in here is an entire story of there own. Please dont touch the fish👌🙌. There is so many monster fish. Huge bass. Huge Rainbow trouts. Huge Albino trouts. Foot long gill schools and giant paddlefish. Just amazing. Get a bag of fish food from the shop and take on the bus🚎 and the school of monster fish will come. Aww inspiring really. Sorry no fishing but thats what makes the fish life so wonderful here. I highly recommend for scuba, freediving or snorkeling. Keep your buoyancy under control and dont muck it up for everyone else😜. So much to explore here. Middle of the week not as many divers to muck it up. All new docks this year. Great time to take a few days off. Open all week with fill cards and season deals. Thanks Mike keep up the great work. Be back as soon as possible.
Good place for certification dives. Its cold tho and tough to see, but its great to have all the platforms
Interesting place to dive.It’s a bit pricy @ $28 to dive and $10 to park.The docks make it very easy to enter and exit the water.
One of the best dive sites in Ohio. Lots of sunk attractions from planes to cars, trucks, boats and much more. Deep end is great too for tech divers.
Great dive site. Very good visibility and lots of fish
Did my open water check out dives here; lots of cool fish and things to see in the water.
Mike treated me very well and I had two great days of diving.
Good diving location in the midwest. Decent location to do check out dives before getting out on the big lakes.
The actual diving is fun and the quarry is good. However, the facilities are poor, and the owner is irritable and unhelpful. The legal waiver is obtuse (and the owners impatience makes this all the worse), and it asks for an SSN for no apparent reason.
Employees are rude. Ive been here twice. Diving is alright but Id suggest you support a dive facility that appreciates their guests. I will not be back.
Quarry Diving -- ok for scuba and free diving, and nothing else in the water. Vis is good - 10-30 ft; waters typically cold year round. Theres a dive shop with all the amenities (but rather poor service), and camping spots available for RV and regular tent camp.IMO probably the best quarry diving in this area.
Made a visit today and was told the owner dont want people looking around. We will take our money and not come back
Great place to dive. Enjoyed swimming through the sunken aircrafts and tunnels
Awesome dive site.. Underwater stuff is interesting. Go swim with the fishies
Great place for check out dives. Plenty to see in the water.
Lets break down this total score. The diving 4 stars, the staff 3 stars, the facilities 1 star. This place could be so good but everything is broken. Restrooms broken, docks broken, stairs broken, parking lot full of broken down planes,buses, motorcycles etc. If this was a theme park the theme would be broken. I hope this review is an inspiration to fix this place up and I will be back.
I have never been molested by swarming trout over a school bus of all places until I came here.
It was great for scuba diving but the camp grounds were crowd and dirty. The workers were slow but it was ok over all.
Best visibility of any scuba location in the midwest. 140ft depth on the deep side and platforms for scuba training are suspended far off the bottom to keep visibility stellar. Plenty to see, nitrox and o2 fills, camping and rv hookups with a shower house too.
Great for all levels of divers. Learned to open water dive here and I could not have asked for a better environment
Great diving, great night dives. 40ft vis, September surface temp over seventy, deep hole at 120ft.
Fun safe environment for scuba diving and skills, or new gear try out.
- Address:3763 Old State Rte 224, Ottawa, OH 45875, United States
- Site:http://divegilboa.com/
- Phone:+1 419-456-3300
- SCUBA tour agency
- Dive shop
- Diving center
- SCUBA instructor
- Monday:9AM–5PM
- Tuesday:9AM–5PM
- Wednesday:9AM–9PM
- Thursday:8AM–8PM
- Friday:8AM–5PM
- Saturday:9AM–5PM
- Sunday:9AM–5PM