Oriskany Trip

My first trip to the “Great Carrier Reef” was 2014. I’ve been there a few times since, but the most recent trip was with a few friends in 2025. The Oriskany is an awesome dive site, especially for technical divers with wreck penetration experience. This article is an overview of our experience. If you want to make the most of your trip I suggest hiring a guide or going with an experienced mentor.

Expectations

If you’re used to diving in North Carolina, the weather and boat rides won’t be a surprise. If you’re used to short boat rides, lots of dive shops, readily available technical gas fills and great weather (for example, South Florida) – that’s not the Gulf. I’ve had more trips canceled to the Oriskany than I’ve had successful. This isn’t to deter any perspective divers. It’s important to know that to expect though. The Oriskany is a cool wreck. It’s worth the hype. If you’re expecting Caribbean diving you will be disappointed. The conditions in the Gulf can be challenging.

Boats

There are plenty of good boats to choose from. I’ve dive with Down Under Dive Shop and Niuhi charters. Both are great options. Niuhi is a 6-pack and was our choice for my most recent trip. Down Under is a bigger boat better for bigger groups. It took us ~1 hour with the flat calm conditions to get to the dive site. We opted for a tied in dive since there wasn’t any current. The crew did an awesome job getting us tied in to the wreck.

Lodging

We opted for an AirBNB. Since we had a small group this was an affordable and social option. I also prefer to cook, so this gave us a full kitchen to work with. I’ve never had a meal in Pensacola I loved. We had chicken pesto pasta and salmon. We made parfaits for breakfast and brought boat sandwiches for lunch.

Fills

There are a few dive shops in the area. All are great. Trimix, boosted O2, and rental cylinders aren’t super easy to find or local. We brought all the cylinders needed to complete the two dives on our trip. If you are flying in, I suggest prepping all gear in advance with local shops to be prepared.

Conditions

The Oriskany, like any other Gulf wreck, has wildly variable conditions. We had a thermocline, viz between 20-50ft outside the wreck, and essentially no current. This is typically for late summer dive trips. Winter had cold topside conditions, often clearer water, and bad topside conditions.

Dive Plans

The 6-person trip had 3 teams, each with different dive plans. The “Big O” has seemingly unlimited options for dives. The wreck is ~900ft long, so even with 100ft of visibility, you can only see <10% of the wreck. My buddy had never been on the wreck so we did my typical new diver plan. Have fun the first dive, set goals for the second. We did light penetration in the hanger bay and conning tour to get familiarity with the wreck for our first dive. Having been on the wreck many times my goal was to enjoy the dive and give my dive buddy navigational confidence for the outside. For anyone who has never been there, this is a good plan. The outside of the wreck and the conning tower are awesome spots. That’s what most recreational divers get to see over a few dives. The hangar bay doesn’t sound attracting – a giant metal cavern – but it’s a cool spot to putz around. We identified the 110 cutout, where we’d head for our second dive. The Oriskany can be overwhelming for new divers. Don’t set extreme goals for dive 1. You’ll be disappointed. Enjoy the wreck, get familiar and make plans for the next dive.

Identifying the 110 cutout was an important part of the first dive. The 110 cutout is an easy access penetration spot to get to many different spots in the wreck. The Combat Information Center (CIC), Engine Rooms, Radar rooms, etc. The entrance is ~160ft deep and is a vertical shaft that goes to ~200ft. It’s entered through the hangar bay. While the 110 cutout is easy to find, it’s deep and only experienced wreck penetration divers should take a gander. The Oriskany is not the place to figure out if you’re good at wreck penetration. It was also important to coordinate with other teams. While the wreck has seemingly unlimited opportunities, everyone seems interested in the same places.

For dive 2, we popped down the escalator, into the hangar bay, down the 110 cutout, and down to ~185 to the radar room. This is one level below the CIC. I had some spots and hallways I wanted to check out from previous trips, so we did that. On the way up, we poked around the conning tower and watched curious sharks and amberjacks.

Gear

I was using my Choptima rebreather, trimix backgas, 50% and 100% deco bailout gases. My dive buddy was on open circuit with trimix and 2 deco gases. We opted to not use scooters for these dives. I’ve scootered the wreck before, and it’s a hoot, but our goal was penetration near the tieoff. The O doesn’t require a scooter or a rebreather. Trimix is a great idea because of the depth, and there is plenty to see on open circuit. Our dives were limited by 5-10 minutes because of the open circuit divers, but not enough for my buddy (experienced OC diver) to justify the cost of a CCR+training+experience for this one trip.

Takeaways

We did 2 dives on the O over two days. The Oriskany always leaves divers wanting more. We could’ve spent a week and not seen everything we wanted. The dives we had were awesome and worth the drive, cost, and logistics. If you’re qualified, don’t wait, go check it out.