Submitted By:
Bob Sterner

Submitter Comments:
Bob Sterner (Sterner Editorial) is the editor of Northeast Dive News, and has submitted the following:

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City's leading aviation hub, is the departure point for many Northeast divers winging their way to tropical dive destinations. As they jet toward dream vacation, many are unaware that a minute into their flights, they are passing directly above a great local beach dive. Beach 9th Street in Far Rockaway, Queens, will never be confused with picture-postcard destinations. Visibility rarely exceeds a dozen feet and the surface water temperature climbs into the upper 70Fs only late in the summer. Yet the diversity of marine life here has earned the site the reputation of "almost paradise." In early spring, the barnacle-incrusted resident lobsters are joined by sleek-shelled itinerant ones. Around the same time, brown crabs take up housekeeping in rocky crannies, followed by blue-claw crabs in early summer. The mass migration of spider crabs is an eerie sight in the fall, when the waters are visited by the juvenile tropicals washed up the eastern seaboard by the Gulf Stream. Sergeant majors, triggerfish, spotfin and banded butterfly fish, angelfish, damselfish, and wrasses are among the non-native species divers collect for local aquariums. These exotic species, doomed by the approaching cold of winter, dart among sponges, soft corals, plants and rocks that are home to flounder, eels, northern puffers, sea robins, striped bass and bluefish. Divers with sharp eyes will see tiny translucent shrimp, pipefish and seahorses. A broad diversity of plants and animals makes the site popular among underwater photographers, who search for subjects on the jetties that flank the site. Ambient light illuminates these shallow structures and their 25-foot depths stretch bottom time to the max. Visibility improves enough at peak high tide to permit photography with standard lenses. Macro shots are still possible when the strong currents of changing tides lower visibility to three feet or less. Experienced divers may take advantage of the tidal current flowing through Reynolds Channel by entering the water a half hour before peak high tide, then drifting a third of a mile east to the Atlantic Beach Bridge to hunt for large tautogs. When the tide returns, they ride it back to Beach 9th Street. The temperatures, currents and variable visibility make the site ideal for acclimating divers to Northeast conditions and several New York City dive stores conduct open-water certification dives here. Some 3,400 dives were logged at the site in 1995, according to Jay Velasquez, who operates Almost Paradise, a restaurant and parking facility at the beach. About half of the visitors are completing open-water certification and skills tests. For the rest, the 209-foot-wide beach is enough of a paradise to sate the appetite for diving in between trips to destinations well beyond Kennedy Airport's runways.

Directions:
 The following was from the Almost Paradise web site (Scubaparadise.com): Almost Paradise is a scuba diving center; we have our own private beach, warm water showers for post-dive rinsing, bathroom facilities (real ones!), a restaurant and a secure parking lot. It's perfect for brushing up on your skills before that diving vacation. It's very convenient for Instructors doing diver certification dives. And for those of you who are certified, but aren't going on a vacation anytime soonàit's diving! All these amenities do come at a small price; a daily dive pass is $17.00 (tax included) and a season's pass is $199.00 (tax included). A diver's waiver must be filled out before your first dive of the season (it's good for the calendar year).